Lixia sighed. "I went over to his cave one day on a... visit, and he was gone. He told me he would be there, but he wasn't."

Larek thought about this. "Toby never mentioned you before. Did you meet him recently?"

"No, I've known him for about a year. He wanted to keep things private." She blinked her golden eyes a few times, realizing that she had said too much.