177 CLXXVII. | 'Attend to thee...'

When he awoke, Hector was nude. He was not surprised, though. While he hadn't felt the impact from the fall, it must have surely been enough to obliterate his whole body and force Garovel to regrow him from scratch. Mere iron armor certainly hadn't protected him from that shit.

The clothes he'd been wearing were soaked in blood and flesh and even splintered bits of bone, but Zeff was there to jetwash and steam-press them for him.

They weren't in very good shape afterward, though. The Lord Elroy wasn't the most delicate launderer. Maybe they weren't supposed to be cleaned with water. And of course, the multiple fights with worms and the impact from the fall just now probably hadn't done them any favors, either. They were hardly even recognizable compared to when he'd first gotten them, which was only a week or so ago, back in Babbadelo.

Hector put the rags on anyway. Evangelina Stroud probably wouldn't be very pleased if she saw what had become of her gifts, but oh well. At least they covered his balls. And his cooling-variant armor would cover the rest of him.

The first chamber that they found themselves in was an expectedly dark one. They still had their lamplights from before, but Hector discovered that his had broken during the fall. So had Manuel's, apparently, though Diego's and Zeff's lights were both fine.

Ah. They'd probably strengthened theirs with their souls, Hector figured. He wished he would've thought to at least try that with his own lamp, even if his soul wasn't yet strong enough to have actually protected it. Would've made for a good test, at least.

Oh well. He didn't even need it anymore, now that he had the Scarf. When he concentrated, he could sense the exact shape of the pitch black room they were in. It was bulbous, though also a bit lumpy and uneven in places. There were only two ways out. One was a large corridor to Hector's right, and the other was the hole above everyone's head--the Warrenhole, as it were.

He still wasn't sure how he felt about that name.

The group made their way to the right and continued onward. They tried to maintain a brisk pace, but Hector could see the hesitation in everyone's movements, too. The footing here was rocky, and their last adventure in the Undercrust was likely still fresh enough in everyone's mind to cause them due concern for what they might encounter next.

As they moved, the corridor began to widen and grow taller, until it was nearly as spacious as a basketball stadium. Eventually, however, they came upon an equally enormous blockage. Truck-sized boulders filled the entirety of the passageway, and it was so dense and deep that Hector couldn't sense any air flowing through it.

"Well, this is quite the setback," said Diego, rapping his knuckles against one of the largest rocks. "How long's it gonna take to get through here, do you think?"

Hector could already see Zeff stretching his arms.

'It won't do to be reckless here,' said Garovel aloud. 'Cave-ins like this are a frequent occurrence in the Undercrust for a reason. If we're not careful, we could end up causing another one, which would only serve to prolong things even more.'

"I am aware," said the Lord Elroy. He looked over at Hector, then at Diego and Manuel. "Hector and I will take care of this. You two give us some space to work."

Diego's brow rose. "I can help."

"Get some rest," Zeff said. "You look like you could use it."

"I look like I could use it?" said Diego. "You haven't looked in a mirror lately, have you?"

"I feel fine," said Zeff, firmer now. "Rest. Or meditate, if you prefer. But keep your distance."

Deigo shrugged. "Alright, whatever you say. Let's go, Mannie."

"Please do not call me that," said Manuel.

And they and their reapers ventured off.

Zeff eyed Axiolis and Garovel as well. "You two should probably keep your distance as well."

'Is what you're going to do really that dangerous?' said Garovel.

"Only if it goes awry," said Zeff, eyeing Hector again.

'Try to be careful, then,' said Axiolis, and he moved to leave.

Garovel, however, did not. He remained exactly where he was by Hector's side.

Zeff stared at the reaper, waiting.

Hector could feel the silence growing uncomfortable. 'Garovel...'

Rather than responding to him in private, the reaper just came right out and said it to Zeff's face. 'I'd rather not leave my servant alone with you.'

Zeff met the reaper's gaze. "Why not?"

'Because you haven't been treating him very well, lately, and it annoys me.'

Zeff made no response.

Before the tense silence had an opportunity to return, Hector decided to intervene. "Garovel, please. It's fine. Just--I'm sure there're a lot of things you want to talk to Axiolis about, aren't there?"

Garovel's looked at Hector, and his skeletal face twisted somewhat. He didn't say anything, though.

'Garovel,' Hector tried again, more firmly this time. 'I'll be fine.'

After another silent moment, the reaper seemed to relent and said nothing more as he floated off to join Axiolis.

"I see that I have not endeared myself to your reaper," said Zeff after they were alone.

"He's just... protective of me, I guess."

"Indeed. And that is an admirable quality. But you should be careful not to allow his protectiveness to become an obstacle to your progress. That would be bad for both of you."

