Page 2563

As for Prince David, he had already gone back to Intar, which was a shame. Hector had enjoyed his company, even if their meeting with President Dance had gotten a little awkward.

Lord Hanton had technically departed as well, supposedly back to Atreya, but he was actually still following Hector while invisible. He wasn't trying to hide his presence from Hector himself, however.

'It's rather barren,' said Hanton, presumably from somewhere up in the sky.

'I'm sure we could find a use for it,' said Garovel, who was hanging on his shoulder. The reaper still didn't seem to be terribly comfortable in the presence of Sparrows, and Hector couldn't really blame him much.

'I still can't believe you're considering their offer,' said Hanton. 'The only reason they are interested in granting you this land is because it will compel you to defend Lorent for them in the event of another crisis.'

'So you've mentioned. Multiple times now.'

'You must realize that if Lorent gets dragged into the war, you will have a serious dilemma on your hands.'

'And passing up this opportunity without first giving it appropriate consideration would be incredibly stupid.'

'There is nothing in this empty land that could possibly be valuable enough to counterbalance the level of risk that you would be taking by accepting it.'

'Dunno about that,' said Garovel. 'I seem to recall hearing something about a point of "geographic resonance" in this country, which sounded like it could possess all sorts of value.'

'Hmph. Yes, well, that location was further north, and moreover, it was destroyed in the battle.'

'I'm just saying that if we happened to find another one in this Jagwa region here, then that might be valuable enough to take the risk, wouldn't you say?'

Hanton gave a psychic grumble, one that seemed to harbor begrudging agreement.