93 XCIII. | 'The code of the shield...'

Hector sat quietly in the unlit guest chamber. Lynn and Prince Meriwether were both asleep. Hector had volunteered to stay up and keep watch since he didn't require sleep as much as Lynn did. She agreed, as long as he woke her up early so that he could get some rest in the morning.

It had been an eventful evening. He'd watched the entirety of Lord Asad's discussion with the other Sandlords. Garovel had been kind enough to translate what they were saying into Mohssian for him. By the end, it was quite clear that Lord Asad had been unable to convince them of anything.

After that, Axiolis introduced them to Asad and Qorvass, who were both much more courteous than Asad's brother, but once the pleasantries concluded, the conversation still proved itself considerably more troubling than the one with Haqq.

"We are going to Rheinhal," Asad had said quite fluently in Mohssian. "Abbas and the others have chosen not to help, but I cannot remain idle."

'You are welcome to come with us,' said Qorvass. 'Any friend of the Elroys is a friend of ours.'

That was the part that had stuck with Hector. These people were ready to trust him despite knowing nothing about him other than that he was Garovel's servant. Apparently, that was the only thing that mattered. It was easy to forget, sometimes, that Garovel wasn't just his friend but also his greatest connection to the world. And it was more than just how Garovel was keeping him alive physically; Hector hadn't forgotten that it had also been Garovel's connection with Mehlsanz that had allowed him to work with Lynn and the Queen so easily. And now, again.

He supposed it was only natural that Garovel would have ties to a shitload of people, but even still, he certainly hadn't been expecting a sister.

'I would've told you about Chergoa eventually,' Garovel said privately. 'We just hadn't gotten around to that conversation yet.'

'Uh-huh...'

'Look, I haven't seen her in... uh... I'm actually not sure how long it's been. Four hundred years, maybe.'

'Four hundred?!'

'Possibly five. Time is such a blur.'

'What the hell? Why so long? Did you have a falling out or something?'

'If by "falling out" you mean I was being kind of a dick to her, then yes. That is exactly what happened.'

'Ah... w-what'd you do wrong?'

'Well. Um. When you spend as much time with someone as I've spent with Chergoa, it becomes pretty easy to get on each other's nerves. And we're siblings, so that just made it worse. Even when we agreed on something, we'd still find a way to argue about it.'

'...This sounds an awful lot like an excuse, Garovel.'

'Oh, no, I fucked up. I'm getting to that part. Don't worry. I'm just giving you a bit of context.'

Hector smiled faintly in the darkness. 'Okay...'

'You have to understand, Chergoa and I have known each other for thousands of years. Just think about that for a moment. We have one of the oldest relationships in the world. Even among reapers, few have known each other THAT long. So to try to sum up our relationship in a concise way is just... it's basically impossible.'

'The two of you have seen some shit.'

'...Yes, Hector. Eloquently put, thank you.'

'Sure thing.'

'The point is, Chergoa and I have often taken long breaks from one another. We've spent entire lifetimes apart and thought little of it when we saw each other again.'

Hector could hardly imagine it, seeing someone again after seventy years and feeling as if that was normal.

'There's also the fact that it's very difficult to stay in touch with other reapers, just in general,' Garovel went on. 'We tend to wander, especially when we don't have servants keeping us in one place. When you don't make plans to meet up again, it becomes very difficult to do so. And since Chergoa and I parted on less than amiable terms, we never made those plans. And from there, we just lost track of each other.'

'So... it's not that you've been avoiding each other for four hundred years. You just haven't crossed paths.'

'Yeah. I'm sure she's forgiven me by now. Or at least stopped caring.'

'...You still haven't told me what you did wrong.'

Garovel paused a moment. 'She and her servant at the time had just opened an orphanage in this really isolated place. I felt that she should move everyone to a city where the kids could be better taken care of--or in other words, where someone else could look after them. She did not agree. She believed--quite correctly, as I would later find out--that the nearby towns were too dangerous; and moreover, she wanted to raise the children personally. I thought that was a job best left to normal people.'

'Hmm. That doesn't sound too bad, though. I mean... er, I can kinda see your point.'

'Yeah, but the problem was, I had an overabundance of moral certainty about it. I specifically remember saying to her, "You're wasting your time. Rather than taking care of these kids, you should be trying to make sure that this war doesn't make orphans of any others."'

Hector's brow receded a little. 'Geez...'

'I know, right?'

'That doesn't seem like something you'd ever say. Usually, you're more... uh... kind of, er... I'm not sure "cynical" is the right word...'