"I... don't think I need to worry about that. Garovel likes to get me involved in crazy shit pretty frequently, too."

"All the more reason to keep up with training, then."

"Oh, believe me, I know."

Zeff turned toward the wall of rocks and cracked his knuckles. "Let us stop dawdling, then. How is your precision crafting coming along?"

An odd and rather vague question, Hector felt. "Uh... okay, I guess? What do you mean, exactly?"

"Can you materialize drills yet?"

"Ah--I don't know. I haven't really tried."

"They require careful and continual application of very powerful velocity states. I will demonstrate, and then you--"

Sensing that this could become a rather long conversation, Hector felt he should finally tell Zeff what he had been meaning to. "Ah--uh, b-before we get into that, there's something I should tell you."

Zeff dropped his hands to his sides. "Go on, then."

He took a moment to consider how to phrase his next words. "...I have reason to believe that Asad and the others are currently being held prisoner by someone."

Zeff's face flashed with anger. "What?! How would you know that?!"

"I... spoke to Rasalased again after... uh... well, just before we got back to the surface. And he said that Asad was being held prisoner. By a "lost sheep," whatever that means. That was all he told me, though."

Zeff shut his eyes, scratched his brow, and breathed slowly and deeply. "Rasalased. I see. Frankly, I wasn't certain I believed that you had ever spoken to him in the first place, but now, I suppose I do." The man sighed with irritation. Then he opened his eyes again and glowered. "Why are you only telling me this now? Why not immediately after we returned to the surface?"

Hector didn't much care for the look the man was giving him. It reminded him of their staring contest on the train. "I didn't want you to worry any more than you already were. It wouldn't have helped anything."

"I would have gotten us to your Warrenhold much more quickly than you did. That would have helped quite a bit."

"Not if someone snapped a picture of your ice flying through the sky."

Zeff scoffed. "Unlikely. It was dark."

"It wasn't worth the risk. The whole point of going to Warrenhold is so that you guys can lay low there. We can't jeopardize that just to save a few extra minutes."

"Hmph. That was not your decision to make."

"Yes, it was. I'm not going to let what happened at Dunehall happen at Warrenhold, too."

Zeff glared at him but made no response.

"The reason I'm telling you now is because I thought if you have a faster way of getting us through this blockage, then you should just do it. Don't waste time training me. Even though I--uh... ah, even though I appreciate the thought and... er..."

Zeff raised an eyebrow in the middle of his scowl, but he still wasn't saying anything.

Hector had lost his momentum, though. Maybe it was a mistake to try to express his gratitude at that particular moment.

Shit.

Zeff's displeasure seemed to diminish, however. "Fine. No training, then. Observe closely and try to pick up what you can. And provide structural support."

Hector wasn't sure what he meant. "Structural support?"

Zeff turned toward the blockage again. "Your iron is much more suitable to construction in this environment. Even if I soul-strengthen my ice, it will eventually melt after we leave the area."

Ah. Hector felt like he understood, but Zeff didn't wait for him to say so.

The Lord Elroy raised both hands in front of him and then pressed them against the rock. Jets of water materialized all around the man. They were small but so numerous that Hector almost mistook them for a single archway. They disappeared into the rock, leaving a visible cut behind, and after a moment, Zeff stepped back from the rock so that ice could push out a huge chunk of freshly carved stone.

And just like that, there was a tunnel, though it had not reached all the way through the other side. With the Scarf of Amordiin, Hector quickly came to understand its current, dead-ended shape.

"Support," reiterated Zeff as he proceeded in to the tunnel.

Hector knew exactly what he was referring to. He could sense the instability in the rocks. There were cracks everywhere among the gigantic boulders and tiny pebbles. The slightest shift could collapse this tunnel in an instant.

He materialized an iron lining for it, and then added extra layers to it, as well as support beams. Maybe he overdid it a little bit, as the tunnel become much more narrow, with hardly even enough space for two people to walk side by side, but it was better to overdo it than to underdo it, Hector figured. The most important thing was to make sure all the weight over their heads stayed exactly where it was.

Zeff kept digging with his water drills just as he had been, though the narrowed tunnel proved a bit challenging in extricating each new chunk of rock from the blockage. He ultimately decided to just dice up the removed stone so that it could be shoved back through passageway without much concern.

It was taking quite a bit longer than either of them had expected, and even after a solid thirty minutes of working, they were still not through to the other side.

"...How far does this blockage go?" said Hector, beginning to wonder if they were even close to the end yet, because he still couldn't sense any air flowing all the way through it yet.

"No telling," said Zeff, though he sounded about as exasperated as Hector felt. "This is the Undercrust. This cave-in could be a mile long, for all we know."

