Verdant Basin even in the darkness he's grasping for it

Ah, I will! I will. Been a while since I've had a good man for company too, Neizan went on to admit. The boy would be good to have around even for a little bit. He seemed amicable, and young enough to accept the power of an older man; Neizan thought himself fitting in to a niche already.

Sympathetic overload was his favorite tactic for ingratiating himself to people. It worked best with his subservient wife around, but he could adapt; that was what made him so damn effective when he wanted things. And he wanted many things, right now.

Have you been in the area long? It feels as though my days to the south are years away. This place — it is so wet, and so dark. I fear it has made my wife miserable beyond anything! This is why she left. This, or, she found our daughter - or maybe something worse, but I refuse to think that badly. Any number of things could have split them up — and Neizan knew his wife well enough, and himself enough, to know she was being petulant, and nothing more.

Her name is Zaira. He spoke this as they walked, in the manner of a worried old man, which he posed as now.