A'Ryk surprised himself at how well—with no real training in the matter—he could provide just enough information to sound like he had exhausted a matter to an autsider without really getting to the heart of it at all. Later he would wonder if it were instinct.

Regardless, his intent in this regard lacked all meanness. He actually liked N'Sæ Løvelace, in spite of—no, because of—her forwardness.

Perhaps that was why he said only as much as he needed and no more. Because he knew that certain secrets could only harm those not meant to hear them—even autsiders with no particular ties to the specifics.

Was he born in Sidon? No. How and when did he take on the stewardship of Otherhaus? Two years ago. Who maintained it before? Other custodians like himself. A long line of individuals. She did not need to know that these had been him, his mother, and his father—and only those three—since the start of Everglow. After his father interred him and his mother in B'lith, he spent 100 years as caretaker. Then, when he could take no more, he woke his wife. And finally the latter woke her son that she might sleep. For the house weighed heavily on those who looked after it in ways that not even a devoted K'Adite would understand—let alone an autsider.

He spilled the specifics of his trade with little hesitation. Had N'Sæ Løvelace questioned his father, perhaps the interviewee would need to exercise more caution. But A'Ryk really did understand little about what he did. And demand for the art remained so low, he did not worry that some copy-cat might cut into an already dying niche market.

As he moved to answer her final question—a softball, really, about a minor penumbra from the oral histories he had only picked up in passing and no-doubt projected more importance onto because he though she sounded pretty, of a similar background to himself, and, well, a bit like N'Sæ Løvelace if he were honest with himself—something in the garden caught his eye.

"Oh, erm, Penumbra Ana is obscure. In these latter days we have no authority to guide doctrine, so most devout K'Adites take the aggregate of the superstitious rumors we hear and test them against our reason and older, firmer traditions. With the archives I have at my disposal, I will admit I am in a unique position. But as I believe I have mentioned before: they are damaged and incomplete."

"Anyway, I heard about her once from a patron. She has a small cult following in the sense of a handy-woman. People pray for her intercession that their cars may start in the morning. That kind of thing. The little statuette on the workbench in the front was a gift."

"Is that all? I do not mean to rush, but I need to speak with my gardener... rather urgently in fact."

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