Page 1712 (Patreon)

Another long staircase awaited, and Hector descended toward another of the climate-controlled zones. Garovel hovered by his side, and Hector tried to keep him in his peripheral vision, right at the edge of the eye slit in his helmet.

‘By the way,’ said Voreese, slowing her pace to match Hector’s, ‘there’s something I forgot to tell you.’

Garovel answered for the both of them. ‘What’s that?’

‘Um. Well. Okay. First, you have to promise not to get upset.’

‘Voreese... What did you do?’

‘Excuse me, but that doesn’t sound like a promise to me.’

‘And you’re not gonna get one. What did you do?’

‘Agh. Well. It’s nothing, really. It’s just. You see. I may have. Um. Told Roman to. Tell Leo. A few things.’

‘Uh-huh. What things?’

‘Things about Hector.’

Garovel stopped. ‘What?! Why?!’

Voreese and Hector both stopped as well.

‘It was supposed to be part of a backup plan,’ she said, ‘in case Leo caught us in the middle of trying to free your Rainlord pals. I figured fighting in that situation would’ve been less than ideal, so it might’ve been a worth a shot to just bluff our way out. If we got him to believe that Hector was some sort of super badass, then maybe Leo would back down. Or join us.’

‘Join us?!’ said Garovel.

‘Yeah, Roman tried to hire him earlier. Did I not mention that?’

‘No, you didn’t!’

‘Ah. My bad.’

‘Voreese!’

‘Leo said he didn’t want to work for someone who was weaker than him, so I figured, maybe, y’know, with all that crazy shit you were tellin’ me earlier, we could preemptively build Hector up as someone who Leo might think was strong enough to work for.’

Garovel groaned but steadied his voice. ‘Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?’

‘I’m telling you now.’

‘This might’ve been nice to know while we were brainstorming on the way here.’

‘Oh, I doubt it would’ve helped. You’d have just gotten mad at me like you are right now, which would’ve made it harder for you to think rationally.’

‘What a load of horseshit.’

‘Look, I’m sorry, okay?! It seemed like a good plan at the time!’

‘How much did Roman tell him, exactly?’

‘Not that much. Just, y’know, about those things you told me. Meeting Ivan. Killing worms ‘n stuff. Also, Leo might be thinking that the Rainlords are, um... following Hector as their new leader.’

Hector’s eyes widened, and he stared at her.

‘Voreese, are you fucking kidding me, right now?’ said Garovel.

‘Well, Leo had already fought the Rainlords! So obviously, I had to make Hector more powerful than them! Wouldn’t have been believable otherwise!’

‘Ugh...’ Garovel paused for another sigh and perhaps also just to think. ‘Did Roman tell him what Hector looks like?’

She hesitated. ‘...A little bit.’