“That’s what is,” said Danny, “and you know it. But you also know that Bexoi murdered Anonoei. She burned up her body and Anonoei made this jump in that last moment of her death agony. So now there’s a serious question here. What does justice demand? That Anonoei get out of a body that she has no right to be in? Or that Bexoi make restitution to Anonoei for the body she burned up, by leaving this body so Anonoei can go on living? There’s something proportional in that, don’t you think? Even though the law would normally demand that we go the other way.”

“How do you know any of this? You can’t know it.”

“I not only know it,” said Danny, “but the whole time my lips have been talking to you, my own ka has been showing things to them. Hearing what they have to say for themselves.”

“I only care about one thing at this moment,” said Wad. “Is the dragon still inside you?”

“If he were, could I be here?” asked Danny.

“That’s an evasion, not an answer,” said Wad.

“Set has no more power over me,” said Danny North. “But yes, he’s still inside my body.”

“And you brought him here?” asked Wad, his fear and fury rising.

“I did not,” said Danny North.

“Which is it? He’s inside you or not? Which?”

“He’s inside me, but he isn’t here,” said Danny North. “Instead of getting angry, why not listen to what I’m saying and try to understand it?”

“He’s inside you, but you didn’t bring him here. That’s a contradiction.”

“And yet it isn’t a contradiction, because you’re making one false assumption.”

“And what is that?” said Wad.

“You’re assuming that I’m here,” said Danny North.

“I can see you,” said Wad.

“You once saw Bexoi die a bloody death on her bed, even as she stood beside you watching herself die,” said Danny North.

“It was her clant,” said Wad. “A brilliant clant, so real that it even bled. But you can’t be a clant, because gatemages don’t make clants.”

“Until now,” said Danny North.

“You really did die,” said Wad. “You died and went to Duat, and then came back, and now the things you’re doing…”

“I learned some things on Duat,” said Danny, “and other things I’ve figured out since then. I make gates now without my ba. Or, to speak truthfully, I transport myself and other things and people without making gates at all. I simply go.”

Wad had no choice but to believe him, because he got here somehow, and yet he did not make a gate.