Despite her mentioning her parents before, Lichtenstein had never considered that their passing might still upset Adia. The more he thinks about it, the more he realises that there are a few painful things in Adia's life that she keeps close. "Does it help? Talking about them."

Her question, as her questions often do, makes him frown. There's a long silence before he replies. "No. I wouldn't hold any value in it." He sits up and takes a breath before explaining. "When I contact someone, I... it is another plane, yes, but it's not an afterlife, exactly. I don't believe it is. I don't believe there is an afterlife. Perhaps that's why I don't enter one, or don't see it as one. Perhaps there simply isn't one in my world. I contact... To the average person they might appear to be souls, but they're only the gathered remnants of one, as far as I'm concerned. Like taking many echoes and getting a voice."

He relaxes back into his seat. "I don't believe I'm doing what people pay me to do. Telling people this is very bad for business." He pauses, his frown deepening. "You must understand, I know that perhaps I should have explained this to you before, but... It's the closest anyone comes to speaking to the dead. It almost always gets the expected result."