"You said yourself that you saw and heard some pretty horrific things last night. Some of those things were real, but some of them weren't. When you rely 100 percent on your slayer sense, you don't need cotton to block things out or to blind yourself to what's lurking five feet in front of you."

"Was that what you were doing? Lurking?"

"Not exactly." He frowned. "It's been engrained into my training as part of the Necron Brotherhood to never be seen by a slayer unless I want ...