With anyone else, he might have levied some pithy humour, some tongue-in-cheek poking at their trepidation. But coming from Yseult specifically, it reminds him of— spine straightening before the head of neurology, standing before the board, presenting his case. A performance review.

“Baroness de Dreux’s biannual Mid-Summer Mummery,” Strange says, which sounds like a fairly baffling non sequitur until he continues, more seriously: “Non-combat situation; a Fade anomaly trapped civilians on a ballroom ceiling. Myself and von Skraedder threw up some heavy ropes to help them climb down. A human body isn’t rope, obviously,”

he could be more careless with rope, the first shot hadn’t actually landed perfectly,

“but it could be close. Consider it…” She looks like a gymnast. “A springboard? A bit more propulsive force to get higher.”