The organization of all the players in the warehouse had taken quite a while, and Kouichirou's party was exhausted. As soon as the work was done, they went straight to the nearest streetside bench plastered themselves across it to stare at the sky.

"Jeez, dealing with people is hard," Neko groaned.

Agil laughed. He was in the best condition of the three, sitting up instead of lying on his back. "If this is how you feel after working for less than two hours, I'd like to see you work a day at my bar."

"Hey, I only look exhausted. I can go all day, I just need a few seconds."

"Suuuuure," Kouichirou sighed.

Neko shot to his feet. "Where to next, commander?" he asked, snapping a salute to somewhere between Agil and Kouichirou.

"I don't really have anything urgent to do," Agil chuckled. "We can't really go fighting for EXP, and I'm fine with just helping Inkling look for his sister."

Neko nodded, a rapid vertical vibration of his head. "Good, good. That makes you commander, then?" He looked expectantly to Kouichirou.

"Ah… Are you guys sure you want to be sticking to me?" Kouichirou asked, sitting up. He didn't really have a problem with them, but he didn't want to bother them with his own problems. Plus, he still hadn't spoken with Yui since yesterday, and he had the feeling she would only come out if there was no one else nearby.

Neko shrugged. "I'm not bothered; it's more fun this way. I'm suspecting there's a plot. That dragon guy from earlier kidnapped Asuna and is holding her captive. But why? Is someone paying him? I want to know the answers."

Agil and Kouichirou rolled their eyes.

Kouichirou opened his menu, checking the player list to make sure Asuna was still okay. It had become a habitual motion for him, and the result was the same as it always was. Asuna was still alive, but he didn't know where she was.

"So, do either of you have a suggestion for where to look?" Kouichirou asked, revealing his menu to the others and opening his map.

Neko repositioned himself to peer over Kouichirou's shoulder. Agil didn't have to move; his position and towering figure gave him a clear view of the map of the city.

"Granden's scouts probably covered the northern and western quarters of the city pretty well," Kouichirou explained. "The western quarter doesn't make a lot of sense anyways, because the western gate comes out right next to a forest with high-level enemies. Not for starters."

"Honestly, why did you guys make this city so big?" Neko complained, eyes darting around every street corner on the map.

Kouichirou shrugged. "I think they wanted to keep this city as one of the main hubs even after more floors were unlocked."

"What bothers me," Agil said, "Is where most of the players are. There are ten thousand total, and no more than a few hundred could have left the city or died in just twenty-three hours. There were only a few hundred at the warehouse. What we're looking for is the place everyone went."

Neko nodded. "I'm also willing to bet almost everyone is homeless right now. I mean, Kayaba seemed pretty obsessed with copying the real world, and I don't think a medieval city could house ten thousand new arrivals."

"You're saying my sister is homeless?"

"Yup."

Kouichirou whirled on Neko, but Agil stepped between them. "Right now, we should decide if we're going to the south or east."

"We need more information," Neko said. "Making a decision without knowing the difference between your options is the same as not having a choice at all. Or so my dad used to say. Of course, you can't always have all the information."

"Sucks that I wasn't able to find «The Rat» earlier," Agil mumbled.

"Wait," Kouichirou said. He closed the map and entered his friends list. There, close to the top, was Argo's name.

"When did that happen?" Agil asked.

Kouichirou didn't answer, already typing out a message.

｢Need some information. Are there more players in the eastern or southern quarters?｣

"You know she's going to ask for some kind of payment or information in exchange, right?" Agil asked.

"I helped her out with something earlier, so I think I'm good."

Agil was silent for a moment. Neko pranced around him, poking his side. "You act like that's a big deal."

"This is «The Rat» we're talking about. She doesn't get in anyone's debt."

"That's ridiculous," Neko said, steadily getting entranced by the action of constantly poking Agil's side.

"They say she was the richest player in SAO by the end of the beta thanks to all the secrets she discovered. She had so much control and connections that she could single-handedly start guild wars with her words. Some even say that she made deals with Argus employees to get inside knowledge on the company and the patches that were still in development. That's the person we're talking about."

Neko shrugged. "I've known more impressive people," he commented flippantly.

