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Raul was certainly familiar with those names. The weight behind them was more than enough to make him uneasy, but he tried to just focus on the task at hand.

‘I can’t tell if their reapers are in there with them,’ said Arumoro, ‘but if they aren’t, then that would be especially confusing.’

‘What do you mean?’ said Raul as he breached the surface with the frozen Vernon. He lined the icy pod with increased friction, wanting it to stay put right there instead of sinking back down or floating away.

‘Well, perhaps this is wrong of me to assume, but this ice seems like it may well be the work of Iceheart, considering it was apparently powerful enough to imprison all of these strong fellows. In which case, it’s strange that the reapers would be nowhere around. Presumably, Iceheart would only resort to a tactic like this for their own good, trying to protect them and help them escape.’

‘So maybe it was someone else’s doing then,’ said Raul, having already finished swimming back down. He started pulling the next pod through the opening. ‘Plenty of powerful servants can manipulate temperature. Anyone with pan-rozum, right?’

‘That’s what I mean. If this wasn’t the work of an ally to save them, then it must have been the work of an enemy. So where is that enemy now? How could they have lost track of such high-priority hostages?’

‘Well, there WAS just a world-changing storm that took place...’

‘Indeed. And these men seem to be harboring some quite horrific wounds in there.’

Really? Raul couldn’t tell through the ice. He could barely make out their humanoid body shapes. Though, now that the reaper was mentioning it... yeah, perhaps there were some limbs missing here and there.

‘I get the feeling that these fellows were at the heart of the madness,’ said Aru. ‘I’m sure they will have some interesting stories to tell when they wake up.’

‘If their reapers aren’t in there with them, then they might not be waking up anytime soon.’

‘Verily so. And I am not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed by that.’

Raul understood the reaper’s meaning. The united Rainlords of Sair were not exactly the biggest fans of the Vanguard, at the moment. While Raul didn’t know how the elders were feeling about things, he’d still heard plenty of loose talk going around, recently.

Particularly about a certain captain general by the name of Parson Miles.