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Hector’s brow lowered as he tried to recall what Garovel was talking about. The only other thing he remembered about Rathmore’s Gate was smashing into it after taking a hit from Harper.

But Garovel was right. That was strange, wasn’t it? With as hard as he’d hit the damn thing, it hadn’t so much as cracked.

‘So what are you saying?’ said Hector. ‘I mean, it’s weird ‘n all, but what’s the big mystery about, exactly?’

‘You see, Rathmore was one of the most famous integrators in history. Or infamous, depending on who you talk to. And one of the reasons he became so well-known was because of his “Materials.” Which was actually a bit of a con job on his part.’

‘Con job?’

‘Rathmore’s Gate. Rathmore’s Flame. Rathmore’s Looking Glass. Rathmore’s Knife. Rathmore’s Light. And so on and so forth. He named all of these monuments after himself because of all the weird shit he did to them--like infusing a molten rock golem into one of them, apparently. But the fact of the matter was, all of those monuments existed BEFORE him. He just modified them.’

‘So... they used to just be normal monuments?’

‘No, see, that’s the point. They weren’t normal at all. Rathmore was only able modify them the way he did because they were already abnormal.’

‘Abnormal in what way?’

‘They were indestructible by any known method.’

Hector cocked an eyebrow beneath his helmet. ‘If they were indestructible, then how was he able to modify them at all?’

The reaper shrugged. ‘I didn’t say it wasn’t impressive, what he did. I just wanted to make it clear that his so-called Materials were never really HIS to begin with. That was the con job, in my opinion.’

‘Hmm. So where’d all these indestructible monuments come from, then?’

‘That’s the big mystery. Nobody is quite sure.’

‘Seriously? Does that mean they’re even older than you are?’

‘As far as I am aware, they pre-date the existence of reapers entirely.’

‘Whoa. By how much, exactly?’

‘Dunno.’

Hector’s eyes widened as he thought more about it. So that was why Garovel had called it one of the oldest mysteries in the history of Eleg. ‘Why didn’t you ever tell me about this before?’

‘Didn’t come up.’

‘We were literally AT Rathmore’s Gate! You didn’t think I’d be interested in its history?!’

‘Well... okay, I’m sort of... lying a little bit, actually.’

Hector’s brow lowered again. ‘Excuse me?’

‘Sorry. It’s a force of habit when it comes to this subject, I suppose. See, this mystery... Rathmore’s Materials... well, it’s something that I’ve been keeping to myself for a very long time now.’

‘What do you mean? Keeping it to yourself? You just said it’s one of the oldest mysteries in the world.’

‘Yeah...’

‘What, were you lying about that, too?’

‘No, no. That was the truth. What I’m saying is... despite its incredible age, there are very few people who know of it. And I kinda prefer it that way, Hector.’

‘Oh...’