'Practical?'

'Yeah. You're practical. And that seemed like a pretty naive thing to say.'

'Wow. Getting called naive by a teenager. That stings.'

'Am I wrong?'

'No, you're right. It was stupid to think that Chergoa's servant could impact the war in such a way as to prevent any more children from being affected by it. But at the time, I really wanted to believe that.'

'Why?'

Garovel hesitated again. 'Well, that's another story. But I suppose it's one I should tell you.'

Hector waited.

'I had just recently released my servant of the previous sixty years. And not because my servant wanted me to.'

He blinked. 'What do you mean?'

Garovel floated away from him and stopped in the middle of the room. 'It's still a bit early for this conversation, but oh well.' He turned around to face his servant again. 'Hector, I want you to listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you. You may not like what you hear, but I hope you will never forget it, because it is one of the most important things I am ever going to say. And I will try to explain why that is.'

Hector shifted in his chair. 'Uh--okay. I-I'm listening...'

'There's something that happens to people when they acquire power,' the reaper said. 'It's not that it corrupts them, necessarily, but it can definitely change them. Whether it's political power or physical power, the result is essentially the same. Power of any kind grants you influence and control over others. And as you gain more power, more influence in the world, you become increasingly susceptible to that change. So for servants, that change is almost inevitable, because your power is constantly growing.'

'Are you saying... your servant abused their power?'

'In a word, yes. He started extorting innocent people. Said he could put their money to better use than they could. I think he saw it as a kind of "greater good" tax, like he viewed himself as some sort of governing figure when he'd really just become a thug.'

'Wow... and you couldn't just tell him to stop? Didn't he understand that he had to listen to you? I mean... we're called "servants" for a reason, right?'

'Yeah, about that... Maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but you'd probably realize it on your own eventually. And I trust you, I guess. See, when servants grow powerful enough, they can prevent their reapers from releasing their souls.'

Hector tilted his head. 'What? How?'

'It's pretty simple, actually. The reaper has to make contact with the servant's body in order to release the soul. So the servant can just keep the reaper in a soul-empowered prison and never allow themself to be touched.'

'Oh...'

'It's an extreme solution. If you can't make contact with your reaper, then you lose access to your regenerative power, enhanced strength, and hyper states. And obviously, if you get killed, then your reaper probably won't feel like resurrecting you again.'

'No kidding...'

'Also, you'd have to worry about maintaining the prison. The soul power will drain from it over time, unless you have absurdly high synchronization with your reaper.'

'Are you... uh... I mean, did your servant do that to you?'

'Yeah,' said Garovel. 'He kept me prisoner for two years.'

'Geez...'

'Looking back on it now, two years wasn't very long at all. Only two out of thousands already lived. But it was one of the worst things I've ever experienced. Being trapped makes all the difference in the world, especially when you don't know if you'll ever make it out again.'

'Agh, man... But, uh.... how DID you get out? Did the guy screw up?'

'Partially. I tricked him. Another problem with imprisoning your reaper is that, guess what? They can still talk to you. In fact, unless you're keeping other people around their prison, you are the ONLY person they can talk to. So naturally, I began by just constantly talking shit to him. Trying to drive him to the breaking point so he'd do something stupid, right? That didn't work so well. Whenever I annoyed him enough, he'd just wound me to the point where I'd fall unconscious for a few days. Should've known that was a bad plan. He was a thug. Any problem he could solve with violence, he would. So instead, I very slowly convinced him to do one of the dumbest things I could think of. Reverse psychology. Being purposely vague. That sort of thing.'

'What'd you have him do?'

'I waltzed him into the territory of a famous member of Abolish. He thought there'd be treasure. There wasn't.'

Hector had to stifle a laugh. 'Wow, Garovel. I guess he deserved it, but holy shit...'

'That Abolisher went on to become even more famous afterwards. His name was Suresh, and he was considered Dozer's equal for a while.'

'Whoa...'

'Suresh is dead now, but his successor is still alive. Gohvis. Ever heard the name?'

'No...'

'The Monster of the East? The Black Scourge? Those are both him, too.'

Hector thought back. 'Actually... yeah, I've heard of the Black Scourge. When I was little. I thought it was like... a plague or something.'

'Nope. It's a guy.'

'Fuck...'

'Yeah. He's arguably even more famous than Dozer, his boss. Or so I hear. I've never met either of them personally, in case that wasn't obvious. Maybe everyone is wrong about them, and they're secretly super nice dudes.'

