Four days after the snowstorm, Sypha emerged victorious from the onslaught of deadlines. Her tenement article had been so well timed with the storm that her penname received supportive and threatening letters. She buzzed with awareness that her words were reaching people, bolstering some and unnerving others.

Given some time and space to think over all she'd learned about Adrian Tepes, Sypha...maintained her current trajectory. She wondered if there were something wrong with her, that she could hear the word 'dhampir', accept it as truth, and still find the man's company enjoyable. Excitable, even! Did that make her stupid, or open-minded? Surely this ought to bother her? There was a whole world layered just beneath the one she occupied, full of stories she'd been told but discounted. A potentially dangerous world at that.

There was a whole world layered just beneath this one, and she knew nothing about it! Just imagine if she could find the right words to access and enervate it.

The courtyard is well trodden, hard packed snow by now. Sypha crosses its dimpled surface, arms full of the day's shopping, and bypasses her own door completely. She raps at Adrian's instead, and when it opens, declares:

"I want to know everything! Good afternoon, by the way."