"To me grace is to be elegant and great, as we are. And shambles is much more like them, broken, in disorder and unfixable unless by purging." He starts to drink some more wine to calm his nerves

'Well, then I can drink to that! To grace, and the purging of the shambles!' He takes a sip of blood wine, and tells the servant he can have some. The servant drinks, looking horrified

"To grace!" He raises his glass

'Indeed, my good fellow. Well, not exactly good. It'd be hard to find a single man this side of the Hells who'd believe you are Good.'

"Many people think I'm good, that's why I'm so useful. Obviously evil gets you nowhere with the people, but an innocent trustworthy Aasimar such as myself can be loved by the people, as of course I'd want to do the good thing for them!" 

'Yes, perhaps so. Your charm is in your supposed innocence. But you'd be surprised how popular even the most blatant evil can be with the masses, when it is presented to be the 'only option', 'common-sense realism 'or the 'pragmatic choice'. I believe that, to some extent, the people want evil, but only as long as it does not hurt them'

"Only as long as they don't realize it hurts them" He corrected

'Exactly! I admire your love of deception, but it is not one I can share. You know how many lies I have told in my life? None. But how many half-truths? As many as there are souls in the Hells'

"I forget why it is that you can't lie again."

'Because if I am a man of honour. If I tell my prisoners that I will set them free as long as they do something unspeakable to each other's eyeballs, well, it's no good if they don't believe I would actually free them. And besides, evil is truth. Who needs lies when the truth is so much more powerful and darker?'

"I understand, it is much stronger to tell the truth, I will stick to deception though, as there are still many instances in which lying may be better than telling the truth."

'And this is why we are better together. You handle the lying, I keep my mouth clean so my words are so much more potent. Plus, you're better with me as, well, look around you. This level of luxury is hard to find. And the banquet serves delicacies unable to be found most places, thanks to those inconvenient laws.'

(Is your new pfp Cato?) "Exactly, partners in crime, lots and lots of crime."

*Yep!*

'I do like crime. Except for the annoying kinds. You know the sort I mean.'

"Eeh, yeah." 

'But let us not discuss them. This place is built on crime. But the sort that has a certain grace. But do you know what the flip side of crime is?'

"There could be a few things you're referring to. Do you mean law?"

'I mean punishment. And what a sweet enemy he is'

"I dare say that those two actually go hand in hand more than you may think, I wouldn't consider those two enemies or opposites at all."

'An interesting proposition, and one I find myself agreeing with. I want him dead, he wants me dead, and yet without each other, we are incomplete. And no, I am not talking about you-know-who, the friend of your little Tiefling buddy'