Agil looked in shock. "I get the feeling you wouldn't appreciate greatness if it was staring you in the face."

Neko laughed.

A ring notified Kouichirou that Argo's reply had come.

｢Eastern quarter has more inns and hiding places. Busy now, will talk later.｣

"Hey, have you asked her about Asuna yet?" Neko asked.

Kouichirou realized that he hadn't. Yesterday, he'd been half-asleep and «The Rat» had been asking too many questions about the name list for him to get in a question of his own. He quickly remedied that with a message that gave Argo some time to respond.

Agil was still staring at the previous message.

"What, basking in the glory of our great commander Inkling?" Neko asked.

Agil looked away. "So I suppose we're going East, then?"

Kouichirou answered by choosing an eastbound street and leading the party down it.

"Inkling, you've been a little quiet," Neko said. "Did something happen? Are you being possessed by white dragon guy?"

Kouichirou realized he had just been passively listening to his companions' banter. "No, I'm just not a big talker."

"Well, we're a team dammit, so you better start talking. We need to know if there are any cute girls in your life."

An image of Yui shot through Kouichirou's mind. Neko was probably talking about girlfriends, though, which Kouichirou didn't have. He gave an awkward smile and said, "Sorry, I was more of a business guy after I got out of school."

Neko shook his head as he looked to Agil. "This guy."

"Hey, what's wrong about having direction in life?" Kouichirou asked.

"Nothing. It's just that you can't really take that direction anymore, can you?"

"If you're worried my life is pointless, I have a goal right now," Kouichirou responded. "Find Asuna."

"So you find her. Then what?"

"Then we get out of the game."

Neko positioned himself in front of Kouichirou, walking backward, and looked him right in the eye. "Doesn't that mean that your goal is to leave the game with your sister, and not two separate goals?"

"You're looking at me very seriously but I don't see what the difference is."

Neko sighed. "Well, well-defined goals"—Neko took a second to repeat the word 'well' a few more times—"are good for getting you through moral grey areas. By thinking of your goal as two goals, don't you think it makes it easy to just ignore half your goal whenever you want? You're searching for your sister right now, but you're totally ignoring the 'getting out of the game' half of your goal. If you ever state a big goal, you should make sure it encompasses everything you're working toward, not just what you want to think about right now, otherwise it won't help you make decisions when it really counts."

Agil, who had been silent through this exchange, asked, "Where is this coming from?"

Neko shrugged in a very exaggerated, comic way, complete with upturned palms and head tilt. "I read a lot, and I find it frustrating when the main character can't make up his damn mind. I hold my commander to higher standards. You look like you've been out of school for a while. Do you still read?"

"I think Agil as also asking about why you're talking about philosophy now of all times."

"Hey, I had to bring it up eventually, and you weren't talking. Plus my way of getting stuff done is to passively work to my goals until I get there, and while I understand your system is probably different, it's still a little alien to me."

Neko turned around to face forward now, returning to the activity of observing the city as they passed through it. The silence that followed didn't seem to bother him, despite his earlier complaint that Kouichirou wasn't talking. Had he just wanted to explain himself? Did he think it would help Kouichirou somehow?

Kouichirou looked to Agil, but the giant man seemed just as confused as him.

While Neko had called Kouichirou the 'commander,' he was the one who lead them into the western quarter. The cessation of conversation left Kouichirou's eyes to wander around his surroundings almost as much as Neko's, though there weren't that many people around to grab his attention. Instead, his eyes drew to the buildings they passed on their walk.

Somehow, Kouichirou detected some kind of gradual shift in the city around him. The northern quarter they had been walking through was the face of the city; the buildings adhered to some kind of standardized aesthetic, a sort of stereotypical medieval European mix of wood and stone interspersed with the occasional plaza or larger public building. The eastern quarter, however, was a mess of different styles. One building would look Greek, with marble pillars supporting a triangular roof, and the next would look like a run-down tavern from any old fantasy MMO. The lack of any kind of consistency was dizzying. Kouichirou wondered how he would find Asuna in this mess.

"Man, «The Rat» wasn't lying when she said this quarter had the most inns," Agil commented. It seemed every other building offered at least a couple of rooms to travelers.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this is the commercial district," Kouichirou agreed. "Makes sense; the north and west gates don't exactly open to the best travel routes."

