As it happens, Sherlock Holmes may well have all the Promethean curiosity of Men contained in his person; his eyes follow the blade when Nuada raises it in the same way they've been following Nuada's eyes and hair and the curiously solid cant of his speech in English. He almost ignores everything Nuada's saying and plows on with another question but it occurs to him that Nuada won't likely respond very well to that tactic; he's making it very clear that being pestered with no yield in return is not going to go anywhere. So for once he stops and considers answering a question of his own.

The apple's half-eaten now; he turns it around in his fingers and takes a bite out of the untouched side. "I'm bored," he says, "and I've literally nothing better to do. There is literally nothing better to do."