[ Vasiliy does, indeed, know what she's suggesting, a heavy possibility that weighs silent in the air between them. He's already had a chance to live and die—really, the time he's living now doesn't belong to him, or shouldn't, anyway.
That doesn't take any severity from the decision, for the same reason he didn't simply turn himself in and face his rightful punishment a second time—there's something infernally human, a desire to avoid death even while recognizing it to be the only fair ending to his own story. But it doesn't overpower his desire to see these people live—and they will die without water. ]
Five minutes, [ he repeats, quietly. ] I can do that.
oh man i know about The Agonies don't even worry about it
That doesn't take any severity from the decision, for the same reason he didn't simply turn himself in and face his rightful punishment a second time—there's something infernally human, a desire to avoid death even while recognizing it to be the only fair ending to his own story. But it doesn't overpower his desire to see these people live—and they will die without water. ]
Five minutes, [ he repeats, quietly. ] I can do that.