"That's exactly what it is," he says. "The contradiction of nostalgia, the warring feelings that ought to be opposite. That's all a very poetic way of putting it."

Darlington lets out a breath, watching as it swirls away from him in the cold morning air. "This, I don't mind talking about so much," he says. "Those runs, back home, were as much about keeping in shape as they were about trying to understand New Haven a little better. What drives it, what makes it work, or not. And why, out of anywhere, it's where magic gained such a foothold."