Page 2608

'Oh yeah,' said Voreese. 'Why are you guys fuckin' around with this weird tree, anyway?'

'Look closely,' said Garovel. 'You can sense that there's something off about this place, can't you?'

'Hmm.' Voreese floated over to Hector, not waiting for Roman. Her hollow gaze lingered on the orb. 'Ah. Yeah. It's suspiciously "empty," isn't it? No soul power here at all. Interesting. Haven't seen a soul vacuum in ages.'

'Hector and I actually saw one while were in the Undercrust. We didn't know what it was at first, but it turned out to be a powerful artifact known as the Moon's Wrath. It could absorb ardor and then shoot it back out as a destructive beam of light.'

'Oh yeah? That sounds awesome. How come you never showed us?'

'It got eaten by a worm.'

'Baha! Nice job, losers!'

Hector was too busy connecting the dots in his head to worry about her cackling. He remembered the Moon's Wrath quite clearly, but Garovel hadn't referred to it as a "soul vacuum" before.

So he was saying that this giant orb was like the Moon's Wrath, then?

"Are you saying that this thing can shoot out lasers, too?" said Roman, reaching a hand toward the glass.

'Ah-ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you,' said Garovel.

Roman retracted the hand. "Why?"

Voreese was the one to explain. 'Soul vacuums are rare, but they can have all sorts of weird effects. Like, if you're unlucky, sucking your soul right out of your body.'

Hector and Roman both blinked.

'It wouldn't kill you, since I've already got a handle on your soul, but it wouldn't exactly tickle, either, said Voreese. 'Existential pain is difficult to describe, and sometimes, the brain has a way of manifesting it into physical pain as well, just as a cherry on top.'