[Survey says yes by that agreeable grunt Bigby makes. One arm untangles itself, dropping down to his pocket where his pack of cigarettes and lighter are. He takes both out one-handed, the lighter clattering against the table's well-worn but polished surface with a dull thud.]

It always is when it comes to people like this.

[Emperors, Adversaries, whatever. Call them what you'd like, they're two sides of the same coin anyway.]

I've only ever met one king I liked. The rest are either assholes or tyrants. [He taps the bottom of the pack with his finger, keeps at it. It sounds a little like water rolling off a slanted surface and onto the ground — taptaptaptap.] Just because this one is harder to read doesn't make them different; just good at hiding their true colors.

[Although he'd be lying if he said he didn't connect with them on some level. It was all he could think about during the meeting, and he asked himself then what would Fabletown do if they were in the Court's position, just like he's asking himself now as he studies the dented piece of paperboard in his hand. What would King Cole do if he were in this situation, forced to take the fight against the Adversary to such a level where he'd need to pull in help from the other realms, where the only option was to make a deal with otherworldly forces or to die a slow, meandering death in a world that's falling apart at the seams? What would any of them do?

What would Snow do?]