'Right... Hmm. Dozer has a country named after him, but why is Gohvis so famous?'

'Regicide. Genocide. And punching a hole into a volcano that then erupted and wiped out an entire Vanguardian stronghold.'

'...What.'

'That's just what I've heard,' said Garovel. 'Gohvis is famous for lots of things, but I don't know how much is true, if any. Still, I think it's pretty safe to say that he's someone we never want to meet.'

'But... punching a hole into a--I mean, like, with his FIST?'

'I guess so. Dunno.'

'That's ridiculous. I feel like I would've heard about someone doing something like that.'

'Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure it happened before television was invented. Might be newspapers about it, though. That'd be an interesting headline. But I'm not surprised you haven't heard about it. I don't think it's the type of thing they'd teach in school.'

'If they had, I probably would've paid more attention. That's awesome.'

Garovel's skeletal brow twisted somewhat. '...You did hear the part about genocide and him being a member of Abolish, right?'

'Oh, yeah... Fuck, man, why couldn't he be a good guy?'

Garovel laughed.

'Are there any cool stories about good guys doing insane shit like that?'

Still chuckling, the reaper said, 'I think we're getting a little off topic.'

'Are we? I forgot what we were talking about.'

'Wow, Hector.'

'Hey, it's late. I'm tired.'

'We were talking about my sister.'

'Right... uh...'

'Chergoa.'

'I knew that.'

Garovel shook his head. 'Anyway, like I was saying before, I treated Chergoa and her servant poorly. My most recent servant had betrayed me, so I was... upset. And unreasonable. We parted ways without making plans to meet up again, and now, apparently, I've found her in Sair all these years later. And I would quite like to see her again.'

'So you think we should go to Rheinhal with Lord Asad.'

'Yeah. If I don't see Chergoa now, it could be fucking ages before I get another opportunity to. But with that said, I won't force you to go. Because it DOES sound incredibly dangerous.'

Hector scratched his forehead. 'When does it not?'

'I'm serious, Hector. These warriors aren't like the ones we fought in Atreya. The Sandlords and the Rainlords are the real deal, and the Vanguard won't be taking them lightly. We'll almost assuredly encounter people both AT and ABOVE Harper's level. So don't just go with the flow on this one, alright? Understand what you'd be getting yourself into.'

The prospect gave him pause. More people like Harper? And stronger? Hector's face scrunched up a little as he thought about that. He was starting to miss Warrenhold right about now.

But regardless of how he felt about it, Hector was certain that they couldn't just leave after hearing about Chergoa. 'It's your sister, Garovel. We have to help her.'

'You sure? I definitely won't hold it against you if you'd rather stay out of it. Our involvement might not make much difference, anyway.'

'Well... uh... I don't know. Shit. Making the real decisions is your job. As long as we're working to protect people, I mean--I'm not... I... agh, y-you know what I mean, right?'

'Ha. Yeah, I do.' Garovel looked toward the guest room's other two occupants. 'What about them? They said they'd understand if you chose to leave with Asad, but still.'

Lynn and Meriwether had their own beds, of course. The Prince's snoring sounded like it belonged to a man twice his size.

'Uh... well, it doesn't seem like they need me. This castle seems pretty safe...'

Garovel paused. 'You're really just doing this to get away from Lynn, aren't you?'

Hector decided not to grace that with a response.

It wasn't long until morning arrived. Lynn awoke first, popping up from her pillow as if someone had ordered her to attention. She sat there a moment, scanning the room. She nearly looked like a different person without her braided ponytail or her white hood. She'd slept in her eye patch, though.

"Anything happen?" she asked.

Hector just shook his head.

She nodded and carried her luggage to the bathroom in order to shower and change. She took her time, but she was still done before the Prince was up. She started working on her ponytail while they waited for Meriwether to get ready.

"Thanks for taking the night shift," said Lynn. She was looking at Hector via the reflection in the large mirror that she was using for her hair. "You should get some rest now."

Hector stood. "Actually, uh... Asad leaves this afternoon, so, uh, I should probably go see Haqq first."

Her hands stopped, and she stared at him. "You said you would sleep in the morning. That's why I let you take the night shift."

He knew that and couldn't help smiling just a bit. "Yeah..."

She turned to look at him directly. "If you're really leaving to go fight, then you should've slept."

"Well... I told you I don't need sleep in order to fight."

"Hmph." She went back to her ponytail.

"S-sorry..."

"It's fine. I guess I just wish that I could go, too."

