'Wow, Hector. And here I thought you were getting better at talking to people.'
'Shut up, Garovel!'
'Seriously, what the fuck was that about?'
'Nothing!'
'Remarkably, I remain unconvinced of that.'
'Shut up!'
'Well, stop running already.'
'Is she behind me?!'
'Lynn? No.'
Hector slowed to a walk, looking over his shoulder as he arrived at the palace's east entrance. When he saw people were staring at him, he pulled down on the brim of his hat and tried to settle his heartbeat.
'Really?' said Garovel. 'You're not going to tell me what that was?'
'...Where's my bike?' said Hector.
The reaper was gracious enough to point him in the right direction. 'C'mon, Hector. You know you can tell me anything.'
'I... I know I can. But that doesn't mean I want to.'
'Oh, it's like THAT, is it? Well, damn. What'd she do? Touch your arm unexpectedly? Accidentally breathe within three meters of your face?'
'Hey, Garovel, I've got an idea. How about you go fuck yourself?'
'So hostile. You know you're just making me more curious now, right?'
'Ugh...'
He found his way to the parking garage and decided to wait there for his mother to catch up. It took a while, but when she arrived, she had a small escort of two with her. There was an elderly woman in a faded rainbow dress and a rather tall black man in a white-and-blue guardsman's uniform.
His mother stopped in front of him and stared. "I'm not even going to ask what that was about back there. Lynnette is upset with you, though. She asked me to tell you that."
"Ah... oh..." He figured it best to just take his mother at her word and move on. "W-who are these two?"
The old woman stepped forward to introduce herself first. "Amelia Carthrace," she said, offering Hector a wrinkly handshake, which he eventually took. "At the Queen's behest, I am here to help you manage your affairs from now on. Pleased to make your acquaintance, young man."
The guardsman took his turn next. "I am Jamal Easton. A call went out looking for people to work for the Darksteel Soldier. Seems I was the only one who answered."
Hector looked between the two of them. "Um... I don't, ah..."
"Hector, just go with it," his mother said. "I'm sure we could use the help right now. From the sounds of it, the Queen has gifted you quite the white elephant."
He glanced at Garovel, who just shrugged. "O-okay. Do you guys know the way to this Warrenhold place?"
"Yes, sir," said Jamal. By the look of him, he was in his late twenties and quite solidly built. Rather than a sword like Lynnette, however, the man wore a holstered gun on his hip. "I would be happy to lead the way for you."
It struck Hector as more than a little odd to be called sir by this person. Still, he nodded gratefully. "Th-thank you. Please do."
The three of them piled into the adjacent SUV and pulled out of the palace's garage while Hector followed on his motorcycle. Ms. Carthrace asked him if he would not prefer to simply ride with them so that they could discuss various things along the way, but Hector politely refused. There would be plenty of time for discussion after they arrived.
Slashes of pink and orange painted the evening sky as he rode out into the city. It would be a rather long trip to Gray Rock, he knew, which of course meant that Garovel would have plenty of time to keep bothering him. Even so, Hector recalled a particular something that he wanted to ask the reaper about.
'So, um... I've got a question...'
'Oh, imagine that.'
'What did you call it? The thing that Harper did?'
'Pan-rozum.'
'Yeah. Could you explain that more, maybe?'
'I could, maybe. If you tell me what made you run away from Lynnette, that is.'
Hector thought about it. '...I don't wanna know that badly.'
'Oh, come on! I have to tell you about pan-rozum!'
'Oh well... I guess I'll just be unprepared in the future. No big deal.'
'Y'know, you can be a real dick sometimes.'
'Ah... sorry.'
'Tch.' Garovel paused, perhaps gathering his thoughts. 'Pan-rozum is a hyper state. It is achieved when the reaper and servant merge their souls together via a very high synchronization.'
'Ah... so it's not something that you and I can do.'
'Of course not. It's not even something that Harper should really be doing, and he has to be at least twenty-five years old as a servant by now.'
'So what does pan-rozum actually do?' said Hector. 'Just make the servant faster and stronger?'
