Why on earth would someone actively choose a life frugality as if it was something to be aspired to?

And suddenly a thought crossed her mind, and it was hard to unthink it: What if... Uriel had lost his mind? What if the stress and hard work of university and being away from home and the isolation had just made him snap? And now he was making all these poor decisions because he wasn't thinking clearly! Maybe there was no baby and he was just telling himself the woman was pregnant. Wait! What if this Katherine herself didn't exist?! No wait. She had seen clear indicators of the presence of a woman.

She would need to talk to Zech about this. If Uriel was indeed losing his mind, he needed help, not lectures.

She realized she had spaced out as she was thinking on these things and hadn't really listened to Uriel. She tried to recall the last thing he had said. "Zech likes to argue a lot, that's true."