She was about to ask what laser removal was when he did that thing again, like at the library when he started drawing the circle on the table. He could have been asking about anything as he'd apologized for hurting her more times than he's needed to. They'd been talking about his tattoo, however, and she has no doubt the two are connected.

"No." She's firm about that shaking her head. "You only did what I asked you to do. What I needed you to do." It had hurt less than the pain of continuing with it so anyone else could have eventually studied it would have. "I couldn't let anyone else have the information. It was my choice, my decision."

She needed him to understand that, even if she had guilted him into it. At the time, she'd blamed him just as much as she had her father, for everything her life had become. And it hadn't been fair, every step she'd made since her father died had been her own. In the end, the decision to disallow another flame alchemist was on her as well. They both had the knowledge to pass on if they wanted, but no one would be able to use her father's notes ever again.

"There was no other way to erase the information and it was only fitting that the flames they had created destroyed them."