Page 1756

((Triple Monday -- Page 1 of 3))
‘They’re kids,’ said Hector. ‘I can’t just put them to work like employees or whatever. That’s probably against the law or something, isn’t it?’

‘Bah. If you ask me, child labor laws are mostly a pile of nonsense. Sure, kids need freedom to grow up, but actually growing up means having discipline and a sense of responsibility, and what better place to get those things than at a job, huh?’

‘Garovel...’

‘Alright, fine, here’s something else you can do.’

Hector listened, and by the time they reached the bottom floor, he had a plan. He stopped and turned around to face everyone, and they all stopped as well, going abruptly silent.

Oh geez. That was a lot of eyes staring at him.

“...I’d like to answer your questions,” said Hector, “but I can’t when you ask them all at once like that. So instead, what we’ll do is--”

“Hey, I was here first, so--” tried a short kid with a bowl cut.

“No, you weren’t!” said a stocky boy with glasses.

“Yeah, I was first!” said a young girl with long bangs.

“What?! No, I--!”

“Quiet,” came a stern and familiar voice from behind Hector. It belonged to the Lord Dimas Sebolt, approaching with his reaper Iziol. “You are being rude.”

That seemed to silence them all again. The way the man towered over everyone had a commanding effect, Hector thought.

Dimas looked to Hector, as if prompting him to continue.

With all eyes on him again, Hector tried to keep his composure. Momentarily, he wondered if he would ever stop feeling so uncomfortable in front of groups of people like this. “...We’ll make a game of it,” he said slowly. He held his hand out, palm up, and shut his eyes while he gathered his concentration. He focused on what the Scarf was telling him of Warrenhold, of its layout.

Whoa.

The Scarf wasn’t enough to reveal all eight of the castle’s towers to him in their entirety, but he could sense most of the Tower of Night and much of its surroundings as well, including parts of the Bell Tower and the Entry Tower.

It was so much information. The Tower of Night alone had such a complex structure to it that he probably could’ve lost himself in trying to examine every little nook and cranny that he could find, and if he wasn’t standing in front of a bunch of people who were waiting on his next words, he might’ve done exactly that.

Instead, though, he picked an empty table in one of the middle floors of the Entry Tower and concentrated on it. He wanted to materialize something there. But what? Something benign. He didn’t want to give the kids anything dangerous to look for.

A little figurine, he decided. An armored knight. Seemed appropriate.

He materialized a second one in the palm of his hand, making it identical to the first--or at least, as close to identical as he could get it.