'No. That was a byproduct of Harper's ability being what it is. Pan-rozum allows the user to assimilate attributes of different ability types. For a brief period of time, that is.'
'Eh... I'm still not sure what you mean...'
'Well, for instance, Harper was able to meld the properties of his alteration ability with that of both the transfiguration and the integration types. He took the bodily attribute of transfiguration, as well as the conversion attribute of integration.'
'Uh...'
'In other words, pan-rozum allows a servant to break down the barriers between the different types of abilities and merge them together. That's how Harper's ability could change from just manipulating light to... actually BEING light.'
'Wait, what? You're saying Harper converted his body into... light particles or something?'
'Basically, yes. And not just that, either. Thanks to the integration attribute, he was also able to restore his body back to its original state afterwards, and that's not easy. In fact, nothing about that is. The whole thing is a ridiculous accomplishment. I'm still a bit awestruck, I guess. The amount of training that the two of them must have done... If Harper's really only a servant of his twenties, then that is absolute madness.'
'Couldn't he have joined the Vanguard later, like after being a servant for a while?'
'Possibly. It's uncommon for servants to wait so long to pick a side, but yeah. He does seem to have a special arrangement with his rank, too, so maybe you're right.'
'Hmm.'
'Honestly, with pan-rozum activated, Harper's ability is one of the strongest I've ever witnessed.'
Hector blinked at the long stretch of road ahead of him. 'Really? Three thousand years, and Harper's one of the strongest EVER?'
'That I've personally seen,' Garovel reiterated. 'But yes. I'm not sure you understand the caliber of warrior you've just met and fought alongside. He may be the fastest human being who has ever lived. The speed of light is pretty much the top of the mountain on that one.'
'It kinda seemed like Harper was just teleporting around,' said Hector.
'Well, yeah. As far as human perception is concerned, there would be no difference.'
'That power is pretty crazy... I mean, how could anyone ever defeat something like that?'
'I don't know. You did pretty well against it, though.'
'Yeah, because he was holding back. If he'd wanted to kill me instantly, he could've at any time.'
'True. At least for now, Harper's pan-rozum is far from perfect. I think Darsihm is still unconscious from the exertion.'
'Why'd it affect Darsihm so much more than Harper?'
'The reaper is the focal point of pan-rozum's merge. It tends to demand more from the reaper, mostly because it's just such a complex amalgamation of powers. It's up to the reaper to make all the chosen attributes fit properly into place so that the newly realized power works as desired. The servant's job, on the other hand, is more to just accept the power without exploding and killing them both. Which, y'know, is also kinda important.'
'Eesh...'
'Also, I should probably mention that pan-rozum isn't necessarily for everyone.'
'Meaning?'
'Meaning, depending on what a servant's ability is, pan-rozum might not even be that useful. Harper's ability just happens to work ridiculously well with it, so don't go thinking it's always as powerful as that.'
'Mm.'
'But there are other hyper states which might suit different people better. For instance, there's pan-forma, which--'
'Eh--uh--sorry to interrupt, but, uh, why don't you save that for another time? I barely even understand what you just said about this pan-rozum shit, so... m-maybe just hold off on lecturing me on all this other stuff that isn't, uh... I mean, it's not immediately relevant, right? So...'
'Well, fine. I didn't wanna explain it to you, anyway.'
'Yes, you did.'
'Yes, I did.'
'You love explaining things.'
'Hell yeah, I do.'
Hector laughed.
'And why shouldn't I love it, huh? You get to learn things. I get to sound smart. Nobody gets murdered. Everybody wins, really--I mean, when you think about it, it's pretty awesome.'
'Were you, like, a professor or something way back when you were alive?' said Hector.
'Not quite.'
'What was it like, living back then?'
'It was shit.'
'Aww, why?'
'Medicine was shit. Technology was shit. Society was shit. Everything was shit wrapped in more shit with an extra shit sandwich in case you were still hungry for more shit.'
'...So wait. Was it shit?'
'Eh, it was okay.'
