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‘Oh, come on,’ said Hector. ‘You’re exaggerating. I mean, yeah, okay, it’d be dangerous, but not THAT dangerous. Not number one.’

‘And you’re even downplaying it, too! It’s like you’re trying to outdo me!’

‘The Candle’s not that dangerous, Garovel. It’s calm and gentle.’

‘It just got done putting Abbas into a coma, Hector.’

‘I--er, I mean, we don’t know that was the Candle’s doing. He might’ve, y’know, just exhausted himself from overwork.’

‘Worwal was a puddle on the floor.’

‘So they both exhausted themselves. As a team. Which is what we are, right? A team.’

‘You’re really grasping at straws here, pal.’

Hector wanted to argue, but he couldn’t. Instead, he shrugged and shook his head. ‘I know.’

‘You really wanna connect to the Forge that badly?’

‘...Kinda, yeah. Who knows what we could learn from it?’

‘Didn’t it already teach you everything?’

‘No, I mean... well, maybe it did. I don’t actually know.’

‘Ah. More uncertainty. Great.’

‘Look, Garovel, it’s just... my time spent inside the Candle was... well, it was pretty useful and cool, okay? And it’d be amazing if we could establish a way to reconnect with it whenever we wanted. The sheer volume of information that the Candle has access to is... astounding. And I still don’t even know how it’s sourcing that information. If this works, we might be able to answer some important questions. And not just about the Candle itself but maybe even about Fusion Forges in general.’

‘Hmm.’

‘Don’t you want to know more? There’s a chance that you’d be able to come along with me this time.’

‘Now you’re just saying whatever you think I want to hear.’

Hector had to relinquish a nod at that. ‘I’m just trying to make my case. C’mon. I know you’re just as intrigued by the possibilities here as I am.’

‘Ugh. I really hate how right you are. None of these arguments should be convincing me, and yet here I am, ready to go along with whatever dumb shit you wanna try next.’ The reaper broke for a pause. ‘This better not be your weird aura bullshit influencing me, fucking with my sense of reasoning. I’m gonna be pissed if I find out that’s the case later.’

‘You say that as if you’re normally some paragon of rational thinking.’

‘I am. And fuck you for suggesting otherwise.’

Hector decided to step out of the big glass orb. He still didn’t really know how he was going to try and ‘connect’ this thing to the Candle, but somehow, he felt like doing so while inside the main workspace would’ve been even more stupid and dangerous. Like trying to start a car while sitting inside the engine.