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Stoutamire was often traveling, the man explained. He would not stop going on about how nice it was to finally be home for more than just a couple of weeks. He wanted to show Hector this historical building or that one--and to tell him the stories accompanying them all.

Hector tried to be polite and pay attention, but he felt like he wasn't going to retain any of it very well. Garovel could remember it for him, he figured.

If nothing else, though, it was clear that the guy loved his country. Which was probably an important quality in an ambassador, Hector figured. Couldn't really fault him for spirit.

But of course, Stoutamire's trivia was never the actual purpose of their meetings. The purpose was to maintain a steady line of communication between Atreya and Lorent, to help keep each other up to speed on what was going on in the world--or as much as they were willing to share, at least.

And to that end, Hector could not fault Stoutamire in the slightest. The guy was plenty eager to share information with him. The Lorentians had learned quite a bit about the situations in Melmoore and Hoss. They'd gathered a fair bit of intel about Sair, too, but nothing that Hector didn't already know--which was to be expected.

In Melmoore, despite having been invaded by both Corrico and Ostra, the tide was supposedly beginning to turn in favor of the defenders. A recent battle in some placed called Trintol had gotten quite a bit of attention on the world stage. Apparently, the Melmoorians had whooped some serious ass there and then gone on to retake a large portion of the northern countryside from the Ostran forces.

After the disaster in Sair, that was welcome news indeed. There was no word yet about who among the Vanguard the victory was being attributed to, which seemed a little strange, but Hector couldn't complain.