Trahearne rested his chin on his hand, regarding Devin with some skepticism.

"I'll grant you that I might not be absorbing this well tonight, but experts aren't the only ones that can contribute knowledge. As you said, if they haven't figured it out, who's to say that one of us won't? Sometimes a fresh perspective is what it takes to make a breakthrough."

Not that he felt like he was anywhere near a breakthrough, but he had to defend his choices somehow. Quite a bit of Trahearne's research was fueled by his own curiosity, by just needing to know more about the place the multiverse had spit him out into.

"And what of yourself? It doesn't look as though you picked particularly light reading tonight."