But it had hit a nerve. And so Sunny didn't ask. In fact she very deliberately went in another direction entirely.

"That was the first spell I ever learned to cast with my knife," she said. "My friend Chichi did it for me the very first time I saw it done. Classical. It was to help me cross the bridge into Leopard Knocks without the... thing living in the river from dragging me down. It almost did anyway. It's older than time, it can do what it likes."