"A dozen, then," he admits, shrugging. "I wasn't looking the entire time."

After all, part of that time was spent back home and while there, Elidibus was one of the very last things on his mind. Once back on the train, he assumed the Ascian's apparent non-presence meant he finally left the train. That was an incorrect assumption and the reason they were chatting.

"But very well. Aye, I saw you on the passenger list and nowhere else, so I got curious and figured I'd go find where you've been hiding." Which was slower than he wanted because he can't sense an individual's aether as well as Q'uila can. "And why."