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Abbas continued to tinker with the helmet of his armor during the ride. He had decided not to bring the entire suit with him, as most of it was apparently in a delicate stage that made moving it problematic. Haqq Najir had stayed behind at Warrenhold to continue working on it.

Hector used the opportunity to tell him what he'd already told Zeff about Asad's captivity.

Abbas was in turns displeased and confused. He had a few questions about Rasalased but not as many as Hector might've expected. Abbas seemed to already have some idea of what was going on there. Perhaps Asad had told him, or perhaps he'd been talking to people around Warrenhold.

Either way, it wasn't anything that Hector hadn't heard before. Once that conversation was out of the way, Hector was eager to move on to topics that he felt were more pressing.

"I was wondering what you plan to do after you finish repairing your armor," he asked.

Abbas took his time responding. "Truth be told, I have been wondering about that, myself."

Hector frowned and eyed the other members of Hahl Saqqaf in the car with them. They didn't look very encouraged by those words, and Hector couldn't blame them.

He couldn't really blame Abbas, either, though. The guy might've been their leader, but he was in a horrible position, right now. His country had just been stolen from him. His kin, crushed and scattered.

If he was feeling a bit lost, then that made perfect sense, unfortunately. Hector sympathized.

But even so, admitting as much in front of his people... Even if there were only a handful of them here, right now, Hector didn't see much logic in that.

He might've still been new to this whole lording business, but in his experience, keeping up appearances was half the battle.

Well, okay, in his experience, it might've actually been more like ninety percent of the battle.