"Well, yeah. We've known each other for eight years now," Asbel replied by way of explanation. Sophie'd been gone for much of that time, of course, but that didn't change anything. It had been nearly nine years since he and Hubert had first discovered her up on Lhant Hill.

Asbel was about to question her further, a careful hand reaching towards the top of her head to nestle in her hair, when the shake stopped him short. It was so familiar, and at first he thought maybe she'd made a mistake. Maybe the Captain had put her up to it. But he'd seen this all before and heard those very words. They'd cut right into him last time amidst the shock of Sophie somehow - miraculously - being alive. This time? They knotted up uncomfortably in his gut.

"Wait...but." Asbel looked from the moogle to Sophie as he tried to process what the creature had just said. "Sophie, you really don't remember anything? Nothing at all...?"

She couldn't be like Richard. She'd only just arrived; another Hero.
What was going on?