"Agh..."

"I'm going to try going even faster. Match my pace."

"...Okay."

Soon enough, they found a good rhythm. Hector paid close attention to all of Zeff's movements, making sure to leave space for the man to work for as long as he needed it before filling that space in with iron and pushing onward. He also took over extracting the diced rock from the tunnel so that Zeff could focus entirely on the cutting. Working in unison, they were able to nearly double their tunneling speed.

Yet, even after another half-hour, Hector still could not sense the other side.

At length, Axiolis and Garovel came to check on them. Before the reapers got too close, they asked if it was safe, and Zeff told them it was.

Hector and Zeff didn't slacken their pace at all.

'I suppose this is one more reason why Warrenhold isn't more well-known,' said Garovel privately.

'What do you mean?' said Hector.

'I've mentioned this before, but holes to the Undercrust are preciously rare and have historically been highly sought after. Even with Warrenhold's bad reputation, I thought it was strange that it would have been abandoned. But this blockage here must have been helping to keep it a secret all these years.'

Hector was reminded of something he'd been wondering about for a while now. 'Ah... do you know where these holes came from?'

'No, I do not,' the reaper said flatly.

Hector expected some sort of quip or annoyed sass about not knowing something. But it didn't arrive. So Hector decided to push a little. '...Really? You don't even have any theories?'

'Oh, there are loads of theories regarding their origins,' said Garovel. 'Personally, I'm a believer of the Ancient Drillers Theory.'

'Is that what it sounds like?'

'That people drilled the holes in ancient times? Yeah, pretty much. It's not much of a theory, admittedly, but it does seem the most plausible explanation to me--certainly more so than the Megavolcanoes Theory.'

'Megavolcanoes?'

'Basically, it's the theory that the holes are perfectly natural and simply the result of volcanic activity from long before humankind evolved on the planet.'

'Hmm.'

'The reason that makes no sense, by the way, is because of the way the holes are shaped. They're very even and go straight down. If they were truly natural formations, then they would have a much more irregular path.'

Hector had to agree. 'Yeah. They've gotta be manmade. And couldn't they have just been made by destruction users?'

'Yeah. Who those destruction users were, however, remains a mystery. I've heard it said that the holes predate reapers, which would also mean that they predate destruction users, but I don't know if I believe that.'

A beat passed as Hector thought about that. 'You only "don't know" if you believe it? I'd have thought you would tell me it was total horseshit or something.'

'Well, according to the data, it's a bit foggy. The holes are supposedly as old as five thousand years, give or take a few centuries. But the very first reapers supposedly began to appear around that same time, too. So it's hard to tell either way.'

'Seems like a hell of a coincidence.'

'No kidding.'

'I can't even imagine what that must have been like. Being the first reaper, I mean.'

'Confounding beyond belief, I'm sure. When I became a reaper, I'd at least had a conception that it could happen and what it might be like. But being one of the first ones? Waking up after your death and then having to figure all this shit out with no guidance to speak of? I don't think I would have handled that very well.'

'Do you know who the oldest reaper was?'

'No. The oldest one I've ever known was a guy by the name of Heloxos. I met him right after I became a reaper, and he was already over a thousand years old at that point.'

'Wow. Is he still around?'

'No. He was killed by his own servant about a hundred years later.'

'Why?'

'Never found out. I knew they hadn't been getting along, but learning the exact reason was impossible once the deed was done.'

That made sense, Hector supposed.

'The oldest still-living reaper I've ever met is actually Axiolis here.'

Hector blinked and glanced over at Axiolis, who was hovering over Zeff's shoulder. 'Seriously?'

'He said he's over four thousand years old, and I'm inclined to believe him.'

'Holy shit...'

'Yeah. I don't encounter many reapers older than myself anymore.'

Another question occurred to Hector. 'By the way, uh... why do you--I mean, er, why do you guys all have such weird names?'

'Excuse me?'

'It's just, uh. Y'know. Garovel isn't exactly a normal name...'

'When I was alive, it was.'

'Yeah, but you just said that most reapers aren't as old as you,' said Hector. 'But every reaper I've met so far has a weird name like yours.'

'Ah. You're wondering why you haven't encountered a reaper with the name "Jeff" or "Bill" yet?'

'More or less, yeah.'

'A few of those exist. The main issue, though, is that it's just very rare to meet a reaper who was born less than five hundred years ago.'

'What about Bohwanox? Wasn't he pretty young? Compared to you, at least?'

'Yeah. He was a curious one. Having a name like that but not the age to go with it is definitely odd. But I suspect it means that, rather than being old himself, Bohwanox was born in an "old place," so to speak.'