"So, I don't know about you guys, but I'm hungry. Think we could start our search in the nearest restaurant?" Neko said.

"Do you think your stomach could wait?" Kouichirou asked. It felt wrong to delay the search for his sister.

"Come on," Neko said. "Don't you know the scene? The protagonist walks into a bar and overhears some relevant conversation in the background to get started in his search. Your advantage is that you have a lovable sidekick to run around and hear all the details that come up later in the plot."

Kouichirou closed his eyes slowly and when he opened them he gave Neko the most condescending glare he could manage.

"We know how you feel, man," Agil said. "But Neko has a point. We should talk with some people to find out what's going on, maybe ask if anyone's seen her."

Before Kouichirou could say anything, Neko had already run off to a staircase providing entrance to an underground floor. The entrance was small—Agil had to tilt his head to fit through—but the seamless grey stone and railing felt otherwise almost modern.

Inside was a dark and gloomy bar. Only five small tables were scattered about the small room, and only two were in use. The four players there all moved slowly and mechanically, spending their time wordlessly staring into chipped earthenware mugs.

The bartender glanced tiredly to the three newcomers. He was a squat old man, with grey hair and wrinkles disguising what seemed to remain a rather fit body. "Sorry, there aren't any rooms left," he breathed.

"Actually," Agil said, flashing his smile, "We're here to get some food and ask a few questions."

The bartender nodded, gesturing for them to sit at the counter. "I suppose that means panbread?"

The other players hadn't moved or shown any reaction to their party's arrival. Neko wandered over to the closer of the two occupied tables and tapped a player on the shoulder. It took most of five seconds for a grunt to be given in response.

"Hey, we're actually looking for someone. You wouldn't have happened to see an orange-haired girl about nay tall…" Neko held an awkward position indicating Asuna's height for a few seconds awaiting a response.

The bartender mumbled over, "They haven't left the building since coming here last night. Some kind of shock I suppose. Everyone with any wits about them are out at some kind of rally. Here's your bread, by the way."

The man laid down three pieces of bread about the size and shape of a large pizza, each smooth, hard, and an unappetizing greyish colour.

"These look like the pan they were probably made on," Agil commented.

"That's why it's called panbread."

Agil thanked the man anyway, but when he tried to open a window, the man shook his head. "Materialize the stuff. A five Cor coin, if you could."

Kouichirou curled his eyebrows, but Agil obeyed regardless. The bartender provided three mugs of water to make up the difference.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's wrong with one Cor coins?" Kouichirou asked.

"One-pieces aren't pure copper, so you can't get them exchanged at quite the same rate as a five or ten. I'm not good enough with the windows to change them myself, and they charge extra for that."

"You're saying you don't use Cor?" Kouichirou asked. He'd helped design some of the money drop systems, and he found himself a little disappointed that his work wasn't helpful.

"Garad uses Turian coins." The barkeeper took out a couple of small copper coins as a demonstration. They were a lot smaller than Cor coins, about the size of a hundred-yen coin. One side displayed three nested crescents, their thickest sections aimed at three equidistant points along the coin's perimeter. A small outline of a puffy cloud occupied the middle of this pattern. The other side of the coin showed the face of a man Kouichirou supposed might be the Count Palatine they'd heard about this morning.

"So what do you do with the Cor?" Neko asked. Kouichirou hadn't noticed the teenager sneak up behind him and snatch his panbread from the counter.

"The coins get melted down for metal."

Neko nodded. "Makes sense."

Kouichirou understood as well. He'd heard a lot of complaints from the designers, and had to help with the programming to solve a simple problem—mobs in an MMO dropped money, and they respawned, essentially printing money indefinitely. In the real world that caused inflation, and in games it often caused hyperinflation. Last he'd heard, Kayaba's elite team had taken on the problem, though it seemed like their solution wasn't as good for the natives as their own, which simultaneously protected their economy and provided a token source of metal in what was otherwise an unmineable plain.

The bartender was about to get back to a book he'd been reading, written in what Kouichirou supposed was a somewhat stylized version of Japanese. Before he could, however, Agil asked one more question, "You mentioned a rally? We're looking for someone, do you think we'd stand a good chance looking there?"