He chuckled inside his riding helmet. 'I can't tell if you're joking. You've never really told me anything about your past.'
Garovel paused. 'Yeah. Well. Maybe I'll tell you some other time.'
'Why not now? It's gonna take a while to reach Gray Rock.'
'My time spent alive did not make for a pleasant story.'
'Oh... so it really was shit, then.'
'Unfortunately, yes.'
'Why was it so bad?' said Hector. He waited, and when Garovel didn't answer, he added, 'No specifics, then. Just tell me the general stuff.'
'Like what?' said Garovel.
'I don't know. Like, where were you born? What civilization are you from?'
Garovel was slow enough to respond that Hector was about to ask something else when the reaper finally said, 'Across the ocean. I'm not sure what the land there is called now, but I think these days, you call my old people the Lyzakks.'
The name actually rang a bell. Hector remembered learning about the Lyzakks in school. He couldn't recall very much, for the lack of attention he'd paid, but he did know that the ancient civilization was mostly remembered for its brutality. And there was something else--something about how they'd crossed the ocean and invaded the continent or some such thing.
He wanted to ask Garovel about it, but he hesitated. He wasn't sure how keen the reaper would be to talk about them, but he figured that Garovel would just come right out and say so if he really didn't wish to. 'Uh... didn't the Lyzakks launch an invasion a long time ago?'
'I was dead way before that, but yeah. I'm a little surprised you know of it.'
'Er, so am I.'
'Funny you should bring that up,' said Garovel. 'That happens to be one of my favorite pieces of history.'
'Really? Why?'
'Well, see, the Lyzakks came to Eloa some 2800 years ago, and as soon as they landed, they stormed across the continent and seized control of everything they saw. Then they reached the center of Eloa and came upon the Armans--the so-called "people of the rain." The Armans stopped the Lyzakks cold, didn't let them take another step west.'
'I guess you're not a fan of the Lyzakks, huh?'
'They were assholes who enslaved millions of people and forced them to fight in their armies for them. The fact that the Armans stopped them was a wildly unprecedented event of the time. Up to that point, the Armans had been a peaceful people, and on top of that, they were insanely outnumbered.'
'So how'd they win?'
'Well, they didn't win. They only forced a draw. But yes, it was remarkable nonetheless. They accomplished it by being incredibly clever. See, they had plenty of warning about the Lyzakks burning across the continent, but rather than flee or prepare tribute for an immediate surrender, the Armans decided to just booby-trap the FUCK out of everything in their land.'
'Oh, geez...'
'It. Was. Amazing.'
Hector shook his head but couldn't help smirking.
'And horrible,' Garovel added. 'Absolutely brutal and terrible. But also completely ingenious. See, most of the Armans lived in the lands where it always rains. Not just frequently or consistently in small amounts. It pours and floods all the damn time. And they turned that into their most potent and infamous trap. They built these dams everywhere and then hid their work, so when the enemy arrived, they would see areas that were clear and dry, seemingly suitable for safe passage or for setting up camp. Then the trap would spring, and they would lose hundreds or even thousands of men to a flash flood.'
'Wow... uh... That's pretty fucked up.'
'Yeah. It was. But the Armans successfully defended themselves from a vastly superior force--and not just once or twice, but dozens of times.'
'Did they eventually make peace?' Hector asked.
'Oh yeah. And what was even better was that, by the time the Lyzakks finally lost their war-boner with the Armans, the Armans had already developed into quite the fearsome people. In the beginning, it'd started with just making traps, but as things drew out, they buckled down and got to work learning how to fight, lead, sabotage, and all that good stuff.'
Hector couldn't help laughing. 'So I'm guessing this isn't exactly an unbiased version of events you're giving me...'
'Well, I do feel bad for all the slaves the Lyzakks took, because a lot of them died in the fighting; but when I think about the Armans and everything they did to defend their families and their lands, I really get pulled over to their side. Broadly speaking, that is.'
'Right.' And Hector thought Garovel was done talking about the subject, but after a beat, he realized how wrong he was.
