[ She's right - he knows it isn't true, but he still needs those gentle reminders, because even for as far as he's come, he's still not where he should be. Not even close. He exhales far heavier then, the tension bleeding out of him as her thumb runs over his wrist. Right. Right. Home is still a nebulous concept for him, because his perception of it has changed so much recently. First, it had been Insomnia, then traveling on the road with his friends, then Thesa, then Olympia.

And now, it's here. Not this room, not Wyver, not even El Nysa, but this space he occupies next to her. ]

No...it wasn't. But I didn't figure that out until I actually went there.

[ It seemed to be fate, once again. Fate - and Ardyn's intervention, that had set him down this path. He supposed Ardyn had done it to break him, but for all the shortcomings he saw in himself, the fact remained that he hadn't given up.

He owed a lot of that to Aranea, too, but she'd ultimately made the choice to move on his own, and he had. ]

The Nifs picked me up out there, and Ardyn... [ He catches himself saying the name this time, but he doesn't stop to explain. He will, eventually - he'll need to - but not just yet. ] He took me back...back to where they...made me.

[ To meet his maker, as it were. ]