Plague of Beginnings

by L.H.Collider

A Story that covers two periods in the lives of Plague Knight and Mona, chapters swapping between the two. The first is the tale of how they met, the troubles they faced living on the streets of Pridemoor as Alchemy is frowned upon, and how they strive to become better than before. The second takes place a few years before Plague of Shadows as the duo are apprentice alchemists...

6. 2nd Exoteric Reaction

Exoteric Reaction 2 – Double Deals

3 years before the tower fell

The route between the Machinist Guild's Clockwork Tower and Pridemoor Village was one of the most well-travelled in all the kingdom. Almost daily, large transport carriages as massive as siege weaponry could be seen being driven up and down the road, both by horses and the newest clockwork engines created by the Guild. Talk that would have been foolish just a few years back, that of paving the road with cobblestones, or even newer material The Guild had been perfecting, was now under serious discussion as its route was now the very lifeblood of the kingdom.

It was "The Guild" now, to most people in the kingdom, and their presence was nearly ubiquitous. All over Pridemoor, daily life was being transformed by their works, most notably that of farmers. Crops were being planted and harvested at an efficiency not before seen, and allowing for this, the price of food at the market began to drop.

Outlying hamlets and villages benefited the most from The Guild, and it was at one particular location, known simply as the Armor Outpost, where this was most apparent. Several years ago, the kingdom had little need for another military fort at the location, and it, at the time, was difficult to reach by carriage. The Guildmaster of the Machinists, back then considered old and feeble-minded, offered to fix up the base in exchange for the ability to act in the stead of the King's Soldiers as those who watched over it in case of an invasion. Sensing a shrewd deal, the king eagerly agreed to her proposal, and the outpost was put under control of The Guild.

Today, as with most days, the Greens and Golds of the Machinists flew from nearly every awning, with the Reds and Silvers of its lowly but ever present predecessor, the Blacksmith Guild, serving as accents and badges of honor to those who clung to it as participants in the origin of something grand. Shops specializing in the making of Weapons and Armor, as well as newly fashionable clothing for Nobles, gave the town its name, although it was much, much more than a simple Outpost now.

"Amazing what a few years can do, eh Plaguey?"

These words came from a tall, statuesque woman of green skin tone with short, black hair in a bob, riding in one of the many Guild carriages along the road, towards the Outpost, although this particular carriage had been stolen from and then later reluctantly given to its current owners.

She sat idly by the carriage window, a notebook in her hands that to anyone except the two riding it would look like the rambles of a child just learning to write. This was partially due to the fact that it was written in code.

"Hee…Yeah, I'll say…. Ms Marie."

Mona picked up a small pillow in the carriage and threw it at her partner in crime lightly, harmlessly bouncing off his grinning, slightly scarred face.

"Whatever, Pierre… Ugh, god I hate codenames. When it's just us, let's drop it. Pleeease."

Mona took out a fan from her purse and tried to cool herself off. She looked at Plague Knight… Pierre, and envied the simplistic Butler's disguise he wore...to a degree. She wore a long gown decked out in a shade of green slightly darker than that of the signature green of The Guild, with beautiful gold accents and frills patterned throughout. These were not just painted, but made of real gold alchemically fused to thread, symbolic as to their journey's purpose.

Because Mona was, as always, covered completely from the neck down, the dress was heavier than her usual clothes by a significant degree, and definitely not much cooler. The intricate gold pattern on her gloves, the only part of the costume she designed herself, was something she was quite proud of, however.

"Of course, Mademoiselle, hee hee!", said Pierre.

"Anyway, Gash said we should stop over here for the night and to pick up the package and trade it for Twenty Thousand, before the final stretch to the Clockwork Tower. I have to say, it was nice of him to give us an official mission together for once."

Mona straightened up in her seat before leaning back in exhaustion from the trip, her notebook covering her face and muffling her words.

"Yeah, that'd be true except for the fact that it was the most expedient way to get this done. I'm here for negotiations because Alchemia Knight and his Shadows are still away, Keeper's too shy, Meiser's too old, and even Gash knows he's a bit of a scumbag and that I let loose because I was among allies. He could do the first part for sure, but the second is debatable. You're here for recon because one, he's too afraid for his own job to admit how good of an alchemist you are, two, the fact that we already have a good working relationship, and three, the fact you're the one with the most insight into who's trying to betray us."

Plague Knight was about to reply with appreciation for her compliment, when he noticed the carriage slowing down to turn a streetcorner. Out of the window, he saw a rather large, newish looking building where a banner was being hung across several wooden columns.

"Le Bouquet Magique…"

Mona immediately stood up, the notebook flying from her face to the back of the carriage, her head hitting the ceiling as she ran to stick her head out of the window.

"Wow…wowowow! It really is! Pl…Pierre! That's the symphonic play I heard as a kid! They're playing it again!"

Mona couldn't help but yell out as she awkwardly pulled her head back into the carriage, now crouching down and looking through the window with her eyes just above the windowsill.

"Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh!", she said with an excitement that contrasted humorously with her outfit.

"Heee..", said Plague Knight under his breath. "I'm really happy for you! Let's hope we have enough time after getting the package."

Mona instantly froze and slumped over in a depression. "uuuuugh the packaaagee. Yeah…I guess the mission comes first. There'll probably be another time, eventually. I'll try not to think about that too much then."

Mona sat back in her seat as Plague Knight saw the warring thoughts in her head play out in her facial expression.

"Soo… Let's see what we brought here, eh? I can't wait to try out that new burst!", said Plague Knight, quickly trying to change the subject to something more uplifting.

"Ohh yeah! Man P..Pierre, The way you integrate those different transmutagenic effects… and the reagent efficiency! Even Gash should be impressed by that!"

"Ahem.", said Plague Knight, getting up from his seat, standing rigidly, and haughtily pointing his nose into the air. "I, Gash Knight of the council and all around Stick in the Mud, begrudgingly commend you, Plague Knight, on your mastery of the Alchemical Arts, Hee hee. Now... get back to doing random tasks instead of Research!"

Mona stood as well, taking care not to hit her head on the ceiling, and drummed up the lowest voice she could muster. "And don't forget to tell Mona to keep ordering the Homunculi to walk back and forth in the halls carrying reagents! This is very important! Harumph!"

Just then, the carriage hit a bump in the road, sending the two toppling to the floor, hitting their heads together.

"Ow!"

The two of them then burst out into raucous laughter so loud that the carriage driver, a familiar Horseman, wondered just what on earth was so funny. "Sorry about that bump, Mademoiselle , I'll try to avoid more in the future.", he yelled out.

"Heh.", said Mona, cracking a smile while catching her . "You really should be on the council, you know."

Plague Knight turned from laughter to stunned silence in an instant.

"Hee hee…huh?"

Before anything more could be said, they were interrupted by Sir Percival, who on this mission had chosen to call himself Daustin. Plague Knight and Mona were still bitter over the fact that he got to choose his own name.

"Mademoiselle, we have arrived at the inn!"

Mona stood and stretched as she and Plague Knight both got into character. Break time was over. She could see Sir Percival opening the door from the outside, while Plague Knight stepped out in front of her, dragging two large cases along on wheels.

The door opened to the late afternoon sunlight as Plague Knight and Sir Percival stood at either side of the open carriage door. Grabbing a fan and pointing her nose in the air, she took her first steps out, seeing the Inn that the Alchemist Guild had selected for their single night stay. It was a modest-looking, for the outpost anyway, three-story building with lavishly stained wooden columns, carved with ornate patterns commissioned from a local artisan. From what she could see of the interior, it was decked out with Red carpeting and Silver candelabras, a sign of the deep roots the building had with the community. In short, it was the place with the lowest possible price a lesser noble would be caught staying in.

"Come Along, Pierre, Daustin. We are barely on schedule." Without looking at either of them, Mona motioned with her fan for them to follow as she stepped over the threshold.

"See, now this is what a hotel looks like. Pay close attention, Daustin. The Mademoiselle and Iwould have you recognize it more clearly. Hee…"

Mona swallowed a giggle under her breath as she heard Plague Knight. He could be quite funny when he wanted to.

She approached the front desk, spying a man in a black suit, red shirt, and silver tie. He was balding slightly, with a thin moustache and a slightly annoyed look on his face as he was perusing a guestbook. Mona snapped her fingers sharply without averting her gaze from the upper corner of the wall.

"Ah.. you must be Mademoiselle LaFontaine. I am Norman, and quite pleased to make your acquaintance, Milady. We were expecting your arrival."

He held out his hand, and only then did Mona acknowledge his presence by putting her gloved hand in his as she averted her gaze downwards at him.

"Enchanted, I'm sure. This is my carriage driver, Daustin, and my personal bodyguard and servant, Pierre. I trust all quarters and arrangements have been accounted for by my esteemed father?" , Mona Motioned to Sir Percival and Plague Knight respectively as she spoke.

"Yes…indeed." Norman seemed to look quite puzzled at the sight of Plague Knight, as he shot back a dirty look. "Anyway, all has been prepared as I'm sure you have been told. Please, allow me to escort you to your rooms."

As they let go of each other's hands, Mona dropped a small bag of coins into Norman's, which he quickly and quietly pocketed. The three of them followed Norman to the top floor, at which point he gave Mona the key after opening it with his own.

The trio stepped into the room with a sigh of relief as the two men set down the bags and shut the door behind them.

Plague Knight slumped against the door in relief as Mona jumped in the bed and buried her face in the pillows.

"Hee...Phew... glad we still have that contact.", said Plague as a sense of relief washed over him. He had been tricked by supposed safe contacts before and was ready for a fight if the need arose. Despite the unprecedented success of the Machinist Guild boosting the Town's economy, he had found some people to always want more.

With a stretch and a groan, Mona gave out her instructions while lying face down in her pillow.

"We've got some time, guys. 'Daustin', your job is done for now. Go to the servant's room and secure our luggage. Then just make sure to stay out of trouble until tomorrow. You can do whatever you want until then..."

Mona then raised her head and turned towards Sir Percival.

"Nobody here would know you... right?"

The horseman's cheeks turned red as he waved his hands frantically in front of his face. "Why no, of course not! I rarely left the capitol in my entire career. I had no need of it. Surely, even if, perchance we were to meet a former acquaintance of mine, I sincerely doubt they would recognize me from a passing glance or chance meeting. Humans have trouble telling individuals not of their own apart anyway, ahem, right?"

'Daustin' nervously rocked back and forth as his mouth spewed explanations.

Mona simply raised an eyebrow and motioned for him to go back into what would be his and Plague's bedroom for the night. Sir Percival did so without hesitation.

"That guy... Exactly why did the boss need him on this one?" Plague Knight asked as he approached Mona, who was now sitting on the edge of the bed, keeping an eye on the time.

