"But there aren't any dragons here," he says in a calmly reasonable tone, that sense of quivering about him intensifying to flickering, "to be descaled. And that's the game I want to play." His eyes slide open, their usual mellow pulsing resolved into diamond-sharp irises around a catlike pupil. "What color would you say your hair is?" he asks, a little dreamily, a finger coming up to rub against his lips, up and down. "A little on the gold side, ne?"