"Oh, yes, a few hours ago runners were darting around the city to spread the news. Some player said he made a discovery of some sort. I didn't really get all of it, but it was rousing enough to get most of these dolts moving." The bartender's tone adopted a harsh edge whenever he mentioned the players as a group.

"You don't speak highly of the players," Agil commented with a hostile tone Kouichirou hadn't heard him use before. Strangely, it was only now that Kouichirou realized what having Agil's appearance really meant in Japan. Agil was different physically from any Japanese person, and even if his Japanese was perfect and he was friendly, some people would only see the differences.

The bartender shrank a little, himself coming to an understanding of what Agil's bulk meant, though he had different consequences on his mind.

"I have no issue with players, or Suraish, or Sembs, or anything like that," he jabbered, putting in a visible effort to avoid a panic. "We're all equal in Iliya's eyes, right? It's just hard to see these particular people behind you in a positive light when all they do is drink themselves away the moment things don't go their way. If you'd been around the last time the players appeared, you'd know just how easy you lot have it. I can't respect people that don't respect what the gods gave them, and that don't work with what they have. These players still think they're playing a game, they can't even recognize what they have, never mind work with it."

Agil seemed calmed somewhat, though Kouichirou had questions. "What do you mean, 'last time the players appeared'?"

"It was about sixty years ago, and I was too young to remember. All I know is what my parents told me a few years later and what I could see of the destruction. It wasn't pretty."

Before Kouichirou could open his mouth to ask more questions, the barkeeper stressed, "Now, that rally I mentioned should be starting any minute. When you exit, turn left and take the third right. It's a big plaza, you should find it just fine."

Neko quickly chugged down his water, stowing his remaining bread, and sat up. Agil and Kouichirou took a few seconds to catch up with their energetic companion. Agil and Kouichirou thanked the bartender for his time, but Neko just gave a lazy wave before darting up the stairs outside the door.

Getting to the plaza was made easier by the fact that they weren't the only players going there. The messengers must have carried quite the rousing words to mobilize this many players; Kouichirou saw knots of energetic young men rushing forward alongside the ambling individuals sharing the same silence as those they'd seen in the bar. Even children and women were mixed in with the movement that, supplied with streamlets from various alleys, developed into a full current of people aiming for the plaza.

There was already a crowd in the plaza, with rivers of people crashing in from several streets. Kouichirou's party was barely in the plaza, and the sea of faces extended well down the street. There must have been a few thousand players here.

"Well this tells us where all the players were," Neko yelled to be heard over the hundred conversations taking place around them.

"How many do you think there are?" Kouichirou yelled to Agil, who was tall enough to view the crowd as a whole.

Agil crouched down a little. "The whole plaza's packed like sardines, and there's at least four streets that are filled as far as I can see. Behind us the crowd's still forming. Taking into account that a lot of players stayed in their inns, I could see there being six or seven thousand people in this quarter."

That would account for the number of players they'd seen elsewhere in the city.

Before Agil could straighten, Neko tugged on his arm. Kouichirou could just barely hear a whisper, "Stay low; you're too noticeable."

"Why is that—"

A hush rippled through the crowd as a man stood up on a raised platform somewhere in the middle of the plaza.

"I knew it," Neko hissed. "That's the guy from the alley this morning."

Kouichirou couldn't be sure; he hadn't gotten a good look at the face of the attacker from the alley. The man standing above the crowd was distinctive, Kouichirou could see that even across the plaza. He had a handsome face that bore hints of several ethnicities; there was something European about his jawline and hair, but his eyes and skin were Asian. He stood with a posture that communicated confidence and power.

When he began to speak, though, Kouichirou recognized that melodic and dangerous voice.

"Friends, I am Prophet, and I have made an important discovery I'd like to share with you." Prophet paused and Kouichirou heard an echo of those words from behind. It seemed Prophet had gotten a few people to relay his words for those too far to hear.

This was an organized endeavor.

Another man climbed up to the platform beside Prophet. A cloth wrapped around the lower half of his face, leaving visible only eyes that seemed to glow. Kouichirou shivered; those were the eyes of the snake that had been curled around Prophet's neck.

