[Caleb knows that so much of this is culture shock. He's lived a life where he was privileged and the golden boy and he had been the leader and now he's a submissive, marked, and has already been told by that he was nothing but property. He's fighting it all tooth and nail, because he hasn't known any other answer but to try.

He's curious though about how others are handling it. Especially those he cares about, who are important to him, and for now he's just happy to see most of them doing so well. Their contracts are working for them and they seem to be doing well and that is what matters the most to him. He can cope with how bad things are on his side as long as they're okay.]

How young were you? You never had a say in that?

[Yet even as he asks, he thinks about how the moment Pogue had been born, Caleb had been told how he had to take care of him. Then the others. He had been told from the moment he was born they were born that it was his job to care for them, to keep them safe, to make sure they didn't die young. Was it any different? His money and status made him feel he was in a different place, but had he really been?]

I'm sorry, Alaric. You should have had more choice in your life than that. Your life here? Do you at least have as much say in things as this place lets you have?

[It's not as if he could change it but he would do whatever he could to fight for him if he could.]