Ari doesn't realise that attitudes have shifted over time, in part due to her own efforts and those of the others determined to escape. When she arrived, many months ago, she was simply told it was completely impossible to get home and that she wasn't herself but a copy, a fake, and when she questioned the outlandish statements, asked for proof, she was accused of insulting everyone by not blindly believing what she was told. Well, Arilanna Tayrey didn't care who felt insulted when the stakes were so high. No, it's a somewhat different experience for new arrivals these days.

She takes Fever's silence on the matter as either acceptance of her warning, or a polite dismissal of it. Either is perfectly acceptable to her.

'A portal,' she echoes. So far as she can tell, that's another sort of wormhole, but one created by an entirely different means to the one she's working on.

'Would you know how to make one of those? Or even... how to learn how to create one?'