"He didn't tell you? From what I saw he used to be somebody in the council of nobles. Not a member, of course, but not nothing, either. Apparently involved in architecture, both historical and modern. I don't need to bore you with the details, but he's pretty safe to keep around. He was in that jail for a reason, and it's not because he's dangerous. As for why he needed to be here? The boss didn't tell me."

"I suppose it's too much for our mortal minds to need to know, eh?", said Plague Knight as he unpacked his Chemically treated Coat and Mask.

Mona turned toward him while unpacking her familiar dress and robes. She quickly threw the cloak around her lower face, her eyes giving away the grin underneath. "Ah, but is it not the greatest desire of a student of Alchemy to want to know even the most minute detail of all reactions?", said Mona in her greatest haughty voice.

Seeing what she was doing, Plague Knight jumped on the bed and wrapped his own mouth in a sheet as well. "Is this not the force that drives us to seek out, accomplish, and vanquish the impossible?"

"YES! That's totally him!"

The two shouted simultaneously and burst into laughter. From the next room, the groan of a certain horseman could be heard.

---

Normally, one would find the streets of the Armor Outpost congested with the sounds of Merchants and Traders, signalling the flood of gold coins that were changing hands during the seemingly eternal sunset in the valley. This would be a normal sight throughout the Outpost, if not for the fact that this particular corner of the booming town, however, was Setton Road.

Setton Road was hardly a road at all, more of a wide alleyway seemingly carved between two blocks that were neither too close to fully close off nor too far to make a proper roadway. The signs and awnings of businesses on Arvena Avenue to the North and Jano Street to the south blocked the eyes of even the high guard towers around the walls of the old Outpost that gave the town its namesake, shrouding Setton Road in shadows for most of any given day, and making it so only the foolish or the strong would venture there at night.

Here, gold was far too common of a commodity to be traded alone. What was traded here, in a pub located behind a storm-worn but strong wooden door, were Treasures. This, was Fortune's Port.

"Password." The guard behind the door stated, before anyone even knocked. Two Alchemists in hooded robes stood in silence for a half-second, as people behind them passed from stall to stall, store to store, along the muddy cobblestone path of Setton Road, going about whatever business they could only do here.

"High Seas, Deep Riches.", Mona stated back, flatly. Another half-second passed, and the strong wooden door barred with metal that looked like it was torn from the mast of an old sailing ship, was opened.

The doorman was nowhere to be seen as Plague Knight and Mona took off their hoods, revealing Mona's face and Plague Knight's mask, which was covered by another, smaller hood, puzzling the bartender as he looked over to the door.

The scene inside was unlike any pub the two had ever beheld. Aside from the bar along the left side of the room, where people of every race and species were busy drinking and conversing, the right side of the room looked like a maze from the view by the front door, with hallways snaking their way throughout what was clearly a decent-sized section of the city block; rooms of various sizes hidden by thick drapes dotting the walls and the central area. In the back, Plague Knight could make out some sets of gambling tables as well as those new gambling machines created by The Guild.

"Your Meetingssh...?" A small figure floated up to Mona, their dark blue bodysuit and distinct, monstrous looking hood giving off the unmistakeable presence of a Gulper Mage, those which rejected the legal title of Magicist to remind of the days long past when the Enchanters ruled the land with fear and intimidation, rather than the Magicists who now aided the King and people, offering insight and military assistance. The two were completely different.

"Yes. we are here to see the Traders. I believe they should already be here?", said Mona.

The diminutive figure cocked their head to one side, giving the two a once over. "Ah.. Yesh. The Alchemisssshsts. Follow." Plague Knight could sense the laughter that the small figure held back as they led Mona and he down the small set of stairs to the main floor.

The Gulper Mage was not an unexpected sight. Fortune's Port was owned and operated by the Trovers, a group which any one term in particular could not define. One could say they were pirates, after all they pillaged ships and stole from various towns along the coastline of the Sea of Albia. One could say they were businessmen, who used their vast fleet to scour the cities for opportunities for trade and transport. One could also say they were Salvagers, since their Flagship, the Iron Whale, was a one-of-a-kind vessel stolen from the Mediterran Empire's shipyards, capable of travelling below the waves and scouring the bottom of the sea for treasures and artifacts that until recently were lost to time. The Empire, of course, was infuriated by this theft, but no one much cared for them in Pridemoor, and the Trovers brought in so many rare artifacts for trade that there were rumours that the Guild Coalition gave them unofficial support.

Nevertheless, the Trovers and their Knight Errant leader were a known commodity in the Outpost for anyone who had or wanted to have things that could not be found anywhere else.

"Here.", said the Gulper Mage, as they eventually reached a large room nestled deep in the tentacles of the mazelike hallways. The Mage opened the drapes, allowing Plague Knight and Mona to step through, then immediately closing them.

"Welcome, Councilwoman." The voice came from the man sitting at the far end of the table in the well-furnished room, in the center of a group of five. Various meals, many of which the two had never even seen before in their lives, dotted the ornate wooden table in the center. Many of the dishes were already half-eaten.

"Good Afternoon to you, Don Ganjo. I'm grateful that this arrangement could be made." Mona gave a small bow of respect.

The man at the end of the table wore a fine tailored black suit with a tulip on his lapel, while the others around him wore suits with grey stripes. Each of them looked like they were carrying enchanted weapons with them, while the chainmail they wore beneath them made their already large frames even more intimidating.

These men were from a small but growing group known as the Traders. They dealt in various trades that Plague Knight preferred not to think about, helping people in "unfortunate situations", and collecting debt on this help in imaginative ways. Such a group held no regard for most laws, making them the typical kind of people who would deal with those who practiced Alchemy.

"It's no problem, of course. How many times have we done this, after all? Though this is my first time meeting you, I believe. You're a bit nicer to look at than the Doc himself." The man gave a small smirk while Plague Knight glared back through his mask, seeing the four men with him laughing at something under their breath. He preferred not to know what.

"Right.. well, let's get down to business then." Mona pulled up a chair at the opposite end of the table. Plague Knight did so as well, and brought out the suitcase he held with him, opening it to reveal a square, wooden device that was engraved with an intricate alchemical symbol. It appeared to be made from high quality wood, with the alchemical circle carved and painted white. It was quite beautiful, actually. But then, of course, Plague Knight had been one of its key designers. The Don smiled.

"Five Thousand." , he said matter-of-factly.

Plague Knight could see the skin between Mona's eyebrows begin to furrow for a split second, but then she began to give a familiar, if insincere smile. Nobody tried to undercut the Alchemists on a deal. It was time for these small timers to understand why.

"Don Ganjo, I think it's time to go over what this can do for you. We've tweaked it since the last one, and I believe you'll be happy with it." Mona brought out a small piece of lead from her pocket, and placed it into the center of the device. Placing her hand at the edge of the alchemical circle, she poured some of her mana into it and the device began to glow with a slight white light. The piece of lead grew smaller, and in a slot at the back of the device, the five men could see a gold coin slowly forming, until a single gold piece of Pridemoor denomination was produced.

"Can't fault the ROI with this, it's why I'm even talking to people like you. But how is this any different from what you've given me before?"

Mona's smile became a grin of confidence, and she revealed a side panel of the device to the Don. "Here, watch what happens when I flip this switch."

A whirring within the device could be heard, and hinges in the ornate wooden frame that made up the Alchemical Circle began to shift and move, until they formed into a slightly different symbol.

"Now Look." Mona placed the piece of lead onto the center of the symbol once more. "Place your hand on it like I did, and send some of your mana through it as if you were casting an empty spell." The Don, giving an amused chuckle, did as he was instructed, and the device began to glow. The Don was inadept at magic, and Mona sat back and played with her fingers on the table as the man powered the device. The piece of lead grew smaller as before, and a brand new gold coin appeared in the back.

The four men with the Don immediately jumped backwards two feet.

"A Farith!"

"Imperial Money!?"

"Impossible!"

The Don immediately stood up and slammed his fists on the table, his eyes bulging with shock, the muscles of his mouth fighting valiantly against holding it agape in awe. "Quiet! All of you idiots."

Settling, The Don gave a piercingly furious glare towards Mona. "You Alchemists... you really do have a death wish, don't you? The Kingdom's Excecution order isn`t enough now?! You need the Empire coming down on your heads?!"

Sweat could be seen forming on the Don's Brow, as his four men seemed to be reaching for their weapons.

"Not at all, Don Ganjo.", said Mona, calmly.

"Bull!", shouted the Don. "I don't know how old you are under that skin, but if you've been in this even half as long as I have, you know what happened to the last people who screwed an Imperial on a deal. "

Most everyone in the back channels knew about the incident near the harbor twelve years prior. A small band from the known group of thieves called The Rist had stolen cargo from a Mediterran trading vessel. They fled into the sea of Albia, and seemed quite successful at first. So successful that no one in Pridemoor even knew about it for a few weeks. Slowly, however, members of The Rist had begun to go missing, one by one. Then, one by one, in the dead of night, pieces of every member of The Rist were slowly found in the town square of the outpost,each one nailed to a post with a note carrying the Imperial seal and only two words. "Never Again."

The Imperial Colonial Governor and the Council of Nobles were never said to discuss the matter in any meetings. And all who brought up the matter further were silenced. Eventually it was decreed that anyone who was found to have slighted the Empire in any way would be turned over to them, no questions asked. The few who did were never seen again.

"We're both smarter than that."

Mona sighed, sitting back down in her seat, leaning ever so slightly forward, staring daggers at the Don while supporting her chin with folded hands. "Mediterra surely wouldn't be involved in any transactions using this. At least, not directly. Besides, look where we are. No one has more reason to have incurred Imperial wrath than the Trovers. Yet this place still stands."

"Then what, praytell, would you expect us to do with these?"

"Do...do I really have to explain it to you?" Mona's eyes flattened a she could see the five men stare at her in utter seriousness. "Okay...fine. You guys have... clients, right? Well, let's say that one of those clients wants to get out of a contract, or wants to inform the authorities as to the private nature of your business. You wouldn't want that, right? Well, how interesting would it be to the constable if they found a bag of illicitly gained Fariths in their home or workplace?"

"You... ha.. ha.. HA! Well... I can see how that would be... useful to us." The Don's posture eased itself. "How long's this hunk of junk gonna last us, though? The other one you gave us just stopped working after a while."

Plague Knight smirked. The organic catalytic mixture inside the device would always run out eventually, making it stop functioning after too many uses. It was simply a mixture of the remains of mice and sawdust, but no one outside of the Alchemist's Guild would know that.

