"I'll answer anything you like," he counters, "but I should think you know everything that happened before I went astray, unless we've differences that go back that far. I left from between the wars, as I now understand it. I am hoping that forewarned is forearmed but."

Lucius spreads his hands. "I have no way of being sure I don't simply forget Baedal and Bete Noire, the city before it, when I do eventually get home." When, not if; he's not allowing the alternative as a possibility.