Page 740 -- LXXXIII.

“But, uh... Roman said if we ever find someone we can really trust, we should take good care of them. He said something like... if I don’t have room for them in my life, then I should get a bigger house.”

‘Heh, is that so?’

“And... I think he was talking about Colt. Like he was implying that I shouldn’t have let Colt leave.”

‘Ah. Hmm.’

“Er... maybe I was just reading too much into it, though...”

‘Well, once we finish sprucing this place up, perhaps we should give Colt a call. Check up on him, at least. But I won’t force you to offer him a room. I know you two have your differences. And he IS a murderer.’

“Yeah...” Hector stopped digging again to look at Garovel. “I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive him for that...”

‘...But?’

He sighed. “But I don’t know. And besides, he probably wouldn’t even want to live here.”

‘Ah, it just occurred to me that we don’t know how Warrenhold affects children. Voreese said the unsettling feeling could be explained away, but obviously, that’s not going to work with babies.’

“You think this place has an age restriction? Seems like Voreese would have mentioned that.”

‘Maybe. No harm in asking her next time.’

Hector was up to his shoulders in rock now. He took a hard breath and rested his pickaxe on his shoulder. “Geez... how much farther down is it?”

‘Only a few more meters.’

“Meters?! How many?!”

Garovel shrugged. ‘Nine or ten? Or... fifteen? Could be twenty, I suppose.’

“Fuck, man...”

‘Hey, you try measuring while you float through complete darkness without any sense of motion around you.’

He rolled his shoulders. “This sucks. I thought hot springs were supposed to be relaxing...”


Chapter Eighty-Three: ‘Relations from afar...’
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It was nearing the end of Lynnette’s shift. For the first couple weeks, it had been just her on round-the-clock guard duty, sleeping only rarely. After Harper was back on his feet, however, the man was gracious enough to begin trading off with her, since there was no one else in Sescoria who could really protect Queen Helen.