Humans were fundamentally social creatures. They were built by the gods to live in community, to share fires, and to enrich their miserable lives with the constant friction of interaction. There was a very specific reason why chronic loners were looked upon with deep suspicion in all kingdoms, and why hermits living in the high hills always possessed a few screws loose.
Basil knew humans were meant to interact with other humans, to search for friends, to pine for lovers, and to desperately seek something in someone else that they simply could not provide for themselves.
So, when he finally came face-to-face with Mesea, he recognized at once that something was profoundly broken within her. His father the King and his Uncle Laedio had been entirely secretive about the horrors that had befallen the girl before she was brought to the court of Yarzat, but Basil wasn't so naive as to miss the obvious signs of a shattered soul.
