[That wins a chuckle out of the shrike. (A noise made more uncanny by the enclosed corridor, for it doesn't echo like it should--like he's laughing in a room far more spacious, or an open field.)]

Ahh. This is not so bad a thing to observe--but assumes I withhold my name because it is precious, yes? And that I think all names must be equally so, regardless of who it is that holds them?

[Questions first; explanations to come, if they're asked for. He expects they will be.]