Mona's eyes grew softer, and her expression transformed into a grin that a teacher would give a student after they promised to behave. "I'm so happy you get so much use out of our product! Nothing lasts forever, I'm afraid, and the darn thing just wears out after repeated use. You'll surely get your money's 20,000 originally agreed upon isn't that much in the long run, after all!"

"T..Twenty?"

Mona's expression did not change. "Don Ganjo, of course you know that our guild is always busy pushing the frontiers of Alchemical knowledge. As such, we value our patrons, and their interests! However, as operating costs grow, so does the necessity to expand our clientele. I can understand if our premium offerings are out of your financial capability, but if that is so, then we may look to other capable patrons for alternative revenue streams!"

"Such as?"

"Well, let's see. There's the Tower Reavers, the Honest Woodsmen, Corsaella..."

The four men immediately drew their weapons, with only the Don's word holding them back.

"This is a setup! You know all of them want to rush in on our territory! You Toadski.."

At that moment, all the while keeping her teacher's grin, Mona placed her hand on a portion of the table, and the beautiful wooden furnishing writhed and exploded as if coming alive. Thick wooden vines shot out at all angles, knocking the men's weapons out of their hands and ensnaring them in a wooden prison. The expensive food on the table crashed and splattered all around the room, Plague Knight having to dodge a few stray pieces of cake. As the thick briar began to congeal, razor sharp vines poked out centimeters from each man's neck.

"When did you..."

"People usually don't like to look what I'm doing. I simply take advantage of that fact, much like how you take advantage of opportunities with your clients." Mona's expression still did not change.

"F..Fi"

"Speaking of which, you should probably take advantage of the opportunity right in front of you. Don't worry, I won't raise the price with a blade to your necks. I'm not a highway robber."

"Fine... Twenty..Thousand. Just.. let.."

Mona touched the glowing symbol on the table once more, and the vines receded; the weapons clanking to the floor. The Don's Traders sighed in relief as the blades moved away from their necks.

"Grant.. Give em' all four.", said the Don.

Without hesitating, the man on the far right rushed over, reaching into his deep coat pockets to reveal four intricately carved statues in velvet bags.

"Payment confirmed.", said Mona, her face contorting back to a neutral state. "Oh, and one more thing." Mona grabbed the Gold Farith the Don had made earlier, and placed it on the device, switched back to its first mode. In a flash, the coin was absorbed, and out popped a standard Pridemoor Gold. "No accounting for exchange rates though."

Mona put the device back into its case, and gave it to Grant. "A pleasure doing business with you."

The Don looked at her and Shivered. "Y..yeah. We're square now, right."

"Of course!", said Mona, briefly shifting back into her teacher's smile.

The Don's men left the room first, followed by Plague Knight and Mona, then Don Ganjo. As a Gulper Mage came to confirm the end of the room's use, Mona shouted out one last time.

"Don Ganjo, would you please consider the contract proposed to you earlier by our guild, if you wouldn't mind?"

The Don looked back and nodded the slightest bit, before shivering and looking back.

"That went quite well, hee hee!", said Plague Knight.

"Yeah, looks like it. Now we just have to exchange with the Trovers and we're all set to move on tomorrow to get to the real deal, so to speak."

As if on cue, one of the Gulper Mages floated towards the two from around a corner, settling in front of Mona.

"Fee."

The Gulper Mage stared, its eyes unblinking and unmoving.

"Here you go! Four Artifacts from the old empire. That should be more than enough for our room fee as well as 20,000 in addition to be added to our guild's account."

The mage stared at the statues in curiosity, examining them carefully with their hands. Plague Knight could have sworn that he saw a look of surprise in the mage's eyes.

"Not now.", they said.

"Excuse me?", said Plague Knight.

"Rare. Very Rare. Come back four hours. Show Boss. Room Fee is... on house." Plague Knight wasn't sure, but he heard a twinge of laughter in the mage's gurgling, whispy voice.

Mona, for the first time that day, was at a loss for words. She hadn't thought there would be any sort of issue at this stage. Unlike the Traders, who depended partially on their contact with the alchemists to seem like more of a threat in their territory, the Trovers were a multinational and sweeping organization larger than many officially sanctioned guilds. It was comparing a wolf to a lion, and a lion to a dragon. They had to acquiesce to their whims or risk annihilation.

"Of course.. yes. We'll be here.", said Mona.

The mage motioned for the two to follow, and led them back to the entrance. In a flash, the two were back on Setton Road, among the lesser traders and lesser treasures.

"I wasn't prepared to come back. I don't even know who we're meeting. By "boss", that mage could've meant anyone from the manager of Fortune's Port to the top of the Trovers himself."

Mona's brow furrowed in frustration as she walked angrily down the path to the main road, Plague Knight trailing behind.

"This..this is really bad. Really bad.", Mona repeated under her breath. " I have a lot of research to do on the Trovers' power structure. I don't think the Traders gave us fakes. They wouldn't risk losing our support. Though... any possible outcome shouldn't be discounted accounting its probability versus the severity of its possibility. We have to prepare for anything. Plague Knight, I.."

"Mona... hold on.. please. Just take a deep breath." Plague Knight hopped on a crate on the side of the street, and looked her eye to eye under his double set of hoods. He could see the panic behind her eyes as he knew she was already thinking of dozens of backup plans and escape routes, as well as the future of the guild.

"The person I saw at that negotiation wouldn't let something like this rattle them. She was someone who could handle anyone and anything." There was no dishonesty in Plague Knight's words. When he saw Mona at her work, whether it was Alchemical symbology or talking with pretty much anyone but the council, he couldn't imagine anyone better. Truly, he thought, there was no one better that Alchemia Knight could have picked to be among the leaders of Alchemy in Pridemoor.

"Plague Knight... thanks." Mona stopped, and her panic seemed to cool into a relaxed unease. "That wasn't... I mean, yeah. Sorry. I'd probably make a mistake if I got stuck in turbo like that. I do have to catch up on.. what is that on your foot?"

Plague Knight looked down and saw a small piece of paper attached to the bottom of his boot. Annoyed, he stuck his foot in the air and wiggled it until the paper came loose. Giggling, Mona snatched it out of the air.

"Heh, let's see..." Mona read the paper, and her eyes grew wide enough to swim in. "No...no way."

Plague Knight looked around in curiosity and excitement, getting off the crate and running behind Mona, who was holding the paper close to her face.

"What is it? Let me see! Let me see!" He hopped around behind her, trying to catch a glimpse of the paper that had her seemingly enraptured.

Finally snapping out of it, Mona dragged Plague Knight over to a nearby alleyway in a burst of speed. If Plague Knight didn't know better, he would have sworn Mona had used a Fleet Flask.

"This is a ticket! A ticket to Le Bouquet Magique! And it's... for Tonight." Mona let out an exasperated sigh. Plague Knight could sense she was quite tired of the emotional rollercoaster that life had seemed hell-bent on taking her on.

"Now wait...", said Plague Knight, tapping his foot. "This is a sign from the Gods, hee hee! Let me handle the negotiation tonight. You go ahead and enjoy yourself. Who knows when your next chance will be!"

Mona's exasperation evaporated and turned into a cold stare. "Plague Knight. This. is. important. I don't know how much you've learned or found out on your own, but the Trovers are no joke. If things go bad, things go bad for all of us. You. Me. The whole guild. To leave that kind of responsibility behind to go enjoy myself at a show... Would you ever trust someone like that again?"

Plague Knight was taken aback. The way Mona looked at him... he could tell that she was disappointed in him for his suggestion. The last thing he wanted for Mona was more stress. He took a deep breath.

"Listen, Mona. I'm sorry if I worded that poorly, but honestly, I was going to ask you to go out and enjoy yourself tonight and let me handle it anyway."

"You..."

"Let me finish. Mona, I'm sorry about what the council said the other day. I know how hard we worked on that potion. Ever since then, you've been acting like you've been trying to prove your worth to them. You, the one who hates doing field work, suggested to Gash Knight that you go on this trip. "

"That's not..."

"Mona, please, hee! I could tell from the moment you explained your reasoning to me that those were the very things you said to Gash to get him to let you go. You phrased your answer to me not as 'he said these were the reasons why', but as 'these are the reasons why'. In fact, I'd wager that you made him think it was his own idea to send us by working off of a careless statement he made about something nearly unrelated."

Mona stood firmly, her face changing from disappointment to amusement. "Am I that obvious?"

"Only to me. But to be fair I've known you nearly my whole life. Hee hee hee!"

Mona laughed along with him. "Yeah... I'm sorry I snapped. But my reasoning still stands. I don't think I could forgive myself if something went wrong."

"I won't let anything go wrong. I swear it." Plague Knight's eyes burned through his mask with the kind of honesty Alchemists did not usually have the luxury of expressing. "You've done a lot for the guild. You've dedicated your work and free time to the advancement of Alchemy. At the very least you can get back one good memory from our childhood."

"The gods know those are in short supply." Mona rolled her eyes. "Plaguey... I am doing this for Alchemy."

Plague Knight cocked his head to the side. "Verbal Alchemy doesn't count. Hee!"

Mona stood back and bowed in Plague Knight's direction. "Tis a shame, for your Verbal Alchemy has bested this maiden!"

She stood back up, and gave a genuine smile. "I trust you, Plaguey. Read up what you can, find out anything if you can, and try to get done as quick as possible. I guess we'll... go back to the hotel, and I'll go get dressed for the night."

With an internal sigh of relief, Plague Knight followed Mona out of the alley. For a second, he thought the ticket he had bought earlier would have gone completely to waste. But he was glad it didn't.

---

"So... remind me why I have to follow you again? And may I add, why are you wearing your mask? Aren't you supposed to be in disguise?", asked Sir Percival as the seemingly eternal sunset of the Outpost finally began to give way to evening.

All over, streetlamps were being lit by magicists hired by the town to keep commerce going well into the night. The experts lit them from the ground, while the hired assistants had to use stepladders to get close enough. The Machinist guild, for all of its power, still needed magic for some things.

"Hello.. Earth to Pierre?"

Sir Percival waved his hand in front of Plague Knight's face as he gazed off.

"What!? Oh.. sorry. Don't use code names now. We're not "in charachter" for anyone at the moment. I'm representing the guild for a meeting. No need for disguises, as if anyone would recognise an alchemist by sight, anyway. Though, since you didn't really need one in the first place, you can use yours. "

Sir Percival glanced around nervously. "Yes.. I'll defintiely use mine now if that's alright with you. So... Why am I here?"

Plague Knight kept moving onward from the hotel, trying to speak softly enough not to draw attention but loud enough for Sir Percival to hear.

"I need you to pretend to be... one of us. You don't have to say it, but act like you're an alchemist. I need it to seem like it's not just me where we're going so they don't think they have some kind of upper hand on me numerically."

"Very well! Holding people hostage against their will, acting like you're better than everyone even though every known authority wants you dead, and general rudeness it is!"

