"I tell it to you as it was told to me," he says solemnly, before the grin returns. "Besides, it's more fun than the other way." You can retell history like some dry academic treatise, but that's not the tradition most people keep in his world.

He lets her mysterious movie comment slide for now, but files it under 'Nexus slang to ask about'. "Oh, they work, all right. Of course you have to assume some of it's doing whatever it's supposed to. But I can promise you the trap mechanisms are still working. Not to mention the guards." He pulls a face. "They have these horrible mechanical spiders with sharpened forelegs and lightning casters. And of course they're armor-plated, so you can't just freeze the gears up."