"Some things happen quickly. Some things happen slow." Cuthbert shrugged. "Things are growing soft around the edges, whatever that means. But it's never been so hard they won't let you cook. At least, not if I make puppy-dog eyes at them." He grinned again, shaking his hair back. "When we were little, I always used to beg all the best sweets off them that way. And then I used them to bribe the rest of our class not to tell Cort when I was making faces behind his back." His laugh was rather rueful. "It didn't work. I swear that man had eyes in the back of his skull."

A personal story for a personal story. That was fair, right?