Is that really what they believe? Or is that what they learn to say so that they don't get killed that much faster? Have you ever bothered to ask one of them when there was absolutely no risk of retribution for them? Or is that even possible for you to do?

[He looks back out at the now empty room, regretting he'd ever left it to talk to this woman, but he's not ready to stop. He would either be heard, or she'd stalk off and he'd never have to worry about her again. Either was fine with him.]

Tell me, Effie, if you can even imagine it, what would happen to you if you fell from favor? If all your contacts, and privileges and protections were taken away? Would you wind up in the streets with all these supposedly willing sacrifices? How would you live? Would you share their fate, or something similar? Are you even allowed to wonder about things like that?