"No," he admitted, faintly embarrassed by the observation, but not about to lie about his purposes, as nebulous at those seemed even to himself at that particular moment. What was it that he needed? Sympathy? Solace? Counsel? There was so little they had in common, when he stopped to think about it, and yet it had never stood in their way. No reason it should now.

Felix considered what he would say first. There were still a lot of secrets he had to step around, uneasy to give them up all at once, and now not all of them were his.

"I never did tell you the rest of it. What happened just before I came here, I mean..."