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Now that he was thinking about it, Hector wasn’t feeling any kind of oppressive presence, either. This Malast guy didn’t seem to have that insane level of field density to his soul like Ivan and Gohvis. Or even Darktide, Xuan, or Abbas, for that matter. Did that mean he wasn’t as strong as them? Or did it simply mean that one’s field density was adjustable? Hector recalled Ivan implying as much, actually.

As much as he would’ve liked to ask about it, he didn’t think it was the most pressing question.

And the others were hesitating now as well, even Eleyo. They were probably all mulling over what to ask, if not simply waiting for someone else to take the initiative.

Hector’s gaze fell to Carver. The poor lighting made it too difficult to decipher the expression on the man’s face, but Hector did find himself wondering: had Carver known about this Malast guy all along?

Through all the confusion and disorientation, it had nearly escaped Hector’s notice when Malast mentioned the name Ettol, which meant there was only one degree of separation between Carver and Malast.

Hector was gathering questions by the second, but he was having trouble solidifying them in his mind, let alone actually choosing which to ask Carver about.

Then Elise Garza broke the silence and stepped boldly into the conversation. “Excuse me, but can we--?” She stopped. “...I would like to know more about the enormous amount of treasure around you.”

Good point, Hector felt. And no doubt, Malast would’ve counted that as their next question if she hadn’t caught herself.

“Then ask me about it,” said Malast.

At that, Elise lost a bit of her fervor, and looked around for help. Her eyes fell to Manuel who, in turn, looked to Hector.

Aw, shit.

‘Help?’ he asked Garovel.

‘Eh, I’m sure you’ve got this,’ the reaper said privately.

‘Garovel, is this really the time to be--?’

‘Whining? Why, no, it isn’t. So just hurry up and ask this “god” whatever you want.’

Everyone was looking at him now, Hector realized.

He really wished Diego could still talk.

Okay.

He could do this. There were only about six billion questions to choose from. He just had to pick one that wasn’t completely fucking stupid.

“...Will you try to kill us if we take some of this treasure?” he heard himself say.

Well, that was either the stupidest possible question or the most important one. He wasn’t quite sure which.

“Nah,” said Malast. “Take what you like.” Then he seemed to think about it a bit more. “But you should probably be wary of Seyos. I’m sure he wants to kill you, right about now.”

‘Seyos?’ said Yangéra. ‘The same Seyos who had Himmekel built?’

“It’s not your turn,” Malast reminded her.

‘Ugh.’

Hector braced himself.

“Iron One.”

There it was.

“How might I be able to contact this Rasalased?”

Yikes.