Page 2829

Maybe it was a bit rude, but Hector felt more of a kinship with the onlookers. The sight of Madison clinging to him like that made Hector want to tease Dimas, too. "Not at all," said Hector. "If anything, it was your boyfriend here who was keeping me safe."

"Oh?" Madison's big, curious eyes went to her beau.

Dimas, however, kept his eyes on Hector. "You're too modest, Lord Goffe. I did hardly a thing." Something about the way he said 'Lord Goffe' so stiffly made Hector think that Dimas might actually be somewhat uncomfortable--which was not something Hector had seen from him before.

"Have you ever seen him use his powers, Ms. Reach?" said Hector.

"Oh, a little bit, yeah. Dimas doesn't like to show off much, you know. He can be kinda shy, sometimes."

"You don't say?" said Hector. "How so?"

"Well, for instance, he doesn't like kissing for more than three seconds in front of other people, but when we're alone--"

Hector felt his chair raise off the floor and begin floating toward the door.

"It was nice talking to you, Lord Goffe," said Dimas, "but I am sure you have many other pressing matters to tend to. We wouldn't want to keep you."

Hector just laughed and didn't put up any resistance. Motive aside, the man wasn't wrong about him having other things to take care of.

His next encounter was not nearly so jovial, unfortunately. He first noticed it when crossing the main plaza and sensing a sudden disturbance in the air over the half-sunken town below Warrenhold. He returned to nearly the same spot where he'd talked to Abbas earlier and looked out into the distance, concentrating harder on the what the Scarf could tell him.

Air tremors might've been the best way to describe it. Indicative of heavy impacts. Not enough to make the cave itself tremble, thankfully, but still noteworthy, just the same.

That area over there was where he and Zeff often trained together.