Page 3661

‘I swear you used to be the responsible one in this relationship,’ said Hector. ‘What ever happened to that, huh?’

‘Well, yeah, in the beginning, I had to be. You didn’t know shit about shit. I had to take care of you. Or try my best to, at least. But now that you’re all sauced up and weirdly powerful, it actually frees me up to be my truest self, unburdened by things like worry for our combined well-being. Great, right?’

‘I know you’re being funny right now, but you’re also just... telling the truth, aren’t you?’

‘They say jokes are funniest when they have a vein of truth to them.’

‘Rrgh...’

‘C’mon! Touch that shit. I know you want to.’

Hector shook his head. But he also reached his hand out. ‘Why am I so stupid...?’

‘Many a time throughout history, genius has been indistinguishable from stupidity.’

‘Oh, really? Well, this is definitely not one of those times.’ And his gauntlet made contact with the small globe.

Nothing happened.

‘C’mon, we went over this with the mirror at the Gate. You gotta touch it with your bare hands.’

Inside his helmet, Hector’s brow flattened, as did his mouth. ‘As I recall, you told me to do that, and then it made no difference whatsoever.’

‘Your recollection must be flawed, then.’

‘Nope.’

‘Hector, please. Leave the remembering of things to a professional. And do as I command of you, my loyal servant.’

‘Oh, shut up.’ He did dematerialize his right gauntlet, however. He braced himself, then pressed his bare hand against the orb.

A few long beats passed.

‘...Anything?’ asked Garovel.

‘Uh. Well, it’s warm.’

‘How thrilling.’

‘There is something weird here, though.’

‘Oh?’

‘Er, uh, not like with my senses or anything. It’s just that... I mean, the flame inside the orb is completely encased. There’s no hole for oxygen to get in, so how is it burning?’

‘Ah.’

‘Can ardor do that? Maintain a flame without oxygen?’

‘Dunno. Maybe the cord is letting oxygen in.’

Hector picked the orb up to inspect it more closely. As far as he could tell, the cord didn’t seem like a hollow tube. To the touch, it felt more like rope or string. And the metal band that it was connected to looked about as simple as could be. Featureless steel.

‘Hmm.’ Hector held up the band next, eyeing it closely. ‘Maybe I’m supposed to wear this? Like a bracelet or something?’