"Hee! As if anyone holds people hostage according to their will.", snickered Plague Knight.

"Spend some time with the Council of Nobles. Or Better yet, don't. Not very much to do when you've got all the money in the world just for being born. Let's just say... people's minds wander. I'll leave it at that."

Plague Knight shivered at the thought. "Ugh.. I suppose we did you another favor, then?"

"In some ways, I suppose." Sir Percival glanced at the rows of shops and restaurants that dotted the main road. All around, the people who worked at The Guild's factories were laughing and smiling, toasting to their families and workmates.

"But... I'm glad its over."

Plague Knight stopped at the corner he would turn to soon be at Setton Road once more. "Sir Percival... if you don't mind my asking, what did you do for the Council of Nobles?"

Sir Percival glanced upwards. "My now! It seems to be a beautiful night to be going to an establishment of ill repute where we could possibly die. How quaint. Let us carry on, shall we?"

Shrugging, Plague Knight watched as Percival sprang ahead a few steps. It didn't matter, really, though his reason for being so avoidant could become a thing of concern.

It was only about a half-hour later that they arrived at Fortune's Port.

Plague Knight gave the password, and the door opened, just like before. Unlike before, however, was the atmosphere within. All around, one could see people drinking, gambling, and trading piles of coins and artifacts at a pace that Plague Knight could barely keep up with.

"My..my..my..." Plague Knight looked upwards, and could see Percival's face absolutely beaming over the gambling tables. "I.. had no idea there were going to be games of chance... is that.. Black Jack, by any chance?"

"Looks like someone changed their tune! Hee hee!", said Plague Knight, smirking under his mask.

Percival snapped his neck back towards Plague Knight at a speed he didn't think possible. He actually did a small leap out of surprise.

"Listen! My good sir... Please, if there is any time at all, would you perhaps allow me to indulge in some pursuits of an entertaining and fiscally responsible nature?" Percival was now kneeling down in front of Plague Knight at the top of the stairs, creating a scene with some onlookers down below.

Plague Knight shoved him away nervously. "No! Absolutely not! This meeting is incredibly important. "

Percival stared down at Plague Knight with big, watery eyes.

"Still No!"

Sir Percival Slumped over, defeated.

"Do you even have any money?" Before he could answer, a Gulper Mage floated over to the two of them, silently wriggling their fishtail-like hood that covered their head.

"You?", said the Gulper Mage, once again floating in front of Plague Knight just above eye level. "Yes, me. I've brought someone else with me to negotiate. I'd like to proceed now, if that's alright with you."

The mage tiled back into an upright position, still floating. Their arms gently splayed out as if to cast a spell, but instead began to speak again.

"NO. JUST YOU."

The mage's voice reverberated in Plague Knight and Percival's ears, shaking them to their cores.

"Oh.. okay. Lead the way then.", said Plague Knight with all the calmness he could possibly muster. "Everything's going to be fine. Trade. Talk. Get Out. It's probably that they don't want any more people knowing about sensitive matters. Yes. That's it."

The Gulper Mage motioned towards Plague Knight to follow him, as Percival stood dumbfounded. In the shock of the moment, Plague Knight had forgotten about him.

"Oh.. you go ahead and do whatever you want...apparently."

Percival's face contorted to an odd mix of joy and terror, which quickly shifted fully to joy as he seemed to dive into the gambling area head first.

Not looking back, Plague Knight followed the mage, who kept their upright posture as they floated between the bar/gambling area and the maze of meeting rooms, delving further and further into the back of Fortune's Port.

"Quite a large building, eh? The Trovers seem to be doing quite well, heh-hee!"

Without turning around or stopping, the Gulper Mage reverberated a reply.

"BOSS TALKS. NOT ME. FOLLOW."

He decided it was best to keep silent until they arrived at the proper door.

Unlike last time, the mage made very few turns through the maze of wooden walls and doors, hugging closely to the edge of the building where all sorts of treasures, art belonging to ancient kingdoms, and skulls of great beasts was hung along the walls.

Finally, the mage stopped at a particularly well-maintained door near the end of one of the halls, guarded by two other Gulper Mages, each one nearly identical to the one that had Brought Plague Knight there.

The mage leading Plague Knight nodded first at the guard on the left, and then to the guard on the right. Once again, the door opened without a move from any of them.

"Go."

Uncharacteristically, the mage shoved Plague Knight into the room.

---

It was an odd feeling, a mix of anticipation and worry, of dread and joy Mona was feeling as she stood outside the theatre hallway in the guise of Marie, her alterego for the current assignment.

"I trust Plague. I trust Plague.. Plague Knight."

She had to keep repeating this to herself to get her mind off of the meeting with the Trovers.

"He's better at things like this than me, anyway. He can always tell when I'm lying and is better at remembering details. That should be more important in something like this. I think it'd actually be fun to see. I wish I was there... NO... "

Mona shook her head to snap herself back to reality. She was here, she was right outside the theatre, and the crowd was now starting to file into their seats. It was too late to change her decision, and she knew that Plague Knight would probably feel as if she didn't believe he could do the job if she suddenly barged in. Plus, the Trovers might take their guild less seriously if she just suddenly came in.

"Also,", she thought to herself as she took her seat. " Plague Knight probably did this to give himself an opportunity to prove himself as much as it was for me, heh. He really IS good at this. If I didn't know better, I'd say he pai.."

Mona's thoughts were cut off as the orchestra began to tune their instruments. The theatre was set up more lavishly than one might think for a town far away from Pridemoor Keep, with silk curtains and authentic looking furniture and props for the first scene. The backdrop came into view as the Overture started and Magicists dimmed the house lights to focus those on the stage. Painted lovingly, the glorious "steps" of the Tower of Song that loomed over the majority of the Imperial Capitol of Eifelle were depicted as leading to the stage, showing that this was a story involving the High Nobles of the Mediterran Empire 300 years ago. Even Lake Cecily could be seen off in the distance. A man dressed in the fashions of the time, with a fancy ruffled collar and a suit of deep crimson, shimmering with jewelled buttons, walked onto the stage. His back was then turned towards the audience, staring at the "city" on the steps of the great tower below.

"Lord Mathieu!", shouted a man's voice from offstage.

"I'm here, Romain.", said the man with his back to the audience.

Running could be heard from offstage as a man in an imperial officer's uniform ran onto the stage. Catching his breath, he stood next to Lord Mathieu.

"My Lord, where have you been? General Moreau has information on the traitors! We just might be able to finally end this menace once and for all! This is truly the defining moment in the history of our empire!"

Still with his back to the stage, Lord Mathieu slowly turned his head to the soldier. "Romain, just hold on one second. Now, we have known each other for quite a while, yes?"

"Why, nearly all our lives, my Lord!"

"And in that time, how many instances have there been when you have exaggerated the importance or meaning of some bit of information you've obtained?"

"Why, none at all!" Lord Mathieu turned towards the young soldier, this time looking down at him harshly. A soft sound of laughter started to emerge from the audience.

"Well, maybe once or twice."

"The Dragon of Lake Cecily that was an Alligator." Magicists from below the stage used spells of illusion to briefly illustrate each situation in a brief show of light above the audience.

"Or thrice..."

"The secret cabal of mages that turned out to be a cooking contest."

"Well, true. But.."

"The shadow beast that stole your assignment that turned out to be a badger."

"Oh, You helped me with that one!"

The audience erupted into a much louder laugh as Mathieu took Romain by the shoulder and walked him around the stage.

"Romain! Please! I know you want to prove yourself, but there is truly no emergency in all of our beloved Eifelle that necessitates such panic! There is none now, and Empress willing, there will never be."

"I know, my lord! But there really is some information..."

Mathieu let go of Romain as a spotlight began to shine down on him, the lights behind dimmed, and the chorus slowly came into view, dressed as the townspeople of Eifelle.

"Romain, Romain, Romain. Can't you see? All that is, was, and will ever be; to them, to you, and of course, to me; is just simply Or-di-na-ry...."

The orchestra and chorus began to sing the backing vocals as the first number of the play began, with Mathieu describing everyday life in Eifelle, on the steps of the Tower of Song.

"Here's where everything is all relaxed and nice, in the beginning of the story. I wonder how it'd be if things ever stayed that way. Strap in, Romain! You'll get way more than you bargained for!" , thought Mona excitedly. This was before Romain was humiliated by Julien, before he accidentally bumped into the young magicist Cecile at the ground level of the city, and before he found the spirit of the old Enchantress hidden in the titular Bouquet of crystalline, unwilting flowers that he would show to Cecile.

In that moment, Mona was happy. "Thanks, Plague Knight.", she whispered under her breath.

---

Plague Knight was not happy.

"So, Alchemist. I'm assuming you know why you're here?"

The speaker of those words was a tall, broad-shouldered man with a brownish-gold uniform with gold-tassled pauldrons. He seemed to be in his early middle years, with a sharply maintained beard that flayed at his jaw and ended in a point at his chin. He was beginning to show wrinkles at the edges of his eyes, but other than that, seemed to be in peak physical condition.

The room Plague Knight was seated in was nothing like the room that was used to negotiate with the Traders. Here, the heads of beasts that roamed the land, sea and sky hung all around the walls, with a cold, metallic table in the middle, and a roaring fireplace at the far end of the room. Unlike last time, no food was laid out. Only a bottle containing some liquid Plague Knight assumed to be alcoholic, and two glasses.

"I assume it's because I've won the 'world's greatest alchemist' prize, and you're waiting for juuuuuust the right moment to spring it on me. Hee hee!"

The man gave a short, polite laugh. "Ha! No, I'm afraid not. It doesn't really have to do with those statues you brought over. Rest assured, they're worth exactly what you think they are, and if all goes well, we should both be on our way soon."

Plague Knight's eyes narrowed within his mask. He recalled that the Gulper Mage examined the statues carefully and insisted they were rare.

"If you're wondering about our little helpers, they're explicitly instructed never to speak directly about Trover business. Whatever you got from them was the best their conditioning would allow them to say without mentioning anything directly." The man moved over to the wine and poured a glass for himself, then gestured to Plague Knight, who politely refused before taking out his own blend of drink, straw and all.

"However, going back to your first guess, you actually weren't too off-base."

Plague Knight set his drink on the table, and looked excitedly at the man. "Ah, so are the Trovers going to realize that Alchemical gold is functionally and molecularly identical to that mined out of the mountain range? Because that would be.."

The man slammed his hand down on the table.

"Your fool's gold is.."

"It is NOT fool's gold!" Yelled back Plague Knight as he jumped up. "Fool's Gold is Pyrite, a shiny mineral that amateurs mistake for the genuine article. Our Alchemical science uses organic catalysis fuelled by mana sent through a transmutation circle, rearranging the molecular structure of lead to one identical to that of gold. For EVERY conceivable purpose, it IS gold, not some kind of facsimile or fake!"

