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"In fact," said Abbas, "that was where I encountered two of the Mad Demon's killer robots."

'That's very alarming,' said Garovel, sounding surprised. 'Does that not suggest that Abolish had access to privileged information?'

'It does,' said Worwal. 'I have to imagine that was a contributing factor to the scattered nature of our retreat. If I had to guess, I would say that each of the Hahls has gone to ground and intends to wait quite a while before risking contact with anyone outside of their respective families.'

Hector understood. But he had a hard time buying all of that. "Do you think one of your own kin would have given up details like that?"

'I would like to say no,' said Worwal, 'but the more times goes by, the more skeptical I become.'

Hector didn't know the Sandlords like he knew the Rainlords. He couldn't treat them like they were the same. But even so, it seemed to him that there was at least one way in which the Sandlords and the Rainlords were extremely similar. Their sense of honor. "Is it possible that the leak could have originated from the Vanguard, instead?" he asked.

Worwal and Abbas both paused at that.

"...Perhaps," said Abbas. "The rallying points might have been shared with certain Vanguardians whom had gained one or more of the Hahls' trust."

'Either way, it makes no difference without proof. Even if we could contact the other Hahls, they would likely be incredibly suspicious of us. As we should be of them.'

"What about Hahl Najir?" said Hector. "Haqq was with you, but where are Jada and Imas?" Asad's daughter and sister, respectively. There was Asad's wife and son, too, but Hector couldn't quite recall their names, at the moment.

'We don't know,' said Worwal. 'Nor does Haqq.'