Guilded Age

Scipio can get a bit more talkative when he’s summarizing a lot of information that he took in silently. Geez, I forgot to even mention the sunblooms when we first saw them a couple of pages back.

We later clarify that Tamara knows Rosita’s true fate, but the rest of Scipio’s talk seems to catch her off guard. Given how two-faced Hestia and Blair are being here, it seems like they’d be tempted to use Tamara’s impairment to hide some of their brutality from her. “She’s already seen so much to upset her, our poor sister. She shouldn’t have to be told about other upsetting things, except when necessary.”

Just as likely, though, she knew there was a beating here and there but thought such beatings ultimately maintained order and therefore resulted in a happier populace, in the end. That was Mother Scarlett’s line, after all, and Hestia especially has borrowed a lot of Scarlett’s playbook. In that case, it’d be Scipio’s implication that the whole populace is abused and broken that startled Tamara, whereas Hestia may have had such thoughts but is used to angrily dismissing them.