"W-why?" asked Hector. "You enjoy fighting that much?"

"I wouldn't say I enjoy it. But I could use the experience." She stopped braiding briefly in order to wave her gauntlet in front of her face. "Even with this, I'm not nearly as strong as I need to be."

"Ah... I know the feeling."

Lynn smirked. "You do, huh? Is that why you're always inserting yourself into other people's problems?"

"Uh... hah, yeah, I guess so."

Silence seized hold of the chamber after that. Hector couldn't help becoming increasingly uncomfortable as they waited. Lynn was just sitting there. Right there. Being herself.

This was clearly a problem.

Hector stood and went for his single bag of luggage. "So, ah... I should probably go meet Haqq now..."

At that, Lynn also stood. "Okay."

"I don't know if, uh... if I'll have time to see you both again before I leave, so..."

"I understand." She moved closer now, making Hector tense up. "Be careful out there, alright?"

"I-I will. Thanks."

Lynn frowned at him and went in for a hug.

Hector's eyes bulged, and he recoiled away from her.

Lynn froze up, then put her arms down and stood there woodenly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to--I just thought--uh. I'm sorry."

"Ah, oh, n-no, it was--um, eh... I'm the one who--mm... ergh--"

'Ugh, this is painful to watch,' said Garovel.

"S-sorry," Hector said again. He took an awkward step toward her, insanely thinking he would be able to reinitiate the hug, only to immediately realize his folly and step back again.

Lynn offered him a handshake instead.

Hector reached for it, but the journey proved too perilous, and he retracted his hand. "I'm... ah... s-sorry... er, again. I don't know what's... egh..."

'Holy shit, Hector.'

The young woman looked at her hand, perhaps wondering if there was something wrong with it.

'Just relax,' said Garovel. 'You've shaken hands with her before, remember?'

But it was too late. The moment had passed.

"Well, um," Lynn retried, "be careful out there... I mean, I already said that, but..."

"Y-yeah... Er. Y-you, too..."

And he probably should have waited around so that he could say goodbye to Prince Meriwether as well, but Hector couldn't bear the atmosphere in the room now and chose to simply flee instead.

He was grateful for the bustling corridor's sea of people. It allowed him to feel like he was disappearing into the shuffling mass of bodies as he made for the basement level once more.

Garovel followed silently for a while, until he apparently realized that Hector wasn't going to start the conversation. 'That was more gruesome than watching Harper cut someone in half.'

Hector sighed to himself. 'I panicked...'

'No shit.'

'Agh... I fucking suck.'

'Aw, don't feel too bad,' said Garovel. 'You'll do better next time.'

'The worst part is... now, she probably thinks that I'm grossed out by her or something...'

'Eh, you don't know that. Maybe she just thinks you're a spastic weirdo.'

'...Great. Thanks for that.'

'No problem.'

Hector just wallowed in his self-loathing as he joined the group of people waiting for the elevators.

'Why do you have a crush on her, anyway? Do you even know the reason?'

'Uh...'

'I'll take that as a no.'

'No, well, I mean... I know why.'

'Then tell me.'

'Ergh... because... I mean, because she's fucking awesome.'

'She is?'

'Yes! She's like--she's like everything I'm not. Really smart and strong and focused.'

'You're all of those things, too, Hector.'

'No, I'm not--'

'I think you literally just named your three best characteristics. When you don't know the answer, you generally ask intelligent questions; you've proven yourself in battle multiple times, as far as I'm concerned; and you meditate like a fucking Jesbolese monk. Smart, strong, focused.'

'I... that's not--'

'So essentially, you're telling me that you like her because she reminds you of yourself.'

'What the--?! No! I just--! I just don't know how to--!'

'Whatever, narcissist.'

'Fucking--! You... agh...'

'Maybe you just have an eye patch fetish.'

'...Is that a real thing?'

'Oh, I'm sure it is. I have immeasurable faith in humanity's capacity for perversion.'

At length, they finally arrived at the R&D lab again. The guards let them through without a fuss this time.

Haqq and Sazandara were both right there near the doorway. The reaper noticed them first. 'Hello again,' she said.

'Good morning,' said Garovel. 'Did you get a chance to perform the analysis?'

"Yes, I did!" said Haqq. "The results were absolutely fascinating! It seems your servant is able to materialize an ultra-rare quad-element compound of titanium, iridium, carbon, and plutonium! I'm not sure why I couldn't tell right away yesterday!"

