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Hector's eyes narrowed inside his helmet. He'd opened up the faceguard so that his voice wouldn't have a metallic echo to it through the phone. "What CAN you tell me about the current situation in the city?"

<"Oh, not much, I'm afraid. Information has been a scarce commodity in here, much to my displeasure.">

Hmm. "I'd like to talk to Vito. Could you put him on?"

<"Ah, he is unavailable, at the moment.">

Hector's brow lowered. "Why?"

<"He was called away by one of the higher-ups around here.">

"...Called away? He's your bodyguard, Your Highness. No one has the authority to call him away except you."

<"...Hmm. Well, when you put it like that, it does seem a bit odd, doesn't it? But I believe they wanted his help in the defense of the fortress. He proved himself quite the asset in saving multiple lives, you know. It would not have felt right to hold him back just for my sake.">

"Even so, he shouldn't have left your side. Especially without telling me."

<"Oh, no, no. Please, Lord Goffe. Don't tell me I've gotten the poor lad into trouble by telling you that. He left at my insistence.">

Garovel chimed in for a private word. 'Wow, this is even worse than I thought.'

Yes. Clearly, something was wrong, but it seemed not much was going to be accomplished in conversation with the prince until Hector was able to meet him face to face. Then, at least, he might be able to learn something from the man's aura.

But before giving up entirely here, Hector had a suspicion that he wanted to pursue. It would require taking quite the direct approach, though. Would that be worth the risk?

After mulling it over across multiple thought processes for a few more seconds and reviewing his own rough guesses about what might really be going on here, he decided to give it a shot.

"Prince David... you wouldn't happen to be under someone's psychic influence, right now, would you?"

There came a very long pause.

<"Excuse me? Psychic influence? What do you mean?">

Unfortunately, there was a very real possibility that the man wasn't even playing dumb--that he was simply unaware of what was happening to him.

Or Hector could be mistaken, of course. Certainly wouldn't have been the first time. It could always be some other insanely weird thing that he'd never encountered before.

Before relenting, though, he wanted to make sure. "I know that probably sounded like a strange question, but I was just asking in case someone else out there happened to be listening."