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Hector just froze up again. He heard Lynn sigh.

<“Alright, well... can you at least tell me if you will be returning to Kuros anytime soon?”>

“Oh. Um. Er... are you still in Kuros?”

<“Yeah. After you left, Prince Meriwether decided to stay a while longer and spend some extra time with his children. I think he was worried about leaving you without a ride back to Atreya.”>

“Ah... o-okay. But I don’t, uh... I don’t think I’ll be back in Kuros very soon. You probably shouldn’t wait for me. I’ll try to bum a ride off the Rainlords or something.”

<“Okay. How are things going with them, anyway? I’ve been following the news, but it hasn’t been able to tell me much, other than the fact there’ve been a lot of evacuations.”>

“Ah, things have...” He cleared his throat and lowered his voice. “Er, things’ve gone fairly well, actually. I was kinda surprised, uh. I thought there’d be a lot of casualties, but I haven’t seen any whatsoever.”

<“Really?”>

“Yeah. The Rainlords are really nice, too. Very, um--very careful and respectful.” He paused. “Well, most of them, anyway...”

<“Huh. That’s good to hear.”>

Hector felt an awkward silence creeping in and snapped to the realization that it was his turn to pose a question. “W-what, um, what about you? How did the, uh... the thing go?”

Lynn breathed half a laugh. <“The thing?”>

“The, ah... agh, the negotiation thing? Between the Prince and Lord Saqqaf?”

<“Oh, I’m not too sure. Lord Saqqaf agreed to provide us with some money, but I think Prince Meriwether had been hoping for a lot more.”>

Hector scratched his cheek with his free hand. He felt like there was a more important question he should ask, but all he could think of was, “What was Lord Saqqaf like? I mean--er, did you meet him?”

<“Yeah, I met him. He asked me where I got my gauntlet.”>

“Oh. What’d you tell him?”

<“That the Vanguard gave it to me.”>

“Eesh... you sure that was wise?”

<“Not really, no. What would you have said?”>

“Uh... hmm.”

<“Exactly.”>

“Maybe... an unnamed friend gave it to you.”

<“Then he might’ve asked who.”>

“Well, you could’ve said that you were protecting their identity or something.”

<“Oh yeah, because that doesn’t sound suspicious.”>

“Hmm...”

Garovel decided to intervene. ‘This is a lovely chat ‘n all, but you should ask about the Sandlords.’