“Horribly short-sighted of them,” Strange pronounces, with the firmness of solid conviction. “Considering you’ve all literally got slavering monsters surging up from the underdark trying to kill everyone, I would personally want all the reinforcements I could get.”

We’re just gonna ignore the possession by demons part of the mage risk management portfolio.

He starts walking again, leading them along the rooftop parapet and towards the temple proper. One of the walls is still an open tumbledown mess of fallen rock, but he still walks them through the doorway instead. Kamar-Taj still looks much the same as when he last left it, scarred from the Scarlet Witch’s attack.

“I can give you a tour of the libraries, since I suspect you’ll be a fan.” A quick conversational pivot, adding, “Is meditation much of a practice, at the Circles? They’re very good about it here.”