Page 1633 (Patreon)

‘Something, uh...’ Hector remembered. ‘Names! They have names!’

‘Oh, right, yeah. What about them?’

Shit, what about them? ‘What, uh...? Ugh...’

‘Oh, are you trying to ask what the name of this hole is?’

‘Yeah! That’s it!’

‘Well, I don’t actually know, sadly. I’d never evenheard of Warrenhold before Voreese told us about it, and I definitely didn’tknow that it had a path to the Undercrust in it, much less the path’s name.’

‘Oh.’

‘We can ask Voreese next time we see her. Or we could just name it ourselves. We could call it the Warrenhole. Heh.’

‘Wow...’

‘A thousand troa says that that’s what Voreese calls it.’

‘You don’t have any money to bet with, Garovel.’

‘I’ll just use yours.’

‘Why would I take a bet against my own money?’

‘Look, stop being logical. I thought you were disoriented.’

‘I think it’s passed now.’

‘Well, shit.’

‘Speaking of owing me stuff, though, I haven’t forgotten our last wager.’

‘Hey, I wouldn’t have owed you anything. Voreese is DEFINITELY going to call it Warrenhole.’

‘Garovel.’

‘What?’

‘You’re trying to change the subject.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Bullshit. We had a wager, and you lost.’

‘That’s funny. I remember you disqualifying yourself by cheating.’

‘No way. I won fair and square, and we both know it. Now you have to tell me something significant about your past.’

‘Eh, I dunno. I mean, given the circumstances and my overall generosity as a person, I think we can probably just considerit a draw.’

Hector couldn’t help laughing. ‘You’re so full of shit.’

‘Tell you what. I’ll tell you something significant about my past, if you do what you promised, too.’

‘It WASN’T a draw, Garovel.’

‘It kinda was, though.’

Hector wasn’t going to budge on this. ‘You tried to redefine the definition of your second guess after the fact. That doesn’t count as a draw at all.’

‘That’s YOUR interpretation. My interpretation was you tried to cheat by pretending my second guess was wrong.’

‘You’re unbelievable.’

‘You’re just scared of having to pay Lynn a compliment.’

‘Of course I--agh! Whatever.’

‘Just one compliment! It’d be easy! Here, I’ll even help you prepare. You can tell her her eye patch looks nice.’

‘What the fuck kinda compliment is that?’

‘The easy kind. And I’m saying that’s okay.’

‘It sounds sarcastic.’

‘Well, don’t say it in a sarcastic tone, then.’

‘I’m not gonna say it at all! I won the wager, jackass!’

‘Just because you keep saying that doesn’t make it true.’

‘I hate you.’

‘I hate you, too, buddy.’

Hector gave a mental sigh. ‘Fine. If you really don’t wanna tell me about yourself that badly, then I’m not gonna force it out of you.’