There was a palpable look of relief on his face at the fact that Alex got it, and that she didn't immediately disbelieve him. From what he knew of her, he had mostly expected that she would understand, but it was good to have that expectation confirmed.

He nodded. "No one wanted to leave more than us," he said. "Perhaps if Sil—if Silence had been able to bind herself to it, she could have ... reasoned with it somehow. I don't know. Perhaps not; perhaps our presence there was such an imbalance to the order of nature there that it could do nothing else, no matter what. But even without it, I think we would have all been doomed nonetheless."