Page 3018

'Listen, eh... can we talk about that later? I'm not really sure how to explain it all yet, and I feel like you should bring me up to speed on the past month, first.'

'Oh, I see how it is. You like leaving me in the dark, don't you?'

Hector's face flattened as he lathered himself in soap. 'Garovel.'

'Alright, alright. I mean. Yeah. There's. Some stuff. That I should probably tell you about. It might be kinda surprising, though. Just a tad bit.'

Hector waited. Recalling how many difficult situations he'd been worried about before his "soul-coma," he tried to brace himself for bad news.

'Hey, are you sitting down? You're not, are you? You're too busy washing your junk.'

'Garovel, just tell me.'

'Okay, well, first off, the Rainlords found their captive brethren.'

His head twitched. 'What?!'

'They're in Vantalay.'

'You're shitting me. Wait, who's in Vantalay? Tell me everyone didn't just leave Warrenhold while I was out.'

'No, no, nobody's left yet. But they've definitely been thinking about it. A lot. It's practically all they've been talking about this past week.'

'Shit... so the other half of the Rainlords are being held captive in Vantalay, right now?'

'Mmhmm. Apparently, one of the Triplets happened upon the intel while sneaking through a VMP base.'

It took Hector a second to piece all that information together. 'The VMP? I thought the VMP was working with Abolish. Why would they have intel on Vangaurdian prisoners from a totally different country?'

'They ARE working with Abolish. Mostly. It's a big ol' mess. It would appear that the Vanguard has made a secret deal with them to take custody of the captive Rainlords in exchange for pulling their forces out of Vantalay.'

Hector blinked. 'What the fuck kind of deal is that?! Wouldn't the VMP just hand them over to Abolish and be done with it?!'

'Supposedly, it's a temporary arrangement. The Vanguard would come back for them once the war is over and take custody again. But who knows how true that is?'

'Agh, fuck...'