The song surprises him, a strangely familiar glide of notes - not quite human, but still like something he'd heard before. It feels like anything could happen, really, on a night like this, and when he sees a seal in the water, he stifles a gasp of delight.

For all that he'd utterly believed Alecto's story, believed he was who he said he was, this is still the first time he's ever seen that transformation before, and he startles, his hand briefly tightening on Alecto's hand before he lets him go forward to the water. To his sister.

He barely hears her words, still in awe of this small evidence of magic, the seamless way that the seal shifts form into a young woman. He can see the family resemblance in their faces next to each other; he can't help wondering if he'd met her too, at some point in those long-ago summers of childhood.

"A pleasure to meet you, Pippa," he murmurs with a slight bow, polite and courteous. "I'm Joshua."

He can't think of anything more to say. This was an enormity, a confirmation of what exactly had been taken away from Alecto, a home, a family, a place - another world - where he truly belonged. He doesn't quite realize his eyes are a little wet until the wind blows a gentle chill, and he turns his face away.