Confused, Hector just kind of blinked dully. He didn't know what to say, but judging by the reaper's flat expression, Garovel apparently did.

'You're lying.'

"Of course I am lying. Just as I told you before, it is only iron. The embodiment of mediocrity and tedium. Why did you make me waste my time analyzing it? I was hoping that you had brought me something that was at least vaguely interesting, but no. Your servant is about as special as a sunny day in Kuros." He eyed Hector. "And probably just as useful."

Hector shrunk away from Haqq's gaze and flushed with a touch of humiliation. He knew that there were probably servants out there with abilities that were naturally more powerful, but he didn't think iron was that bad. Perhaps he'd been mistaken, though. Haqq was the expert, after all. He looked to Garovel, who was visibly irritated.

'We weren't trying to impress you. We just wanted confirmation. That being said, I'd appreciate it if you didn't insult my friend for no apparent reason. And by the way, iron is far from useless.'

Haqq gave a throaty laugh. "I suppose in relative terms, yes, you might be able to find some semblance of value in it. But when you find yourselves faced with real monsters, iron will not be enough to save your unremarkable lives."

'Wow,' said Garovel, louder now. 'I fucking hate ability-snobs like you. Power doesn't make the person, you moron. You'd do well to remember that, lest you have someone teach it to you the hard way.'

Haqq seemed to dismiss the notion.

'Garovel is correct,' interjected Sazandara. 'Haqq, you should apologize for insulting them.'

Haqq's expression soured, and he pulled his shoulders in. "No. They wasted my time. And so did you, for that matter. You know I have more important things to be doing."

'Apologize. Now.'

"Or what?" said Haqq. "You will release me? Because I insulted a couple of strangers? Be serious."

'They are no longer strangers. They are allies now.'

Haqq exhaled another laugh. "Allies? Why? Because they've decided to help Asad on his fool's errand? Please. I could not care less about their circumstances if you paid me to ignore them."

Garovel had heard enough, it seemed. 'Let's go, Hector. We got what we came for.'

'Please wait,' said Sazandara. She tapped Haqq on the head, and the man immediately dropped to the floor, unconscious. She floated closer to Hector and Garovel. 'I am deeply sorry that Haqq is such an insufferable twat. Frankly, I wanted Asad as my servant, but I got stuck with this social cataclysm of a person, instead.'

After a moment, Garovel relinquished a nod. 'It's fine. I understand. The apology is appreciated, though. Thank you.'

'Allow me to make it up to you.'

Garovel paused. 'What do you mean?'

'Follow me.' She floated away from Haqq's body and guided them into a deeper room where the walls were completely filled with lockboxes, as if they'd suddenly walked into a bank vault.

Sazandara approached the room's apparent attendant, a youthful man at a desk full of notebooks and binders. The reaper said something to him in Valgan.

Nodding, the attendant pulled on a pair of gloves and fished a key out of a drawer. He moved to the rear wall, opened one of the larger boxes, and with visible effort, pulled out an impressive slab of metal with a gentle curve to it. Sazandara said something else to him, but this time, the attendant hesitated, looking from her to Hector and back again.

Before Hector even thought to ask, Garovel began translating for him.

'She's telling him to give it to you. He's asking if she's sure. Says Haqq will be upset.' Garovel broke for a chuckle. '"That's the point," she says.'

The attendant soon conceded and moved to hand the object over.

'Careful not to let it touch your skin just yet,' said Sazandara.

Hector did as she instructed, abruptly glad that he hadn't taken his own gloves off.

At first, even while holding it, he still wasn't sure what the thing was, but as soon as he turned it up vertically in his hands, he realized.

It was a shield. A heater shield, to be precise--a flat top with a rounded, pointed bottom. Smaller than a kite shield but larger than a buckler. Hector recognized it from his research into old world armor.

He was suddenly reminded of his afterschool armor-building project with Lance Alexander. It was only a few months ago, but it seemed like a different life. What was Lance doing now, he wondered? He recalled finding a small measure of relief when he saw the list of victims of the Calman High Massacre and realized that Lance's name was not on it.

Blinking, Hector pulled himself back to the present as Sazandara started talking again.

'This is a self-repairing shield,' she explained. 'It is extremely durable for a number of different reasons. These four vertical lines you see here--these are bars of tungsten carbide. Haqq synthesized them personally. The rest of the metal is a mixture of steel and titanium alloys. Also, the metal has been permanently soul-strengthened by Abbas Saqqaf, so I think you'll find that it can take quite a bit of punishment before ever needing to repair itself.'

