"Are you encouraging my anti-authoritarian tendencies and general proclivities to being a bastard? They'd really frown upon that in...both places we're from, really." It's not a habit he would have expected from Marius, though perhaps he should have. Marius might be a gentle, romantic sort, but Rat remembers what he read of the barricades and that Marius was in the thick of it. Why should he be surprised at a little subversive disobedience?

He shakes his head and points at Marius as if to say stop tempting fate. If he predicts twelve, the city will come up with twenty-four new disasters just for spite.

"I've met at least one spirit," Rat agrees. "I think she's a spirit. Regardless, she had a very large cat with a slightly mashed-in face."