"We may not be the only ones," he points out, though the relevance is minimal right now. Her responses continue to defy his expectations. A mortal in her situation ought to be fearful, or at the very least nervous. She has transgressed clearly marked boundaries of several kinds, yet when confronted with her misdeeds and reminded of the potential consequences she remains unconcerned. She is everything about mortals that confuses and fascinates him. To learn for the sake of learning, indeed. He has lived for centuries on this another Earth, yet he has not learned to do anything merely for the sake of doing it apart from binge-eating, which he mastered long ago.

She is right, though. He does not intend to inform anyone of her presence, even if he were sure that he could. He might remove her from the building if he finds it necessary, but alerting ROMAC to her presence would be both difficult and disadvantageous. He is not where they mean him to be, either, and they will not understand that it is his right as a higher being to oversee their activities rather than the other way around.

"I only want to be sure of ROMAC's priorities," he admits. "But I will not tolerate interference with their mission, should you decide learning for the sake of learning is not enough for you."

It doesn't occur to him that he hasn't given her reason to believe he has any way of enforcing his lack of tolerance. He's not in the habit of issuing even the prelude to threats to anyone who doesn't already know what he is.