Page 2953

Garovel hovered to and fro behind Hector. 'So we'll need to give it a new name, after all, is what you're saying.'

"Yes and no," said Abbas. "I believe the word Candle is still accepted by it. It is the word Agrian's that it has a problem with."

'Ah...'

Hector felt like he was beginning to get the picture.

"Worwal and I have been talking about who this Agrian person might have been," said Abbas. "Unfortunately, he does not remember a famous integrator by that name. We were therefore hoping that you might know more, Garovel."

Hector's reaper was quiet as all attention shifted to him.

They had the room all to themselves, just the four of them. Abbas had made sure to send his own attendants away, and now Hector understood why. If this information turned out to be sensitive in some way, then they didn't want it getting out. Surely, if they asked every reaper at Warrenhold if they recognized the name Agrian, one of them was bound to know something, but that could also be a risk--maybe not right now, but in the future, once the reapers inevitably began to disperse back out into the world.

Abbas and Worwal wanted to play things ultra safe here, and he didn't blame them. Indeed, their next words confirmed as much for him.

'If you don't know anything, that's fine,' said Worwal. 'We were just thinking that the fewer people we have to bring into this little circle of trust, the better.'

'I understand,' said Garovel. 'And the truth is... I do know of Agrian. I find it a bit difficult to believe that he could have been the one to create this Forge, but... at the same time, it makes a strange sort of sense.'

Worwal folded his skeletal arms in front of his black shroud, long scythe poking out to his side. 'Don't tell me you knew him personally.'

'No, no,' said Garovel. 'But during my time as a Prime Archiver, many stories from around the ancient world came to my attention.'