"Easier?" He doesn't understand what Jim means for a minute or two. "It... no." He very nearly killed himself the first time he did this. His mortal body is no less vulnerable during the ritual; he took a potion to resist the cold but they have so few left, he's stretching them farther and farther. But he stops himself from saying so. It won't make this any better from Jim's point of view.

"I just... wanted to talk to it. But it doesn't speak the way... this is the only way to understand. Th-this winter. Needed to know what it would see."