Wow. Not a speck of humor about it, either, not a hint. This is incredible.
"Fantastic. Alright, little frog," and here he steeples his fingers atop his stack of books, "let me tell you all about Trench. Great little seaside town, just don't eat the calamari."
He drums his fingertips against each other, considering.
"The problem," he says slowly, "is that the place is all one big, tangled system. Planets generally are, sure, but this goes above and beyond: every time you think you've cracked this bit of blood magic, it turns out that outside force interweaves. Which makes it not so much an outside force as a part of an ecosystem, or the systems in a body."
He stills his fingers, regards his frog.
"I'm beginning to think decades is more the scale of it."
no subject
"Fantastic. Alright, little frog," and here he steeples his fingers atop his stack of books, "let me tell you all about Trench. Great little seaside town, just don't eat the calamari."
He drums his fingertips against each other, considering.
"The problem," he says slowly, "is that the place is all one big, tangled system. Planets generally are, sure, but this goes above and beyond: every time you think you've cracked this bit of blood magic, it turns out that outside force interweaves. Which makes it not so much an outside force as a part of an ecosystem, or the systems in a body."
He stills his fingers, regards his frog.
"I'm beginning to think decades is more the scale of it."