Page 611

--1st Anniversary Special (day 1/7, page 1/4)--
They found Hector in his guest room, already awake for them.

“Ah--hello, Your Majesty. And Lynn.”

“We wanted to say farewell before you left,” said the Queen.

“Oh, I see.”

And a long silence followed, wherein Lynnette could only assume that one of the reapers was speaking. Then the Queen went over to talk to Hector’s mother.

Lynnette shook hands with Hector. She wore gloves now, just like he did, only hers were a bit bulkier as they were meant to conceal the bone gauntlet on her left hand. “Looks like this is goodbye for now,” she said.

“Yeah... I’m, uh. I’m kinda sad to be going. I’ll miss everyone.”

“Heh. My family will probably want to come visit you sooner or later.”

“Ah--y-you think so? That’d be awesome! Oh, but, uh--you should hold off on that. This... Warrenhold place sounds, uh... kinda sketchy, so...”

“Right.”

“I need to make sure it’s safe to have guests and... yeah...”

“Well, you have my cell number.”

“Y-yeah. Same to you. Call me if there’s, like... uh... if you guys want my help, I mean.”

“Of course.”

Lynnette looked toward the Queen, but the woman was apparently busy talking to one of the reapers now. She turned back to Hector, who could not meet her gaze, as usual. She felt an awkward tension welling up and decided to rebel against it with the first thing she could think of. “So they’re calling me the White Sword now, apparently.”

“O-oh, that’s... huh. But your sword isn’t even white...”

“That’s what I said.”

“Ah--it sounds cool, though. Makes more sense than mine, at least. I mean, uh... I don’t think ‘darksteel’ is even a real thing.”

“Mm. You think they just chose that because you’re black?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it, but... now that you mention it... Hmm. Kinda sounds a little racist now...”

She laughed at that. “Sorry.”

“I guess ‘darksteel’ is better than ‘blackmetal.’ That just sounds like a... funky type of music or something.”

“Yeah.”

“Coulda been a lot worse, really,” said Hector. “Coulda called me, like, the Negro Vigilante.”

“Oh, geez, no.”

“Or the Darkey Knight.”

Her eye widened, and she snorted a sudden laugh. “Wha--?! That’s terrible!”

“Ah--too much? S-sorry...”

She just kept laughing.