Reever shrugged. “Don’t be rude. He’s just curious. It’s in our nature. You can’t expect an aberration to join you if you don’t answer his questions first. That’s simple diplomacy.”
“Their reapers can still sense us,” said Arnold.
Reever waved his hand again. “And now they can’t.”
At first, Ibai didn’t realize that anything had changed, but then he noticed the faint glow around everything. And it became gradually more prominent, until the hallway around them was all but burning, as if an ethereal fire had descended upon the entire world, excepting only the four of them. Reever, Arnold, and the unnamed reaper all looked just as they did before.
However, when Ibai looked around another time, he saw that there were actually several more servants and reapers in the room than Reever had previously allowed him to see.
Ibai gave them all a wide grin. “Hello!”
The many new faces stared at him. But only briefly. Then they broke into smiles of their own.
“Heya, big man!”
“How the heck are ya, pal?!”
“You gotta tell us! How’d you end up here all by yourself?!”
“Didn’t you hear? He was born into one of the families.”
“What?! That can’t be right, can it?!”
“Dunno, let’s ask him.”
Reever stepped next to Ibai and put up his hands. “Alright, alright. Don’t smother the poor guy.” He turned to Ibai. “We have been wondering, though. If you wouldn’t mind answering. Were the Rainlords studying you?”
Ibai pursed his lips. “Pretty much, yeah. But speaking of burning questions. You never really answered me. What are you all doing here? Because--and correct me if I’m wrong--but it seems like you’re planning some kind of attack.” Reever’s brief mention of Hahl Saqqaf had not escaped his notice.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.