He inclines his head over their hands in a quick bow, still grinning.

"Were I more decisively dead, I would do the same," he says. "But whatever life the inn bestows that let Pent-laoshi call you here leaves me solid and free of chains."

He releases Magnus's hand and glances to Abigail.

"That is where I often stumble in my own work -- I should be able to do things as one of the dead that I could not while alive." Gesturing to the drop of blood on the paper, "Just as you can do things as if you were one of the living, despite being dead."