We were swept back to the real world in the blink of an eye and it took a moment for my eyes to readjust. When they did, I found myself kneeling on my furs and Hassan sitting next to me looking down at his hands as if waiting for my mother to appear. The way he had looked at Sari- it was hard to express. You could tell he would never love another as much as he had loved her and I could tell I was intruding on his much needed time with her so that's why I had wandered off to find Neo. It had been nice to meet my mother to actually see what she looked like and acted like, but it felt odd standing there like a family with Hassan.
"Hassan?" I asked, lightly touching his shoulder. "Hassan?"
He straightened. "Aye?"
Ander cleared his throat and I noticed Zanti wasn't here. "I hope you learned something," he said.
I nodded. "Aye. Thank you Ander."
With that, the God of Chaos was gone in a cloud of smoke.
I looked at Hassan worried that I had done more damage than good to the seasoned soldier. I never knew until today how much my mother had meant to him and now seeing whathe had lost made me feel guilty in a small sense for taking that from him.I didn't realize Hassan could look that happy.
"Hassan?" I asked again.
He didn't answer, but kept looking down at his hands.
"Hassan?" I asked again.
"She was so real," he whispered. "For an hour she was with me again…"
"I'm sorry…" I mumbled.
Suddenly, he hugged me. "Sorry? I'm grateful, Jaspen."
That's when I noticed there were a few tears leaking down his cheeks for when he pulled back, there were a few wet marks on my skin.This was the most emotion I had ever seen in him.
"But…" I said, confused.
He hushed me. "You wouldn't understand."
He was right on that one. I didn't understand.
***
Later that night, they took Hassan home and I was left solely with Bane; Rentook wanted a chance to leave the mountain. Bane seemed slightly lost without him. Out of the two, Bane seemed to actually care about me.
"Cold at all?" he asked.
I shook my head. I had so many furs now that I really didn't need more. "Thanks, Bane."
He nodded sitting down on the floor beside me with a heavy sigh. "Everything alright?" I asked, seeing that he looked slightly lost.
He shook his head. "This is the longest Rentook and I have been apart in centuries. It's odd."
I nodded not knowing what else to say.
"And we are a couple," he whispered. "I know you've been curious about it."
It was strange and different, but it was accepted in our tribe due to the two gods Bavol, the God of Wind, and Rai, the God of Rain, being married. It didn't happen very often though and I found it curious that the two known eternal children of the gods were a couple.
"How … how did you know?" I asked.
He smirked. "I can tell when you are trying to piece things together, Jaspen."
I smiled awkwardly, looking at the fire.
"Would you like to hear our story?"
I knew Bane was just trying to distract himself from missing Rentook at this point and it was better than him trying another new way to extract Iblis out of me so I nodded. Part of me was curious as well.