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Parson was left to stew in his thoughts for a long while as he waited for the blasted robot to reach its destination. Wherever he was being taken, it was probably going to be an absolute nightmare.

Morgunov had said that he intended to take him to Germal, of all people, but he doubted that would be their first stop. If Asad Najir had been captured, too, then Morgunov would probably treat him as the priority. Probably, being the key word. There were really no certainties when it came to predicting the Mad Demon.

Parson could only hope that the others had arrived in time to save Asad, though he doubted it immensely. His plan to stall the Mad Demon until they got there had been far from ideal--not the least because Morgunov saw right through it.

What a day.

When he woke up this morning, he hadn't expected to be facing down a hostile emperor all by himself. And as he sat here in the darkness, contemplating his fate, he began to wonder if he hadn't been bamboozled.

That message he'd received from a Courier out of the blue. Maybe he'd been a fool to trust it.

"Morgunov seeks the power of a god in Sair," it had read. "If he captures Asad Najir, he may find it. And all we have worked for will be imperiled like never before. Please, old friend. Do whatever you can, for the sake of the bond we once shared and for the vision that I hope we still do."

It hadn't been signed, of course. And sharing that bit of intel with his superiors directly would have jeopardized so many other things, his life and career being among them.

Perhaps it would have been wiser to disregard it, to remember that Germal had never been the same after Bellvine and especially not after Damian.

But that letter had stirred something in him. Something he thought long dead.