[He gives her the sort of look that indicates that he was only half listening while formulating his own thoughts and theories.]

Ahhh... I see.

You lock your loneliness behind a door and stand staring at it, armed with a knife to cut it down if it bursts free. Well, I can tell you, from experience, that does not work forever. Depending on your course... If you let your knife slip from your fingers... I suppose you only have to truly experience the crushing weight of it for a few years. That is, before the Lifestream claims and cleans the sorrow from your soul, hmm?

[He grasps and disperses an imaginary soul in his hands.]

Is that the draw of mortality? To die in such a way that your emotions don't have time to find you?