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A moment later, the man’s palm arrived exactly there, and just as Hector suspected, Abbas Saqqaf’s aura became clearer in his mind’s eye. Along with his soul, too. Both shone together brilliantly, almost indistinguishably from one another, as he peered harder into them. Searching. Thinking of the memory as Abbas had described it.

It should have been obvious. Abbas was probably thinking about it right now, himself. Unless he was being a jerk and purposely trying to make things harder.

Yes. The first thing of substance was there. That seemed right. Felt right. He embraced it with his own aura, let the Core have a bit of leeway. Freedom to help. It wanted to. He could sense its desire.

He felt a change all around him, but in his mind’s eye, he saw not much difference.

So he tried opening his eyes.

A pristine white hallway. A continuous bar of golden paint on each wall. Valgan words on each sign. A floor of polished tile. More white and gold, but with outlines of black, too.

It didn’t quite look like a hospital, Hector thought. In fact, it looked a bit like the Golden Fort, which he and Garovel had visited in Kuros. Not identical, though. Perhaps this was a different area of it? Or it had been remodeled since then? Raheem was probably quite old, so that might make sense.

Then he noticed Abbas. A second one, that was. Visibly younger, though not terribly so. But perhaps that was due, at least in part, to how utterly haggard the younger Abbas looked. Frazzled hair. Deep bags under his eyes. Pacing back and forth across the floor. And smoking a cigarette, too. That was a surprise.

Meanwhile, the older Abbas was right there next to him, looking on with complete awe, stepping closer, then to the side, as if not to wanting to get in the way of his younger self.

A baby’s cry arrived, muffled behind a closed door. The younger Abbas instantly turned and bolted through it.

Hector and the other three observers followed.

Young Abbas was bent over the bed, hugging his wife and new child.

And sobbing uncontrollably.

The staff were smiling and presumably congratulating the couple in Valgan, but they were also giving some strange looks to the loud, weeping man in front of them, even as they mopped the floor and wiped down the room. One of them was attempting to apply a stethoscope to the child and not succeeding, because Abbas was in the way and apparently too far gone to even notice.