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‘You’re probably right,’ said Hector. ‘And Asad’s got his own wrecked castle to worry about now, too.’

‘He sure does.’

A suddenly long pause intervened.

‘I’d like to help him rebuild it, if I can.’

Garovel groaned. ‘Of course you do.’

Hector laughed a little now, too. ‘I’m just saying, like, someday.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘He’s an important ally now, right?’

‘Yeah, he is.’

‘And, I mean, Dunehall was just so... cool.’

‘Uh-huh,’ said Garovel.

‘What, am I wrong?’

‘Maybe you can trick Roman into footing the bill on that one.’

‘Somehow, I doubt that,’ said Hector. ‘Isn’t tricking rich people kind of his thing?’

‘I bet he wouldn’t see it coming from the likes of you, though.’

‘Yeah, let’s just... build everything on a foundation of tricks and lies. I’m sure that would go great.’

Hector could see that they were about to head underground, so he made sure to check his phone beforehand. Thankfully, Gina had come through with the pictures of Roman, though Hector still wasn’t quite sure how they would help.

At length, after an elevator ride down and a staircase going even deeper, Hector finally began seeing some familiar faces. He was almost surprised by all the space down here, but then he remembered that this place had its own path to the Undercrust. He wondered if it would look any different from the one in Warrenhold.

That was not their first destination, however. Instead, the Lord Duxan broke away from the rest of their party and guided Hector and Garovel through a pair of corridors and down another flight of steps. They arrived in a large bedchamber--so large, in fact, that Hector could imagine it belonging to the Lord Duxan himself.

Lord Hasan Duxan had not spoken to Hector directly at all thus far, and Hector was beginning to get the impression that the man simply did not speak Mohssian--or at the very least, not fluently.

Not that it mattered, of course. Between Garovel and Hasan’s own reaper, Emiross, there was no lack of translators.