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Perhaps the reaper had a point.

But oh well. In this moment, Abbas Saqqaf could not bring himself to care about appearances. It seemed quite clear to him now that the young Hector Goffe of Atreya was going to be an important ally for the foreseeable future. Trying to present a false image to him, therefore, would not be good in the long run, even if it made things less bumpy in the here and now.

The glowing orb in Hector’s grasp drew the young man’s glance, along with a raised eyebrow.

Abbas wondered what that might be about, but when Hector elected not to say anything, the Lord Saqqaf decided to steer the conversation elsewhere. “In any case, I will take what you have told me into serious consideration. Worwal may pretend to know everything, but I will not.”

‘Hey.’

“It may well be true that we should reevaluate our approach to using the Forge,” said Abbas. “And your perspective on the Void is... intriguing to me. I shall have to give that more thought. But in the meantime, I must get back to work. The Core is but the first step in a larger project. More of a proof of concept than a finished product.”

“Ooh, yikes,” said Hector. “It doesn’t like hearing that.”

Abbas returned a flat smile. “Heh. Perhaps I shouldn’t even bother examining that one and instead merely leave it in your care. How would you feel about keeping it?”

“Uh. I’m not sure, but I kinda feel like I have no choice. How would you feel if I decided to destroy it?”

Abbas blinked. “Why would you do that?”

“Because it’s insanely dangerous.”

Abbas kept blinking. “And you just told me that it doesn’t like what I was saying. I can’t imagine it was too pleased to hear those words from you.”

“Oh, it already knows how I feel about it. We had a long chat before you woke back up. If it can’t learn right from wrong, at least in the most basic sense, then I don’t really care how much power it has to offer us. It’s too dangerous to keep around.”

“...You are treading into the territory of complex ethical questions, Hector. That may not be a human being in your hand there, but it is still a sentient, thinking entity that you are talking about killing.”

Hector’s gaze was steady. “I know. But it tried to murder you and Worwal. And possibly also Garovel.”

‘Yup,’ said Garovel. ‘Hates my guts, too, apparently.’