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Zeff smiled another time. “I hope you’re right.” Coming from anyone else, he wouldn’t have believed it, but from her? Maybe she really did have that kind of power.

The sun waned in the sky. The day’s hostilities would soon come to an end, unless some eager warriors out there were feeling bold or desperate enough to launch a night raid.

Which was possible.

By his estimation, the VMP’s spirit was already broken, so the subset of Abolish forces were almost certainly at the end of their rope. Desperation might very well be on the menu tonight.

If they did launch an attack, though, it would be their last. Zeff would make sure of that.

“...So tell me more of this Lord Darksteel of Warrenhold that has been providing so much aid to us,” said Octavia. “You have gotten to know him quite well, from what I hear.”

“I suppose I have.”

“So spill. There are quite a number of rumors circulating about him. What is your opinion of him?”

“My opinion...” Hmm. Why did that seem like such a hard thing to provide? “Umm...”

Octavia just waited for him.

Whenever it came to Hector, Zeff had this impulse to be... stricter than perhaps he should have. He knew this. For the boy’s own good, that felt right and necessary.

Now was not the time for that, though. Octavia had only met him briefly back at Rheinhal, and her asking like this was probably more than mere curiosity. It was trust in Zeff’s judgment.

If he said something overly harsh, she would take it to heart.

“...He has been a truer ally and friend to us than I could have possibly ever hoped for,” said Zeff.

“Oh my.”

“But if you tell him I said that, I’ll deny it.”

She laughed outright. “I see!”

Zeff just let her keep laughing.

“That is a relief, then,” she said. “I was a bit worried when I heard about just how much we’ve apparently gotten entangled with him, but if you think so highly of him, then there must be something to it. I know you don’t extend your trust very easily.”

Zeff had to wonder if she’d wanted to add an “anymore” to the end of that last statement. It was kind of her not to, but he was fully aware that his trust in the Vanguard was a very large part of the reason why any of them were in this situation in the first place.

But maybe he was just reading too much into her words.