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Garovel laughed. ‘You don’t need to worry about Hector’s ears. I know he doesn’t seem like it, but he’s a total potty mouth.’

‘Is he really?’

‘Oh yeah. Drops f-bombs all the time.’

‘Hector!’ said Chergoa. ‘How very dare you! That is no way for a lord to behave, y’know.’

Hector decided to ignore that avenue of discussion. Something else was bothering him, anyway, and the reapers had yet to address it. In fact, he had a feeling that they didn’t even realize it yet. ‘...Aren’t you guys forgetting to explain something?’ he asked.

‘What do you mean?’ said Garovel.

Rather than answering, Hector waited for Chergoa. And when she didn’t say anything, he instead heard Emiliana snickering faintly.

‘They did forget,’ said Emiliana.

‘Ah--you realized it, too?’ said Hector.

‘Indeed.’

‘Realized what?’ said Chergoa. ‘What are we forgetting?’

Now Hector had to laugh a little, as well. ‘This is pretty fun.’

‘Isn’t it, though? Is Garovel always as smug with you as Chergoa is with me?’

‘Yeah. He’s always bragging about how much he knows.’

‘Ha.’

Both reapers spoke up in unison. ‘Alright, you two.’

‘Out with it,’ continued Garovel.

‘Seriously,’ said Chergoa.

‘Hmm,’ Emiliana hummed, still half-giggling. ‘Should we tell them?’

‘I guess so,’ said Hector. ‘We’d probably... be here forever if we waited for them to figure it out on their own.’

That pulled a bigger laugh out of Emiliana.

‘I’m glad you’re enjoying yourselves,’ said Garovel. ‘Are you done?’

‘Couple of real jerks, our servants.’

‘It makes sense, though,’ said Hector. ‘That they wouldn’t think of it, I mean. This is how they always talk.’

‘Oh, that is true,’ said Emiliana.

‘Would you just spit it out already?’ said Garovel. ‘This is getting ridiculous.’

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‘Why in the world would that be a good thing?’ Emiliana asked.

‘Soul-synchronization,’ Chergoa answered. ‘Obviously, it’d be boring as hell, but it would allow us to safely increase our soul power in a relatively short amount of time.’

‘Short amount of time?’ Emiliana sounded confused. ‘You just said it would be decades!’

‘Yes, in here it would be,’ said Chergoa. ‘But out there? Not so much.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Time and space are like butter and toast,’ said Chergoa. ‘When there’s a lot of toast, the butter gets spread out really thin. When there’s only a little toast, you end up having to cram a ton of butter on it.’

‘...Wouldn’t you just use less butter?’ said Hector.

‘No, see, the amount of butter is fixed.’

‘...Why would it be fixed?’

‘Look, I never said it was a perfect metaphor. The point is, time passes more quickly here.’

‘I thought time slowed down near black holes,’ said Emiliana.

‘This isn’t a black hole,’ said Garovel. ‘Black holes are created by condensed matter. I don’t think there’s any matter here. Only space.’

‘Oh.’

‘Also, if this were a black hole, we’d probably be dead.’

‘We ARE dead,’ said Chergoa.

‘Super extra dead, then.’

‘Eloquently put.’

‘H-hold on,’ said Hector. ‘Didn’t you say there was “okay” news, too?’

‘Yeah, that was it,’ said Garovel. ‘In theory, you and Emiliana could grow significantly more powerful in this place. Assuming we don’t go insane, that is.’

‘Eh, we won’t go insane,’ said Chergoa. ‘Not with four of us here. It’d be different if any of us were alone or unable to communicate with each other. Then we’d be fucked--I mean, er, screwed. Emiliana, plug your ears. You, too, Hector.’

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Garovel brought the conversation back on track. ‘So you think we’re in a pocket dimension. Is that right?’

‘Pretty much,’ said Chergoa. ‘You got a better theory?’

‘Well. “Better” is a strong word. A strong, accurate word.’

‘Uh-huh. Go on then, genius.’

‘I think you’re right. I think this is a pocket dimension. And I think we’re inside the shards, right now.’

‘Yeah, I already put that together,’ said Chergoa.

‘Shame you didn’t mention it, then. Now the credit’s all mine.’

‘No one cares.’

‘Hector cares. Don’t you, Hector?’

‘...I’m not involved in this conversation.’

Expectedly, the discussion derailed for quite a while. The reapers went on and on, back and forth, and Hector was about to just stop listening entirely until Emiliana intervened.

‘This is all very interesting,’ she said, ‘but how do we leave this place?’

And both reapers shut up for a moment.

‘Well,’ said Garovel. ‘There’s good news and bad news with that.’

‘More like okay news and weapons-grade-terrible news,’ said Chergoa.

‘Wonderful,’ said Emiliana. ‘Bad news first, then.”

Both reapers hesitated again, perhaps waiting for each other to take the liberty of explaining.

‘Come on,’ said Hector. ‘Tell us.’

‘Okay,’ said Garovel. ‘When we say that we’re stuck here, we mean it. There’s literally nothing we can do besides wait for the pocket dimension to degrade on its own and let us out.’

‘Yep,’ Chergoa added. ‘And the wait could be very long.’

‘HOW long?’ said Emiliana.

‘Dunno,’ said Chergoa. ‘A few hours, if we’re lucky. A few decades, if we’re not.’

‘DECADES?!’ Hector and Emiliana both said.

‘We’d have to be stupidly unlucky, though,’ said Garovel.

‘We ARE stupidly unlucky!’ said Hector.

‘Eh, I’m sure it won’t be that long,’ said Garovel. ‘Though, even if it were, that could be a good thing.’