"This man," Prophet said, "Is one of the saints, and he has some words he'd like to share."

The man nodded and spoke. His voice was quiet, almost a whisper, but the crowd stood silent enough for the sound to echo around the plaza. "My name is Razean, and I am a saint. I came to Prophet to explain what I learned of the «Saints». As you have heard in the opening ceremony, the saints can release us from the game, but so long as one saint refuses, that won't happen. You may be wondering, 'if that is the case, why haven't we been released yet?' The answer is simple. Two saints wish to keep us here. The first is Kayaba Akihiko."

Mutters swept through the crowd like ripples formed by a breeze over a pond. The hooded man waited for them to abate before continuing.

"The second is a man named Irae. Last night he killed a saint to secure the position for himself. You may have heard the NPCs whispering about it in the streets. I was there when it happened and witnessed it for myself. From what I can gather, he is a criminal that wishes to avoid the law by staying in the game."

Again, conversations erupted from the crowd, though this time they showed no signs of stopping. A few people closer to the raised platform seemed to be asking questions.

That statement raised a lot of questions in Kouichirou's mind as well. Firstly, the natives had been talking about the death of their ruler, not of a saint. Before this speech, he hadn't known any indication that Irae was a saint at all, or that he had been the one to kill the Count Palatine. It was possible Prophet was just twisting information to get the crowd to help him hunt down Irae—they had certainly been opposing each other earlier. Then there was the supposition that Irae was a criminal. Was there any evidence to support that? If anything, it had been Prophet that had attacked them in an alley. Irae had been the one to offer healing potion. But at the same time, wouldn't it be the man who intended to stay in the game world that would have a healing potion on him by the beginning of day two? They weren't exactly easy to find. Irae had also lured them into a trap simply so he could follow Prophet himself; he wasn't exactly a saint in the real-world sense, even if he could be a «Saint» in Aincrad. Then there was the fact that Irae had gotten on the server before anyone else…

Some of the conversations were crescendoing into yelled arguments. Before the crowd could become too agitated, Prophet took hold of the conversation again, silencing the crowd with his commanding tone. "That brings us to my discovery. Razean mentioned that a saint had already been killed. It was done inside the city. Inside the safe zone. My discovery—"

Prophet raised his hand and curled it into a fist for everyone to see. Then, he drew back his arm and punched Razean in the gut. The hooded man—snake—recoiled before straightening and throwing a punch back at Prophet. This time, a purple hexagon appeared, stopping the fist before it could deal any damage to Prophet. The two of them nodded to confirm that was a demonstration before Prophet continued.

"Saints aren't given city protection. In other words, everyone here can check if their neighbour is a saint by giving them a light punch on the shoulder."

The crowd had already broken into motion, with purple hexagons appearing throughout the dense ocean of players. Somewhere, the movement continued as a bunch of players pressed close to someone that let out a few yells before falling silent.

What followed were calls not of panic or regret or anxiety, but of disappointment.

"Just an NPC."

Prophet spoke again, somehow managing to make his voice heard over the eddies of activity in the crowd. "Some of you may have noticed that city protection only lasts until midnight tonight. In other words, we have just over eleven hours to track down Irae, Kayaba, and the other «Saints». If you become a «Saint», get out to the street and point your sword straight up—I will have people to escort you back to somewhere safe. They may try to hide among the NPCs. To be sure, they must either submit to us and accept our protection, or any possible «Saint» title must be transferred.

"Now, this may seem harsh to you. But think of this: we've been brought here against our will, made to risk our lives on the whim of a psychopathic game developer. He gave us the chance to cheat his own game, and if we don't take this chance, that's the same as just letting him control us! I don't want to be controlled, I just want to go home!"

Prophet's voice had risen in a steady crescendo, and Kouichirou found that even his heart was beating a little bit faster. Prophet's words disgusted him—the man was proposing that the players form a mob and massacre every native in the city because they were 'just NPCs.' He was making it seem like it was their only option, that it was the right thing to do for themselves, for their lives, and for the players as a group. However, wasn't there something wrong about Prophet's method?

