"Still counts," he chirps. "And I told you, you should up your confidence game." In other areas. He adds that last part across their minds because everything until then could just be considered normal conversation, it's the addition that maybe might sound out of place to anyone that might be listening. Lucifer's rather certain no one else is in the stacks with them, but

"That's nice." You want them fixed you can fix them yourself, Istredd. He will not ever mess up Istredd's own work. Maybe a couple other's in Thorne.

You realize it may be the opposite of that, he says. Cutting out the connection of the Singularity in order to stay put. It's an absolute extreme, but it has crossed his mind regardless, as those kind of things typically do, and that mindset is clear along with the words.

He whistles off-tune, pulls a book out from his dwindling stack, looks at the spine, and then shoves it off in some random, definitely out-of-place spot, and then props his elbows up on his knees and rests his face in his palms.

And somehow you love this man, Istredd.