“Oh, you can just say it, I love to hear myself talk,” but there was a twinkle in Gale’s eye even as he said it, tongue-in-cheek and self-aware. He knew himself well enough that he could take some teasing on that particular point. “Elminster called me an insufferable chatterbox at times. He once cast the Silence spell just to get some peace and quiet during a research session.”

As they kept walking down the lane — it was a sunny day, startlingly nice weather despite the chaos in the realm, with only the strain on the faces of occasional passersby to show that tensions were high — he eventually offered a gentle correction and admission. “I’m not much of a people person, at the end of the day, actually. I may be able to talk your ear off once you get me going, certainly, but I’m far more comfortable as a homebody shuttered away in my tower, with nothing but a good book and Tara’s company. Perhaps it’s that I enjoy being alone in the crowd: surrounded by people and able to take them in, yet with no expectations of me. But what of you? You grew up here, did you not?”