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"Do you think it's 'pain-staking' or 'pains-taking'?" Zelda asked into the inky silence of the room.
"What?" Revali responded, his rest ruptured by her unexpected inquiry.
"The word 'painstaking'," she repeated, rolling over onto her side to face him and pulling the blankets up over her shoulder. "Do you think it breaks up into its parts as 'pain-staking' — as in, one is staking pain in acting — or is it 'pains-taking' — which is to say that one is taking pains in acting?"
"I- what?" Revali was paralysed by the question. "I don't think it has ever once crossed my mind how to break up the word 'painstaking'."
"Really?" prodded Zelda. "No curiosity whatsoever?"
"Is that so unbelievable?"
"I mean, I suppose not," Zelda replied, rolling onto her back and staring into the abyssal dark of the room again. Revali returned as well to his restful half-sleep now that the silence was restored.
A flash of horrendous light met his covered eyes, passing directly through their lids and into his head. "Gah!" he hissed as he turned away.
"Sorry," said Zelda, looking up something on her HyPhone. She had her screen brightness turned all the way up, which flooded the room with a white glow. She scrolled for a moment, then paused. "Huh," she said.
"What?"
"Turns out it's 'pains-taking'."