"Assume, for the sake of saving time, that I wish you to explain your world to me as if I do not know it," she says, with a stress that falls more heavily on her own lack of knowledge than anything to do with him, the frustration of a person who is used to being the one who knows things, and not the one who asks them of others.

But a shard to which he was transported without intending to travel there, a place of altered rules. She takes hold of the concept, turns it over for examination. The parallels are obvious; whether they are meaningful remains to be seen.

"What is the distinction between a witch and a sorceror, if any? Are they allies, or at odds?"