Page 1326

‘We need to be extra careful how we resolve this situation,’ Garovel was saying, not for the first time. He’d been trying to explain something, but the constant interruptions from hostile Hun’Kui had been getting in the way, and even now, he looked like he was waiting for something to cut him off again.

The reapers didn’t really need to be looking around so much, Hector knew. They could sense the locations of every soul around them if they just concentrated, but after Dunehall, Hector couldn’t really blame them for their paranoia here. If aberrations were able to operate undetected by reapers, then it didn’t seem outside the realm of possibility that these Hun’Kui and their new technologies might have a similar surprise in store.

Thankfully, though, that didn’t seem like it was going to be the case.

Garovel was taking a while to finish his thought, so Hector decided to give him a push. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Hmm? Oh, yeah. Um. Look, let’s say we beat up these food-stealing pricks and start handing it out to everyone. Let’s even say that there’s plenty of food to go around and that we don’t have to worry about rationing it at all. What happens after we leave Babbadelo?’

‘Uh...’

‘How do we know that someone else won’t pick up where these assholes left off?’

‘Hmm...’

‘The answer is that we don’t know,’ said Garovel. ‘That’s the problem. This place is unstable as hell, and that’s not something we can realistically fix unless we stay here indefinitely and work on keeping the peace ourselves.’

Hector frowned. ‘...Are you saying we should turn back?’

‘I’m saying there’s only so much we can hope to accomplish for the locals here. It’s not as simple a matter as you seem to have been thinking. And before you say anything else, do NOT give me any of that cavalier sass from earlier, you prick. Coming up with terrible plans is MY area of expertise, remember? And I don’t appreciate being treated like I’m some kind of lazy piece of shit who doesn’t care about helping people.’

‘That’s not what I was--’

‘Yeah, sure it wasn’t.’