He gives a bitter laugh. "I can tell you my death here wasn't what I'd wanted." Who wants to be stabbed in the eye? Not this nerd!

"But isn't that torture, then? If we just...don't die, but go unconscious or something," It sure felt like dying, if you ask him but he's not inclined to argue with a profanity-yelling troll. "I mean, how do you do it? Do you embrace it? Do you just...not mind?" Asking for a friend. Okay, no, himself.

"Anna. She's slight and blonde and...oh. Well, perhaps there are other kinds of trolls, too?" Sure, Dennett, if you accept there's one world with magical trolls, you can't refuse to accept there might be two.