"But if he does already have a set of voodoo dolls in his office, then he's already had the idea and it won't change all that much, really," Gabe pointed out, eyeing the man critically and with a kind of earnestness that belied any indication that he wasn't serious. Because he was. He was amused but he was turning the idea over in his head very seriously.

"If we made them magical strings," he said thoughtfully, "we could make them so only certain people could touch them. That way Landel wouldn't be able to use them himself, and he'd get frustrated by being unable to. Like Tantalus."

The ensuing discussion, interspersed with actually eating, lasted until the bell rang for the shift-change.