Dago said nothing, lowering his head in thought, while Michael simply watched him in silence.
The air carried the scorched scent of highly concentrated elemental particles forcibly held in place.
To lower-order creatures, this scent was a sacred fragrance. To Dago, however, it was the silent irradiation of his Mental Force Field by a higher-order life-form.
After a moment, Dago raised his head and asked thoughtfully, "Is it because of Jiniya?"
The question sounded like a pointless repetition. Michael had just said that it was not solely because of Jiniya.
Yet when Dago brought up Jiniya again, Michael nodded instead.
"You're a clever man."
Michael's tone seemed to soften a little, but his lofty aloofness remained as impenetrable as a thick sheet of ice.
"Jiniya is very important to me, in a way none of you can understand."
"And you are very important to Jiniya. She's lonely... you understand what I mean, don't you?"
"I do."
Dago nodded. "Jiniya keeps you company, and I keep Jiniya company. Is that right?"
Michael seemed to hear something in Dago's words that made him uncomfortable, though he could not quite put his finger on it.
Michael frowned and said calmly, "You can think of it that way for now, but what I mean isn't actually as cold as you imagine."
"I can help you and Jiniya become partners, and guarantee that, at the very least, you will both advance to Miracle in the future."
"You have considerable talent. If your potential can be fully developed, you may go very far."
"But if you stay in the south, I can assure you that everything will be severely diminished."
"The south's scarcity of resources isn't limited to magic stones and materials. More importantly, it extends to flawed understandings of the world's underlying laws."
"If you