“Yes,” Stephen says, perhaps surprisingly immediate and nonchalant. Some concepts have been an absolute goddamn nightmare to try to explain to Thedosians, but this time it feels like a more straightforward answer. And it’s always a relief speaking to Mobius in particular; he’s generally more open-minded.

“That makes perfect sense to me, actually. I expect you might’ve already experienced, even though you don’t have any sensation in your hand, sometimes it does feel like your hand’s still there, or like it has an itch, or your nails are digging into your palm? We call it phantom limb syndrome. You see it all the time in amputees: they’ll forget they’re missing an arm, it’ll feel like it’s still there, sometimes the missing limb itself will still hurt. It’s actually very interesting, we think it’s a neurological issue because of the memories remaining in your brain’s neural connections—”

Tangents. Tangents, doctor. He remembers to cut himself off, leaning back in his chair again. “Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if some healers here have noticed it and written about it as well. And my point being, even if elven magic and rift magic is absolutely fuck-all abnormal, it makes sense to me that you might still feel those fleeting sensations or that discomfort even when you’re not supposed to.”