"- it's not a specific technical term, I just mean a thunderstorm where the rain's coming down particularly hard."

"Oh that's a little disappointing but only as much as anything having to do with thunderstorms can be disappointing which isn't that much."

"If you say so."

"Have you flown into one? I think if I were a man I would fly into a thunderstorm."

Narnia probably can't have airplanes. "I have generally appreciated them from the ground."

"Well, that's better than not appreciating them at all."

"I'm not sure whether flying into one would be entirely safe, even for those of among us who are empowered."

"It'd tend to be risking a lightning strike, yes."

"Ordinary people survive those!"

"Not reliably and not comfortably!"

"I doubt it'd hurt more than getting my legs chopped up once a week."

This gets her a startled look from several adjacent party goers.

"Mm, possibly you should slow down on the wine and eat some of your meal, Sophia. The pudding is particularly nice today."

Oh good apparently he doesn't have to think of a response to that.

"Yes, I wonder what the recipe was," chimes in one of their neighbors helpfully.

And then they can have a perfectly normal conversation that avoids explicit acknowledgment of any of them being tortured by demons, much less any specifics.

The pudding is lovely, yes. Do they have chocolate here in England.

"I'm pretty sure that's popular in Spain but I've never had any?"

"You're missing out, chocolate is wonderful. Very popular in Narnia."

"What's it like?" asks the helpful neighbor.

"It gets compared to coffee sometimes, do you have that?"

"I don't think so, no."

"Then I'm not sure how to describe it, sorry."

"I've had it - it was awfully... foreign," says a newcomer, arriving just as dinner is wrapping up.

"Oh Lord Metcalfe, I didn't know you'd be attending today."