The trouble was that injecting poison into conversation with Roland was that the more toxic you were, the more stonily implacable he tended to become. This was no exception. His face hardened a little, his voice cool and flat. "You're right. You don't." He got to his feet, looking down at her. "But it is my business. Not just as concerns Cuthbert. Nariko is part of my ka-tet. She's my wife. And until she - not you, she - tells me otherwise, that's how it's going to stay. What happens at the end of this will happen. You can curse me for it all you want, tell me it's not ka, but until it happens, you don't know what it is." He reached out, gripping her shoulder, his blue eyes boring into her. "As for what's separating us, you tell me this: if it came to a choice between Nariko and Cuthbert, would you find it so easy?"