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'And also, congratulations on helping me invent a new term. Soul-comas weren't a thing until you came along and scared the shit out of everyone.'

Hector just showered in silence, unsure how to respond. The reaper sounded pretty upset, actually. Not necessarily with him so much as with the strangeness of the circumstances.

But maybe also with him. Kinda.

'And y'know, seeing as our souls are connected as per this whole reaper-servant situation we've got goin' on, you would think that something like a soul-coma would affect me along with you. But no. Apparently not. I've felt just peachy this whole time.'

Hector scratched his head at that as he applied shampoo. Oh hey. Yep. His hair had definitely grown a bit. 'Er... are you implying that you're upset about NOT being in a coma with me?'

'No. Maybe. A little bit.'

'Garovel, I'm touched. But that's stupid. Like, really stupid.'

'Yeah, well, maybe I'm just curious about what the Forge showed you.' A beat passed. 'And don't you dare tell me that it didn't show you anything or that you don't remember.'

Well, now, he was kinda tempted to say both of those things.

'You were standing in one place, motionless, for two weeks. And I've been waiting for some damn answers for another two weeks on top of that. So you better have some juicy-as-fuck details for me about what the hell happened back there.'

'Uh...'

'Hector...'

Frankly, he wasn't sure how to explain. Or if it was even possible to. What had the Forge shown him? What hadn't it shown him? There was enough information swimming around in his head right to fill a book. Or ten books. Or more, maybe.

Holy shit, he thought.

But it was all a mess. Disordered. And foggy, in places. Just concentrating on it was difficult, like trying to look through a dim window.

It wasn't supposed to be there, he was pretty sure.