Layla can only hear Steven's end of the exchange. She can imagine Marc's, though, can almost see the expression he'd be wearing (is wearing? she's never asked how physically present they feel inside their head). The corners of her mouth crimp slightly in fond amusement, and she shakes her head, turning again to busy herself with measuring out tea leaves.

"While you're waiting for that," she says, "starting from places we know probably is a step back from what we've already figured out. But consciously gathering the data can give us patterns we might not notice if we're just going on intuition."