'What do you mean?'

'He was probably born in one of the very few reaper enclaves in the world.'

Hector wanted to ask more about that, but he couldn't formulate a coherent question before Garovel kept talking.

'Places like that are EXTREMELY traditional. And very wary of outsiders. So much so, in fact, that I can't even tell you where one of them is right now. I used to know, but they moved, as they often do. They tend to believe that a nomadic lifestyle is the easiest way to keep themselves hidden in the long-term. And they might be right.'

'...Why do they want to hide themselves?'

'Because there are a lot of dangerous people who would probably like to get their hands on a "reaper breeding ground," as it were.'

'Hmm.'

'And you think Bohwanox was one of those reapers?'

'Probably. No idea why he would have left his community, though. Boredom, maybe. He didn't seem like he had anything in particular that he was trying to accomplish, outside of just reaping souls. Ah, maybe it was a sense of duty that drove him out into the world.'

It sounded like Garovel had more to say, but abruptly, Hector could sense a new air flow through the rock ahead of them.

"We're almost to the other side," said Hector.

Zeff stopped, but only briefly. His pace seemed to increase even more, though Hector wouldn't have thought that even possible a few moments ago.

Sure enough, the last chunk of rock slid free, and rather than pushing it all the way back through the tunnel, Zeff shoved it forward and outward.

Finally, their digging had reached its end, and Hector completed the last bit of the tunnel while Zeff stepped out to shine his lamplight around.

It was an absolutely gargantuan chamber that awaited them. Even with the Scarf's help, the ceiling and walls were too distant for Hector to sense them.

'Which direction is Capaporo from here?' said Axiolis.

Garovel floated forward, ahead of the group, and Hector moved to catch up with him. '...To be completely frank with you, I am not entirely sure.'

"What?" Zeff did not sound pleased.

Garovel sighed. 'This was why I had Hector write that letter to Roman. His reaper knows the route better than I do. I only know that Capaporo is close.'

'I see,' said Axiolis. 'And it would appear we have a branching pathway in front of us now.'

Indeed, the Lord Elroy's lamplight was revealing as much in the distance, even though the Scarf wasn't. There were tall divides in the rock, poking out from the ocean of blackness in front of them.

"What should we do?" said Hector.

'First, let us have the others rejoin us here,' said Axiolis.

Zeff didn't wait for anyone else to volunteer. He shot back toward the tunnel on a stream of materialized water and burst through the open passageway, leaving an evaporating trail in his wake.

"...I hope he doesn't break any of those support beams I put up," said Hector.

'I am sure he will be careful,' said Axiolis.

Hector wished he had the reaper's confidence.

'Shall we brainstorm while we wait?' said Garovel.

'Yes. I am thinking that we may need to split up and check the various paths independently.'

'I'd say that depends on how many paths there are. It's hard to tell in all this darkness.'

Hector began to walk. The reapers were as clear as day against the black surrounding them, but of course, despite appearances, their ethereal glow emitted no actual light for him to rely upon. He only had the Scarf to go by, but the chamber was so ridiculously spacious that it wasn't terrifically useful.

'Hector,' said Axiolis. 'Will you please make some light for us?'

Uh.

Hector didn't know what--

Oh. Wait. Of course.

He raised a tower of iron, adding enough heat to it to make it glow orange. He'd wanted to make it white hot, as that would've been brightest, but he supposed his application of heat had been too weak for such a large volume of mass. It served well enough, though, and illuminated the room dimly but satisfactorily.

'Four paths,' said Garovel. 'Five, if we're counting the way we came from.'

'One path for each servant, then.'

'Looks that way.'

Soon enough, Zeff returned with the others, and they began to formulate their next move in more detail. The reapers would remain in this area while the servants scouted ahead and reported back. Then the reapers could act as a kind of a communication hub, sharing information with one another and relaying it all to their respective servants instantaneously.

There was a minor problem with Manuel Delaguna, however. Just like Hector, the man had lost his lamplight in the fall, and so he would have difficulty trying to navigate one of the paths on his own. Apparently, he didn't think that his argon materialization ability would help him in that regard.

'...Maybe I should lend him the Scarf,' thought Hector.

'Absolutely not,' said Garovel privately. 'You're not lending that thing to anyone, you hear me? You're not gonna explain what it does to anyone, either.'

Hector could understand the reaper's concern, but at the same time, Manuel was an ally in need, and if Hector was in a position to do something about it... But then again, there was no telling if the Scarf would even help Manuel that much. This cave system was way too huge, and the Scarf's sensory range wasn't even enough for this one chamber that they were all standing in.

