"May you what?" Frazzled as he was, it took Paddy an extra moment to recognise Solomon's hand movement. Like he was reaching out to touch something in mid-air between the two of them. If Solomon hadn't mentioned being able to see Paddy's state of being just two seconds earlier, Paddy might not have recognised it at all. "Oh. Yes, of course."

Faintly ironic, that a man planning to do... that to three billion souls less than a month ago was now asking permission to touch one.

Paddy couldn't help smiling. As Solomon had said, the instincts were there; you couldn't change them. By his own admittance, then, Solomon always had the capacity for good. Being this considerate wouldn't have come so naturally to him otherwise. Solomon had traveled so far in such a short time, fighting hard the whole way through, just to get to where he should have been from the very beginning. Where he was meant to be. And now he held a position it was possible to do incredible things from.

Paddy couldn't be more proud of him.