"Oh, and don't go outside without your ring on," he quickly adds. "Not in the daylight anyway. It's a bad idea." He wonders if Joscelin, in his memoryless state, understands what a vampire is, whether he's heard of the concept before. If so, Cesare expects he might begin to catch on. Either that or Joscelin is still just a clueless child.

"How old are you?" he asks out of curiosity.