A Homecoming of Sorts (Open)

Loren felt tears spring to his eyes. The weight of everything came crashing down in the face of Beatrix’s innocent, but painful questions. “I don’t know.” He didn’t where everyone was; he couldn’t exactly explain where he’d been, since it was more a state of mind than a place; and he certainly wasn’t sure how to react at the tears he saw in her eyes. So he simply repeated, “I...don’t know...” in a broken and defeated voice. Then she started throwing lots of information at him, and he had trouble keeping track of it all. “Peter? Bobi? The Voice? Who...what...B-Bea I know you’re scared and sad. Me too. But I need you to slow down. I don’t know what or who most of those things are.” His own tone hardly lacked the authority of other Launceleyns, but hopefully his mere presence would help steady her. Someone needed to calm down, and Loren wasn’t sure he was capable of it. The former librarian puzzled over the name Jace, who was apparently here; then Loren’s eyes widened as his mind supplied an image of a toddler Zariah had randomly shown up, claiming it was Loren’s twin’s child (or Loren’s nephew). He seriously doubted that was true, from the Neron he knew. But clearly Zariah had adopted this child, which meant Loren needed to find a home for two children. LOREN Not quite an open book