It’s not so very different from his many late nights at the Gallows library himself, staving off sleep, for the first year-and-a-bit before he got an office of his own. And he’s already restless tonight, so it’s an easy thing for Strange to accept her invitation, get dressed for the brisk autumnal air, cross over to the tower, and climb those familiar stairs.

He’s wearing a new dark-red coat, a nighttime chill clinging to its fabric, but he unbuttons it as he enters the library, warming from the climb. Once he finds Ness’ nest at the back of the library, he pulls up a chair to join her and deposits said enchanted cuff on the table: stylish, inlaid with runes, of Tevene make.

“I’m not sleeping well anyway,” he says, skipping right past the cursory hellos, “so I don’t mind the distraction.”