Part 43: ARC IV: Part 5: And Now For Something Completely Different.

ARC IV: Part 5: And Now For Something Completely Different.

After all the drama with Danika and Cade is done with, our next scene is that of our heroes arrival in Artagel, at last!


Someday you might want to master the fine art of patience. Considering our accident, we still made good time.

So Gino, this is the part where you reveal you have a friend in town.

Aww, am I that predictable? My old friend Cassie Casterelli has an armor shop here. I'm sure we can all stay there. She's a wonderful lady.

My goodness, Gino! How popular are you?

Heh, no need to be overdoin' it. I've just done a lot of traveling in my life, that's all. I'll see you all in town!



Yeah, you should have.
Lesson learned. Never make jokes.

I've read a great deal about this area... I wonder if it is as dangerous as the authors made it sound.

The desert and all these mountains were notoriously unstable during Gallia's reign and for a while after. Artagel is a new town, and seems to be an improvement. I doubt it would be the site of a new Equipment King if it was as unsafe as Coromant used to be.
Coromant being Auburns hometown, if you remember. Also Ghost Mansion town in Clean Slate.

Shall we get to town?



Oho? We should investigate the east then!



Following a winding path...



So we turn south here...



Apparently the path leading further south winds up in the ruins of Coromant.



Hello! What brings you all here?

We have some concerns we would like to discuss.

Okie-dokie! Where are you folks from?

We've been on the road a lot lately, but we're from Port Arianna.

Sweet! I'll have your representative meet you downstairs in the conference room! Feel free to head down there!
She teleports away in a cloud of sparkling lights. Different from how people use magic to do it.


One of the fairies still in this room recognises us if we speak to her.



What's that?

How do you fairies tell each other apart? You don't seem to have any names... and you all look the same!

Look the same?! Listen mister, I find that offensive! We always know who is who!

I still wonder what you call each other if nobody has a name...

We're referred to by the places we represent. If someone wants to find me, they will ask for "The Representative From West Gallia."

Ah, interesting. I too had pondered that for a while. Thanks for the info.

No problem, Stoic. Enjoy your visit!
Anyway, we can't enter any of the three doors here, so downstairs it is.







She puts on the Port Arianna theme.



Okay! Wow, this is an honor! I've been bragging for a while that Shroud and Stoic are my constituents!
What brings you here?

I'll get right to it. As you probably know, the four of us have been doing a lot of adventuring. Frankly, I have been growing more and more concerned with the lack of resolve on the part of your group when it comes to protecting the fairies who are out in the field.

Can you detail some of the specific incidents that had you worried?

We were in that ice temple on the Isle of Alge, and there was a fairy who was frozen in an ice block. Let me repeat that...
Frozen in an ice block! All because she didn't get the snow gear she asked for! What kind of outfit are you guys running here?!

There was another incident when we were in a necromancer's hideout in Rellenia. One fairy said she had asked for additional holy water and never received it. Now she's been mutated by dark magic experimentation. We could go on, but by now you probably get the idea.

Ugh... The sad part is... I remember both of those appropriations bills.

Wait... You all did try to help them... but the bills were vetoed by the Chair.

I love telepaths. That's exactly right.

Huh? What are you talking about?

We processed those requests from the field... and many others. We drafted those bills, but they never became law because the Chair didn't sign them.

Well, your chair is full of crap! Send the stuff yourselves!

What? Go against the wishes of the Chair?

He has a point. It seems clear you can't trust him to make good decisions for your field agents.

I... I don't understand.

Fairies are considered the most trustworthy creatures on Solest. The idea that one of them might act against the others is almost incomprehensible.

That's so interesting! And it makes so much sense! You just think your leader knows something you don't, but you're the one in the right.

What are you saying?

Who is this Chair? Would it possible for us to meet her?

The Chair is The Representative From Monster Island. This is short notice, but I might be able to convince her.

That would be excellent.
She tells us she'll meet us at the office on the first floor.



Well, if they aren't able to talk some sense into this leader of theirs, maybe we can.

The representative from "Monster Island?" Give me a break! Is that even a real place?

