Xander: My father said he’d known all along I had special abilities. And my mother wrote up a press release and sent it to the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Of course the FBI intercepted that and made her promise not to tell anyone.

Xander: I was to be a top secret spy, a hero, hahaha!

Xander: I spent every Christmas with them, never missed one. They both died the same year. My father had a heart attack pruning his famous yellow roses and my mother went six months later. She’d been frail for a while, holding on for his sake. Great romance they had. The only disappointment they ever had with me was that I never gave them any grandchildren.

Xander: They adored children.

Kore: Ack!

Kore: I don’t know why but I expected you to have some personal tragedy hiding in your past.

Kore: Doesn’t seem possible that you end up here, exiled, reviled by all, all on your own merits.

Kore: What, no sob story?

Xander: How’s the weather in the Kergeullans this time of year?