The man's eyes swelled with rage, but then cooled as his mouth contorted into a smile. "...Regardless, it is worth a great deal less than nothing to anyone in this kingdom, Alchemist."

Plague Knight's stare was unmoved. "Just who am I speaking with, anyway?"

"How rude. One would normally introduce themselves before asking. In any case, you may refer to me as Deputy Commander Renard of the Trovers."

Plague Knight backed off. "Deputy Commander? One step away from Treasure Knight himself? Why would you be here talking to.."

"Ahem,", said Renard, clearing his throat loudly.

"Oh, yes. Hee! I am Plague Knight, agent and researcher for the Alchemist's Guild."

Renard circled halfway around the table, pouring himself more wine. "Knight? An Alchemist and an Errant? I'd bet you have quite the story to tell."

"What exactly do you want from us?", said Plague Knight, eager to get on with business.

Renard started to snicker before regaining his composure. Plague Knight was already on edge, but tried to keep what Mona would do in mind, even if he was most likely laughing at the idea of him being anywhere near the same level of influence and power as Treasure Knight.

"Well, what is it that Alchemists do, exactly? You make potions, you make poisons, you turn things into other things and for all I've heard, are adept at large explosions."

Plague Knight rolled his eyes and fumed underneath his mask over the gross oversimplification of his trade. As usual, he was quite glad he was wearing it. This time, he wouldn't be baited into an outbrust.

Renard gave him a quick look before continuing, then reached into his jacket pocket for a scroll that he unfurled along the metallic table.

"This is a map of some undersea tunnels we've been attempting to map out at the bottom of the Albian sea with the Iron Whale."

Plague Knight's eyes went wide. "You...you're just showing something like this to me?! An Outsider?" The Trovers were nothing if not secretive about everything involving their operations underwater. The Iron Whale was one thing that you simply did not discuss when talking to the Trovers considering its history. Because they had the only known vessel capable of travelling underwater in the Albian sea, they essentially had cornered the market on salvage to the point where no one else even bothered to try.

"Yes, I am. And you'll soon see why.", said Renard, now pointing his finger to a short squiggle near the bottom of the map. Plague Knight quickly did his best to scan the rest of the map as best he could without looking conspicuous. "This is an underwater tunnel we discovered recently. Our Oceanographers believe that due to the water composition we have sampled flowing through it, this tunnel links the Albian sea with the Euras Ocean."

"Let me guess.. The tunnel should be wide enough to take the Iron Whale through, giving you a secret trade route that no one else has ever seen. However, there's probably some debris in the way that needs the delicate touch of an Alchemist. BOOM! Hee hee."

"Yes, that is partially correct..."

"But I'd gather that there is more to this than a simple demolition job. Otherwise with your organization so close to being recognized as an official guild, you wouldn't risk such a major operation with us."

Renard was unfazed. "I see you're more than you appear to be.", he said with a tone that was coated half in disdain, half in surprise. "You will be working with another demolitions expert on this, should your guild take it on. He's more versed in...conventional methods. At any rate, the 'blockage' in the tunnel is something the likes of which I have never seen before. To describe it any further would be giving information far too sensitive to someone who has not even officially signed on."

Renard rolled up the map and casually tossed it into the fire, making sure it burned to a crisp.

Plague Knight was overwhelmed. A job coming from the top brass of the Trovers was more than he or Mona could have ever hoped for from this meeting.

"Yes! I mean, I... we would be very interested in this project, but there must be some more details given, and a job of such magnitude would require the approval of our guild council. But as for myself, I can almost completely assure you that this would meet their approval. If I could just learn some of what exactly you would need from us right now in terms of supplies, manpower, and equipment, I'm sure this whole thing could go through so much faster. Not to mention, there is the issue of our compensation, of course. Hee!"

Renard looked over to Plague Knight with a confident glare, and stretched out his hand.

"Pull this off, and we'll all be richer than the Empress herself."

Plague Knight grabbed his hand and shook it, his eyes beaming. "Hee hee HAA! I'd love to! But unfortunately it's not my decision to make, as I've said before."

Renard backed off, walking along the walls with a stern expression on his face. " Plague Knight. I was instructed by my own superior to gain an answer today, just as I'm sure you were instructed to trade those statues for the agreed-upon amount of funds to be placed into your account with us, the only way I'm certain any group, whether it be gastronomers or gangsters, would ever trade with you."

He stood in front of the fireplace, his shadow looming over the rest of the room as Plague Knight took another sip from his drink.

"Thus, while I understand your position in the guild, I also understand you are a Knight Errant for gods' sake. Surely, your word must be worth something to them. I have a contract of service right here. It is waiting for either a signature or the fireplace." Renard unfurled another scroll, this time full of long legalistic phrases(which was ironic considering the dubious legality of the whole situation), with a dotted line at the end.

Plague Knight slowly put his drink away.

You're lucky we ever took you in.

He walked over to Renard, the determination in his eyes glowing through his mask.

You do nothing but compromise our security and secrecy.

He looked over at the contract, carefully scanning for anything that would endanger the guild or anyone in it.

All you really ever do is hold Mona back.

He signed the contract.

Renard, looking quite pleased, rolled up the scroll and placed it in his jacket pocket.

"Well, I suppose that's that, eh?"

"Yes, but I need the de..."

He grabbed Plague Knight by the shoulder and briskly walked him to the door.

"Those and other instructions will be forwarded to you at a more appropriate time and place. Now, if you'll excuse me Sir Errant, I have other business to attend to. Good Evening!"

In a flash, Plague Knight was out in the hallway once more, just in time to hear a cacophonous crashing of tables and glassware, followed by an all too familiar yell.

---

"Stop! Please wait!", cried out Romain, in his tattered uniform, lying on the ground and reaching out towards stage right.

"Please, sir soldier! I will return with help, I promise. I shall go get Lord Mathieu. ", said Cecile, the young magicist in her blue acolyte robes.

"No, Cecile, wait!", he yelled out one last futile gasp as she ran off.

"Cecile... I guess I can't really blame her for coming to that answer at this point, but if I was in her position, I'd have at least heard what Romain had to say.", thought Mona, fully consumed by the story.

Romain, meanwhile, propped himself up against the backdrop of the cold, dark woods where he had run into Cecile the second time since childhood, ironically, where they had played when they were little.

"No doubt also to wanting to economically reuse a stage background while giving it some kind of emotional resonance in the story."

"Cecile!", yelled out Romain, to the sky. "Every time." Romain was completely defeated. "She told me last time we were here, that we would fulfil both of our dreams. Now, she's rising up the ranks of the Imperial Academy, and I'm just... me. I can't even follow a simple order from Lord Mathieu."

Romain, backing up into the tree backdrop, was about to say another line, however the outlined door on the tree opened and swallowed him up, as stagehands quickly rotated the stage props as the lights dimmed. When the lights came back up, Romain had found himself in a dark, foreboding cave filled with crystalline lights.

"Where, where am I now?", he said as he walked around the stage, admiring the new backdrop of sparkling crystals.

"Be calm, sir soldier. You are safe, and you are needed.", said a soft, yet strong sounding female voice that echoed all around the theatre with the aid of acoustic amplifiers.

"Who... who are you? Do you need help? Are you lost?", said Romain, whose injuries slowly gave way to his curiosity and eagerness in aiding others.

"It is not I who is lost and in need of aid.", echoed the voice once more."Please, step forward."

Romain did so with caution, until a spotlight revealed a previously darkened portion of the stage. There, floating above a pedestal, was a magnificent Bouquet of Crystal Flowers.

"Beautiful.", Remarked Romain, spellbound.

"I am here.", said the voice.

"You... you are inside this bouquet?"

The lights dimmed around him as Romain froze in place, while new actors, a man and a woman, took the spotlight and began to dance to a version of the Overture, a more mature and melancholy version of the song that was sung when Romain and Cecile reminisced about their childhood, playing together in the woods.

"It was so long, so very long ago...", the voice from offstage began to sing, as she began to regale Romain with a sorrowful tale of how she was once a Magicist like Cecile thousands of years ago, but was sealed within the Bouquet by a jealous rival, a woman who stole her lover-to-be and everything she lived for. Now, with so many years gone, all she wanted to do was help other couples avoid her tragic fate.

"Can't honestly blame Plague Knight for falling for that story, with what he just experienced.", thought Mona. Catching herself, she shook her head rapidly. "I mean Romain, ROMAIN! Ahhh! Come on Mona! He's fine! And way more resourceful than Romain at this point in the story! He won't do anything reckless... yeah."

Mona settled back into her seat, forcing herself to refocus on the play. Romain was now making a deal with the spirit of the Bouquet. Here was where everything really started to kick into motion.

"Plague Knight's fine. Plague Knight's fine! He's proooobably finishing up by now, maybe back in the hotel room even, reading some Alchemy books...yeah... that's it! Totally."

A steak knife narrowly flew past Plague Knight's face as he used his burst to fly though the anarchic scene in front of him.

"You! Get back here!", yelled a patron.

"My winnings!", yelled a woman whose table had just been split open by a stray bolt from a Gulper Mage trying to restore order. Cards and chips flew everywhere as Plague searched frantically to find Percival.

Plague Knight saw another dish being thrown and realized an opportunity. As naturally as taking a breath, Plague Knight adjusted the dial on his boots and dug his toes into the switch he had built into them himself. Taking another leap, he released the switch the instant his foot made contact with the plate, sending him soaring into the air, the Float Burst he had selected allowing him to scan the entire mazelike building while he floated gently near the building's rafters. Of course, using this also made him a sitting (or rather, floating) duck in midair, so he preferred not to use it when being directly targeted.

"Percival, I swear if you screwed this up for me the Explodatorium will have a new source of glue! Now where are you..."

Suddenly, a flash of bright red light stood out to Plague Knight in a corner of the large area, on the side of the building near the entrance. Cancelling the burst, he landed above the rooms and switched back to his standard equipment. He had to be ready for anything.

Running as fast as he could, Plague Knight's blood ran cold when he cast his eyes on the scene below him.

A man in a tattered brown cloak stood fuming above a terrified Percival, as long, glowing blades formed from pure mana jutted out from his ragged sleeves, highlighting his bandaged hands, armoured in greaves.

"P..Please! Good Sir.. whatever misunderstandings we may have had in the past, I can assure you I am not the horseman you remember!"

Percival was dashing frantically to avoid the glowing blades of light that crashed down all around him, running comically in circles.

"Idiot! How could we have a misunderstanding if we've never met before! You...I'll never forgive you! That was the best job I've ever had!"

