"I'm not the- I'm not anything," Martin protests, but even as he does he knows that he's wrong. As much as he'd been caught up in the orbit of the Institute before, he'd been ensnared completely now. He could feel the Beholding's hooks latching into him, burrowing deeper by the moment, and he knew with a heavy certainty that if he tries to loose himself of those that he'd simply bleed out.

When Jon doesn't flinch away from him, Martin brings his hand to his mouth to softly kiss at his knuckles.

"But it doesn't matter. It doesn't. Elias was- he had to be stopped, no matter what. I wouldn't let him kill again. I couldn't."