Palamedes is just polite enough that he knows it would be rude to immediately begin taking notes again—but only just. Here, demonstrated most startlingly, is a prime example of one of the strangest aspects of life in Well. So many of them, in the most literal sense, do not know what they are capable of.

“If it is some consolation, you aren’t the only person here who experiences unexpected physiological change in response to outside stimuli,” he observes. After a beat he adds, “Though now that I’ve said it aloud, that might be worse.”