"Shield ring. It'll take months of wearing it to get it to work, but the design is quicker, it just has to catch bits of spirit energy and funnel them into its battery. And then it sort of shields you from getting hurt, bounces stuff off you. I used to have one, but I lost it about a week before I got dumped into Fairyland. I'm pretty sure I just left it in my other coat."

"You're sure there's spirit energy to be had around here?"

"Oh, it's not ambient or anything, its- your spirit energy. A troll or something couldn't use one, it runs off your soul. But after it's attuned and powered it'll work forever. Long as you don't leave it in the laundry."

"In the what?"

"Mortal clothes have pockets and need washing. Leaving something in the former while doing the other can lead to having no idea where the damn thing is. Sorry, vocabulary."

"Hm. It tells you something very, very important about who someone really is. If you look with a question in mind, you're likely to get something related to that, though it's unreliable and frustratingly symbolic at the best of times. And beyond what you actually see, you get a very strong impression about what that person is like. And it can only happen once."

He sighs. "Yep. Like I said, everything was about her. When you remove the support column, things fall apart. But then you came in and... I didn't exactly replace her with you, it's occurred to me that that's not the best system, but you're holding me together a lot. If it happened right now I'd look quite cheery, I think. Apart from worrying about how you're feeling about all this. Also, I'd probably have a better reaction time and be able to look away quick enough."

"I'm - managing. I do believe you didn't do it on purpose. But I keep wondering what would have happened if you'd avoided it."

"If you'd gone, I would've starved as planned. If you'd kept arguing, I might've come around, but I doubt it. If you'd ordered me to eat... it would've kept me alive, but I probably would've killed myself."

"That hadn't even occurred to me. I might not have thought to tell you not to, my understanding of your best interest aside."

"My best interest aside, I like that about you. That you wouldn't think of that right away."

"Killing yourself through neglect was fairly obvious. Doing it on purpose is just not a readily available concept for me, what with being really really immortal. Please don't ever."

"Won't. It's a bad idea, generally."

"It sounds like it."

Ari gets back to the fiddly etching on the ring. The designs have to be tiny and they have to be perfect. He's going to get carpal tunnel and then heal himself of it and get it again by the end of this.