Thankfully, Diego intervened with an apparent solution. He handed his lamplight to Manuel. "Here," he said with a sigh.

Manuel took it hesitantly. "Thank you, but... are you sure?"

Diego nodded glumly. "Yeah. Technically, I don't need it." He held up a hand and ignited his own flesh. His face went taught, and his clenched jawline became painfully visible.

Yangéra hovered forward and grabbed the man's shoulder.

Diego's expression relaxed again, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Whew. This is gonna sting in the morning."

'Sooner than that if you don't return to me within half an hour,' said Yangéra.

"Right."

Manuel gave a grateful nod. "Thank you very much, Lord Diego."

"No sweat. Well. Okay, maybe a little sweat." He doused his hand, and its distorted and charred flesh began to regenerate. "How 'bout you come up with a good nickname for me, and we'll call it even?"

Manuel smiled. "I'm glad you brought that up, because I already have."

"Oh yeah?" said Diego. "Go on, then. Hit me with it."

Manuel pointed at Zeff first. "The Dragon of the Rain." Then he pointed at Hector. "Darksteel Wormsbane." Then at Diego. "And the Red Hunter."

Hector's face scrunched up inside his helmet.

"Huh," said Diego, rubbing his chin. "Red Hunter, eh? Yeah. I like that. Good job, Mannie."

"If you keep calling me that, I will make sure you are never known as the Red Hunter."

"Alright. Geez. Manuel it is, then."

Manuel turned to Zeff. "And you? What do you think of yours? I think the Dragon of the Rain has a much nicer ring to it than simply the Water Dragon, don't you? And it's much more in-tune with the Lion of the Desert, don't you think?"

Zeff's face might as well have been stone. "I could not possibly care less."

Manuel bit his lip. "Oh. I see..." After another moment, he rounded on Hector. "And what of you? Do you like the name I came up with?"

"Uh..." Hector figured he probably shouldn't lie to the man. "I... don't, actually."

Manuel looked incredulous. "What? Why? What is wrong with it?"

"Sorry, I just--uh--" How was he supposed to explain this, he wondered? "Er--I... I just don't really wanna be called Wormsbane..."

"Why not? You don't think it suits you? It was such an incredible feat! We were all amazed when we watched you fell that monster single-handedly!"

Oh shit, not compliments. He couldn't handle those. And wait, they were all watching? "Um, th-thanks, but, uh--" Hector could feel himself beginning to panic. He didn't want to be rude, but he also really didn't like that name. In desperation, he pointed at Zeff. "It would suit him way better, wouldn't it? I mean, I only killed one worm. He killed like five or something, right?"

Manuel stopped. "I suppose that's true..." He looked at the Lord Elroy. "Perhaps you would--"

"ENOUGH." Zeff turned and began walking away. "Are you men? Or are you children? Everyone is waiting. Stop wasting time."

That seemed to kill the conversation quite thoroughly and without mercy. Probably because Zeff was one hundred percent right, Hector thought. The three remaining servants all exchanged last looks with one another before going their separate ways in silence.

Hector ended up taking the rightmost path. He raised pillars of red-hot iron in order to illuminate everything, but there wasn't much to see. Just an enormous and rocky corridor, one which only seemed to grow taller and wider as he went.

Soon enough, he increased his pace to a steady run. The clinking of his armor seemed louder than ever before, probably because of the echoes, so he tried to stop occasionally and just listen, in case there were any noises he hadn't been hearing.

'Find anything?' came Garovel's echoing voice after a while.

'Just a bunch of rocks,' said Hector.

'Thrilling.'

'Hey, I don't mind. I could do with a few LESS thrills in my life, actually.'

'Mm, is that really true? Or are you just saying that to complain? Not that I'd fault you for that, by the way. Complaining is fun. I'm an aficionado of complaining myself, in case you haven't noticed.'

'I have.'

'Heh. That doesn't answer my question, though. Do you really wish that your life had fewer thrills? Because I'm pretty sure you love this shit as much as I do, if not more.'

'What? No. I love helping people stay safe, sure. That's, uh... that's like, what I live for, I guess. But--er--I don't love meeting fuckin'... gods or whatever they are. And I definitely don't love getting trapped in a room with some sort of... hellish abomination.'

'Yeah, okay, I could've done without that, too. But at the same time, I'm kinda glad it happened.'

'Seriously?'

'Oh yeah. We learned a lot in Himmekel, y'know.'

'That's... true, I guess.'

'Also, you accidentally brought up an interesting point, just now.'

'I did?'

'About worms being hellish abominations, that is.'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean, ARE they?'

'Well. Uh...' He realized what the reaper was getting at. After the ensuing fight, he'd nearly forgotten, but now he remembered. 'Hmm.'

