The idiom is lost on him--clocks are a new technology, and he can't understand how fighting them would be useful to their situation--but he agrees with the rest. "I know I'm paranoid, but I agree it's best to assume that they'll only get more powerful and better at what they're inflicting upon us. But I don't yet have any idea how to unravel the puzzle."

Helping himself to a seat, he smooths down his skirt as he thinks. "The locals are very discouraging of any attempt to question the situation or to change it. The forest is filled with deadly monsters, and the road out of town has been blocked off since I've arrived. It's also heavily guarded. I don't know how the town gets food or supplies--there's no trade in or out of town, and no farmlands large enough to feed a town of this size. The whole place is an illusion, a cage, that only conforms to its own rules."