"I'll tell one that you needn't pay too much attention to then," he says, his black lips settling into a small smile. Of course Roland is tired; post-arena exhaustion is a very real thing and something Signless is familiar with himself.

"I can tell one of the stories my mother used to tell me at dawn to help me sleep. There are plenty of fighting women in those." Not just because women on Alternia were not at all discouraged from fighting but also, he suspects, because his mother was just as much of a feminist as her Beforan self.

"You may want to take these off first," he adds as an afterthought, patting one of Roland's legs to indicate his jeans. "Or at the very least your shoes."