Indeed it is. It's an island directly east of Gallia that's swarming with dangerous creatures. Any fairy brave enough to serve there definitely deserves to be in charge of the others. Still... I have a bad feeling about this.

Yeah, me too. This whole thing stinks real bad. Let's head up and see what else we can find out.
Up we go!







We heard you were the one holding back all the appropriations bills. I urge you to change your methods if you want the fairies out there to survive.

I see. Well, you're not the first people to come in here and ask about that, but I'll give you my position.
There has been way too much wasteful spending from this congress in the past, and when I was made Chair, I promised to change that.

Wasteful spending? There are lives in the balance here!

There's always danger. It comes with this job. If we were to just give out resources to everyone who asked, we would go bankrupt!
Besides, relying on the government for everything just makes a culture of dependency. We need to encourage resourcefulness.
I hope I don't have to explain what this is.

...

Culture of dependency?! Who else is supposed to look out for people's lives when they're in dungeons?!

Calm down. I gave you my answer.

Well, your answer sucks!

Oh boy.

Hmmph. That's my position and I'm the Chair, so if you don't like it, you can go to Hell!
She sparkle cloud teleports away.



Like you can talk.

We expect him to be rude. That kind of language from a fairy is unprecendented, though. They never curse.

That wasn't a fairy...

Yeah, no kidding! No true fairy would act like that!
Let's not get into the No True Scotsman stuff Baron.

No! I mean it was literally not a real fairy! It's an impostor!
The sound that usually indicates Laurel is telepathically sending a message plays.

What?!

And our fairy friend teleports in.


Your chair is someone disguised as a fairy! I'm sure of it!

Huh?!

A lodite with transformative magic skills came into Port Arianna in the guise of an elf woman recently... He fooled us all.
I sensed something at the time... But I couldn't figure out what it was. I just had that same feeling now.

So someone is using magic to masquerade as our leader... I gotta say, that makes a lot of sense.

Sounds like a solid theory to me. The question now is... how do we prove it?

We would have to find some way to dispel the transformation... Some sort of magic must be able to do that.

Magic... or a potion. The ingredients for one like that should be in the archives.

Nice! Where are those?

Downstairs... across from the conference room. I'll go have a look now!
She teleports out.

She came on board fast.

That's the nice thing about fairies. Sometimes they're slow on the uptake... but once they understand what's going on, you can't find people more useful.
We head down to the archives.





Yeah! This is a pretty basic dispel potion. Let's look at these ingredients...

Some of this is quite simple.

That's true, and this is my plan. You guys head over to Artagel and pick up some of these basic ingredients. I should be able to find the more obscure stuff in storage. Here's a list of what you should get!
We get an ingredients list.
Also, here's some scratch if you're short. But don't spend it on anything else or we're out of luck!
We get 2000 GP.
Now go forth and purchase!

Time to walk back to Artagel!

















This is gonna be awesome! Mind spying!

This can't be ethical... But I guess as long as we don't reveal anything personal about any of these people, no harm done.



Then a fairy shows up to tutorialise at us. She just tells us to hit Z to toggle mind-reading mode on or off.

Guess it's up to me...



Huh. Interesting.



WOMAN: Wow! I didn't think I would see you again! I owe you big time!

Wait, who is this?

WOMAN: I was a student at the monastery, but I thought it was totally lame. He told me I might have more fun if I made trouble!

You told her that?

Maybe not in those exact words... but something like that.

WOMAN: You should have hung around! I set fire to the registrars office!!

You what?!

WOMAN: Heh, not a big one. But they were running around like a bunch of squealing pigs! It was great!

Zala would be pleased.

WOMAN: So now I'm having fun here! I can't thank you enough!

Uh... sure. Don't mention it.



Laurel mind-reading her turns up nothing at all. If you see that eye on the top left, it means we're mind-reading.




Seems like Gino's friend might be a good lead for finding Cole Marin, huh. But we're not doing that right now.I find a shop and head in, then check the ingredient list.



"2 eel
1 spicy meatball"
What.



The Equipment King is in a large building that apparently used to be a mueseum. Also a bunch of citizens seem to be concerned with some rumor or other we're not privy to.



She's also thinking that she has no idea what she's talking about, predictably.

