Marc becomes helpful in the way tired people do when they believe they are only complaining, offloading frustration like it is weather, like it cannot be used. He tells you everyone watches Risk during amber periods, because a delay from the right person can turn an ordinary warning into a late night, language casual enough to sound like gossip, precise enough to be a map. He talks about desks, about inboxes, about the little humiliations of waiting for someone upstairs to decide whether fear is “real enough” yet. He does not say Isabella's name until the end, and when he does it lands quietly, like a card placed face-down on a table, still a game, still a risk, still a person with power who can make midnight longer than it should be. You feel the thread tighten between you and something you cannot afford to misunderstand. [[Marc Warns About Isabella|Listen to what he says about her]]