Page 2865

'That is very true,' said Worwal. 'Our Hahl is still intact. We have wonderful allies. And hope. I've seen times when all we had was the latter. And even that was debatable.'

Abbas made no response, but the expression on his face seemed to soften a little.

Maybe it felt a little weird for him to receive consolation from someone who was so much younger than him. Over an entire century.

Hector had to wonder what that was like. Perhaps he had it all wrong. Perhaps after living as a servant for that long, Abbas had reached a point where age just stopped mattering to him altogether. In a way, that would make sense. Worrying over age differences all the time did seem like it would get a little exhausting after a while, especially if you don't have many peers left in your own age group.

That might explain why Lord Abbas never seemed to talk down to him, despite how young he was.

Or wait, did that explain that? Come to think of it, Hector wasn't actually sure how old Abbas thought he was.

He... he wasn't under the impression that Hector was super old, right? Asad probably mentioned it to him at some point, right?

Unfortunately, the more he let those questions stew in a background thought process, the more Hector came to realize that there was no good way to ask them.

After their meeting, Abbas and Worwal departed first, taking the vehicle and their accompanying entourage back towards the Forge and Atreya. Hector intended to stay in Lorent with the Queen and fly back with her.

And he was finally able to speak with her alone.

Somehow, it felt like ages since they had last been able to do this.

The Queen must have been waiting for this opportunity, too, because she didn't waste time with softball questions. "If Lorent is attacked, do you intend to fight in its defense?"