[He does take her hand, but he also takes something from his pocket--a small quartz cluster he picked up at the market at Sister Sara's suggestion. His thumb begins to worry at the longest point.]

I... [It's been about ten years since all this ended, and still the air in Colin's lungs becomes heavy.] I remember him coming to meet me in the hallway when I was with my friends. He made some excuse to get me away from them, and we just...talked. He was sad and lonely and needed a friend. I think he must have had a bit of a reputation, because after a while of him doing that, my friends avoided me. So the only friend I had was him. He started touching my arms, then my face. Worked up to spitting in my mouth. It tasted sour.

Then one day, he asked me to go with him to the storage rooms. They were very secluded, and if you could get in there...I knew what he wanted from me. I said no. He stopped pretending to be my friend. He looked so angry, and just...when a Templar silences you with his abilities, it feels like you can't breathe. He dragged me into the storage rooms and threw me against the wall so hard I found blood in my hair later. I don't remember...the next thing I remember is being on my knees. He told me if I told anyone what happened, he'd cut me and say I was a blood mage. My mouth and throat were sore, my face was sticky, and it tasted sour.

Most of my memories of it are like that. [He wipes tears from his eyes with a sleeve.] Sometimes I get flashes of the rest of it, like my mind is putting a puzzle together. If he bruised me or made me bleed, he made me heal myself. Sometimes he said he'd kill me even when I was being good. Called me names. Said...

[he struggles, more tears springing up. his thumb on the quartz becomes frantic.]

He said...