Being awakened at this hour of the morning after such a useless night... Mother Night! The nurse was lucky he didn't have his full powers. He grumbled at her good cheer. He frowned at the clothing she thrust into his hands. At least the woman had the good sense to let him dress with only the dubious company of his sour roommate.

There didn't seem to be anything odd about the trousers except that they were a bit too big around the hips, and he'd been given no belt. Well, there were worse things than having to keep in mind that his trousers didn't slide down. The shirt--well, it wasn't exactly a shirt--it was almost as heavy as a sweater but the same oddly machined fabric as the Landel's uniforms. It was a green not found often in nature with a smiling pumpkin on the front with an oddly intelligent-looking and again insanely cheerful bat perched upon it. He reasoned it could be worse.

In the hallway, the nurse handed him his breakfast. He ignored it for the moment while he tried to locate his son or that strange girl on one of the carriages. He knew these were some kind of mechanical devices and not Craft-powered, but he spared barely a thought for them. There. He entered the second in the line as he approached Daemon, who was already seated.

"Are you prepared for this small adventure?" he asked, letting the irony of the situation seep into his tone.