Page 1746 -- CLXXXVI.

((Mother's Day Special -- Page 3 of 12))
Morgunov’s head twitched, and he blinked a couple times, staring at Damian. “What are you doing there, boy? Eheh, that tickles a bit!”

Damian just grit his teeth and pushed harder, demanding still more from himself. He thought he felt a response, even.

Morgunov began to giggle. “Ooh! Now it really tickles! You’re a funny boy! What’s that ability of yours, hmm?”

‘...We don’t know,’ said Feromas. ‘We haven’t been able to figure it out, either.’

“Ya don’t say! Well, I do love me a good mystery! Maybe I won’t be killing you, after all!”


Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Six: ‘Take repose and steady thyself...’
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Hector almost couldn’t believe it when he finally, truly, actually made it back to Warrenhold in one piece. The journey had taken several more hours, of course, but there was no further interruptions or delays, which he considered a miracle enough on its own.

He ended up waiting to have Voreese revive Roman, however. The heat of the Undercrust would have made the regeneration more difficult and caused Roman needless extra pain later, so Hector didn’t get a chance to catch up with Roman just yet.

Even after he made it back, there wasn’t much opportunity for pleasantries. Now that everyone was safe--for the time being, at least--all Hector really wanted to do was sleep. And he wasn’t the only one, either. The exhaustion among the Rainlords was plain as day. He supposed being held captive as brains for the past few days hadn’t qualified as proper rest.

As he dragged himself toward the Tower of Night, to the master bedroom therein, he couldn’t help thinking about all of the things that he would have to take care of after he woke up.

Garovel and Voreese were going to bring the Rainlords up to speed for him, regarding everything that had transpired with Leo, and a part of Hector was glad that he wouldn’t be conscious for their reactions. Somehow, he didn’t think that they would want to play along with the fiction that Voreese had concocted about him being their new leader.

And of course, he would have to inform the Queen of the situation as well. He had no idea how he was going to explain all of this to her. Harboring a bunch of fugitives from the Vanguard was bad enough, but now he had to tell her about Leo, too? A likely fugitive from Sai-hee?

She probably wasn’t going to be very pleased about that.

Still. At least they were here. They’d made it to Warrenhold.

There sure were a lot of people around now, too. Most, if not all, of the non-servant Rainlords were up and about, it seemed. Many of them were staring at him as he passed, and a few even came up to him and tried to strike up a conversation. He tried his best to politely decline, citing exhaustion, and they all seemed to understand.

When he opened the door to his room and saw the bed there, he couldn’t imagine a more relieving sight in the entire world.