It was a question, between those forces, which would gain.

Alexander did not feel strange with Ian, nor Ian with Alexander.

It was as though they had met before.

But how they had met and why, and where and when, and what that meeting had entailed and meant, was hidden from their gaze.
The attractive increased over the repellent.

Ian spoke.
"There's none down there but my uncle and his sister, my aunt.