In the marketplace, a merchant asks if anyone would like to buy jewellery for Laurel.



Oh, don't trouble yourself. These robes and armor are heavy enough. I don't need anything like that.
And that's that. If you read this guys mind though, he upsets Laurel by uh... beginning to fantasize what he'd do if he got her back to his place. Laurel wants to leave very quickly.

Another stall has a guy selling flowers and gifts or ... 'material goods to prove you love your spouse' as he puts it.



We trade it for a potion of giants, which is basically an elixir.


I accidentally sequence break a minor quest too, by virtue of having what someone wants already.


MAN: What? I don't even know you... You're just giving these vegetables to me?

Yeah. I certainly don't have any use for them.

MAN: ... *sniff* Thank you... my family will be so happy... and you picked out exactly what I wanted... I can't believe it.
How can I ever repay you?

Virtue is its own reward, sir.

MAN: Thank you! I'll never forget this!
If you talk to him again, he mentions his family is staying on the third floor of Hotel Dusk. So...

If you read the mind of the innkeep he's thinking about how he really needs to be firm and get the rent from a 'Pierre' but that this Pierre has had such a hard time, he can't bear to.



We don't mean to intrude, but we met your husband in town and he invited us up here.

WOMAN: New friends of Pierre? How nice! My name is Jessie. These are my sons Biggs and Wedge.
I get the ref. Actually a bit more topical these days too.

Lovely to meet all of you.

So you guys have been living in this hotel room?

BIGGS: Yeah! It's like being on vacation all the time!

WEDGE: A vacation from food sometimes...



"I don't mean to be rude, but... It's kind of a small room... so can you let me by?"



This small space just isn't fit for a family like yours. There's got to be some way we can find you help.

PIERRE: Giving me those vegetables was more help than we've gotten in a while... but I wish I could get through to the fairies.

They're not helping out?

JESSIE: We've spoken to the one here in town, who said she put in a request to the legislators... but nothing has happened.

PIERRE: Seems like they have some real problems down there... I'm not sure what's going on.

I can't believe this keeps coming up. We should do something.
I can't believe Volrath let us do things so out of order. Pierre gives us directions to the fairy legislation.

You folks hang in there. Whatever is going on in those fairy chambers will be sorted out soon.

PIERRE: I hope you're right...



Nothing on the hotel roof...



We go to the local eatery to get our last ingredient...



And we get another clue about Cole Marin. In the local tavern a guy also mentions Cassie's so busy lately that people hardly see her. which leads to...



Great. But we won't be investigating just yet.



DEX: Formerly of Daydream... *sigh*

Huh?

DEX: Well... with Capien long gone and Ercello in jail... not much future for the band.

He only got in trouble for endangering the public. His sentence won't be too long!

DEX: I don't know, man. I think I'm ready to move on with my life.

Well, good luck. I don't care if Ercello stole from my family, you guys were still awesome!

DEX: Ha ha... thanks.
If you mind-read him, he's considering becoming a male prostitute and Laurel assures him he can do better, which he agrees with.



The rumors that everyone's concerned about have to do with this haunted castle apparently.


Can't do anything here though. So time to head back to the Fairy Legislation.



So what now?

Now we head down to the basement. We can whip up this potion in the resource room.

Wow, you guys have everything in this place!

Pretty much. Well, I'll see you there!





Good thing we have practice with this mixing stuff!

Hmm? I'm not going to make you do it yourself, silly! Why do you think you even have a representative?

Now that's the service I've always admired.

I minored in Potions and Alchemy during my schooling, so I'll have this baby mixed in no time!


That should do it!

Great! The question now is... How to (SIC) we get the Chair to drink it?

Pin her to the ground and force her to down it?

Um... No.

Assault a fairy, even a crooked and possibly false one, would not do much for our case, I imagine.

Actually, that should be easy.

Oh?



That never tipped you off that something odd might be going on?

Hey, cut me some slack. I'm still new to this "not believing every word the Chair says" thing.
So if we make a little "adjustment" to her drink, we should get our shot.



We're shown the meal being delivered to the Chairs office and then there's a roar and the fairy that delivered the meal flees.



