Had he been susceptible to doubt, and the aggression and the scorn were still too common fare to be surprising. Daedalus was unfazed by the rhetorical barb, his even-handed tone never changing.

"I can’t do that," he answered, as if it were easily a matter of having just met. "That’s for you to tell." He didn’t give names to these patients--they picked their identity as they saw fit. They were far from that point, though; this was still the very beginning. On the same beat, he made a gesture with his hand and continued by saying, "I’ll take it that this meeting came as an unwelcome surprise, so let me say right now that the door is unlocked. I’m not about to hold anyone against their will. If you want to go back to the activity shift, you can."