"She - it will probably be a she, but not necessarily - won't be able to go very far away from you without it hurting, unless you stretch the distance enough to snap," says Angela. "You won't want to let anyone else touch her - other daemons are fine but you're not likely to encounter any here. I'm not sure exactly what it would be like but I'm assured that apart from the most intimate of circumstances it's to be avoided. I can give you the ability to tuck her away inside yourself whenever you like, if you want. Say when and I'll ask Jane to send you to Alethia and back to get her."

"...O-okay," he says hesitantly, and he finally straightens up in his chair.

"Does that mean you're ready?"

He nods.

Jane picks him up. Jane puts him down.

He arrives plus one smallish brownish bird, who squeaks and hides in the folds of his cloak immediately.

"Thank you," he says, shivering.

"Do you want to be able to tuck her away?"

And away she goes.

Invisible in Voice's world, Angela teleports to "one hundred miles Londonward of the South Pole" - Amariah suggested it as an unobtrusive place to hang out on Earths, suitable for people who do not get cold - and finds that she doesn't not get cold to quite the same extent as Amariah and requires a bit of hexing to be comfortable. Once that is taken care of, she peers into her copy of Stella's past-watching power, and looks.

She skips ahead. She doesn't want to look at more than she has to - not even with his permission, not when he hates the idea - and she can always go back. Where was he when he was - twenty?

In college, studying diligently late at night.

She skips ahead in shorter increments, a year at a time.

Twenty-one and he's studying again. Twenty-two and he's on a date with a girl about his age, laughing at her jokes, agreeing with all her opinions, hanging on her every word.

Angela skips ahead in smaller increments still after the girl, because - that might be important. One of Voice's distinguishing characteristics as a torturer is that he never touched his captives. Shell had enough of a sample to know this to be unusual. And yet here is a girl. What is he doing an hour later - two?

The date ends. He goes home and curls up in his bed and has the shakes for a while, then goes to sleep.

And the next day? Does the girl reappear?

He has a long phone conversation with her, and they go on another date the following week.

Angela supervises, skipping ahead by half-hours, patient.