The being could be a spirit of knowledge, seeking information. The thing about the Fade is that anything can appear in any way and nothing can be trusted, but he couldn't see any large risk in answering.

All it could do was hurt, and he could deal with hurt. Mercy shifts behind him. There's a comfort there, a forgiveness that she's been working on him accepting. That he's been working on him accepting.

"I was joined to a spirit once," he says finally, watching one of the holes drift. "He was thrust into the living world when he tried to save myself and some friends from a powerful demon, and he became my friend."

The dreamscape is gradually becoming darker, to the point where most of the illumination comes from the blue tears and the faint glow of Mercy.

"He changed. He couldn't handle the living world and how his purpose was constantly unfulfilled. He lost his way. And when he would not return to the Fade, would not go through the pathway made open for him, he was... we ripped, we tore him out."

Anders reaches out and touches one of the holes. It is him, or the lack of him, and he knows these gaps well. There is no clean cut when two parties were partially merged. There is no surgical precision.