'The worm you killed was born from a Hun'Sho core.'

'Right...'

'That was certainly new information to me. I did not know that Hun'Sho could transform into monsters like that.'

'Do you think... do you think all worms used to be Hun'Sho?'

'No. Remember the eggs we found in Babbadelo?'

'Oh, yeah. But, uh, we never actually saw those eggs, did we? They were in those vacuum-sealed boxes the whole time.'

'Okay, that's true, but I'VE seen worm eggs before. I know they exist.'

'Have you seen worms actually being born from them, though? Or, uh, what if there's a Hun'Sho core inside of every worm egg or something?'

'Alright, well, that... would be horrifying. But I still don't believe all worms come from Hun'Sho. Just, historically, it wouldn't make much sense. There've been SO many worms. I don't think the Hun'Sho ever had those kind of numbers, even at the peak of their civilization.'

'Hmm.'

'It seems clear to me that worms have some means of reproduction on their own. However, I'm now tempted to believe that worms as we know them today might have ORIGINATED from the Hun'Sho. And that's a pretty horrifying thought, too.'

'How old are the Hun'Sho?'

'Oh, they're old as fuck. Older than me, even.'

'Older than all reapers?'

'That, I don't know. I don't think so, though. It's a subject I've looked into several times before, but recordkeeping in those days was far from ideal, to put it mildly.'

'I wonder if Axiolis would know. He's older than you, right?'

'Alright, I'll ask him. Hang on a second.'

Hector waited. The empty corridor just kept going. At this rate, he was beginning to hope that he would be the one to find Capaporo just so that he wouldn't have to make the trek all the way back to everyone.

'Hmm,' said Garovel. 'Axiolis says reapers came first.'

'Oh, well, there you go.'

'I don't know if I believe him, though.'

'What? Why?'

'Because I don't like that he knows more stuff than me. And if it's bullshit, then that means he DOESN'T know more than me.'

Hector might've chuckled if he wasn't regulating his breath so much as he ran. 'You're an inspiration for education everywhere, Garovel.'

'Thanks, buddy.'

'But, uh... since we're talking about the Hun'Sho, um... I'm worried about Himmekel. What do you think'll happen to them?'

Garovel was silent a moment. 'Difficult to say. But we can't do anything for them now. We're way too far away. And even if we weren't, we're probably too late.'

Hector frowned to himself.

'On the bright side, though, we don't have any reason to think that Royo and Malast will harm them.'

Hector wasn't so sure about that. 'Well... he did say that he was the one who derailed the train, which nearly killed us all.'

'Okay, so maybe we have a slight reason to think they might harm them.'

'Mm.'

'But the unpleasant truth of the matter is that if Royo intends to kill all of the Hun'Sho, then he probably already has. It's been several hours since he's presumably had free reign in Himmekel.'

Hector wished he could argue with that point.

'I honestly don't think he'll hurt them, though,' said Garovel. 'He seemed... diplomatic with us, there at the end. And the Hun'Sho would no doubt make for incredibly valuable allies, if he can manage to persuade them.'

'Hmm...'

'It's a shame we couldn't bring any of the Hun'Sho with us back to Warrenhold, actually. Even just one of them would have been great.'

'What the--? I thought you didn't trust them.'

'Oh, I don't. But they must know all sorts of good shit. Especially the older ones.'

'I'd rather not live with people we don't trust, Garovel. And besides, I feel like a Hun'Sho could very easily kill a non-servant, even just by accident.'

'Eh, I'm sure we could figure something out. Keep 'em segregated from all the normies, maybe.'

'Now you're making it sound like we'd be keeping the Hun'Sho prisoner.'

'Maybe we would be.'

'Garovel.'

'What? They're sneaky and barely even human.'

'...I can't tell if you're joking or not.'

'I just mean that if one or more of them happened to do something criminal, then that would justify us keeping them prisoner.'

Hector wasn't sure how to respond to that.

'And hey, I'm three thousand years old. I'm entitled to be a little racist, aren't I?'

'Wow, Garovel.'

'Okay, that one was a joke, just so we're clear.'

'Was it, though?'

'Oh, don't even start. I'm very tolerant of other cultures and ethnicities, I'll have you know.'

'Uh-huh...'

'Like with you, for instance. I decided to take you on as a servant, even though I don't much care for the blacks.'

Hector coughed up a laugh so suddenly that he nearly tripped and so had to stop running. He doubled over and lost control of his cooling armor as he kept cracking up.

'I'd say that's pretty tolerant,' said Garovel, 'wouldn't you?'

