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‘Tell you what: how about you give us your phone number, and then we’ll give you a call once we run it by the boss later? In the meantime, you can head over to Gargrand and see the surviving passengers for yourselves.’

‘An interesting offer. But that’s an awfully long trip and quite a bit of hassle to go through when we’re already right here. I don’t see why your boss should have any problem with us going through the wreckage a bit, especially if he didn’t give you any specific orders to keep people out.’

Hector was moving closer again, and it seemed like Rezolo was struggling to come up with another counterpoint.

Loren felt compelled to interject privately. ‘I think we just let them have a look,’ he told the reaper.

‘Caster didn’t leave us here to watch over the ship for no reason,’ said Rezolo.

‘Sure, but as long as it’s still here when he gets back, it’s probably fine, right? Unless these two try to steal the wreckage somehow, I don’t think it’s worth risking a fight.’ Loren watched as Hector left the ground again and flew overhead, presumably to go inspect the ship from above.

‘...They make me uneasy,’ said Rezolo, still with the echo of privacy. ‘What do your senses tell you about them?’

Loren finally stepped out of the ship’s shadow in order to get another look at Hector over the ship. ‘Nothing normal. It’s not like it is with Caster, but your intuition is definitely correct. There’s something off about them. We shouldn’t fight unless we have no other choice.’

‘It’s times like this when I wish Caster would carry a damn phone,’ said Rezolo.

Loren could only agree. He’d have to broach the subject again later, though he doubted it would do much good.

The strangers’ investigation into the wreckage continued for a while, while Loren and Rezolo merely observed in silence. Loren didn’t expect them to find anything odd or problematic, but the more things drew out, the more uncertain he began to feel.

This sure would’ve been a nice time for Caster to show up out of nowhere, like he often did.

“What do we have here?” came the familiar voice from behind him.

And this time, Loren did not jump, having both been hoping for and even expecting it to happen. When he turned and saw Caster standing there, he very nearly smiled with relief.