"Take it up with my inner self," he says, as though being directly and immediately confronted about this doesn't inspire a response that can be perfectly summed up as ugh, "and see how far that gets you."

What's so suspicious about two people meeting in the garden? Pulled from the same well by the same magic, made to wear the same arcanum—as far as anyone is concerned, that's plenty enough in common to draw them together. Dark-haired and dark-eyed, nearly the same height, both experts in scowling—like calls to like, they say—

"But before you try, know that it will hurt just the same as it does out here."

See? Friendship.

He stops at a respectful distance, straight-backed and unsmiling, and does not lean on the rail.

"What else did you see?"