"Actually, it's more that it's never been necessary to give a last name," says Belar. "Except for the past couple of decades. Years. Whatever- I've been on vacation a while, you know how that kind of thing just makes time slip right on by..."

Passive mode, now. He felt that soybean grease, all right. He's not going to actively touch on her mind any more; he doesn't need to. He just needs to work his way through the influences he picked up on and see if there's any chance at all of picking it apart. Technically, that kind of thing counts as a miracle, and he really isn't sure if he can do one of those for somebody who isn't one of his Alorns.

But hey, what is life for if it hasn't got challenges, huh?