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“Yes, I’m sure,” said Hector. “Shut up with that, already.”

‘But what if breaking it unlocks its hidden power?’

“Why in the world would that do it?”

‘Why wouldn’t it? It’d be like breaking open a locked door.’

“Yeah, okay. Or it’d be like smashing a priceless vase.”

‘Y’know what? I bet you’re not even strong enough to break it. I bet it’s probably too powerful for you.’

Hector snorted. “You must be getting desperate, if you think that’s gonna convince me.”

‘Ugh, damn you and your lack of pride. You’re a lord now, you know. Your ego is supposed to be inflating every day.’

Hector ignored him, knowing they were going to get sidetracked again if he didn’t.

In a background thought process, he’d been trying to sift through the memories of the Candle for anything about Rathmore’s Gate or Rathmore’s Materials--or even Rathmore himself. In truth, he’d been searching for a while, on and off for the past few days.

With all the things that the Candle had left him, it felt like there had to be something in there. Somewhere. Right? If these Materials were as old as Garovel said, then surely the Candle would’ve learned something about them as some point.

If only it was that simple.

Perhaps Hector was taking too long with his thoughts, because Garovel seemed to realize what he was up to.

‘Find something relevant in that head of yours?’ the reaper asked.

“I’m trying, but... I don’t think so.”

‘Hmm. Nothing at all about Rathmore? He was pretty damn famous, so it would make sense if the Candle knew about him.’

“Unfortunately,” said Hector, “that’s not really how it works. The memories are... just, like, scenes in my head. And emotions, too. Those are able to come through. But names? And words? I can’t really use those like keywords for a search.”

‘No? That sucks.’

“Tell me about it,” said Hector. “I can sometimes remember... conversations. Sort of. But that’s about it. And they’re usually kinda... weird and muddy. Probably because they were taking place in a language that I don’t actually know.”

‘So you just need to search for someone mentioning Rathmore’s name.’

“You make it sound so simple...”

‘Maybe it is. Maybe you’re getting into your own head and overcomplicating things. Not that you would ever do such a thing, I’m sure.’