'Permanently soul-strengthened?' said Garovel. 'Lord Abbas can do that?'

'Of course. But never mind that. I still haven't told you the best part.'

'Oh?'

'As long as your servant's bare skin is making contact with this shield, his passive soul defenses will be dramatically increased,' said Sazandara. 'Unless, of course, his soul defenses are already superior to that of the shield. In which case, no increase is granted.'

Garovel hovered nearer. 'Hmm. I didn't realize that was even possible.'

'I would have been surprised if you did. Haqq made the breakthrough himself. It is still not a widely known development.'

'I see. Are you sure you're willing to part with it? This seems like an incredibly valuable object.'

'This is merely a test piece, hence the antiquated simplicity of its design. Haqq wanted to see if he could integrate the materials properly. It took him several months to craft enough for just this shield alone. And admittedly, as irritating as Haqq can sometimes be, I was rather impressed. I don't know how familiar you are with integration abilities, but being able to craft THIS much of any self-repairing material is quite a feat.'

Hector and Garovel exchanged glances.

'In other words, yes, it is immensely valuable,' she went on, 'but I do still wish for you to have it--partly as an apology and partly to teach Haqq a lesson.'

Garovel shrugged. 'Well, I won't refuse such a useful gift. Thank you for your generosity.'

'You are quite welcome,' she said. Then she turned to Hector and added, 'Lord Darksteel.'

Hector's brow rose at that.

Sazandara's bony smile widened. 'After we met yesterday, I asked Haqq's nephew to look into you. I didn't realize it would be such an easy assignment for him.'

'And here I was just getting accustomed to no one recognizing Hector's face,' said Garovel.

'I must say, your actions in your home country have been quite bold. Are you not concerned that the Vanguard will come to recruit you?'

'Recruit us?'

'Indeed. Certain factions have recently been quite... aggressive in their attempts to gain more members. I imagine your servant's fame will make him rather appealing to such people.'

'Hmm. That's odd. Not long ago, our Queen went on a veritable quest to find Vanguardian allies, and yet she was barely able to procure the aid of a single servant.'

'Yes, but that was when your country contained the stench of Abolish. Now that this is no longer the case...'

'I see your point.'

'Perhaps there is more riding on your alliance with Asad than you realized.'

'Perhaps you're right.'

Hector turned the shield over in his hands again, wanting a good look at the front. It was lustrously gray, apart from the four bars of tungsten carbide that Sazandara mentioned before. Those were a bit darker, but Hector wouldn't have been able to tell that they weren't simply paint if the reaper hadn't told him. They fit so seamlessly into the shield that he couldn't see even the slightest physical crease between them and the rest of the lighter-colored metal.

'Before you use it, a couple of warnings,' said Sazandara. 'As soon as your skin touches it, the enhanced soul defenses will take effect. When you're wearing gloves like you are now, no enhancements are granted to your body.'

"O-okay."

'Additionally, you will notice that touching the shield directly causes immense physical pain. That is a side effect of your body being made stronger than it is prepared to be. Garovel will therefore need to numb the pain for you whenever you intend to wield it barehanded.'

"Ah... and then I'll feel the pain later."

'Naturally.'

Hector nodded. 'Figures,' he remarked to Garovel.

'The shield will also take a toll on you, Garovel.'

'Me? Why?'

'The defensive increases are made possible by interfering with the soul-synchronization between the two of you. The shield functions as a catalyst, and through it, your souls are stretched beyond their limits in an effort to equalize themselves with the shield. And because the reaper is very much the "battery" of the relationship, this experience will gradually drain you.'

'I see.'

'How long has Hector been your servant?'

'About three years.'

Hector's expression flickered. He had to consciously keep himself from staring at Garovel. It hadn't even been eight months.

'Quite young,' said Sazandara. 'In that case, I would advise Hector not to wield it barehanded for more than thirty minutes per day.'

'Understood,' said Garovel. And then privately, he amended her number to, 'Six minutes per day. Remember that, if you can.'

Hector wasn't sure he understood the point of lying to their allies like this. Even if Sazandara somehow ended up betraying them, wouldn't it be better if she thought they were weaker? Something to ask Garovel about later, he decided.

'Is there anything else we should know?' Garovel asked.

'No, that is everything.'

'Alright. Thank you for explaining. We appreciate your hospitality. Once things settle down, I'd like to invite you back to Warrenhold with us. I'm sure even Haqq would be able to enjoy himself there.'

'Ah. I will keep that in mind.'