[ he can't help but smile a little at that, a sad and crooked thing, as her words retrieve some memory from where he'd tried to bury it. that's what you do with dead things.

john dismissed the thought as quickly as it had appeared, his thoughts turning to the matter at hand, starting with bondrewd. ]

If we're going to lock this place down, it wouldn't make sense to exclude him from the conversation.

[ weak links bring everyone down. ]

As for Ryad: that's doable. [ and john can't help but think getting in good with the overseer of a place like that can't be a bad idea. ] Deaths generate a lot of energy. We should be able to cut them in and have plenty to spare.

[ and here he gives her a sly, conspiratorial look. ]

And that's not technically harvesting sacrifices for power. The deaths still happen whether or not we use them as batteries.