Palamedes still gets a little thrill every time he remembers that the Contingency worked, and this time is no exception. He grins and cuts Harrow a sly look. “You know as well as I do that impossible is just a unique sort of challenge. But thank you for the compliment.”

He stops his pacing as she begins to describe the bubble, fascinated to hear about it in such detail for the first time. While he is aware they had interacted there, of course, they have both had their own reasons for not dwelling on their otherworldly meeting. Pal has only asked her now because of the sheer importance of what her answer might hold. Now he nods along eagerly, his eyebrows leaping up when Harrow describes his literary project.

“…Emperor’s bones, I must have been incandescently bored. Thank God you found me when you did.”

He says the words lightly enough, but there’s more truth behind them than he’d like to contemplate. For all the Contingency’s, well, contingencies, they had never expected that Cam wouldn’t be able to find a necromancer for such a long period of time. Even a very clever and well-prepared spirit couldn’t exist indefinitely in a liminal space between life and death. If Harrow hadn’t come along when she did, Palamedes’ psyche would likely have been ripped to shreds before long.