Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Connections

I find myself staring and wish I could tear my eyes away from him. He looks like Vander, vaguely, as though he were his wrinkled and aged grandfather. He is almost bald, wispy lengths of white hair waving in the air.

"Another of the afflictions of the Sick," Gault whispers to me in his quavering voice. "I doubt those like me last long up above, do they?"

"No," Beckett says softly. "I've heard of this, but never seen it with my own eyes."

Gault nods slowly. "I'm not surprised." He pauses to cough, a racking sound from deep inside his withered chest. I reach for him, but he waves me off with a quirk to his lips.

"You haven't told me who you are." His watering eyes drift from me to Beckett and back again. "Or what adventure has led you here to us."

"I'm Trio," I say, "and this is Beckett. And I wish I had more to tell you than I do."

"That can wait." Beckett rests one hand on my shoulder in warning, but I pull away.