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"Why would you say something so utterly untrue and hurtful?" said Zahi. "I know I put on a brave face, but I do have feelings, you know."

"Feelings like anger and jealousy, maybe."

"What, those don't count?"

Zahi kept pestering him, apparently having acquired enough of an interest in what he was doing for some reason. Loren mostly just tried to ignore him.

He consulted the other reapers around the camp, wanting to see if any of them could tell him anything more than what Rezolo had been able to, but he found no such luck. Despite there being more than fifty servants in this group, there were only about fifteen reapers.

No doubt, most of them were at some base somewhere, playing it extra safe and operating as communicators. Or simply doing something else. Loren was a little surprised to see how many reapers and servants rarely traveled together. While there were certainly benefits to splitting up--such as the servant being able to more easily go undercover as a normal human--Loren still felt that he would never be comfortable if he didn't stay with Rezolo all the time.

Their relationship was obviously a little odd, though. Especially in Abolish.

While Loren didn't feel like Rezolo was his "friend," exactly, it would be a lie to say that he only cared about the reaper in terms of preserving his own life. True, he would've preferred it if Rezolo wasn't so quiet and mysterious, but after all this time together, Loren was beginning to feel like maybe words were a little overrated.

They'd had numerous close calls in the past, times when either Rezolo or him would have died or been captured if the other hadn't done or said something. Shielding the reaper with his body. Killing an enemy just before they could strike. Or a simple warning at just the right moment.

These things added up.

They had their own kind of understanding.