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It was a breakthrough, but not a large enough one. Voreese immediately volunteered to squeeze through and check on everyone, but Zeff didn’t want any of the reapers going in on their own. So the group waited a while longer before the Lord Elroy finally managed to widen the hole enough to peek through, and ultimately, for a person to fit through.

Zeff made an icy staircase extending up from within the warehouse and connected it to Hector’s platform. They all descended in single file with Zeff in the lead. Hector was slightly worried that a staircase made of solid ice would be rather perilous to walk on and so added a ribbed layer of iron to it.

The light source from within the warehouse turned out to be a tall lamp with several people clustered around it, all wearing climate suits, though none were donning their helmets.

Hector recognized a couple faces from House Sebolt, one from House Delaguna, two from House Blackburn, and after a moment, two from House Elroy. Marcos and Ramira Elroy stepped out from behind the others.

When they saw their father, their eyes lit up, and they ran to him. The man dropped to his knees and hugged both, a child for each arm.

Hector breathed a sigh of relief. It had only been a few days, but it felt like he hadn’t seen them in ages, and it was certainly a load off his mind to finally see that they were okay. Their living conditions didn’t look too bad, either. They had some chairs, the lamp, a pile of books to read, a cart full of food, and a bathroom.

There was still much to be done, however. Just this one warehouse was loaded up with pods full of sleeping Rainlords, and getting them all out of here safely was not going to be an easy task. The first task, everyone agreed, was to find all the captive servants and free them so that they could assist in the effort. Certain servants like Dimas or Melchor might have been a priority, but the problem was that no one knew where any individual servant’s brain was located. They only knew that they were all stored somewhere up in the rafters or in one of the other warehouses--all of which were currently filled with whatever that black material was.

Hector, Zeff, and Diego set to work trying to find and free the servants while Manuel got started removing the plethora of pods from the warehouse.

Hector didn’t much care for the digging. Since they were only looking for servant brains this time, they didn’t have to be quite as careful as Zeff had been earlier, but there was still the concern that they would run across a captive reaper and accidentally kill it. Not to mention all the slumbering Rainlords below could get hurt by any falling debris.

So it was an exercise in precision. And damn this black stuff was tough. Hector couldn’t even put a dent in it without resorting to his orbiting technique, but he was simultaneously afraid of using that technique with the same level of intensity as he had against the worm. It was tricky, trying to find a happy medium. So tricky, in fact, that he only managed to find one brain by the time Zeff and Diego had each found four.

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‘Yeah, I’m familiar with some of his exploits,’ said Voreese. ‘He snuck into an Abolish fortress and killed two dudes who were pretty infamous at the time. Real malevolent bastards, those ones. I was following their careers because of an awful encounter I had with them several years earlier, so it was quite the pleasant surprise for me when I learned that some guy named Darktide had not only crushed them, but made ‘em look like utter fools, too.’

That brought up a question that Hector wanted answered. “How do you sneak into a fortress full of reapers? Wouldn’t they sense any intruders immediately?”

‘Yep,’ said Voreese. ‘That’s one of the reasons why it was so impressive. According to what I learned, Darktide pretended to be a non-servant and allowed himself to be taken prisoner. Now, Abolish is known for not usually taking prisoners, but in this instance, they were kidnapping locals and using them for experimentation. Pretty horrific stuff, from what I heard. But essentially, Darktide was able to use their own shittiness against them. I always liked that thought. Can’t wait to meet the guy. What’s he like? Is he nice?’

“Uh,” said Hector, “y-yeah, I guess. I only talked to him a little bit, but, er, I kinda like him.”

‘Hector is being modest,’ said Garovel. ‘They hit it off pretty well. I bet they’ll get along famously, if and when they spend more time together.’

‘Ooh, you’re makin’ me jealous,’ said Voreese. ‘I wonder if Roman’ll be able to get along with him, too. Never can tell with that guy. Sometimes, he seems like he can make friends with anyone, but then he’ll surprise you and totally ruin everything.’

‘Are you sure that it is not YOU who has difficulty getting along with people?’ said Axiolis.

‘Psh, no. Everyone loves my ability to speak the truth in a straightforward and candid manner.’

