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As their conversation continued on, Hector remained largely stuck in his own head. Mulling over everything Abbas had just told him. He felt so odd. Like he was having an epiphany. And also not. As if something he’d always known was suddenly being made clear to him. And yet he couldn’t even articulate what it actually was.

It was some kind of cerebral stalemate. A knot, struggling to untie itself.

Agh. He wished he wasn’t so stupid. Maybe then, he wouldn’t have to think so hard to figure this weird knot out. Or maybe it wouldn’t have gotten all knotted up in the first place.

Even as he kept listening to the others’ conversation, his mind was looking for answers. For clues, even. Anything to help him solve the puzzle that was his own confusion.

Abbas had caused this. It followed, therefore, that Abbas would hold more answers. The only problem was that Hector didn’t even know the questions to ask. And they were still talking, besides.

Interrupt? With what? He didn’t know.

Instead, he found himself reaching out. For what? For more memories. Of what?

Abbas’ children?

Would that be wrong? Hector didn’t know that, either. Truthfully, he still didn’t rightly know how any of this was working. Auras, the Gate, connecting with his mind, manifesting illusions from the past. He wasn’t sure how much there was to find. Did Abbas have to offer the memory up willingly? Consciously? Probably. And if not, then maybe that wouldn’t be--

He found something. Before he could learn anything more about it, the new memory was already manifesting, recasting an illusion over the world around them.

The other three took notice of the change, too. Of course they did. The illusion melted into a completely different scene. The location was blurrier, but the people were not. In it, Abbas was grinning ear-to-ear and holding up a slightly older Raheem, whose little face was already recognizable to Hector as the fully grown man he would one day become.

The baby boy was saying something, Hector realized. Too bad it was in Valgan, so he couldn’t--

“Abbi! Abbi!”

No, wait. Now that he thought about it, he did know what that meant, didn’t he?

Heh.

He wasn’t sure when he’d learned it, but he supposed the dots also weren’t terribly difficult to connect, given the context here. Raheem’s mother looked just as pleased as her husband did.