"That's what I used to think." Jacob replies, "I thought if I get hurt, or killed my sister might be a little bit put out about it, but no one else is likely to suffer. As it turns out, I caused several riots when I almost ruined the economy."

And killed an innocent man because Pearl Attaway had told him a bunch of lies he hadn't bothered to fact check.

"So while you think your actions won't have a wider effect, you might well be wrong. Ripples in a pond, and all that."

He takes a deeper breath. There's not much he can do about that now, but the mistake still weighs on him, and Pearl's death can't restore the innocent life he'd taken.

But he won't dwell on that now. He puts an effort into sounding his usual up-beat self.

"That's the spirit! We have to see if there's something we can do. And if not, we report back to someone who might know how to fix it." He says, glancing over his shoulder with a grin.