No one chose to come to the Valley, no one chose when they left, and no one could control either the comings or goings of anyone else either.
Hansel thought the place was beginning to sound like some evil snare except magic didn't work on him so the logic was flawed. He tried and failed to imagine why he'd be considered valuable enough to take yet Gretel was not with him. They worked better as a team. They had only worked as a team. Why would Gretel not warrant the same trip he did?
"Why would this place want me without my sister? We do everything together. Every mission we've ever been on, every witch we've ever taken down, ever village we've ever saved? We did it together. I don't know what it's like to do this on my own. I can't see any benefit to having me try either. I'm not the smart one out of the pair of us."
A part of Hansel wanted to know how long the woman had been in residence while another part was terrified to find out. The idea of quantifying the amount of time he might have to live without his one support in the world was worse than the knowledge his time would start to run short as soon as his sugar sickness serum ran out. If this woman told him she'd been there years? Hansel was fairly certain he'd lose a part of himself permanently if he were trapped without his sister for years.
"I know you're saying people at home won't miss me, but I'll miss them. I think I'd rather focus on getting an account here. Find something to read to take my mind off all the things I can't change. I'm Hansel. Could you spare the time to help me set an account up?"