This was to be a long journey and he wanted to like the man with the many knives. He would bend his will to the task even so, however, seeing as there was no conflict at the moment, it made it much easier.

His instincts were to put his hands around someones throat and throttle out of them a straight line through the answers to all these puzzles. The evident point was, no one suited the bill for such a throttling.

In that case, with his mind clear, now that his spirit had been assured, he gathered his will to the task at hand. Find those missing pieces, or find those that had them. Time was short, so efficiency would supersede correct procedures.

His next steps, with the lady, were more uncertain.