Need is a big, enveloping presence, a sense of great power carefully controlled, as careful as a mastiff closing a newborn chick in its mouth and moving it without causing any pain would have to be. There isn't pain, and Palamedes is smart enough that he could work out some way to retaliate, but also that might be unwise from this position.

:You've set up so you're running off of her brain,: she says in a kind of fascinated disgust. :She knows the risks and still wants you there. No, don't fret, I'm not in on that. I run off this.:

An image - her sword, both as the metal and enamel and stone and the less-important wrap of the wood and leather hilt, and as a ludicrously complicated lattice of ancient spellwork. Not theorems the Houses use, but not completely unfamiliar either. Soul magic. Thanergy in some form, too. A long time ago, someone died to make this.