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((Triple Wednesday -- Page 2 of 3))
‘Sort of, but not exactly,’ said Garovel. ‘It’s tough to explain in physical terms, but you can kind of imagine the soul as being like water, and the body being like a vessel that it conforms to the shape of. Or in other words, as reapers, we “see” souls in the shape of the body they reside within. So the smaller that body is, the more difficult it becomes to notice, especially in a crowd.’

“Huh...”

‘Also, that’s not a perfect analogy, by the way, because water still has physical volume, and souls do not. At least, not as far as I know. So a smaller vessel would be able to contain less water, but it’s not the same with souls. Your soul doesn’t start leaking out of your arm if you get it chopped off. It just conforms to the new shape of your body.’

“Oh. Right...”

Hector navigated his way downward again. There seemed to be more Hun’Kui on these upper levels than there were the last time, and they didn’t all look like they were in the middle of going somewhere this time, either. Many of them were simply loitering and chatting. Maybe they’d all been at work earlier. Or school. He couldn’t really tell if any of the Hun’Kui were teenagers or adults.

Regardless, it was a bit of an inconvenience for him, because it meant more eyes on him. It seemed like he was drawing much more attention than he had before, despite the fact that he’d been part of a rather large party the last time. He would’ve thought it would be easier to keep a low profile, not harder.

Maybe that was just a feeling, though, and not the actual truth. Maybe there’d been plenty of people noticing them last time, but they’d just been too afraid to stare, and now that he was alone, he was much less intimidating.

Hmm.

It only got more crowded as he descended. The elevators were even more jam-packed than before, so he avoided them. He briefly considered leaping over the edge of the pit and catching himself with his iron, but he didn’t think that would help him keep a low profile, which he was having a hard enough time with already.

‘Ah,’ said Voreese at length, ‘I can sense Leo.’

“Leo?” said Hector, trying to whisper so as not to draw the attention of a big Hun’Kui family walking by. It didn’t work. “Not Roman?”

‘Hmm. Ah, yeah, I can sense Roman, too. He’s with him.’

Hector was still confused, though. “But how can you sense Leo? I thought you never met him.”

‘Those warehouses that he used to imprison everybody,’ said Voreese. ‘He soul-strengthened his material there. I memorized his soul based on that.’

“Oh...” Hector wouldn’t have even thought of that.

‘Follow me,’ said Voreese, taking a path to the right that wasn’t even visible because of the crowd.

Hector gently pushed his way through and went after her.