"Mr. Dalis, how do you feel?"
"Very well. So well I almost mistook myself for someone with nothing wrong with him. I nearly kindled some hope for a new life and resolved to work hard to restore the Nadun Family's glory."
"Very good."
"By the way, Captain Kallen, what's the weather like today?"
"It's raining. Quite heavily."
"I'm starting to hate rainy days. They remind me of something I said while talking to you: I'll be washed by the rain into some sewer pipe beneath some street in York City."
"Look at it another way. Maybe York City's rainy days dislike having you join them even more."
"True. I'm still getting the better end of the deal."
"Learn to accept it, Mr. Dalis. This is fate's judgment upon you, and your most comfortable form of self-exile."
"Thank you, Captain Kallen. Thank you for getting me out and saying these things to me." Dalis looked at Kallen and smiled. "It's a shame we won't have the chance to sit face-to-face, drinking tea and basking in the afternoon sun. My intuition tells me talking to you would be a very comfortable experience."
"You do your part, and I'll finish mine. Once we're both done..."
"Can I come to you for tea and sunshine during the last stretch of my life?"
"That depends on whether I have time, and whether the sun has time."
Dalis pulled the hood of his clerical robes over his head and smiled. "All right, I should go and greet my sunshine."
Then he walked out of the headquarters building and into the heavy rain.
The rain kept washing over his figure. Wherever he walked, he seemed to leave puddles of sludge behind.
Kallen reached out, caught a little rain from outside, then shook his hand and turned to