"It wasn't the vanishing," the kedan tried to explain, and then stopped. "Exactly. It was ... thinking about you afterward. It was ..." He was clearly struggling, even to Solomon who only had his tone to go on, but finally the kedan tried to explain, "It was like a veil lifting. Or ... taking control of a dream. When the nightmare was gone. That was how we knew he had, you see, because we could think clearly. Not that we didn't have feelings beforehand, but after ... I'm a mason. I've improved on some of my father's work. But until the nightmare was gone I never looked at a stone and wondered what it could be, or imagined that it could be something other than a variant of what my family has made for generations."

He fiddled with his cup. Solomon wordlessly lifted his to take a sip. "Some people, once they realised they could imagine, looked back on what things were like when you Foreigners were here and ... didn't like what they remembered. So they didn't like it when you came back, either. Not that I mind." This was said quick. "As I said, I'd never actually met a Foreigner before Detective Wreath."

And that had taken some convincing, too, Solomon thought wryly, but in light of the kedan's eagerness not to be seen as a bad person, and Solomon's desire not to antagonise one of his few patrons, he left note of that.