[ Algric breathes heavily, marshaling his own courage. A compulsion would have been easier, but ... this is better. It gives him time to find his own words. ]

My - my mother. When Dad first left, she was ... unstable. She'd only just started to get sick, but he didn't want to deal with it, or me, and ... I try to remember that she was - was hurt. And ill, and. Not always in her right mind.

[ His voice falters. ]

I was eight the first time she hurt me. Dad - Dad was gone, and I couldn't stop crying. I kept asking her when he'd come back, and - and she got angry.

[ A hand drifts to his shoulder. The oldest of the scars that Jonah had seen, small but deep. ]