When Beth had asked if Signy knew a man named Constans, the dwarf had shaken her head; the name did not ring a bell, and tall, dark-haired men were all over the place. The other details, though, they caught her attention almost immediately, and then held it, as though suddenly her thoughts were subject to magnetism or gravity. He had been a mage and made not a mage? Signy caught the thought, and the possibility, that had shown for a moment on Bethen's face—something similar, although more universal and far less personal, had occurred to her at just that moment.
She shook her head just a little bit and, pausing too little and thinking too little about it, contributed her thought: "Exposure to that much lyrium... I mean, the process was designed to surmount our natural immunity, and… well, you're a mage, you use the stuff in its processed form, you know the dangers." At least, Signy assumed that anyone who came into contact with lyrium knew the dangers and the rules of handling it. She'd learned from a very young age: never put it in your mouth. Never touch your eyes or your mouth until you've cleaned your hands. Never let it touch an open wound. Don't breathe in too deeply if it's dusty. "But that—I'd say that the process, this Tranquility procedure, would make someone like a dwarf, but it seems like it's even more extreme." No feelings? Well, dwarves certainly had a healthy dose of those. "Still, taking away a topsider's capacity to dream—if it was done to someone who wasn't a mage would they lose feeling and dreaming, do you know? What's your guess?" Perhaps Signy was still too used to the discourse that Danga fostered—rapid changes of topic, shouting (not that Signy had been much good at that) when a thought struck you, rounds and rounds of interrogation and discussion and talk. It was best over ale. (Her stomach clenched unpleasantly at the thought of ale.)
But what Bethen had said was correct, it seemed like a very close inverse of what Dagna had done to Signy; if Signy knew how they did it... but Bethen had said she knew nothing, and Signy believed her. She'd just have to find someone else to ask. She wasn't sure why she wanted to know, to tell the truth: it wasn't as though she needed to follow Dagna's footsteps. The breakthrough had been made and the method proven and nothing more remained to be done. But Signy was curious. "Ah, I'm sorry, you asked... about dreaming, the Fade, that place." She frowned. "I don't know a lot about it. It's too big and open for my tastes, and there are things there." She frowned. "Demons, I guess? I know the name and Dagna taught us a little, but… no, I don't think I've ever actually met one."