I think my ancestors might have heard that!





Damn right. Now stay right there. You've got a lot to answer for, miscreant.

Never!
He casts a dark magic spell that everyone avoids by taking a step back, and flees down the stairs.



You bet I do! That was Yaled the Hammer! I should have known...

Yaled the Hammer? I've never heard of him.

If you stay in the hero business long enough, you'll know him real well! He's got a rap sheet as long as an ogre's belt!

What else has he done?

What hasn't he done? Hiding crystals, stealing princesses, summoning meteors to destroy the world. You name it, he's done it.

Well, let's take him out.

I'm gonna alert the other officers within the congress! I'll catch up with you guys in a few minutes!
She teleports.

He can only go so far down. We'll corner him.


Down a couple floors, in the basement, we see Yaled go down another set of stairs.



Oh goodie gumdrops.



This dungeon has no default track...



Majestic puts on Stoic's theme.





Get out of our way! We've got no fight with you!

????: Nope! That's wrong! This is the time for our revolution! The fairies will fall!

Over my undead body.

????: Prepare to taste feathered death!



Buffing up on the first turn...


Big Bird lays an egg on its second turn. The eggs own first turn is used on a move called 'Fry' that inflicts Burn on Stoic.


The egg hatches on its second turn. And Little Bird doesn't even get to show fof its moves since I defeat both it and Big Bird on this fourth turn.



"But the revolution will not fail!"
She? flies away.

... Weird.
I head in that door you can see there.



What? Are you talking about that rat? You gotta give that a rest.

I remember you also said something about not showing fear while you were in costume.

Ah, right. I gotta remember that.

So is that... lesson four?

Should be. Can I add lessons?

Not yet. Depends on the results of your ninety-day evaluation.
The chests just have some healing items, so we move on.



What's the situation?

The congress is on full alert! When this is over, we'll convene in the chambers for a special session. For now, I'll help you guys out.
Remember that you can also save anywhere here. Our headquarters is designed that way in case of emergency.



Yeah... and if we miss it, we'll have to walk around in that sewer water. Nasty!

Well, we do have wind magic...

I was just thinking of that. Right... that's how you know. Hold on, everyone.



Shroud jumps the whole party across.

Actually, no. I've been working on it recently.

Keep practicing that. Who knows what it could lead to.







Call off your thugs, ingrate!

No thanks. I'd rather enjoy my front row seat to the spectacle of you all getting dismembered!

*sigh* All we wanted to do was talk to our representative. Is that asking so much?

SPIDER: Methinks you heard a voice cry... Live no more!


The spider on the left is 'Hal' and the one on the right is 'Henry'. Seems Volrath reached a little higher for his Shakespeare refs than is usual for guys writing things on the internet. These guys have attacks named things like "I make us strong", "Pound of flesh" and "Plague on your houses". Faolstaff poisons everyone with "Plague on your houses." This is actually the first remotely challenging boss fight we've had in ages... if you neglect to use Shroud's cure-all to get rid of the poison on everyone in one turn. Or Henry'll just keep poisoning everyone over and over by the time you healed a couple people of it.

After a few turns they go down, but not before having done a decent amount of damage I kept having to heal up.



SPIDER: Indeed... Perhaps someday we shall sit around the fire... and tell sad stories of the death of spiders.
But for now, I bid you farewell. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
The spiders teleport away.


Our heroes chase Yaled.









These little tunnels go all around the sewers. I can probably squeeze in here, come out near the door, and pull the switch.

Will you be okay in there by yourself?

Heck yes! You just leave it to me.



"Eww, and the place is swarming with rats! This tunnel is so narrow that they're going to get in my way!
Thankfully, my fairy wand should drive them off. I only have enough juice to use it three times, though, so I gotta also be careful!"



The rats merely get in your way, and there's so few of them it's not a problem to get to the end before even 30 seconds is up.








She full-heals us.



Whichever track you selected stops playing in here.




People without wings were probably never meant to be crawling around these sewers. Looks like it's time for us to settle this.

You'll have to forgive me if I don't say more than that... Normally I would give you more colorful threats...
But I have simply done this too many times.

Huh? What do you mean?



