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((Triple Saturday -- Page 2 of 3))
It made almost too much sense, Hector felt. And worse, whether he was killed or captured hardly even mattered at this point, didn’t it? Voreese had of course informed Hector and everyone else of Leo’s troubled relationship with his reaper. So if Leo was captured as a brain, like Roman currently was, then the man’s reaper probably wasn’t going to bother reviving him. Unless Sai-hee ordered it, perhaps.

Regardless, Leo’s circumstances were looking more than a little grim. To Hector’s mind, Leo should have been running for his life right about now, and yet he wasn’t. He was just sitting there, instead. Waiting for judgment and whatever came after.

Hector didn’t know anything about the guy, but he still felt a little bad for him.

And in a strange way, he related to him.

Hector was no stranger to that feeling of giving up. Of utter hopelessness. He hadn’t been letting it win lately, but he certainly remembered a time when he did. In fact, that was probably part of the reason why he hadn’t wanted to let it win. Not again.

Ah, but here Hector was, probably reading way too much into the situation. Leo was way older than him, and his problems were probably way more complicated.

Maybe.

Rasalased had definitely called him a lost sheep, though. And the Dry God hadn’t told Hector to stay away from him, either.

But Hector had also come to learn Rasalased was far from omniscient. So...

There was no telling what the correct course of action here was.

Shit.

Hector was tempted to just walk over and talk to the guy. Try to console him, maybe. Try to reason with him. And perhaps even try to help him.

He was tempted, but... was that actually a good idea?

Leo would doubtless figure out who he was almost immediately. And then he might just try to force Hector to give up the Rainlords so that he could resume his previous plan.

But... so what if he did that? Hector wasn’t going to give up the Rainlords. There was zero chance that Leo would be able to get that information out of him. And if Hector could somehow make Leo realize that, too...

Then...

Hmm.

Oh, and there was also Sai-hee’s people to worry about. There was no telling when they would show up. And if they arrived while Hector was just twiddling his thumbs here, then it would probably become even more difficult to get Roman back--if not straight up impossible.

But wait. That wasn’t even the worst-case scenario, was it?

No, the worst-case scenario would be if Sai-hee showed up, and then Leo told her... that the Rainlords... were now following... someone named Hector...

That was just Voreese’s bullshit, of course, but if Sai-hee actually believed it and then ended up coming to Warrenhold in search of them, then it would still be catastrophic just the same. And if she really did hate the Rainlords, then it would make plenty of sense to go after them now, while they were weakened and no longer had their affiliation with the Vanguard for protection.

Oh. Fuck.

Hector rubbed his forehead and took a deep breath. Waiting for an opening wasn’t looking like such an attractive option, all of sudden.