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It seemed obvious, however, that these dreams were--in part, at least--the things that he’d partitioned off in his mind after his trip through the Candle. The most compelling evidence was simply that he’d never dreamt much before. The timing was too strange, otherwise. All the memories and information that the fusion forge had shown him must’ve now been manifesting themselves in this new way.

He felt like this was a good sign. A sign of progress. Perhaps this would be happening with increasing frequency as his mind continued to process everything. Or maybe a dream was even an indicator that a particular memory had completed its processing.

Weird to think of it like that. Shouldn’t he have known for sure? It was his brain, after all.

In any case, Hector’s main focus for the time being was still Grigozo and Ericoros. Now that there was no immediate threat to Warrenhold to worry about, those two captive reapers were the most pressing subjects to Hector’s mind. Plus, the castle was still mostly empty as they waited on word from abroad--in particular, from Vantalay.

From the reports he’d received, Hector was keenly aware that the situation over there was at its most tenuous. The Rainlords had been fighting for weeks now in order to find and free their brethren, and now they were on the verge of pulling it off. Only the final assault on Logden Prison was standing in their way, and Hector hoped to hear good news soon.

It was tough not to worry, of course, but these were the Rainlords. When it came down to it, he had quite a bit of faith in them. He’d witnessed their strength firsthand.

They weren’t going to let anything stand in their way.

He did wish he could’ve gone with them, though. And now that Warrenhold was seemingly safe, the temptation to fly to their aid was stronger than ever.

But until he received word that was truly dire, he intended to stay put. The Rainlords would be fine without him. Warrenhold wouldn’t. And sure, while it seemed like Bloodeye wasn’t going to launch another attack just yet, Hector didn’t think it was worth risking everything on that hypothesis.

But this was definitely an illuminating experience in its own way. Decisions like this weren’t trivial--that was for sure. And he could only imagine how many more like it he might have to make in the future.