Percival saw an opening and tried to make a break for it, but the cloaked man held out his arm and clotheslined the poor horseman, sending him flying into a wall.

"What a fitting place for someone like you to meet your end. I'm going to enjoy this." The cloaked man raised his bladed arm high, ready to strike, as Percival closed his teary eyes and the man began to lower his blade.

CRACK!

All Percival could see was an explosion of smoke, until someone appeared in his view, slowly becoming clearer. A moderately-sized but powerful-looking figure stood in front of him, the glowing red blade seemingly frozen in place, as another dimly glowing staff with the head of a crow at its handle held it in place.

"As much as I enjoyed your little display,", said Plague Knight. " I can't let you do that. Hee hee!"

Percival had to rub his eyes twice to be sure of the scene taking place before him.

"Who are you?!", said the cloaked man.

"I'm someone who came here to do business and leave. And You are someone who is making that extremely difficult. "

The dim glow worse off from Plague Knight's staff as the cloaked man's mana blade crashed down, making a hole in the floor. Plague Knight leaped away in time, and put away his staff.

"I don't have time for whoever you are. But I have a score to settle with that horseman. Now if you'll excuse me..."

The man charged up his mana blade once more, taking a step forward.

At that moment, a small explosion raced towards the man's foot, sending him leaping backwards, glaring at the source.

"Perhaps you didn't understand my implication. I could care less about his horsehide, but I need him alive."

"Rrrah!", shouted the cloaked man, losing his patience, leaping up to his feet once more." Out of my way, you little bird-faced freak!"

Faster than ever before, he charged forward, this time with both mana blades lit up like the dawn. Plague Knight leapt out of the way, using a burst to get behind him, and lobbed vials of black powder at his back, finally using his second leap to get back to higher ground.

"Ahh!", shouted the man as his back took a repeated beating, sending him flying into the now unoccupied wall, blades first. "It's clear that you also have a death wish!", he said, screaming into the street he had just inadvertently punched a sizeable hole into.

Meanwhile, the Gulper Mages had begun to gather in reaction to the noise, their orbs of green energy circling them as they floated forward.

"PAY." they shouted.

The cloaked man turned back in a panic, and saw that Percival had taken advantage of their confrontation, now making his way out the front door.

"You're not getting away from me!", he yelled, partially stumbling in fear of the Gulper Mages, and made his way out onto Setton Road.

Plague Knight now was left alone with six Gulper Mages staring at him, orbs of green energy at the ready.

"Um... You saw that it was that guy, right? How about, in a show of appreciation and tribute to the Trovers, I'll go get him back for you, so he can take care of this... right? Hee?"

"Bring Back Alive.", they growled in unison. "NOW."

Plague Knight took the hint, disappearing through the hole as well. He hoped Percival had at lest some modicum of intelligence and would try to disappear into a crowd on one of the major roads.

---

"Thank you, Sir Romain! Thank you!", said a village woman after he had just passed by with the Magic Bouquet. "It is my pleasure, madam! Just remember to thank the Magicist Cecile!"

Romain walked off stage as more villagers gathered.

"Isn't that soldier just wonderful?!", said another woman.

"That Bouquet, such an incredible artifact! It turned three green apples into emeralds!", said a fruit seller.

"It turned my old wooden horse into an Onyx statue! Now I can afford to send my children to the academy!", said the man whose business was struggling in the beginning of the play.

"Ha! It saved my old tree that I had planted as a boy from dying! Now it'll be a family treasure for generations, a tree of amber!", said yet another voice from the chorus in the crowd.

"And it's all thanks to the magicist Cecile!", they sang out in unison, beginning the next number as the orchestra stirred up a catchy melody.

"Ooh yes, Magicist Cecile!", whispered Mona to herself, smiling. "If those two were just honest with each other from the beginning, I wonder how it would have went?"

The villagers continued to dance about the stage, singing about how wonderful Cecile was and that she should be recognized by the Academy for her grand achievement. Of course, when Romain had brought the Bouquet to Cecile's attention earlier in the play, she was far too distraught by her recently coming in fourth in the exam rankings for her class as well as Romain's tendency to exaggerate, brushing him off as she thought to focus on her studies. Romain, ever-selfless, used the Bouquet to do good in her name.

"Cecile!", shouted the crowd as the orchestra continued the melody of the upbeat, happy song.

"Um..may I help you?", said Cecile, meekly, as she walked in front of the crowd.

"Magicist Cecile, thank you for my new jewels!"

"What?"

"Magicist Cecile, thank you for my son's school!"

"But I didn't..."

"Magicist Cecile, O magicist Ceciiiiiiiile!"

"What are you talking about?!"

"Thank you thank you thank you for everything that you do!"

"Well, I suppose.."

Mona couldn't help but hum the song to herself as Cecile began to become more and more confident, eventually joining in on the song with the villagers as she finally felt appreciated by those around her, them also making note of things she had actually done to help the city in the song.

"Thank you, thank you, thaaaaaank youuuu... to Maaaagiiiiiciiiist...Cecile!"

"That's Right!", shouted Cecile at the end of the number, smiling.

A moment later, the audience, with Mona especially, gave a long and loud applause to the song. Whistles and some cries of "Yeah!" were heard in the audience as well as the stage lights dimmed and stagehands quickly reset the stage for the next scene.

"Magicist Cecile, O Magicist Cecile! Ahh, that's going to be stuck in my head for a while, heh heh!", said Mona to herself as the audience's applause started to die down. "I really wish Plague Knight was here. I hope he can see the show someday."

---

"Ahh! Please, help me!", screamed Percival as he ran along the back alleys and streets of the outpost, struggling to gain a foothold on anything to escape his pursuer.

Plague Knight, who had burst up to the rooftops a moment eariler, lowered his mask's beak in disappointment. "Of course, he'll go someplace without witnesses where that guy can do whatever he wants. Because that's what a smart person would do! Heh..heh."

Running and leaping as fast as he was able, Plague Knight caught up to the glowing red blades that were impossible to miss in the darkness.

"You really have it in for that guy.", thought Plague Knight. He readied a few different potions, and threw three of them at the hooded figure once more.

"Graah!", he yelled out in anguish as two direct hits to his back helped Percival escape his grasp again. "You...I'm really beginning to think I should just get rid of you first."

Plague Knight stood at the edge of a rooftop overlooking the alley that the cloaked man stood near the end of; his hooded, beaked figure casting a long shadow illuminated by the city lights. "Wow. And it only took you this long to figure that out! I'm surely no match for Mr. Bloodblades here! Hee Hee Hee!"

The man sheathed his magical implements and removed his hood, revealing tired eyes, short black hair, and a mask covering the lower half of his face. The rest of his cloak soon followed, revealing lightweight but intricate leather and black metal woven armor. His gauntlets, which could be seen more clearly now, were laid with thick, heavy nodules at the fingertips and knuckles, with small slits at the wrist for his blades to spring from. His boots were just as heavy and complex, with seemingly pointless and excessive tubes and straps running across them.

"The name's Randolph. I figured you should know the name of the man who's going to cut you in two.", he said, his brown, tattered cloak billowing out behind him.

"How interesting...", said Plague Knight, with a yawn, now sitting on the edge of the rooftop, playfully kicking his feet. "I'd reply with my name if I'd asked for yours. Heh."

All Plague Knight saw was a flash of crimson as his combat reflexes kicked in, vaulting him to the left from his position on the roof's edge as Randolph's blade, now far wider and diffuse, came crashing down at his former position.

"Wow!", shouted Plague Knight, trying desperately to hide the panic in his voice. "Holding out on me, I see. Hee hee!"

"Now, why on earth would I use the same strategy against a weakling as I would against someone like you?", said Randolph.

"I don't know, probably because I set your cape on fire."

Randolph turned in a panic to see his cloak burning with green flame as Plague Knight vaulted to a safe distance.

"Tracer Powder. Not very many opportunities to use it, but always funny when you can."

Plague Knight turned in midair himself to see Randolph catching up with him at a breakneck pace. He was unbelievably fast, almost as fast as him.

Randolph raised his blade as Plague Knight intercepted it with a potion bomb. The explosion threw Plague Knight to a rooftop, the smoke clouding his vision as he maintained his footing. Before he could react, a huge pressure was felt in his midsection as Randolph's boot met with his chest, sending him flying to the roof of a nearby building. Plague Knight winced and clenched his chest. The blow was faster and harder than he had anticipated.

"Ahh!", yelled Plague Knight.

"Pretty good, eh?", said Randolph as he crashed down to the roof himself with a loud thud; his small, burnt cape coming off fully in the wind. Plague Knight charged a burst and readied a new potion in his hand. "Now you'll see what it means to mess with a legend in the making."

Crimson mana suddenly surged through Randolph's boots, and his entire body began to glow brightly as he moved at an unbelievable speed. Plague Knight tried to steady himself as he covered his hand in his cloak and held a potion tightly. Before he could even see the blow coming, Plague Knight turned to the right and met Randolph's glowing fist with the potion clenched in his own. The explosion tore at the muscles in his hand and sent him flying through the air, just in time to see Randolph's boot come crashing down. Plague Knight released the burst he had been charging in his own boots to avoid a direct blow, but the sheer power of Randolph's kick crashing into the roof sped up his own flight, sending him to the edge of the roof, hanging on for dear life.

"Hey! What happened to the jokes? I was kind of enjoying it.",said Randolph, walking over slowly to Plague Knight's position. Looking down and seeing Plague Knight's fingers, he slammed his boot down an instant after Plague Knight let go, watching him tumble down to the alleyway below. Plague Knight scrambled and released a small smoke bomb as he fell, but the brisk winds dissipated it quickly.

"Yeah, that's what happens when you fight someone out of your league. People make mistakes all the time. No worries." He looked down at the small warrior's form, laying in a pile of refuse.

Effortlessly, Randolph leapt down to street level, bending his knees to absorb the impact with his heavy boots. "Not everybody survives them, though." He saw an unconscious Plague Knight lying in a pile of trash, his beaklike mask splitting the air. He could hear the sound of Plague Knight's laboured breathing from his earlier blow.

He unleashed his blade, the magical energy crackling in the night air as his boots stepped over the cobblestones. "You'll just be another loud-mouthed nobody who got on the wrong side of someone with a destiny. A cackling little stepping stone for a great hero in the making. Really, I suppose I'm fulfilling your purpose in existence by taking you out. Heh, you should actually be thanking me!"

Randolph now stood over the unconscious knight, ready to end it. "I just remembered. I never did get your name." His blade lowered quickly, splitting the mask in two. "Then again, it really dosen't matter, does it?"

Randolph put away his mana blade, looking down, noticing the odd lack of blood. "Hmm?" He looked closer, and heard something. His eyes went wide with shock. Somehow, some way, the small man he fought was still breathing. "WHAT! HOW?!"

