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Garovel had been noticeably preoccupied as well. Hector sometimes caught the reaper lost in thought, and whenever he asked about it, Garovel avoided elaborating. At first, Hector chalked it up to worrying about Chergoa, but after it kept happening, Hector decided to push harder.

‘Alright, alright,’ Garovel finally said. ‘I’ve just been thinking about our next move.’

‘Well, me too,’ said Hector. ‘There’s no reason for you to be all coy about it.’

‘I wasn’t being coy. I was being careful.’

‘...Somehow, I doubt that.’

‘Hey, fuck you. I’m being serious here. There are a lot of gears in motion all around us right now. A lot of things to take into consideration.’

Hector thought about giving him more crap but decided to just keep listening as he lifted a young family’s couch onto the back of a flatbed truck.

‘We might have an opportunity to do something that would have a big impact on a lot of people,’ said Garovel. ‘There’s a very good chance that the Sandlords will try to send the Rainlords away. Maybe helping them go into hiding, maybe just flat out exiling them. In either case, we have a place where they can lay low for a while, don’t we? We should invite them.’

Hector stopped in front of the couple’s old refrigerator and spared Garovel a glance. ‘Uh... well, actually, I was planning on doing that, anyway.’

‘What? Are you serious?’

Hector hugged the fridge tightly and lifted it. ‘Yeah.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me sooner?’

‘Er... I thought you’d disapprove, considering we only met them like two weeks ago or something.’

‘Ah, well, that’s true, but I also have Chergoa’s judgment to go on. She obviously trusted the Rainlords enough to join up with them, and I trust her, so by extension, I think we can consider them trustworthy, too. And if they do end up betraying us someday, I’ll just blame her forever.’