She nods - picking her battles is important. She'd prefer to be alone, when she's here, but Karkat isn't being a threat, at least at the moment, so she takes another long, slow breath. The Empress can't relax; she's never able to, not when she's here (and if she's honest, never completely, even when she isn't - she doesn't remember the last time she slept without nightmares). She's trying, though, even through the haze of her anger and a building 'please, just leave me alone' that she wants to quash.

"Fickle, it may be, but it isn't always a bad thing. It's all in what's done with it. Using it to shield others is what I've been doing. It works, as a rule."

She turns her head, looking behind her.

"I do. It was my fault, after all."