Hearing Percy say the words did not make it easier to accept, and more than ever Cass felt like running as far as his legs would carry him. Clearing his throat, he tried to piece things together, wiping the sweat from the palms of his hand off on his robes.
'I- Erm- We-' He paused, taking a deep breath, doing the math (how his mind managed that he wasn't sure) then started over. 'Marietta and I were "friends" a long time ago, when my father and grandfather were both still alive.' He frowned, trying to think about what had happened.
'We lost touch at some point-' he pondered it further. 'I think I got some mission, I was away for some months I think and we didn't have any contact, when I came back she was gone and I didn't think more about it or her. I ran into her again just... last year. About the time Romilda got murdered. But it was only a few times then she went to live with some aunt. I think I saw her twice, three times perhaps.'
He shook his head. 'I was in her house a year ago. There were no trace of a child, not even a photo of one.' Which brought him to the last part of what Percy said, something he hadn't even considered.
'What?' he asked. 'Oh, you think so?' He took the letter again, rereading it. 'It doesn't seem like it, does it?' For some reason that bothered him. Not out of some parental feeling (right now he didn't care about the boy at all, he had to admit), but he'd seen far too many of his friends suffer because their parents didn't care. No child deserved that.