Here, in the Mouse House?

( he pauses in that consideration, eyes narrowing. )

Down here... it's only down here that I've felt any touch of life, or death. Once you're in the port, things become muddied... once in Serthica itself, either side or its slim neutral region, there's nothing. I can feel nothing.

There are magics of some kind sustaining whatever lies keep the city almost functional, and peopled. If stains down here too, but the saturation is less total, I suspect.