When he felt the heat of the Undercrust creeping into his armor, he managed to get hold of himself and fix his armor. 'Holy shit, Garovel.' He started running again, seeing that there was still no sign of Capaporo or anything else around. 'You almost made me fall on my face, just now.'

The reaper laughed.

It was a relief to hear Garovel joking around again, Hector felt. After what the reaper had told him about his past earlier, Hector was glad to hear him sounding like himself again. 'Has anybody else found anything yet?'

'Nope.'

'Ugh.'

'Don't worry. Capaporo has to be close. Voreese said so. She wouldn't lie. And if she did, well, that's great, too, because then I'll get to give her SO much shit about it later.'

'Somehow, that doesn't alleviate my worries.'

'Mm. Sounds like your problem.'

'How close is close, anyway? Isn't that kind of a vague term?'

'I'm sure we'll find it sometime within the next twenty-four hours.'

'Aw, shit...'

'Hey, at least you're not Diego. I'm sure he's gonna be feeling miserable, soon.'

Hector sympathized. He wasn't entirely without pain himself, at the moment, as his own numbing had worn off already. He'd more or less gotten used to this level of bodily discomfort, so it wasn't hindering him too terribly. It only felt like he had three or four broken ribs and maybe a few gunshot wounds here and there. It probably wasn't nearly as bad as what transfiguration users had to deal with. That shit looked like it hurt.

'Maybe I should've let Manuel borrow the Scarf, after all.'

'No, Hector. I feel bad for Diego, too, but the Scarf is probably your greatest secret, right now. The fewer people that understand how it works, the better.'

'I guess so...'

'And besides, he's not wearing armor, so it wouldn't look nearly as good on him.'

Hector didn't respond, but he couldn't help smirking, either.

'By the way, have you talked to Emiliana again since we got back?'

'Oh. Uh. No, I haven't...'

'Presumably, you told her that you were in the middle of fighting the last time you spoke, right?'

'Y-yeah...'

'Maybe you should tell her you didn't get eaten.'

'Ah... I mean... I'd kinda prefer to wait until I know Marcos and Ramira are safe.'

'Why? Just tell her you're alright real quick. It's not that hard, is it?'

'Er, she's, uh... she's not the easiest person in the world to talk to...'

'You mean because she's a girl, and you're you?'

'Actually, no, that's not it. It's more because she's just, uh... well, I don't know if she and I are going to get along very well...'

'...Are you serious? The two of you are fighting?

'N-not exactly. I don't know.'

'Hmm. Well, even so, she must be worried about you.'

'I don't know about that. If she was really worried, she could use her Shard to call out to me, and I would hear her. But I'm not, so...'

'Oh, don't be a fuckin' baby. Just tell her you're alright real quick. It'll take two seconds.'

'I...' He supposed Garovel was right. 'Alright, fine. Gimme a minute.' He reached inside his armor for the Shard and then called out to her with his mind.

It wasn't long before she answered. 'Hector?'

'Hi.'

'It is a relief to hear from you again,' she said. 'Allow me to apologize again for laughing at you before. That was inappropriate.'

'Oh, uh... don't worry about it. And, er, I'm sorry for saying that I hoped Gohvis eats you.'

'I did not think you were being serious when you said that.'

'I wasn't.'

'Good. I am glad I did not misunderstand.'

An awkward silence arrived, which Hector felt like he should've seen coming. Why was this girl so difficult to talk to? Was it his own fault?

Probably, Hector figured. He just wished he knew what to do about it.

'Do you still need me to continue researching worms?' said Emiliana. 'Or is that crisis well and truly over now?'

She really didn't talk like any fourteen-year-olds that Hector had known back when he was that age. Which wasn't even all that long ago, really, even though it felt like it was. 'That, uh--that's over now, yeah. Thanks for your help, by the way.'

'Oh, was my information actually useful? I was under the impression that it had all been in vain.'

'Uh... only mostly in vain.'

'I... see. I think.'

'The bit about killing worms by destroying ninety percent of their body mass--that was sort of helpful.' Maybe. He was trying to be generous.

'Ah. Then, do you have a new subject for me to research?'

He hadn't even thought about that, but there were definitely a ton of ideas springing to mind. 'Well, uh. I mean, if you're offering, then yeah, there are loads of things I'd like to know more about. None of them are immediately pressing, though. In fact, they're just things I'm generally curious about, I guess. Are you sure you don't have better things to do with your time?'

'Um... to be clear, I would appreciate it if you did not have me waste my time researching irrelevant subjects. I want to do whatever I can to help you and everyone else. I do not wish to become your private search engine for trivial questions.'

Hector bobbed his head to the side as he ran. 'I get that. I wasn't planning on asking you anything that I could just find out on the internet. But, uh... at the same time, everything's still kind of... in flux, right now. There's no way to know what information might prove useful in the future.'

