'I don't know what that is.'

'It's when you...take your heart...and invest it in something? Or someone. Do you not do that? I think we've heard that historically there have been societies that considered it taboo...'

'We don't do that? We keep our heart in our chest?'

'Not the physical organ.'

'Well, then something's wrong with your mind talky thing because I don't know what else it'd be!'

'Yeah?'

'People have hearts. That's...that's how people work.'

'Except we... don't.'

'How can you be sure?'

'Don't you think somebody would have noticed?'

'Maybe.' Or maybe something with the demons or lack of sleep or something interfered. Whatever, it's probably not polite to interrogate them about their possible literal heartlessness.

'And if a whole world of people could just not notice I don't see how it's that important.'

'It's important to us, but we take your point.'

"And you do a thing with them?"

'Yes. When you invest your heart in something it becomes a magical artifact; when you invest your heart in someone they get powers.'

'What kind of things do the powers and artifacts do?'

'Well, I can talk to you like this. Emily has this nifty magnetism thing.'

'That's cool.'

'And one of the things about a spherical planet is that it has a magnetic field.'

'Well what it mostly shakes out to is flying and metallokinesis.'

'Cool.'