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'Do you really think you will be able to find all of these things?' Emiliana asked.

Hector put his pen down. 'Ah... no, probably not. I expect we'll run into a lot of dead ends before anything pans out.'

'I suppose it simply depends on how good my information turns out to be,' she said.

'Fingers crossed...'

'Yes.'

Hector paused, considering how to transition into his next query. 'Ah... have you, er, discovered anything about the other stuff I mentioned before?'

'Not yet. You said that those subjects were not as much of a priority, did you not?'

'Yeah. It's just curiosity, right now.'

'..."Right now?" Does that mean you expect your interest in them to eventually become MORE than curiosity?'

Boy, she sure knew how pick up on little things, didn't she? On impulse, he wanted to tell her that she was reading too much into his words, but... she wasn't, and he knew it.

'It's possible,' he told her. 'At this point, I honestly don't know what I expect the future to bring. It seems like a thousand different things could happen--or none of them.'

'I see. So in other words, this interest of yours in ancient gods and peoples is not merely academic?'

'Yeah.'

'...Dare I ask why?' she said.

'Uh. Well. If you really want me to explain, I will. But it's a long story--and probably pretty confusing.'

'Hmph. I have time, right now. And compared to the tomes I've been trying to read lately, I'm sure your tale will be much easier to understand.'

Tomes? Had she been reading physical books for all this research? Hector supposed that wasn't surprising. Abolish probably had loads of libraries. But considering how tight-lipped she'd been about her circumstances so far, that sliver of confirmation almost felt like a slip up on her part.

He didn't want to draw attention to it, though.