*sigh* Fairies... The bane of my existence.

That's bogus, man! How can anyone hate fairies?

Have you ever tried to steal elemental crystals and hide them from the rest of the world? No, of course you haven't.
It took me a long time to figure out what kept going wrong. I would hide inside a dark dungeon... and surround myself with allies for protection.
Sometimes hundreds of allies... and when I finally did confront my foes, I expected them to be exhausted. Yet they seemed in perfect health.
Almost like they had not even been in combat. After several failed missions, I had my answer.
Fairies.
Hiding in every dark corner of the world, curing any do-gooder who asked. It was so maddening!
And it became even more frustrating when I learned why they were doing it! I had never posed any direct threat to their society...
... But that did not matter. They were helping others simply...
Simply... to be... nice.
I realized one day that if I ever wanted to live my dream of world domination, I had to dismantle their silly little society from within.
Though I may be exposed now, I will not quit. The fairy government must be destroyed... it must be strangled in the bathtub!
Bathtub?

Not a chance. You'll have to find some other way of amusing yourself other than stealing crystals and kidnapping princesses.

Never! Prepare to die!
...
Oh wait... It's far too quiet in here.


We get to choose from the same selection as before and I pick Stoic's theme again.

Ah, nice choice.



On turn one Laurel silences Yaled with holy rays so uh... He can physical attack for a good bit of damage though. And sometimes double attack. He manages to take down Stoic on the third turn just because of that. You're better off having Cade on healing duty since Laurels holy magic deals massive damage to Yaled. And he uses a move similar to Cades counter where he retaliates to whatever is done to him with a decent power dark magic spell called "Greater Darkness". Because of THAT he takes out The Baron.



Then he silences the other threee, which, is well... That's really bad. For a moment. Just using a remedy on Shroud lets me heal the others and revive The Baron. After that, despite heavy damage I keep everyone up and Yaled falls after a few more turns.



"I always seem to find myself pitted against multiple opponents. The deck is forever stacked against me."

Oh, quit your whining.

Time for this doofus to face the fairy congress... and not in disguise.
Also... can someone grab that envelope near the music crystal? That probably belongs in the archives.





"Any objections?
Hearing none... I now call this special session to order. May I have a motion for the approval of the minutes of the previous meeting?"

I move they be accepted as presented.

Second!

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Hearing none... All those in favor?

ALL: I!

Very good. The next order of business is to address the infiltration of our government by one Yaled the Hammer.
Laurel Hargrove, who used her psychic powers to see through his disguise, will now simmarize the situation for the representatives.



"who worked against him. Using transformation magic, he assumed the identity of your Chair. The power of that position allowed him to veto appropriations bills to the fairies serving in the field, thus reducing their overall effectiveness."

I should also add that a complete lack of skepticism allowed him to go about his plan easily.
Definitely keep in mind this game was made between 2005-2011.

So noted.
The Chair recognizes the representative from Nuntak Village.

Do we yet know the fate of the real representative from Monster Island?

There was none. The request to consider Monster Island an area under fairy jurisdiction came from Yaled in disguise.
He then used his position as a "representative" in a notoriously dangerous area as leverage to get himself elected to the position of Chair.

Ha! So you fools elected me as Chair after all! Will you go aianst the own procedures of your government?

The Chair recognizes the representative from Boreal.

Nice try creep, but the fairy election bylaws explicitly state that in order to serve in any congressional position, one must actually be a fairy!
So no dice!

I hate bylaws.

(CHAIR): Nevertheless, it seems clear that too much power in the hands of one representative is very dangerous. Based on my own involvement with this situation, I suggest we add a provision to the bylaws that allows this body to overrule a Chair's veto if the majority finds it questionable.
The Chair recognizes the representative from West Gallia.

I move that a two-third majority now has the power to override a veto from the Chair.

Seconded. This will surely keep the Chair from using her authority in corrupt ways.

We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?
Hearing none... All those in favor?

ALL: I!

The Chair recognizes the representative from Rellenia's old district.

I move that in recognition of their bravery, we present Shroud, Stoic, Baron and Laurel with a Cookie of Valor.

Second!

