For a long moment, he only continues to hold her tightly. It might be the last moment before everything changes. Or it might be nothing so terrible as that. The trouble is that there is little way to know without going forward.

Eventually, he relaxes his embrace a little. It is hard to know how to even begin to talk about this, so he decides to begin at the beginning.

"What do you recall of your life before Abraxas?" The question is careful -- hesitant.