The Prisoner of Limnos (Penric and Desdemona, #6)

by Lois McMaster Bujold

That… ah, that wasn’t a joke. Or sarcasm. Nikys had seen that round-eyed look on people before, and what did it say that she recognized it? He wasn’t poleaxed, just Penric’d. Her lips stretched up unwilled.

“We cannot protect anyone from being alive, Master Bosha. No matter how much we might wish to.”

One gives you the shirt off his back, mused Des, and the other offers to help you bury bodies. I do believe you have made some new friends, Pen!