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A suddenly cold gust of wind interjected in their conversation, causing everyone to brace themselves against its biting touch. Then in the distance, a bolt of lightning flashed across the night sky, followed very soon afterward by its accompanying boom.

The others all looked briefly in the direction the bolt had been in, and Hector did the same, but his mind was simultaneously elsewhere.

Because that gust of wind had showed him something through the Scarf.

Quite far away from the group, on one of the grounded airplanes, Hector had briefly sensed the foggy outline of a figure. And a large one--familiarly large. It had only been for a fleeting moment, but he was pretty sure of what he'd just sensed.

A Sparrow.

Impulsively, Hector wanted to look over in that direction immediately, but he resisted. He was pretty sure that they would just be invisible, anyway, and they might suspect that he was onto them if they saw him looking right at them.

Was it Hanton? Hector doubted it. The Lord Gaolanet would've known better than to try to hide from him.

Whoever it was, this was a problem. Before anything else, Hector needed to know if they were hostile. Because if they were, then he couldn't trust anything that his eyes were telling him, right now. Everything was potentially an illusion.

"Excuse me," said Hector, drawing everyone's attention. "I know this may seem odd, but could you all wait here one minute? There's something I have to take care of. I won't be long."

Understandably, they were all confused, and it took him a little while to "explain" without actually explaining. He told that he knew he was being a little weird but that everything was fine. And even after he'd convinced the Lorentians, the Rainlords tried to come along, too, so he had to tell them to stay and guard the Secretary.

They didn't say much, but he knew they weren't very pleased by that.