"It was - you know - the usual. I was endangering the country. I wrote to Noah, before I left, and I was planning on moving to a port town with my siblings, so - when Noah was arrested due to Basch's disappearance, I guess the paranoia exploded." Balthier reaches to lay a hand near Iomhar's.
"I remember I was told that my older brother might be visiting, but - Isannah said he did, and that was why she was packing up some of my things. At least - my dimension, I got pulled out of there." Balthier clears his throat and leans to snag a sandwich for himself. He can have something to fuss with in his fingers other than the tea cup. "I was - kind of in bad shape. Fawkes and Falcon met me first. And - uh . . . Evan apparently told Isannah how I looked."
Which is horrifying. That they were - they knew. "I got lashed. And - well - too glib for my own good." He can't exactly mention that it provoked - "A bit of a chill in my lungs. My father was talking about getting a healer in, I guess because he wanted me to return to society someday. I think - I think some of it wasn't just that it was easy as much as that it happened to Basch. Sort of a - see what you made happen." The idea of a healer to erase what was done? That's more horrifying than someone trying to strangle him. He's not sure what that proves - probably that he's still in denial a bit.