"The world is always scary. No matter how big you are. You just get numb to it," Dorian says, stroking Marius' hair despite himself. There is a part of him that will miss Marius being this small and open. When he is older, probably, and Dorian still has the urge to stroke his hair comfortingly, probably.

It's a little less socially acceptable.

"How do you know about adult stores?" Dorian asks, suspicious, forgetting for a half second that it's very likely that Marius, old as he actually is, knows about things like that.

"But no. I don't go to those stores. I get that sort of thing delivered discreetly to my chambers by other people. I'm going to a massage parlour."