"Could be. Or an indication of priority." He shrugs at Holmes. "Well, it's like this. I knew her for about three minutes before she tried to rip a spell out of my knowledge and it drove her insane. Back home, she was unpredictable, but almost no one else was unpredictable in the ways she was, and one someone did something that looked mad, you could include her in the suspect list (although people back home are as a group more... individualistic than here), but if it seemed like a reasonable thing someone might do if they had a motive, she wasn't usually someone to consider strongly without a specific reason. I hear tell she was unstable in a saner way before that, as the moon and the waves are, but I never got to know that person."
"Sou?"
"Holmes-san has invited trouble," Xel declares in satisfaction with having his suspicions confirmed.
Yeah, but distraction techniques last approximately as long as I actively engage in them. :( lol Have fun! Yes, I've read all the published ones. They're better than the manga, but, well, the manga, book, series, and OAVs are all essentially AU to each other (although the OAVs might well just be set before the series), and are all in very different styles. The series is hands-down the best.