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I exchanged a glance with Ibrahim He was quiet and I could tell frohts hih he did not express the to return Herbert now, seeing that we have no further use for hied sohoul thinned his body even further, until he was practically invisible, and obediently sank into the pencil case Ibrahi when he’d said that Herbert ell trained Quite the English butler, after all…

Shutting the case, Ibrahi in The Sanctuary," Ibrahi me "I’ll be back within a few hours"

With that, he vanished… leavingabout returning to ht time to tell my wife and sister about what had happened What I’d done to hts and wound h the forest, back to the Residences The door to my sister and Xavier’s apartment had been left open, so I letin silence around the table Sensing my approach, they both spun around, their eyes wide and bloodshot

"Dad," Rose croaked,her arainstSofia’s cheek as she moved to embrace me too

"What’s the matter?" I asked as they dreay

Sofia sed and, taking ed glances before Sofia began, "We found out what happened to Ben"

"What?" That was not the answer I was expecting

They proceeded to recount in unsteady voices all that had happened since I had taken my leave, from River’s suspicion to their visit to the oracle and everything she had told them about hosts were real and to learn that my son had become one… it sent hts of Jerarief rolled over e half-life Not fully with us, but not fully absent I wondered where he was now For all we knew, he could be here on this island--heck, in this very rooone through And to think that it was hiive us any definitive answer as to whether he could return," Sofia said "Although, in her oisted way, she seeht be possible, I don’t kno Ben will have even the first clue as to how to go about it"

I dropped ht I was about to start beatingturned Ben into a vaer incident for all of this; if he had never becoht have never co ripped my arm

"There is no e could have known that this would happen, Derek We thought that ere doing as best for hi you take all the blame for this only makes me feel worse"

Still, I couldn’t help but blame myself