(Alash Vortex POV)
Renn was the one who moved first. I was beginning to think it was his job.
"Are they connected?" he said. "Your seals, and Halden."
The Hermit took his time.
"I think the same five people being at the centre of two things I can't explain is worth looking into," he said. "That's as far as I'll go."
"That isn't very far."
"It's further than I'd go for most people." He lifted one shoulder. "Five children shaking my illusion doesn't tell me why something came out of the ground at a princess, months later, a long way west."
He looked at the fire.
"Five cores going up together doesn't prove they've found some clever way of cultivating that nobody else has thought of. I can't explain either of them. Explaining one with the other would only give me two things I can't explain, tied together with string."
"Then what does it tell you?"
"That they keep happening to the same five people," said the Hermit. "And that I'd like to know why."
