[He does remember enough of her magic to grasp the 'unable to do anything small'.] I at least have the ... concession on my own abilities that I bring some of it on myself; I could back off on the nastier and more difficult cases to focus on studies and minor whatever-happens-to-be-in-the-area ... except then I get left hearing about the cases anyway, only most of them have gone on much longer than they would have if I'd gone ahead and answered, and there's several more dead bodies. I could do "something smaller" for my field, I'd just be murdered by my own conscience. I'd rather be a target than a coward.

[.... You know, it's not like he's using his pocket change anyway, or like it'd be a great loss; he's going to set out the rest of it on the nearest surface to the desk.]

.... I doubt either of us do what we do for "our peers"... God knows with what I was like a couple years ago, when that was the majority of the human contact I had...