Resignation buoys out of him in a great intake of breath let out slow into a sigh, his posture still fixed upright, pinning him to the chair back now like an old stocking to a mantle. It’s about the farthest thing from an assurance he can muster without speaking.

He watches her note-taking, and realizes dimly that the slip of paper was blank.

“Holden told me you had a theory about where we come from.”