Darlington laughs. "There is something vaguely carceral about it," he agrees. "Impressive, sure, but..." He laughs again, shaking his head. "Although I can think of a few folks at the Yale libraries who'd have appreciated that kind of weighty title and the power it suggests."

The interest and mild shock on Palamedes' face is more than a little entertaining, a bonus to the already-present thrill in enumerating one of Lethe's secrets for an appreciative audience. "The collections are perfectly safe," he says. "I admit I don't know all the nuances of what Albemarle created--he was brilliant, designed it all when he was still a student himself--but as long as the portal magic's maintained, everything works the way it should." There was the cautionary tale of 1928 and poor Chester Vance, but at least that had only happened once.