‘Straightforward and candid are two words that mean the same thing,’ said Axiolis.

‘Yeah, I know,’ said Voreese. ‘The redundancy enhances the ease of comprehension for the listener. Don’t tell me you’re a grammar purist, too.’

‘More like a grammar appreciator,’ said Axiolis.

‘Oh, geez,’ said Voreeze. ‘You must be a blast at parties.’

‘I imagine you must be, as well,’ said Axiolis, ‘on the rare occasion when someone invites you.’

And there was silence as Voreese merely stared at him for a moment. The only noise was that of Zeff’s digging.

Then she gave an approving nod. ‘Not bad, you uptight son of a bitch. That one actually kinda stung.’

‘...I apologize if I caused offense,’ said Axiolis.

Voreese laughed. ‘Oh, fuck you! Don’t try to take it back now! Just be proud and own it! That’s what I’d do!’

‘Why would I ever wish to model my behavior after yours?’

‘There, you see?! That’s more like it!’

A loud and abrupt crack sound intervened in the conversation, and everyone looked toward Zeff and saw the small breakthrough that he had finally made in the wall of black. They were so deep that the entire platform now fit into the greater hole that Zeff have carved out, but only now could they see light pouring through.

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‘Not a fan of Arkos, huh?’ said Garovel.

‘He built some cool shit,’ said Voreese. ‘And I never met him, but I always got the impression that he thought he was a lot smarter than he really was.’

“I feel like we’re drifting from the subject of Sai-hee,” said Diego, again with his eyes closed.

‘Oh yeah,’ said Voreese. She looked back at Lorios. ‘I guess I can kinda see your point about this Eric Olmos being only MOSTLY stupid. She did have the kind of reputation you described. And also, I forgot to mention: it definitely seems incredibly unreasonable on Sai-hee’s part to hold a grudge against ALL of you guys, just because of the actions of one dumbass who broke her heart. You sure there’s not more to this story that you’ve neglected to mention?’

‘Oh, the story is not done,’ said Axiolis. ‘Eric Olmos was simply the lightning bolt that struck the forest, so to speak.’

‘Ah, okay. So some serious blood was eventually spilled, then?’

‘Yes,’ said Axiolis. ‘When Sai-hee confronted Eric, matters escalated beyond anyone’s control, and in a single night, her forces slaughtered every male member of House Olmos.’

‘What the fuck?’ said Garovel.

‘Holy shit,’ said Voreese. ‘I never heard about that. Even the young boys, too?’

‘Yes,’ said Axiolis. ‘And it did not end there, either. Several other Houses were caught up in the mayhem, some of which were from Sair. The Sebolts, Zabats, Blackburns, and Merlos all suffered severe losses that day.’

‘Goddamn,’ said Voreese. ‘What’d you do next?’

‘We gathered our forces and responded in kind,’ said Axiolis. ‘We killed one of her “generals”--or whatever she calls them. A woman named Ariana. She had been present during the initial attack and was responsible for at least thirty of the fatalities, five of whom had been mere boys. It was Rayen Merlo and Melchor Blackburn who ended her life, working in tandem. I witnessed that myself. It was quite the battle.’

‘I can’t imagine Sai-hee was too pleased about that,’ said Garovel.

‘No, but she seemed to at least acknowledge that Ariana had wronged us and that our battle was justified,’ said Axiolis. ‘We were able to negotiate a fragile peace, but the Intarians didn’t maintain it. They harassed her forces periodically, which cost many more lives even after the Jungle Wars ended. I think that was when those of us from Sair began to feel a greater degree of separation from our Intarian brethren than ever before.’

‘You blamed them for fucking everything up so hard,’ said Voreese.

Axiolis made no response.

‘Not saying you were wrong,’ said Voreese. ‘They sound like a bunch of fuck-ups.’

‘...Regardless,’ Axiolis went on, ‘our collective relationship with Sai-hee has remained bad ever since then. Melchor Blackburn has a particular hatred for her--or if not her, then her people, at the very least. House Blackburn suffered the worst from those battles, in addition to clashing with Abolish around that time as well. I believe Darktide went on a veritable crusade sometime thereafter. A largely successful crusade, from what I have heard.’