He nods, filing the terms away, appreciating the internal logic of them; life and death and the cyclical nature of both. "It makes about as much sense as the nexuses I'm familiar with, just...more universal. A greater well of power to draw from."

They go into the great room, Pal's delight immediate and palpable from the first moment he sees the fireplace, and even that is a reward in itself. Not the same as revealing a new piece of magic to an unsuspecting person, but close enough--showing a bit more of a place he loves to someone so rapidly becoming a friend. "That is a useful skill," he says. "Psychometry's not something practiced by any of the Ancient Eight, or Lethe, and even what little I've read on the subject is incomplete. I think the closest anyone comes is...Aurelian, maybe, but even they are..."

Noticing the frown on his friend's face, Darlington stops talking. "What is it?"