Promise shoos Mortal as Thorn opens his mouth to say, "There's a loophole in 'obey the spirit of every order' -"

"Amend that," Promise says sharply, "to mean that you are to obey the composer-intended spirit of orders enforced upon you, and directives conveyed as subcomponents of orders enforced upon you, where that enforcement is by myself, the person you just heard speaking, or anyone you sincerely according to your best up to date model of the world expect to be an agent for one of the two of us."

And now Thorn is silent.