I may not know him, but I'm beginning to know you, Laurent had told him once and at the time Damen hadn't quite Understood what he meant. He does now, because Damen may not know this person but he's intimately familiar with Laurent and Laurent doesn't "embellish." In fact, Laurent is often so plain and blunt in his observations that it's immensely uncomfortable.

". . . He didn't tell you." The statement is nonsense, because Damen doesn't mean to say it. They spend so much time talking around the thing that's etched into the gold on their wrists that he shouldn't be surprised, but he is. Damen shakes his head. "Laurent didn't lecture you because he sees himself in you. He lectured you because he sees himself in your worst enemy."

Damen may not be very good at understanding the deep intricacies of Laurent's mind, but he knows that Laurent is deeply mistrustful of goodness but naturally gravitates toward it. It has something to do with Auguste, maybe, who insisted on a fair duel that day at Marlas. It might even have something to do with Damen himself, if he's being romantic about it.

"I'll tell you a secret: Laurent once whipped me so badly I nearly died." That secret is his, in a way that Auguste's death isn't, so it makes for a good object lesson. "Now I would put the whip in his hands and smile if he asked it of me. That is what Laurent thinks might become of you if you don't remember who your enemies are."