Lemm's bother strikes them as baffling, and perhaps a trace stinging.

They eye him a little longer, as though understanding will fall out of his beard. Naturally it doesn't, and neither can they come up with wording to ask after it. He's not refusing, which is most important, they decide.

Yes. Former walkways over acid lakes crumbled long ago, they report. The vines overgrew everything, though most thorns are rotting off. I swept several into acid on the way.