"If Malice shows, we will kill her," Drizzt snaps with sudden coldness, a flare of anger rising up; he is starting to grasp how much his father had suffered because of her. "I'll not let her anywhere near my father again."

The protectiveness is new, but it is something that Drizzt already feels strongly. Drizzt knows his father is broken in many ways, and he feels that most of them tie back to his mother. He knows that there are times where Zaknafein had more difficulties than others, and that more than once, Drizzt's presence has ended those moments. But not all of them. There is precious little Drizzt can do for his father's nightmares, much to his distress.

"I know it is him because it is him. The way he moves, the way he speaks, the way he loves me—and I have felt the third directly, as the so-called network can carry emotion." Drizzt's voice stays resolute until that last bit when his voice is takes on a gentler tone, albeit not much. "Perhaps I could be fooled for a moment, but I knew it was him the second our gazes met. I've never had a reason to question the truth before me."

Someone's convinced that he's been reunited with his father, fully and completely.