'But anyway, like I was saying, when the Lyzakks decided that they didn't wanna fuck with the Armans anymore, they tried to just leave them alone and pick fights with some other people. But it was too late for that. Everyone else on Eloa had rallied around the Armans already, so wherever the Lyzakks went, the Armans would come over and fuck their day up. It was really great. The Lyzakks had no choice but to just calm the hell down. And after peace was made, the Armans and all their constituents consolidated their power into one huge group, and that's how the Mohssian Empire came about, controlling the whole western half of Eloa for two millennia. Which includes modern day Atreya, by the way.'
'Yeah, I know where Atreya is, thanks. I did manage to make it through third grade, at least.'
'Just saying,' laughed Garovel. 'Anyhow, the Lyzakks gradually turned into the Valgan Empire, and they of course controlled the eastern half of Eloa, but not for quite as long. Regardless, the Mohssians and the Valgans became the primary cultural divide on this continent. I think Sair is the only modern day country that has both of those old bloodlines in large quantities.'
'Why only Sair?' said Hector.
'Oh, I don't know. I doubt there's a simple answer to that question. It was where the Armans and Lyzakks first clashed, so maybe that has something to do with it.'
'Hmm.'
'After the two big empires fell, though--that's when things got complicated.'
'Oh, right. Because up until then, everything had been so simple.'
The reaper laughed again. 'Comparatively, yes. The Mohssians gave rise to all these small countries like Atreya and Rendon. It's why, even to this day, you can travel all over western Eloa and never need a translator.'
'We all speak Mohssian, yeah. They don't all speak Valgan in the east, though, do they?'
'Nope. A lot of them do, but they've got a handful of younger languages, too. I believe our friend Karkash spoke one of them.'
'Ah... him.'
'He didn't talk much, but I'm fairly sure that was a Vaelish accent I heard. That, and he looked the part. I think Stoker may've as well, but his clothes were pretty ragged when we found him, and his accent wasn't nearly as strong.'
'I guess that means Abolish is operating in Vaeland?'
'Could be. Easy to believe, too. Vaeland was one of the most dangerous places in the world a few years ago.'
'Gah...' There came a lull in the conversation, and knowing that they still had a good hour or two before they reached Gray Rock, Hector was a bit afraid that Garovel was about to bombard him with still more history lessons, so he tried to steer the conversation elsewhere. 'Uh... do you know anything else about this Warrenhold place? I forgot to ask before.'
'Not really. I only talked to Voreese about it a little. She mentioned it being even older than Atreya itself, but that's it. She said she would come visit us there a day or two after we arrive.'
'Hmm. Was it just me, or did she seem kind of suspicious when she was telling us to choose the place?'
'Heh. Maybe.'
'You were suspicious, too, actually... You accepted her request pretty easily.'
'She made me curious,' said Garovel. 'I think you're right, though. I'm guessing there's something in Warrenhold that she doesn't want to talk about in front of Mehlsanz and the Queen--or possibly Harper, because he's Vanguard.'
'What would she want to hide from them?'
'Don't know. I have a few guesses, but I'm hoping for a nice surprise.'
'You couldn't just ask her while no one else was around?'
'I was busy helping the Queen out. And besides, I like surprises, remember?'
'Ugh.'
'Eh, I trust Voreese's judgment. She wouldn't try to surprise us with some pile of horseshit. Probably.'
'If you say so.'
After that, Garovel went back to talking about history, but Hector found it hard to continue listening. As soon as he realized that he was beginning to drift off to sleep, he politely asked Garovel to stop so he could concentrate on the road. The reaper begrudgingly obliged.
When they finally started drawing close to Gray Rock, Hector followed the SUV ahead of him down a side road for a while until they eventually pulled over. Jamal got out and showed Hector the forking path in front of them, the problem being that one of the roads was closed off. Jamal pulled the orange barricades aside as he explained.
"We're nearly there," he said. "A rock slide left the road ahead blocked, but that shouldn't be a problem for you, right?"
"Uh... I-I guess so."
