“Do we?” said a man at the doorway. “I hadn’t noticed.”

The newcomer also wore black, but his pale skin suggested a long illness, and his was a thinner build than Thurvishar’s. His black eyes still looked like holes through the world.

Something about him made Brother Qown’s skin crawl.

“Is dinner almost ready? I’m so very hungry.” The newcomer looked over Brother Qown the way a starving man looks at dessert.

“He’s Relos Var’s,” Thurvishar protested.

“Var won’t notice.”

“I rather think he would with this one.”

The other man sighed. “Yes, you’re right. One day, I’m going to have to do something about him. In the meantime, I’ll be in my study. Don’t disturb me.”

As the other man left the room, Thurvishar exhaled.

Brother Qown also felt relief steal over him, although he didn’t know what fate he’d avoided.

“I take it this isn’t quite as safe a place as you led me to believe,” Qown said at last.

“He never comes into the kitchen, usually. I thought this was the last place he’d look.” Thurvishar looked chagrined.

“Who was that?”

“Better you don’t know. Else I would have to ask Relos Var to add it to your list of subjects not to be discussed, and neither of us want that.”

The two men stared at each other for a long minute.

Brother Qown turned back to the stove. “Well, thank you for bringing me here. I’m sure the house servants back in Yor wouldn’t have let me anywhere near the kitchen stoves, and even if they did, they wouldn’t have any good vegetables.”

“Plus, there are other advantages,” Thurvishar added.

Brother Qown paused. “What do you mean?”

“We’re both educated men. You must know where we are.”

Brother Qown swallowed. “I’ve heard stories, but sometimes stories are just … stories.”

“Not here. Shadrag Gor doesn’t sit in time correctly. Something happened here. Something that damaged the way this place exists in the universe. So time moves very fast here. It suits my master, since it allows him time to do his research without interruption. You can spend months, weeks, days here, which appear to others as minutes or seconds. And if one sought a way to better study a Cornerstone, this might be a very good place to start.”

“I don’t know—” But Brother Qown paused. If time moved so quickly here, it meant his attempts to scry the outside world would be like watching still paintings. Convenient, since his largest problem had been how quickly the world proceeded at its own pace. “Huh.”

“The offer is open,” Thurvishar said. “You’d have to be in my company at all times, though. It wouldn’t be safe for you to come here by yourself.”