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((Double Saturday -- Page 1 of 2))
“A blessing is a gift granted upon one’s very soul,” said Malast. “Although, it may not always be quite as pleasant as it sounds, depending on who the gift-giver is and why they are giving it.”

Malast allowed a beat of silence to pass, even though it was now his turn again. Hector wondered why. Maybe he wanted someone to ask another question so that he could proactively ignore them.

“My turn,” said Malast. “Iron One.”

Agh. Why was he getting all the questions? It was like being called on by a school teacher who was trying to humiliate him in front of the whole class.

“What was the name of this sort-of-god you met?”

Well, at least that question had an easy answer. “Rasalased.”

“Hmm,” was all Malast said.

And Hector very nearly asked if Malast recognized the name before stopping himself. He didn’t want to waste their next question--especially when he didn’t know how much longer this would go on for. He was getting the impression that once Malast ran out of his own questions to ask, they wouldn’t be able to get anything more out of him.

But dammit, if he still didn’t want to know the answer to that.

Eleyo posed the next question. “Who are these ‘others’ you mentioned before?”

“My peers,” was all Malast said.

“That is not descriptive enough,” said Eleyo.

“I believe you have made up enough rules for this game already,” said Malast. “It is my turn again. Iron One.”

Hector had been waiting to hear that.

“Where is this Rasalased now?” said Malast.

Oh shit. There were a couple of different ways he could answer that, but Hector didn’t know if he even should. And somehow, it seemed like an especially bad idea to tell this guy that Rasalased was right there with them, sleeping in the Shard beneath his armor.

He’d made a special trip to go back for it, not wanting to leave it there, just in case something crazy happened while they were hunting for the treasure. The concept of being teleported to an unknown location hadn’t entered his mind, but he was glad he’d decided to bring it, nonetheless.

But perhaps it would’ve been better to leave it in Carver’s biosphere after all. He had no idea what would happen if he allowed this guy to take the Shard from him, and he wasn’t too keen to find out, either.

He had to answer the question somehow, though. And he didn’t want to lie unless he had to. He decided to just leave a few things out.

“Rasalased is not in one place,” said Hector. “He was split apart and fell dormant.”

“Hmm.”

Hector held his breath while he waited to see if that was a good enough answer.

Apparently, it was.

‘Well done,’ said Garovel privately.

‘Garovel, who the fuck is this guy?’

‘I don’t know. I’m not sensing anything special from him. And that worries me.’