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<“Hmm. Well, anyway, to answer your question, I’m pretty sure they want to use Sescoria as their base of operations. They’ve been stockpiling weapons and building a perimeter around the city. It wouldn’t make much sense to attack it.”>

‘At least not yet,’ added Garovel. ‘Ask her about Roman.’

“Is there any news from Roman?” said Hector.

<“He contacted me a couple weeks ago, but only to say that their leads in Korgum didn’t pan out.”>

“Ah--are they okay?”

<“He didn’t go into detail, but it sounded like they’ve had a rough time of it, as well. I’ll let you know if Master Roman contacts me again. I’m sure he’ll be interested to hear about your situation, too.”>

“Th-thanks.”

<“Is there anything else I can do for you?”>

“Ah--we were just on our way to Walton, actually. We were, uh, hoping for a place to stay. Temporarily, I mean.”

<“I would take you in, but I’m not in Walton, right now. I’m in Sescoria. And I doubt you want to come here.”>

“Right...”

<“If you want, I could make some calls and find you a different place.”>

Hector eyed the others. Garovel shook his head, and Hector said, “No, that’s okay. We’ll figure something else out.”

<“Alrighty.”>

“Thank you for the information,” he said. “And please, um. Be careful.”

<“Same to you. I’ll call you whenever I learn anything useful.”>

“And if you, uh--if you--ah...”

<“What?”>

“I-if you get into trouble, then please call me. I’ll come help you.”

She paused for a giggle. <“You’d never reach me in time, but thanks.”> And she hung up.

“Pretty brave friend you got there,” said Colt.

“Yeah...”

-+-+-+-+-

Stoker concealed the tattoo on his face under a gray hood as he drove. There weren’t many ways out of Sescoria, at the moment. All the major roads were being watched, and the smaller ones had been closed off. It was fortunate, then, that Stoker was supposed to be the one watching the southern gate.

Or at least, it seemed fortunate--right up until Nize informed him that Karkash was standing in the middle of the road straight ahead. Arms folded. Waiting.