Page 1502 -- CLXI.

((Double Wednesday -- Page 1 of 2))
Of course, that didn’t explain why Malast didn’t know how to get out of here, but there were a lot of things about Malast that were not making much sense, so Hector just added it to the list and tried not to worry about it for the moment.

A different question occurred to him, one of similarly pressing relevance, and Hector felt suddenly as if he should ask it quickly before anyone else used up their last question.

“This person who wants to kill us,” said Hector, “this Seyos--where is he, right now?” He figured that if there was someone who wanted them dead, as Malast had said, then that was a problem which should probably take precedence over all others.

Malast shrugged again, however. “I don’t know. He was here earlier, but he didn’t tell me where he was going.”

Hector frowned.

“Then we get another question,” said Eleyo.

“Boy, you’re really milking this, aren’t you? Fine. But this next one is the true final question, even if I don’t know the answer to it.”

Once again, Eleyo seized the initiative. “Why do you want to make one of us a god?”

Malast leveled a dull stare at the Hun’Kui man and made everyone wait a bit more for an answer. “...A very long time ago, I had a friend. He was--and still is, I suppose--the only thing in all of Creation that I can confidently say I liked.” He ran his hand along the top of the jar in his lap. “His name was Secho, and this here is all that remains of him.”


Chapter One Hundred Sixty-One: ‘A trial of gods...’
Click to display entire chapter at once -- (mobile link)

Hector blinked a couple times.

Malast wasn’t yet done talking, however. “I would like for Secho to be reborn in a new vessel, even if it means he won’t quite be the same as I remember him. He deserves that much.”

Hector detected a softness in the man’s voice that hadn’t been there before.

‘Secho, huh?’ said Garovel privately. ‘That’s another god, by the way.’

‘The God of Growth,’ said Hector.

‘The--yeah. Hey, how do you know that?’

‘Eleyo over there told me all about him.’ Hector noticed the Hun’Kui man looking back at him.

It was difficult to tell in the poor light and the goggles on Eleyo’s face, but Hector abruptly felt as though he could read the man’s face--maybe even his mind. There was just something in that look. The timing of it. The lingering of it.

Hector knew at once what Eleyo was about to do.

Eleyo was going to accept Malast’s offer.

That one name, Secho, had just changed Eleyo’s mind completely.

It was madness. Hector knew that. To just suddenly agree to be transformed into a “god” when there was still so much left unexplained. But everything that he recalled from their conversation earlier was informing him of Eleyo’s state of mind, right now.