Sure it is. Sadde's good at this.

He sure is.

(Henry stays quiet and eats efficiently.)

Mmhm. That's okay. He'll keep discussing magic with Temperance after he's done eating.

Henry finishes the food and after an awkward pause says, "Thank you."

He stands up to leave.

"You're welcome," he says, smiling.

Nod. Henry leaves.

"Okay, I believed you when you said that he isn't blaming me, but I can't help but feel a bit suspicious again."

"Hm? He blames himself and thinks everyone should hate him and his presence is a burden on this station."

"Wait, really?"

"Yyyep."

Sigh. "He really needs Gabe back and we are going to rescue him anyway."

"Yeah, we are. And I understand him, I just—being barely functional will not help. We have a plan, we're working on it, we'll do it. By the way, do you know how long Lord's gonna take to finish whatever it is he's doing?"

"No idea at all. I think it is a terraformation tool, but he is so secretive about it that I am almost suspicious, you know?"

"Yeah, but Isra seemed to respect him and people here are... very nice? I mean that's also kinda suspicious but."

"Yes. And his stated reason is that he mostly doesn't trust people with his knowledge, which is fair, I guess. But... it's not hard to imagine that someone with that much knowledge could figure out a weapon to efficiently kick out the trespassers and I can't help but feel that suspicion is prudent."

"Yeah, I think so, too. But we sorta depend on his resources to actually live on that other planet."

"I know!" Temperance says forcedly cheerfully, "So there is little we can do about it."

Then she sends, I think there is a way to use spacetime magic to spy on him, but I don't know if it can be done discreetly and the motivation to do it is pretty much...

...paranoia? Might be a bit justified, but on the other hand, we sorta did trespass and invade and bother...

I was thinking something more like circumstantial evidence but paranoia isn't a bad descriptive either. I also can't help but feel so very curious about what his secret knowledge is, even if his reasons not to share it are completely understandable.

Yeah, I understand that. Still... we should probably wait until we have more than just circumstantial evidence, paranoia, and curiosity on our side.

Agreed. No reason to add to his reasons to kick us out. And the spacetime scry is going to be useful for the rescue mission so we can have it on reserve if a better motivation suddenly arises.

"Yeah."

"At any rate, do you think we should get Henry to help with spacetime magic research?"

"I think we should give him some space, first."