"...Maybe if I had a Mark I would already know the answer to this question," says Milan, "but why is 'perhaps I would be better off if I had been tortured more in my childhood' even something that occurs to you?"
"Can't argue," says Inlaith.
"Oh, and now you too have been inexplicably charmed by an Ivan," says Mark. "It's a pattern."
"Happened with the half-alt fellow too. Him and his Bell are gone now, leaving only a magic blood sample in Miles as evidence."
"Technically the blood is not magic," says Miles. "...Probably."
"Fragile bones," says Milo, pointing at himself, "also fragile bones," at Miles.
"I don't know what to call it, it doesn't break bones or leave scars, it just hurts," says Ashras. "And my brothers have it too."
"And I'm a shren," says Mial, "which is complicated to explain, but the relevant parts are that I age ten times slower than a human and for the first twenty years of my life I was in a steadily increasing amount of pain, on a scale such that adult shrens can fail to notice a broken bone because it doesn't hurt enough to get our attention."
"My bones belong to Sis and are therefore fine, but it would be them if they weren't," says Solvei.
"...No fucking wonder you want my curse-blessing so bad," says Milan to Mial.
"That's... I am frequently tempted to misuse the word 'epic' but this seems to qualify better than most other candidates I've ever considered," says Milan. "Pity there's no way to make it happen."
"And approximately how long has achieving this been your most cherished goal?" says Ashras.
"...I abstain from the question," says Milan, grinning.
"How does anybody get there in your anti-hubris world in the first place?" asks Jann.
"Nope, no, not getting into it, safety concerns," he says. "It is way too easy to pick up the science fantasy mindset from you guys."
"Should I be insulted?" wonders Stalas.
"No, you're ahead of me there too," says Miles.
"It would literally be dangerous to tell us stories of epic people? Hell, that's a lot of self-policing for a you, I'm impressed too."
"Crash the fucking sun," says Ashras, shaking his head in sheer amazement. "Not just the fact that your world is insane and terrifying, but the fact that you've adapted that well to the ways it is insane and terrifying."
"Count me in on that amazingly vivid expression of surprise," says Milo.
There is a very loud, very unidentifiable noise from the direction of the lake door. Components include whistling, crackling, shrieking, roaring, and booming. It builds to its crescendo in about two seconds and then tapers off from there in a patter of small explosions.
Investigating: Mial (he stands up first, and the rest cluster around him); Stalas; Ashras; Milan.
Staying behind: Solvei (she joined the investigating group at first, but then hesitated and sat back down); Milo; Miles.