A cookie?

(CHAIR): It's no ordinary cookie, Baron. It's big enough for all of you and you'll find the effects very useful!

Oh... cool.

It is a tremendous honor.

We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?
Hearing none... All those in favor?

ALL: I!



He roars.
I hate everything!

Aww... sounds like somebody needs a hug!

... What?

ALL: Free hugs!
The fairies launch from their seats.





...



It was the least we could do. I have enjoyed your support for hundreds of years.

So what happens now?

I will continue to act as Chair until we arrange a formal election.

You'll win in a landslide!

Well... we'll see. Gotta let the process run its course.

So what was that thing in the sewers I picked up for you?

That was a dossier from the archives. I'm not sure how it got down there, but I'll have to file it later.

I never realized just how much you all give of your time and energy to help others. It's wonderful!

It really is. I'm honored to have you as our representative.

Aww... Don't do that! You'll make me blush!

I do still wish we had something we could call you other than "The Representative from Port Arianna."

You guys and your names. For now, you can call me... "Chair!" Hee hee!

Let's hope it stays that way.

Well, enough chat. Time for you to get back to work! If you don't do your job, we can't do ours!

Will do!

Good luck out there! And remember... we fairies aren't gonna forget what you did today!

There was one more problem I never had a chance to mention.

Shoot!

There's a man in Artagel who's struggling to support his family, and he could use some help.

The gentleman's name is Pierre, and he said he has appealed to the fairies numerous times with no response.

Another bill that got shot down by that phony, I bet. Well, you tell them that we will get right on that!



Time well spent. Shall we return to town?

Too bad we didn't find out more about those dossiers, I even tried talking to everyone inside the legislation building again and looked at everything. I actually don't think we find out what they were until... post-game. They'd make for really interesting reading at this point though. And I don't think they even -spoil- anything, per se.



Nice. I'll save this for a while. Anyway, lets head back to Pierre.



PIERRE: Oh yeah? What's that?

We were able to help the fairies sort out some problems in their congress. You should be getting some help soon.

PIERRE: That's... incredible news! Thank you so much for all you have done!

No problem, buddy. Soon you'll have so much lettuce you won't know what to do with it!
And that's that. Moving on...





This woman barges out right as we're about to enter and starts shooting the chess piece on top of Equipment King.

Another satisfied customer!

These bastards ignore me... but we'll see how they react when they have a few less chess pieces!
She resumes shooting.

Are you... Gino's friend?


Look, an old lady is stuck on Bones.

Indeed. Now that we're introduced, I have a quick request.

What's that?

May I borrow your gun for a few seconds?

Well... I suppose.



That's the spirit!

Pretty fun isn't it, B-Man?

You know... it really is.

Gino tells me you work in the armor business. Come on inside if you want to have a look at my selection or chat with him.


...



"I'll start working on making some new equipment tomorrow after I've slept. That carriage ride was a bit hard on me."



"Dark Scowl
Flowing Stone
Light Feet
Fighting Gloves"



Mind-reading Gino... You also might notice the table with.... something underneath it.

Cassie just talks about how small her shop feels these days... Unless you mind-read her.



Excuse me. We were hoping to speak with Cole Marin downstairs.

What?! I don't know what you're talking about!

No use, Cass. Laurel's a telepath.

Oh goodness. Well... If Gino trusts you, I guess I can let you down there.
Move aside, please.


What business do you all have with Cole, anywya?

The information he has seen and written about is very important. It could even help bring down Equipment King.

He did tell me he wrote a book about them, but he doesn't have a copy here and he's too darn scared of their hired thugs to go get one!

Perhaps we can help.


...



She would never allow us to see you if our intentions were sinister.

What?

They're... together.

Huh? That's not true.

Everyone always tries to lie. It's so sad.



Yes, that's me.

Hey... I heard you had shaved your beard!

Who told you that?

We heard that from Wyre in Rellenia.

Friends of his, eh? That puts me more at ease. Truthfully, I only spread the rumor that I shaved my beard in order to throw off those who are trying to find me. However, I have trimmed it since my time with The Hand... and it certainly has become much grayer.
But enough of that. Who are all of you?

