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Hmm. Abbas couldn’t help being a bit surprised at how certain Hector sounded of his convictions here. Young people did not often have such feelings toward such matters, he’d found. It usually took them quite some time to determine their beliefs in one direction or the other.

But for the few young people who did have such feelings, it was usually a red flag. A warning sign. That they were either thoughtless toward the real consequences of their actions, or that they simply had a callous--or even cruel--nature to them, deep down.

Neither of those descriptions seemed to fit Hector here, but it was also still too soon to be sure. They hadn’t actually known this fellow for very long, had they?

There was a third explanation, though. For an attitude like this in a young person. Abbas had seen it a few times.

It could manifest when a young person had been forced to confront the matter by a particularly horrific event. When they’d been given no choice but to reach a strong decision about it.

And right now, observing this young man’s gaze, Abbas was leaning toward that explanation. What exactly had this child been through? Even among Sandlord and Rainlord children--children who tended to mature quite quickly--this was rare to see.

It was one thing to bear witness to some terrible trauma. That was more than bad enough. But it was another thing to be forced into a terrible decision regarding that trauma, too.

If it hadn’t felt wildly inappropriate to do so, Abbas might have inquired further.

Instead, he decided to stay on topic. Hector and Garovel were already being quite generous with how much time they were giving him to think.

“...To be quite blunt,” said Abbas, “I would be upset if you destroyed the Living Core. Even disregarding how much effort I put into its creation, I simply do not see how there would be any need to destroy it. In the worst case, putting it in storage would be the more desirable outcome.”

Hector made no response, but his eyes went to the floor, and he rubbed his chin.

Abbas kept going. “Especially considering the fact that you do not know how the Candle might react to its destruction. If it feels any sort of attachment to the Core, then you would be jeopardizing our relationship with it, too.”