Ariel grinned. "Rhazii was such a tiny thing when I saw him. I'm sure he is no less gorgeous after these years. From what I have heard of Newt, he sounds like a sweet little thing, too."

"They are growing up like brothers," Sabine added. "They love to play together. They can achieve more mischief together."

"Is that so?" Ariel giggled. "Partners in crime, are they?"

Sabine gave a small shrug and smiled. "Not much is out of their reach, for children. It was hard to keep things away from them on shelves when Newt realised that Rhazii could hold him up on his shoulders."

"How cute!" Ariel stopped suddenly with an open mouth. Her voice lowered to a thoughtful tone. "I suppose I should keep an eye on them in the shop, hm."

[hr]
Gallus wished that Yizan-Lei's symptoms made him surer than he was before. Unfortunately, he was no healer. He was still running on half-baked assumptions.

Nevertheless, he knew what he was there for in the first place. He raised a hand horizontally to Yizan-Lei when he was having trouble. "Do not push yourself. I have heard enough," Gallus said. "Explaining everything is... complicated. I will start from the beginning. Do not hesitate at any point to stop me if you want to hear something again, or translated."

Gallus stared at the red feather and began. "The people who promised your mother a cure for her service are notorious for deception and trickery. They were cultists that were hunting certain people for their souls. What they asked Dar-Tzesa to do would have sounded simple, but it was not. They preyed upon your mother's devotion to use her for their own ends without having a cure."

Gallus' eyes flicked to Yizan's uncle briefly. He had to be careful about the secrets he would keep. While he had thought about what he would say beforehand, satisfying Najan-Ja might require some alterations on the spot.

"They travelled to Elsweyr, to a community that they were going to take souls from. I work for an organisation that had been fighting against these cultists, and they needed your mother because she had a likeness to our leader. They used her to deceive the community and gain control. By sheer luck, we got there before they could have their guards lead away to be ambushed. The cultists were captured, along with Dar-Tzesa."