:...Hmm: Definite cageyness leaking through in her mindvoice. :It's - not impossible. He would need some very strange magic, it sounds like dark magic honestly, but - it could be: 

And now he's back to crying again. :I want--I want--:

:Oh, gods, I know: Yfandes curls around him. :Shh, I know. I wish...: 

And she's silent for a while, he can feel her thinking. 

:...There's something I should tell you: she says eventually. :Since it's relevant to this situation, just - it's not something Companions are really supposed to talk about...: 

:I won't tell anyone, if it's a secret.: 

:Thank you: She snuffles at his hair again. :I - this is going to sound strange, but - I used to be human. I was a Herald. In a life before this one. Most of the other Companions were too: 

It feels a lot like the ground has disappeared out from under him and he's either flying or falling with no way to tell which. He clings to Yfandes and tries to breathe. :So does that mean--someday--:

:I don't know. I'm sorry. In - the usual order of things - I think usually someone wouldn't come back as a Companion until it'd been quite a long time, so it's not so obvious. I don't know when I was alive but I can pin down that it was at least two hundred years ago, from the buildings I remember. Still...: She trails off, uncertainly. 

:So I'm still never going to see him again. But--thank you.:

Yfandes seems about to say something a couple of times, but holds back. There isn't really anything to say that will help, so instead she just snuggles Abras and sends love along their bond and waits. 

Abras holds Yfandes and loves her and eventually he pulls himself together a little. :Thanks. I should. Go look at the statue. See if there's even a number on it. Maybe do the multiplication first so it's easy to check.: He notices that he expects it to match up, that he'd be less surprised to see that it did than that it didn't, and that itself is kind of frightening, that he's started to believe something implausible from an enemy with no reason to tell him anything helpful even if it's true.

:Want a lift there?: 

:Yes, please.:

Then Yfandes can carry him over to the statue, with Abras riding bareback because it's really not far. She hovers nearby while he looks at it. 

There's a number on it, right where the mage--who never said his name--said it would be. It's the same one Abras got from the multiplication.

"Well. I guess we need to talk to Taver."

Yfandes gives his shoulder a reassuring nuzzle before holding still so he can remount. :All right, let's go find him. He's by the Grove: 

:Okay.: No point putting it off. He gets back on Yfandes and off they go.

Taver is waiting for them near the Grove. He's several hands taller than Yfandes, and seems - brighter, somehow, indefinably taking up more space in some not-quite-physical way. 

He presumably exchanges some Mindspeech with Yfandes privately, then turns to Abras. :You had something you wished to ask me?: 

:Um. Yes. Did you ever meet anyone who said to you . . .: he repeats the words from the dream.

Taver goes very still, blue eyes boring into Abras. 

:I recognize those words. The man who spoke them to me died more than seven hundred years ago: 

Abras is not surprised. He is, however, afraid. :Can you tell me anything else you know about him? Someone claiming to be the same person come back from the dead turned up in my Foresight dream.:

Taver doesn't answer right away. 

:He was a powerful mage passing through the area: he sends, finally. :He had many opinions on government. He seemed knowledgeable about the Eastern Empire, which King Valdemar had fled. I...do not understand how he could be in a dream you are having now: 

:Neither do I. He says he's immortal. He had some other evidence, but I don't know whether he's telling the truth or a very clever lie.: Abras can explain the business with the prime numbers.

:Interesting. I am not sure what to think, yet, I do not see an obvious way it could be faked: 

: Neither do I. Though I don't see an obvious way it could be real, either.:

:I mean, in a way I am a proof of concept, right: