No, Zelgadis isn’t one to lie without a good reason, is he? Rezo stands there, his usual cool demeanor slipping bit by bit into bewilderment as his mind races.

“Why would she…” Rezo falters.

Had she truly sought to avenge him? Eris had been a dedicated assistant, and now that he thinks back, had been upset when he’d packed a bag and left Sairaag for good. He’d barely noticed, had been too consumed by the need to get away from the site of his innumerable failures to cure himself, and to find his last hope in the Philosopher’s Stone.

“She didn’t need to do anything like that,” he says.

He’d assumed that, with him gone, she would move on to her own research or a new place of employment or something. Insomuch as he’d thought about it at all. What signs had he missed while his mind was so focused on his cure?

Rezo’s grip tightens on his staff.

“What happened while I was gone?” he says, voicing a question that has been plaguing him. “How long was I in that jar?”