[There's an underlying thread in those words he can hear. Had he imagined it? No. He decides he hasn't. He stares at him for a long moment, something too knowing about his stare. Then he looks away with a sigh of his own.]

And short of their worldview being shattered, they won't bend for anyone.

[A blonde-haired man with a sneer on his face drifts to the surface of his mind and of Alan's real form of a vast three-headed wolf not unlike the sun in the sky. Yes, beings like that don't bend easily.]

And in secluding themselves they have forgotten the vast potential of those who live shorter lives than we do. I'm starting to see the full scope of the situation.