'...Very well. What would you like me to look into?'

Off the top of his head, Hector already had a list in mind, though he was sure that he was forgetting some things. 'Ancient gods. Particularly in regard to ones named Malast or Ettol. There was also a woman who lived a long time ago named Stasya Orlov. I'd like to know more about her. And about a race of people called the Hun'Sho. And--'

'H-hold on, let me write some of these down...'

That thought made Hector stop running. 'Are you sure that's a good idea? What if someone finds what you write down?'

She paused. 'They... wouldn't be able to discern anything important from this list, would they?'

'That's the thing. I don't know. Would they?'

'I...' She didn't finish her thought.

'Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I think we need to be extremely careful with... whatever this is. Even if it's inconvenient for you, I don't think you should write down anything I tell you.'

'I suppose you are right,' said Emiliana. 'It is better to be safe than sorry.'

And as he thought about it more, Hector began to get a dreadful feeling of familiarity--a feeling that he very much wanted to heed. 'It might be best if we come up with some sort of code, too.'

'A code? Is that really necessary?'

'Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know. I'm just thinking that it would be good if we had an extra layer of... assurance, I guess. Assurance that you and I are really speaking to one another, I mean.'

'What are you talking about? You and I are the only ones who can use the Shards to communicate like this.'

'...As far as we know.' Hector started walking again, then gradually increased his pace. 'I admit that it's unlikely, but... I just... I've had really bad experiences with... a lack of precaution in the past. And I've also seen some really weird shit, lately. Like, people's minds being screwed around with. So...'

'People's minds? As in, mind control?'

'Not sure. Might just be memories getting erased. It's something to that effect, though, so yeah, maybe I'm being a little paranoid, but it's just... it's easy for me to imagine someone trying to use this... link of ours against us.'

'Hmm. But, Hector, I know that I am talking to you. I do not know HOW, exactly, but I can sense that it is YOU who is talking to me. Is it not the same for you?'

'N-no, it is. I do recognize your... "voice" or whatever, but... uh... this is all just guesswork on our part. What if our brains can be tricked into thinking that they're talking to someone else? I mean, I just... I don't have much faith in the human brain, right now.'

'Hmm...'

'And because we can't see each other, all we have to go on is this vague "feeling" of who we're talking to.'

'I see your point, but... if that is what you truly think, then how can you be certain at this very moment that I really am Emiliana Elroy and not some imposter?'

That actually gave Hector pause, though only for a second. 'Because you remembered what we last talked about,' he told her.

'Ah...'

'In fact... maybe that should be our code.'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean... from now on, whenever we start a new conversation with one another, we have to reference whatever we last talked about.'

'Hmm...'

'That way, if one of us doesn't do it, then the other will know that something's wrong.'

'...What if we simply forget?' said Emiliana.

'That... would be a problem,' admitted Hector. 'But, uh... it shouldn't be that hard to remember, should it? Especially if we talk regularly.'

'I suppose...'

'If you're really worried about it, then tell Chergoa something that we said and have her remember it for you.'

'That might work... but this is all extremely hypothetical, isn't it? And if a hypothetical foe could use the Shards to trick us in such a way, what makes you think they would not be able to get around this strategy, too?'

'I... uh...' Eesh, what a question. 'Look, I'm not saying this idea will make us invincible. But it's one more layer of security that an enemy would have to overcome. And it's not too much extra hassle for us, so what's the downside, exactly?'

'I see your point.'

'And maybe we should come up with a backup code, too, in case that fails somehow...'

She sighed. 'This is getting rather tedious, Hector...'

Yeah, okay, maybe that was too much for now, Hector figured. 'Sorry. I just. Ah... well, we can worry about a backup code later, I guess.'

Emiliana made no response.

'How is Chergoa, by the way?' said Hector. 'Garovel doesn't really let it show, but I'm pretty sure he's worried about her.'

'She is... her usual insufferable self.'

'That's... good?'

'Yes. She doesn't seem to mind Gohvis' company very much at all. She may even like him. I cannot tell if she is putting on an act and trying to trick him in some way.'

Hector's brow rose. 'She LIKES Gohvis?'

'Seemingly. Gohvis is rather... curious, in his own way. It may be impossible to describe without making you think I have gone crazy.'

'...I don't know about that,' said Hector. 'I think I've probably got you beat when it comes to seeing crazy shit.'

'Ha. Perhaps I--'

There came a pause, and Hector slowed his run down to a walk again as he waited for her continue.

'...I have to go,' she said.

And before he could even tell her goodbye, he sensed her let go of her Shard.

Well, that was worrying.