"...It might well be magic." He has no idea, but viruses and bacteria don't just fall out of stone masks!

Actually they do but he doesn't know that. "But indeed the process is observable!" There is no getting a taste for it when it's his sort of vampirism, though he rather envied the ability a little. It does however draw a snort of not-quite-laughter. No, it'd be horrible to laugh! He has manners! He's a gentleman!

"Though a further warning, unless you have great need for understanding the bylaws of Victorian courts, or an intimate familiarity with the bottom of the ocean, you may not learn much of worth from devouring my brain."