I'm Cade Mistral. And my friends are: Finley Donner, Laurel Hargrove and--

Cade Mistral, you say? At last I meet the famous Shroud.

Huh!?

I read reports about what happened to your home by the shore. Family full of wind mages. The father is killed senselessly, the mother passes on.
Both sons disappear.

Whoa, wait a minute! This is really sad stuff that Cade has to deal with, and you're talking like you just read it in some book!
Cade looks at Finley, and then back to Marin.

Perhaps that is true... If so, I apologize. A bit of a bad habit.
My point, however, is that only a short time after all of this, there are rumors of a mysterious masked wind mage patrolling the area near that house.
I suspected it was either you or your brother.

Looks like you figured it out. You may have some idea why we're here.



That's correct. I'm glad to finally meet you.

I have some idea of why you sought me out... but give more details.

We've been going all over the place trying to find evidence we can use against Equipment King and The Hand. We had a copy of the Rellenia Justice Commission's report made for us while we were there. I also found a copy of your book locked in the Tower of the Sun at the Sacred River Monastery.

Locked it up, did they? Cowards.

Unfortunately, it was stolen from me and is probably shreds by now. Then we thought if we found you in person, we could still use what you learned while you were in disguise.

Hmm... I would rather not testify in person, but there is another copy of the book.

There is?! Where?

Back at the house where I first put my information together and wrote it.

Where's that?

It's on the Great Nuntak Isle.

Nuntak Isle?! What in the name of Arcadius where (SIC) you doing way out there?

Simply put, I could not think of a more secluded place to work.

I haven't been there since........

Since Blacksteele's Rebellion?
There's a lengthy pause here.

Um... Well, nevermind. You say you have a copy out there?

Yes. I was not sure what to expect when I gave one copy of the book to the monastery. There certainly was always a risk of it being destroyed, but the possibility of even a few young students reading it was impossible to resist.

But you're no fool. You left a copy way out in the boonies where nobody would find it.

That's correct.

Would you be willing to take us there?

Given what is at stake... I suppose I don't have much choice.

Well, let's not get too ahead of ourselves. I want to make sure Kovak doesn't get to start any trouble here in Artagel before we go that far away.

That's probably wise, but there's only so much we can do if he's really making this place his new permanent residence.

I know, but I think we should at least wait a day or two... to see what his game is here. Depending on what we find out, it will only add to our evidence.

Then Cassie calls down from upstairs.

I have dinner ready! Would you like some?

Sure!


...









https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll3uOZoVfkU 'Dark Reunion' 'Rin'ne' from the Elfen Lied OST.







They...

They what?

They threw things at me! They hit me with holy spells! People I've known for months! Some for years! *sob*

I see you could no longer tolerate the robes of those hypocrites.

My own father... Didn't believe it was really me. He ordered his guards to attack... I don't understand how they could all be so unreasonable.

Hmmph! You think you are the first one to experience this? What you have just described is the story of every vampire who has ever existed!
Now you are undead and you can see firsthand the bigotry we are subjected to day after day. A beautiful world we live in, is it not?

I... I never thought...



I... I just don't know what I'm supposed to do now.

Is it not obvious? You strike back! You make them pay!

I don't want to hurt anyone!

Truly? I doubt that. You had to have bitten someone in order to survive this long.

No... I...

You what?

I bit a cow.

... Ah ha ha ha ha ha!

Stop laughing at me! I don't care what happened! I'm not a monster like you!

Wouldn't you prefer human flesh? It's far easier to pierce than the rough skin of those animals.

I... I read once that most animals are immune to vampirism.

Yes, that is true. You have not created a bloodsucking cow, though I imagine that milk will taste quite repugnant for a while.

*chuckle* Was that a joke?

Ha! Indeed it was. Laughter is the best weapon against the misery of this existence... Second only to revenge.
Speaking of which... It is time I repaid my debt to those who helped me before. Would you like to come along?

I...

Come now. You know that I am the only friend you have.

You're... You're right.

Now you will learn what it truly means to be a vampire.



Oh look. Perfectly timed, because this is a long update already. Anyway, next time there'll be wacky hijinx in Artagel!

the end