I knew that if I started a row in there, you'd come to her defense, and if you came to her defense, she might very well tell you the truth.

The essence of isirika is to make it clear to everybody that you're your sister's keeper -- and yes, you're your brother's keeper.

I was trying to get them to say what they probably wanted to say, to break out of their own cocoon of the public self, and the more public they had been, the more entrenched that person, that outer person was.