"I am powerful, it is true." Either the Goblin King was boasting, or stating a fact... or both. "But nobody who earns my favor is a nobody. Who do you think you are, Dawn?" The name seemed to roll off his tongue like a sweet. "A lowly factory worker? The scum of the city? You might be that to those in this world, but... I am not, nor have I ever been, of this world." He threw out an arm, consequently throwing out his cape in a mighty flourish. "I see, Dawn--" again with the savoring of her name. "--that you are loving. You are thoughtful. You are a dreamer. Never have you given up on your dreams, even when everything that you have ever seen or heard has demanded that you do. How could I ignore such tenacious hope in the face of such reality?"

He was taller than her; he had to bend slightly to murmur in her ear. "But you and I both know that dreams are much more real than reality. Reality was not what was driving us both all this time... It was our dreams. Dreams of what once was, dreams of what could be. What still can be."

The smile that had been playing upon his lips all that time immediately vanished upon Dawn's concern for Lewton's family. "Those wretches? You know as well as I that they are as bad as their paternal bread-winner," he practically spat. "I should leave them to bankruptcy, to see their home and possessions taken away, to ultimately end up in the very spot where you have sat every day since you were old enough to work a sewing machine." He kicked over the chair in front of her worktable. "They have a lesson to learn, that their greed and wealth will ultimately earn them nothing. But... but," he sighed as if it were so VERY troublesome, "if you, with your fascinating and irritating generosity, wish for them to stay out of destitution, I will make sure that they are provided for and stay in their undeserved posts until death. That is, ONLY if you wish it."

He could not frown at this girl, but he was not smiling now as he looked at her pacing in front of him. It was so very typical of her to think about others before she ever thought of herself. Why had he expected this time to be any different? Even as he loomed so magnificently over her, she could not stop her pacing nor spouting her worries in her native tongue. He wanted to touch her shoulder, her face, to assure her that all would be well with her no matter what... But this had to be her decision.