Braxiatel remembered the Doctor calling him something like 'an talented actor, if a bit melodramatic.' He smiled. Braxiatel wound lies around himself to hide his injuries; this Doctor seemed able only to put thin scabs over them.

"I have a hypothesis about this place," Braxiatel said. "I suspect that it brings you closer to the people you want to be near." That was only half-true. He had many other hypothesis, ones not at all connected to the sociological patterns in it. That, he had conjectured, was one of the inner layers; Braxiatel was working on what he suspected to be the outer ones. "The nice thing about the Garden of Whispers is that everything is said sub rosa. It's all completely confidential."

Braxiatel set down his cup of tea and looked at the Doctor directly. "Thete," he said. "You can tell me whatever you like. You'll feel better. They always do."