Panicked, he ripped the cloak and mask out of the trash, revealing a pile of spherical containers, with various colors of powder inside them. Their fuses were lit, making a softly hissing noise not too dissimilar from a soft breath.

"Plague Knight.", said a terrifyingly familiar voice from behind him.

Randolph, his face now white with terror, slowly turned around, and saw a small green fire travel between his legs going straight to the pile of containers. "No Wa.."

A tremendous explosion rocked the alleyway as Randolph's terrified form was vaulted forward, his plated armor tearing and flailing apart as Plague Knight held his staff of surging out in front of him, glowing with power. With the precision of a true Alchemist, Randolph slammed forehead-first into Plague Knight's staff, undoing his facemask to reveal an unconscious expression of surprise as the impression of the outline of a crow's head was left deep in his mind.

Plague Knight walked over, checking his pulse. "Yep, a Magicist as strong as him'd definitely just be out for a few hours."

He eventually managed to drag Randolph's unconscious body over to the trash to conceal it for the time being, recovering his Alchemical Cloak, which unsurprisingly only had a light covering of dust. His mask, however, was a different story.

"Gah! I only have a few of these!", he said panicked, with exaggerated tears in his eyes. Quickly, he managed to get out some bandages and hastily try to wrap the two halves of his mask together, ending up with something more or less the same, but with a small bow in the middle of the beak.

"Now to just get the Trovers over here...Wait, what time is it?"

Plague Knight looked frantically outside the alleyway onto the busy street. A curio store had a grandfather clock in the window, telling him it was 11:13.

"Aah! Noooo!", said Plague Knight, frantically pacing about. "I've gotta get to the theater! I didn't even... ahh!"

All that could be seen was a cloud of smoke as the masked alchemist ran off into the distance, vaulting to the rooftops once more, as Randolph groggedly blinked his eyes.

---

"No... it can`t be...", stuttered Romain, kneeling on the stage floor in despair. "Why... I thought you wanted to help everyone! You did help everyone through the bouquet! There is no way you can be an Enchantress!"

"My dear, dear, sweet Romain.", said the Enchantress Aximila, now free of the Bouquet, her beautifully made costume sparkling in the theater with its rows and rows of gemstones arranged in the shape of various types of flowers. "You performed quite well! You should be honored." She picked Romain up from his state of shock and held him close to her. "Everyone in this city built upon the ashes of the old Order of Mages, upon our beautiful Tower of Song that pierces the sky, will return to the rightful days of glory and subservience to me and all others of superior magical ability."

"No..Please...No..", said Romain, trying to back away.

"The gems that everyone received? That you gave to them out of the goodness of your heart? They are the seeds. Slowly gathering their latent essence for a spell like you'll never believe!"

The Orchestra started to play up, starting an upbeat but slow and sinister tune.

"Ahh, this one. The villain in these always seems to explain way too much of their plan. Still pretty catchy though!", thought Mona as Aximila began to sing on stage about her plan to absorb enough essence to get her mana back to its former glorious state; transforming the city of Eifelle into its former status as the grounds of the Tower of Song thousands of years ago as the seat of the Enchanters' power.

As the song went on, Aximila sang louder and louder as Romain tried in vain to fight back, using what little mana he had as well as his lance to slash at the crystal vines that attacked him. Finally, Aximila was pulled away offstage by the stagehand magicists that made her levitate from offstage.

"Here, a reward for your efforts! And don't forget; Thank the Magicist Cecile! Ha ha ha!" Casually, the formerly magical bouquet was tossed over to Romain's wounded form, as he picked it up, now gray and devoid of its former warmth, with its flowers somehow beginning to wilt.

As Romain cradled it like a child, Cecile, who had been knocked out earlier when Aximila has sprung forth from the Bouquet to possess the body of the teacher that had despised her, ran over to him.

"Romain!", she said in a panic.

There was no answer.

"Romain! Are you alright? Tell me what happened! Where is Magistra Verona?"

Looking over, she saw his wounds and immediately ripped a part of her uniform to act as a bandage.

"Cecile.. I am so sorry. It wasn`t supposed to happen this way. I..I..just wanted to help. I wanted them to see how great you were. I never meant for.."

Cecile stopped him, revealing that she had heard a bit of the end of what the Enchantress was saying as she was starting to regain consciousness herself.

"That kind of mana... I didn`t want to believe... I told the Magistra it was dangerous. But a real enchantress straight from the fairy tales?"

"I should have suspected something.", said Romain as he stood up, inspecting his weapon.

"No! Romain...", Cecile said confidently, stopping his words. "I'm supposed to be the Magicist here. I'm the one you put your faith in! I should have taken a better look at it when I had the chance before you went off to use it. I might have been able to see something and stop all this from happening!"

At their lowest point, the two ran to each other and huddled together for comfort.

Cecile picked up the now empty Bouquet that Romain had put down. Suddenly, Lord Mathieu burst in from stage left in a panic.

"Romain! Are you alright! Something terrible is happening outside! I heard an explosion, and the palace at the top of the tower..."

"Magicist Cecile... Romain?", he said as he saw the two. "I see you two are busy, but this is quite important! "

The audience let out a much needed chuckle to ease the tension of the moment.

"No, Lord Matheiu, what is it?", said Romain as Cecile began to inspect the Bouquet further.

"The city is in a panic! Vines are sprouting everywhere and some...thing has taken the palace at the top of the Tower! The Empress herself could be in grave danger!"

"I might have guessed.", said Romain. "I`ll help in any way I c.."

"Romain, WAIT!", shouted Cecile. "There is a way... There has to be! We can fix this, but I need you, both of you."

The two men looked at each other, and then back at Cecile. They then both knelt in subservience.

"Rise, Soldiers.", she said in urgency. "No one here is above anyone else. If we are going to save Eifelle, all three of us need to act!"

The stage lights began to dim as the final scenes of the play were quickly set up by stagehands. "The magicists' effect spells have been pretty amazing so far. I wonder how much they've updated the final battle scene since I was a kid? Though...the best part is after." Thoroughly engrossed in the moment, Mona sat with bated breath as the epic showdown on stage was about to begin.

…

"Yeah, I definitely missed Magicist Cecile." , said Plague Knight to himself, snapping his fingers in disappointment. "Aw... I always liked that one when the bards played it. Hee Hee!" The alchemist stood huddled over a small suitcase filled with various equipment such as spare powders, casings and fuses, hurriedly searching for the item he would be in need of soon.

The room was dark and dank, with wooden walls and the only illumination coming from the bright city lights outside the windowsill. Because this was the attic supply room of the theater, all kinds of old props from various shows past were stored here, waiting to be reused or repurposed for any other shows or events that might take place.

"I missed that one, but I`ll be ready for the most important one."

From the case, Plague Knight pulled out a small device with an alchemical circle on one side, and intricate concentric circles woven out of metal on the other. Gently and carefully, he began to place it on the floor in the corner of the room, closest to where the stage was as he possibly could.

Stopping short of fully charging the device, Plague Knight placed two more on it. The first, which resembled a small, ornate clock, was a device designed to delay the final charge of mana going into the circle. Set for 10 minutes, Plague Knight placed just enough of his mana in the device to finish the circle once the timer ran out.

The second one was different.

"I don't...I can't..."

Plague Knight started breathing quickly and heavily, the pain from his earlier wound making him wince with each breath. His entire body, save for his hand, which was holding something far too important to lose, trembled. He ignored it as he broke out in a cold sweat, and looked over a small black box that was quite literally one of four that existed in the world. Three of which were with Plague Knight and Mona right now. Two were absolutely required for the mission. One was in his hand.

"I won't need it. This is my only chance. It's the least I can do. I can keep this one promise. Even if everything else blows up in my face, I can do this. I can do this."

Plague Knight placed the black box on the alchemical circle, next to the timer. It absorbed a small drop of his mana.

"The Crow put each stone in, one by one, until the water of life reached its beak,"

The sound of an opening windows pierced Plague Knight's thoughts, as there was only one person it could be. It seemed he was getting careless.

He turned and saw an alarmingly familiar figure in front of him, a bright mana blade barely being held together under badly broken armor, flickering in rage.

"and was then chased to the Wound in the World by the other animals out of jealousy, never to be seen again. Heh."

"Plague Knight.", said a broken man, filled with rage. "I'll remember that."

The sword cam crashing down as Plague Knight leapt out of the way, wincing from his earlier confrontation.

"My my, It seems someone dosen`t know how to stay down. Hee Hee Hee!"

Randolph's right shoulder was dislocated, his arm limply hanging from his shoulder. There would be no blade coming from there. His right leg was also bleeding.

"How... How did you even get up here?", wondered Plague Knight as Randolph limped towards him as fast as he could, which was surprisingly quick given the circumstances. He slashed again, and Plague Knight dodged easily, although there wasn`t much room in the attic.

"Seriously, you're not in any..."

"Don't... don't you pity me!", screamed Randolph as he charged haphazardly towards him, the large and visible bird-shaped marking on his forehead making Plague Knight laugh under his mask despite his desperation.

"No, I really don't think you can fight. Seriously."

Randolph charged forward again, tripping over his own wounded leg, his sword sticking into the floor. "Ah, when I beat you... a bloody... freaking... errant... I'll be known throughout the kingdom. Against someone so weak and small... and still an errant... it'll be too easy..."

Now it was just getting sad.

Randolph turned off his blade and crawled towards Plague Knight.

"He must have spent whatever energy he had left just getting here. What an idiot."

Plague Knight slowly walked around the room as Randolph struggled to change direction to keep up.

"I.. can at least.. destroy that thing you were so interested in... heh.. I`ll be.. a... legend..."

Plague Knight's face turned pale.

"No."

With a grim tone colder than a Magicist's frost, Plague Knight gathered his mana into a large flask from within the case, and activated the alchemical circle on it to dramatically increase its volatility. With a burst to gain height and speed, he threw the flask directly at Randolph, making a spectacular explosion in the shape of the symbol of addition as the roar of the audience's applause could be heard from the theater below.

"You will be nothing."

Plague Knight watched as Randolph's body flew out the open window he entered from, and waited for the inevitable crash and crack as his body would hit the building on the opposite side, followed by the alleyway below.

However, no such sound was heard.

Curiously, Plague Knight looked out the window to see three Gulper Mages floating in the air, holding the man's body mere inches from the building across the alley. As he sighed half in annoyance, and half in relief, a fourth Gulper Mage rose from directly beneath the windowsill, making him take a step back in surprise.

"ALIVE." , gurgled out the new Gulper Mage. Plague Knight wasn`t sure, but he saw a hint of exasperation in their eyes and voice. Silently, it joined the others, and they floated off into the night. Plague Knight tried his best to avoid thinking about what the Trovers would do to the man.

