If there were any doubt in Ver's mind about the identity of Northcliff Pass' itinerant storyteller, it vanishes the instant Tuo replies. Not just the voice but the words, the entire demeanor--even after so long there's only one person that could be.

Ver's entire face lights up with that recognition. "It is you--we thought you were dead!"

Where someone else might put an edge of resentment into the words, why didn't you tell us you were leaving, Ver has nothing of the sort; only an unfeigned delight to have been wrong. "Gram even read rites for you; you wouldn't believe how vexed she was--"

He stops himself abruptly with a hand to his mouth; this is absolutely too much to be putting on someone in a years-delayed reunion. "...We missed you," I missed you, he finishes, hushed.