Gale notices the frown and glances at Argilla. She's better at determining which emotion causes changes in expression. Regardless, the question is one they've asked themselves multiple times. Gale can only offer what they've guessed.

He shrugs slightly and spits out one word, 'law' with special vehemence. "We cannot answer that. We suspect the correct answer is no, but we have confirmed that all of our memories were tampered with. Before, not one of us remembered being children, and our first memories were almost all exactly the same. We were woken by the researchers--we were told they were priests--in a dark place underground, then told the 'law', given the bare minimum of weapons and armor and led up many fights stairs to the surface, and the rain."

Gale's hand moves, so that the back of it is brushing Argilla's, and he looks at her for a moment, expression distant and both sad and relieved at the same time. "It happened in groups, typically, though very few have the luxury of any others from their 'batch' still being alive."

"Now, some memories have returned, but they are jumbled at best. For most of us, it manifests as only a strange sense of familiarity without knowing why, or knowing something--a name, a place, an activity--without knowing why or how we know."