Lan Wangji has always been a terrible diplomat, and moreover, has always hated diplomacy, but he enjoys, for a moment here, thinking of Claudius on his various forays into international relations. "You greeted me effectively enough," he says, and then stops again to think. "I don't consider any of us here hosts or guests any longer. This is the longest that I, too, have stayed anywhere aside from the Cloud Recesses." It is also the only other place he has, even passingly, thought of as home.