"The Trovers... they're also our bosses now for the time being. I guess they always were, in a way. Heh."

No one would deal directly with Alchemists. The amount of gold they could hold or be at their disposal was essentially infinite. The Kingdom had long ago declared that gold entirely worthless, and anyone dealing in alchemical gold be guilty of collusion with an Alchemist, a crime with severity nearly equalling that of practising Alchemy itself. Barter was the name of the game for survival, and the Trovers never throw away a contact. They'd hold an account for them which they used to deal with the greater world, but would never accept a gold deposit.

Clearing his mind, he went back over to the device he had set minutes earlier. To his relief, it was completely unharmed. The long night was almost over, and Plague Knight leapt backwards, relaxing in a pile of backdrops and old costumes. A painting of the ocean hung up on the wall, overlooking a frozen shipwreck.

He'd have to get back soon.

---

"Corporal Romain."

The actor walked towards the Empress, dressed in her beautiful traditional robes onstage. He knelt in front of her. "According to when the play was written, that's supposed to be Empress Antoinette IX." From what Mona recalled from her studies, she was responsible for stabilizing the Empire's economy and raising the standard of living for the commoners. Mona took some comfort in the fact that she was the kind of ruler that deserved to have a story portray them in a positive light, raising the protagonists' standing in the minds of the original audience even further. Of course, that would be lost on any contemporary audience, let alone one of a foreign country.

"Magicist Cecile."

The actress walked forward and knelt all the same.

"From the bottom of my heart, The Empire thanks you for your brilliant service in saving us from being thrust back into the darkness long ago. We as well thank you for saving this life, and that of the royal family. There is no gift we can bestow upon you that would equal your service to our people. Still, we ask of you, our heroes, what do your hearts desire?"

The two turned and looked in each other's eyes, holding hands.

"Besides the obvious, may we add!", added the Empress in jest. The audience let loose a warm laugh.

"We desire to help everyone, everyone in the Empire!", said Cecile.

"Heh, perfect heroes, these ones are. It's a good thing they're so sweet together or else it would be even cornier.", thought Mona to herself.

"Very well!", said the Empress. "In order to further his goal, We hereby dub Corporal Romain as Imperial Chevalier, First Class! May his quick thinking and noble heart serve our Empire well into the future!"

The Empress tapped her sceptre on his shoulder, as he rose to audience applause.

"In order to advance our magic to benefit all the people of this great empire, We hereby dub Magicist Cecile as Magistrana Cecile! May her wisdom bring our Empire further into the light!"

She did the same to Cecile, and the audience applauded once more.

"Now," she said once more. "I believe it is time for us to address the issue of a proper victory celebration!"

"Here here!", shouted the chorus in the background. Quickly, all the actors save for Cecile and Romain moved off the stage, leaving the spotlight on the loving couple onstage.

"So... I've never been in the company of a Magistrana before... this is quite awkward, actually.", said Romain, nervously.

"Nor I a Chevalier! Why, I believe I once made a flippant proposal to a young boy once, that if I was ever in the company of a Chevalier who was so inclined, I would ask him for a single dance, for I was sure that it was all I would ever get. I never imagined until recently that.."

Romain drew closer to her, cutting her off. "I also recall such a girl. I remember hearing that wish, once, causing me to redouble my resolve to join the Imperial Army and become that very Chevalier."

That was the last line of the play. However, as people all around her began to ready their belongings to leave for the night, Mona sat at rapt attention.

The lights dimmed, and the Orchestra's piano began to play a simple, lovely version of the Overture as Romain and Cecile began to dance together onstage with romantic lighting in the background.

The Mona sitting in the theater at this moment in time was not the Mona that anyone now knew. She was a small girl, ten years old, sitting in one of the back rows of the theater in Pridemoor Village. The little girl whose heart had been enflamed and life had been brightened, even if ever so briefly, by the combination of the lovely song and romantic dance that promised her and every child who desired it in the audience a future with someone they loved. Her eyes and ears saw and heard nothing but the music and the two on stage. It was all she could do to hold in the joy she felt at that moment, as the music slowly slowed down, the lights went dark, and the curtains closed. It was over.

Mona snapped back to reality as the cast started to come onstage for the final curtain call. She wiped away the tears in her eyes and clapped as hard as she could.

"This is all because of Plague Knight." As people began to file out of the theater, Mona grabbed her possessions and had it set in her mind to repay him somehow.

"I know this was to give me a break, but he works just as hard as I do.", she thought as she left. She needed to find some way to thank him. She had to. But she also had to make sure he was still in one piece, and that the guild's relationship with the Trovers was intact.

"I know he can do this. He wanted to. The only thing my conscience is nagging me about here is whether I should have let him."

---

It was nearly 1AM when Plague Knight snuck back into the hotel room, exhausted after finally tracking down Percival, who had slowly over the course of the night transformed from a nervous wreck to an exhausted gambling addict bitter over the loss of five gold pieces he somehow had the precognitive absolute knowledge that he would have won back in the next round of blackjack.

"Argh! I was so close!", he said, exhausted. "To think, I would be absolutely swimming in gold right now if it wasn`t for that blade-happy bouncer! I was THIS..CLOSE!"

Percival held his hands less than a millimeter apart from each other, as if to show Plague Knight. Of course, he had no way of actually seeing it, since his head was buried in a pillow after leaping face-first onto the bed.

"Percival... please just go to sleep." Plague Knight thought for a second, and turned his head towards Percival, still pacing around the room. "Actually...wait. Promise me you won't say a word of this to Mona... You do know how to lie, right?"

Percival stopped his pacing and looked at Plague Knight as if he had just spoken to him in some kind of Western Imperial dialect. "Of..course?"

Plague Knight sighed and turned himself around, sitting cross-legged on top of the bed. He stared directly at Percival with his baggy, tired eyes. "No. It seems you don't. Here are the basic rules. If I say too many you'll probably give yourself away trying to keep everything straight, and she's also probably coming back any time now. Just start with these for now."

Plague Knight held up his fingers with each spot on his list.

"One. Keep it simple. Veer from the facts of what happened only as much as you need to. This ensures that your story corroborates with third-party observers to the greatest point, and so you yourself have to remember the least amount of information. For example, We went together to Fortune's Port. We separated. You went to do some gambling. We both went home together. All of these things are indisputable."

Percival's curiosity was apparently piqued, as he pulled up a desk chair and turned it towards the bed, sitting at attention.

"Two. Where you do veer from reality, have your story confirm what the other person already thinks about you in some fashion. If there's one tragic flaw everyone shares, it's that we all love having our preconceptions confirmed in some way. Everyone loves to be right without doing any actual work. Even me, Hee hee hee! If the other person asks a leading question or gets suspicious about you, you immediately "admit" to something that they would think to be true without any further thought. For example, if she insinuates you ran into any trouble, feel free to act nervously and read her reactions. If she presses you, "confess" to something innocuous or slight. We already think you're nothing but trouble, so it should be easy. Remember, I'll help you."

"Incredible...", said Percival, his eyes now piercing with focus. "What is the third rule?"

"Hee! Excited about this, I see. Well, I think that's enough for now. There's way more rules than three, but those two should be good for now since I'm going to help you."

Percival ran up to Plague Knight with pleading eyes. "Pleeease! Oh Please, my good sir! I must know! I'll even give you a full three percent of any winnings in my future endeavours!"

Plague Knight's eyes narrowed. "Speaking of which... why did that idiot want to kill you?"

Percival jumped back, wiping the back of his head nervously while looking at the corner of the room. Plague Knight was right in assuming he was a terrible liar. "Well.. um... I suppose lying to you now would be even worse than a joke. Heh heh.. well.. you see.."

A piercing knock was then heard at the door of the hotel room, followed by the sound of it unlocking and opening.

"I'm back!", said Mona. Percival gave a huge sigh of relief, and jumped into his own bed, clothes and all.

"Well, I guess it's time to hit the hay. Good Night, and ta ta till tomorrow!". Sounds of fake snoring could be heard coming from Percival's bed, as Plague Knight got up on his feet. It wasn't too long before he met Mona at the door.

She looked tired, but her face was beaming with joy. If he looked closely, he could see some dried tears on her cheek running through her makeup. He hoped they were tears of happiness.

"Plaguey!", she said with a mix of happiness and weariness. "How was everything? You seem fine, and I can hear ol' 'Sir Percival' trying to make me think he's asleep!" She yelled out the last part, making sure he could hear. Bravely, the horseman continued to snore away.

"Ah! Quite good! Money's in the account!"

Mona gave a genuine smile of relief. "Awesome. I knew you could do it. How did that guy amuse himself all the while?", she began to pace around the room. Plague Knight could tell she was anxious to learn all she could and go straight to bed. He felt much the same.

"Oh? Percival came with me. He had some fun at the gambling tables while I sealed the deal."

Mona froze. "Really..." She turned around stared at Plague Knight sharply. Something was wrong. "How... did he do?"

Plague Knight steeled his nerves. This wasn't just anyone. It was Mona. The one who had practiced with him for years on how to lie so they could survive their childhood as young alchemists. He had no room for error.

"He lost five gold pieces before we left. Was quite bitter about it, actually. I thought he'd do much worse! Hee!"

Mona's serious expression evaporated into an exhausted one. "Wow... that's a relief. Listen, I gotta tell you something about that guy."

Mona knelt down, and looked directly at Plague Knight. "Don't let him near a gambling table again. He might not look it, but that guy's an ace in our pocket. A wizard with anything having to do with numbers, but from what I can tell, pretty much a moron at anything else. He bankrupted an entire casino back in Pridemoor in one night, legally."

Plague Knight's eyes widened. "You can't be serious."

"I wouldn't lie to you about something like this. The Council of Nobles wanted his head for any reason they could find, and they found one. That's the short version, anyway."

"T..Thanks! I'll definitely keep that in mind." Plague Knight took the opportunity to change the subject. "So, how was the show?"

Mona looked at Plague Knight warmly. "Like we remember it. I really wished you could've seen it too. The final battle with Aximila was crazy this time though. It felt like the entire theater was shaking when she bit it! Those Effects Magicists really know their stuff, apparently."

Plague Knight tugged at his collar a bit nervously. "Yeah, wow! That really sounded like a memorable experience."

Mona yawned, and looked at Plague Knight with tired, happy eyes. "You bet it was. Plaguey... I won't forget that you did this for me."

"You deserved it. What else can I say? Hee hee hee!", he said with nervous laughter.

"Well, in any case... thanks. Let's talk more tomorrow. I'm pretty much spent."

Plague Knight started towards the door back to his and Percival's room. "Yeah... me too."