(Not the welcome we expected)
When my family's side and my companions finally settled down for some sleep, I was left wide awake, the memories of hundreds of years seeping into my conscious mind. These were amusing, frightening and sad. Grandpa Cáel/Alal had lived a life full of pain - both given and received. He spent an inordinate amount of time looking at children.
Since I had his memories, not his personality, I had to decipher their emotional context. The dominant themes were sadness, jealousy and anger. Immortality wasn't a future. Immortality was continued existence. And only through his eyes did I begin to see the difference. A family meant a future. Offspring meant a future. Sarrat Irkalli had stolen that from him.
Alal had tried fostering children. He had even adopted infants
