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Hector's memory of actually renaming the Forge was a bit of a blur, however. He couldn't tell if that was because the memory was foggy like so many others or if the experience itself had simply been... blurry. He certainly recalled how fucking weird it had felt at the time.

His ability to communicate with the Forge directly had improved dramatically over the course of his stay, though he'd never been able to understand actual words from it like Rasalased could. It was just a matter of teaching the Forge to beep, pulse, or screech at him in increasingly sophisticated ways. By the end of their time together, he and the Forge had worked out quite the elaborate little code.

Now that he was out here again, Hector doubted he would ever be able to dive back into the Candle, but it had been nice while it lasted. Their code had been the key factor in allowing him to "rewind" and "fast forward" through all the memories as he pleased.

But again, the renaming... that was peculiar.

In retrospect, why had he even done that? Why had he even known that he could do it? Abbas had told him all about how important it was, about how naming it wrongly could ruin everything.

And yet, he'd just... done it. Like it wasn't that big of a deal. Like he shouldn't let Abbas handle it.

Why?

Because the Forge wanted him to.

Yeah. That was it, wasn't it?

In that particular moment, he'd come to know the Forge in a way that was inarticulable. For that briefest time, he'd felt as if... as if he was the Forge, and the Forge was him. There'd been no need to communicate anything. He could just... tell. What it felt. What it wanted.

Hmm. And the reverse had probably also been true, hadn't it? It could see everything about him.

All his private thoughts and shit.

Agh. Dang it.