Amelia laughed as she came up behind them. "It seems we are already going to get a demonstration of our young lord's strength."
Hector gaped at her. "L-lord?"
"Of course," she said, blinking. "Were you not told of your accompanying title?"
"Eh... I don't think so..."
"You are the acting Lord of Warrenhold. Or the acting Lord of the Gray Warren, I suppose. Whichever name you prefer. Personally, I like the prior."
"Oh... uh. I guess that... would make sense."
It didn't take much longer to reach the obstacle that Jamal was talking about. There'd been several more roads connecting along the way, and it seemed that this one was the only path forward. It cut through a small hill, wherein a wall of gray boulders now stood in evening darkness.
Flashlight in hand, Hector eyed the blockage and scratched his head. The rocks at the top were bigger than he was, bigger than his motorcycle, even. "Why wasn't this ever cleared away?" he asked.
Madame Carthrace was the one to answer. "From what I have read, there simply was not enough interest in doing so. Warrenhold isn't famous enough to be very attractive to tourists, and no one has lived there for nearly forty years. Only historians have ever broached the subject of reopening it, but they have never been able to secure funding."
"I hear it's an eyesore," his mother added.
"Yes, I have heard that as well," said Amelia. "The surface is supposedly a ruin, but the vast majority of the castle is underground. No one has visited since the earthquake, however, so we may come to find that in ruins, also."
"Great," said Mrs. Goffe. "Is it haunted, too? Because that would just be icing on the cake."
Amelia bobbed her head. "There are certain rumors about it."
"Wonderful."
"I would not worry about it very much," said Madame Carthrace. "Any old house that has fallen into disrepair will be seen as an ill omen by some people. Superstitious nonsense, it is."
'I like this lady,' said Garovel.
Hector sensed irony in there somewhere but decided to ignore it. He stretched his arms as he eyed the boulders again, considering how he should approach the problem. Garovel grabbed his shoulder and sent the rush of vigor through his body. Hector wasn't sure he would need it, though, and simply pressed his hands against the cracked pavement.
Iron grew at the base of the rock wall, weaving through the tiny cracks in its haphazard foundation. He added onto it from the bottom, creating a platform that lifted the whole wall. The weight of the rocks resisted him, demanding much more concentration than any simple platform he'd ever created. He forced it up, and suddenly, one of the giant rocks at the top jostled free and fell toward him.
Hector caught it with both hands, further cracking the pavement beneath his feet. He threw the boulder to the other side of the road, away from everyone. But his aim wasn't so great. The rock hit a large tree, bounced off, and crushed his motorcycle.
He stared at his work. '...Did that really just happen?'
'It sure did. Good job.'
'Dammit, I really liked that one,' said Hector.
'Well, maybe it still runs.'
The tree fell on top of the boulder, hammering the motorcycle into the ground. A busted wheel bounded over to Hector and fell at his feet.
'As a unicycle,' said Garovel.
Hector was a bit more careful after that. The blockage went rather deep. He had to raise up ten separate platforms, annihilating holes through them and turning each one into the next section of a large iron tunnel, but eventually, he reached the other side. He wasn't wholly satisfied with this as a permanent solution, though. It would do for now, but he was resolved to come back later and see about removing all the rocks so that he could annihilate the tunnel. That, and he'd have to clean up the pieces of his bike, anyway.
He rode with everyone else the rest of the way, but it only took a few minutes. They passed under a tall gatehouse that had lost its pointed apex, which now lay stuck in the ground by the side of the road.
And finally, they arrived at a clearing and were granted a view of the castle. The central structure seemed largely intact, but it only rose two floors above ground. There were six pallid towers around it, but they had all crumbled to a single story, save one lone champion at the back which still boasted a good four or five floors.
They reached what seemed to be the main courtyard. Everyone exited the vehicle together, and Hector found wild grass and weeds grown to knee-height. Jamal began pulling gear out the back of the SUV--floodlights, most notably.
"Where shall we begin?" said Amelia.
Hector took a deep breath and exchanged looks with Garovel.