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He also needed to update the Queen, of course, but checking up on Pauline's well-being was more pressing, he felt. While he was fairly sure that the Sparrow hadn't gotten hurt during the fight, he wanted to be certain. Plus, there were a few other things he needed to talk to her about.

The trek was annoyingly long, though. All the way back down the Tower of Night, across the courtyard. But before he could make it back to the Entry Tower, however, the Saqqafs found him again.

"You are not resting?" said Abbas.

"I was going to, but I forgot to take care of some things," he said. "Did you need something?"

"I wasn't going to bother you, but while you're here--" Abbas was still armored up, and he showed both of his empty hands to Hector, which was momentarily confusing. "--the helmet you gave me to examine has disappeared."

What? Oh. That was strange. Had he done that accidentally when he dematerialized the rest of the armor? He rematerialized it into his hand and offered it again. "Huh. Sorry about that."

Abbas took it, then held up an armored finger. "One moment, please." Then he leapt away from the ground, rocketing up toward the distant cavern ceiling, reaching all the way to the place where the Tower of Night met the gray stalactites. He hovered there for a second, then came quickly back down and landed in exactly the same spot.

Hector noticed instantly. The dark helmet was no longer in his hands.

"Yes," said Abbas. "You did not do that, I assume? It appears to be dematerializing on its own once it is beyond a certain proximity to you."

Oh.

Hmm.

"This material is clearly quite different from your normal iron," said Abbas. "It even breaks the conventional rules of materialization."

Hector scratched his temple. "Well, that's good to know, at least. I guess I won't be making any spare copies of my armor, then."

"It would seem so. And if I am to study this material, you must remain close to me."

Dang. "Then I suppose we'll do that later. The other things I have to do right now can't wait."

"I thought you might say that," said Abbas. He nodded to someone behind him, then waved them closer. "In that case, Haqq will follow you around and perform preliminary examinations on it for us."

And Hector blinked as Haqq Najir stepped forward.