When last Kouichirou had run into Prophet, he'd bypassed city protection on Agil, who had safe zone protection beforehand. In other words, it wasn't the person that didn't have protection, but the attack that could bypass it. That show up on the stage was a ruse—it couldn't catch any saints, just natives and whoever Prophet chose as his targets. He'd turned six thousand players into his own personal army with a show and some pretty words.

Were the players fools for it?

It was just as the barkeeper had said earlier. 'They still think they're playing a game, they can't even recognize what they have, never mind work with it.' Now the players' apathy and ignorance would play right into Prophet's hand.

What of Prophet, though? He had explored the city, he probably realized what kind of place it was. Why did he want to massacre the natives? Did he not care about their lives, only the prospect of going home? Or was there another reason that he would threaten the city itself, a reason he deemed more important than hundreds of lives?

Agil, who had been awkwardly half-crouched for the duration of Prophet's speech, quickly stood straight and looked around. "The crowd is starting to spread out. The news hasn't quite hit the edges yet, but it looks like this crowd will begin tearing through the city in a few minutes." He turned to look where Prophet had stood down from his platform. "Prophet's sneaking into a building."

"This isn't good," Neko said almost idly.

"Let «The Rat» know. Hopefully she can help save some people," Agil said.

Kouichirou quickly manipulated his menu to do just that. His fingers zipped across the keyboard, Agil repositioning himself slightly to shield his hands from the crowd.

"Inkling," Neko said softly. It took Kouichirou a moment to finish his message, and when he did, he realized that Neko spoke without his usual childishness or flamboyancy.

"You're the commander, and right now you have to make a decision. Are you going to try to find Asuna in this mess, or maybe look somewhere else? Or are you going to stick around and save whatever natives you can?"

Kouichirou froze. What should he do? At this point, both options seemed impossible. The periphery of the crowd could spill halfway to the central plaza before their party stood any chance of moving, never mind slipping away. He could choose to search for his sister, who had safe zone protection and might not even be in the quarter. Success there would be boolean, with a high chance of failure. Alternatively, they could try to save the natives. They couldn't save everyone, but this was where they'd make the biggest difference.

Neko was asking Kouichirou to weigh the safety of Asuna against the chance of saving several other people, with some probability mixed in. It was right out of a presentation on ethical decisions, and Kouichirou's mind was more split than the ethicist's survey numbers could display.

"I hold my commander to higher standards than this," Neko said after a while. "Remember what I said about goals. What's your goal?"

"To get out of the game with Asuna," Kouichirou responded.

"But does that represent everything, Inkling?" Neko asked.

"No."

"What if I told you Asuna was safe from the mob?"

"What are you saying, Neko?" Agil asked, but Neko ignored him.

A better goal would be to protect everyone around him. Protect them from Prophet's lies and his angry mob. Protect them from Kayaba's death game. Protect them from the manipulation of others, and protect them from falling victim to their ploys. And Kouichirou could do a lot more protecting getting people away from the angry mob than he could ignoring it.

Kouichirou's heart clenched a little and his knees felt weak as he said, "We're getting the natives out of here."

"Good, nice to see my commander can make the right choice."

"Was there really a right choice in that situation?" Agil asked.

Neko pointed to Kouichirou's menu, still open to the last panicked message sent to «The Rat». Just above that string of characters was another message Kouichirou had missed in his haste.

｢Asuna was with me until a few minutes ago. Now in caves with Irae trying to get back to city.｣

Kouichirou's mind buzzed. He began sending frenzied messages to Argo, telling her about what had been said about Irae, and giving instructions on what to tell Asuna. Even if he felt safer knowing Asuna wasn't in the clutches of Prophet's mob or his words, was it really any better to have her under the watch of Irae, a man that was a magnet for Prophet's mob, and could be just as bad?

Neko smiled, oblivious to Kouichirou's doubts. "So, was I helpful? Did all my explanations from before help you make your decision?"

Kouichirou clenched his teeth but didn't look up from his message window. "Why didn't you just point out the message? That would have been a lot more helpful than cryptic advice."

"Two reasons. First, I might not be here for you next time, and you'll have to make the decision yourself. You probably formulated a way better goal than I could make for you. Second, I wouldn't be able to say"—Neko pulled out the panbread left over from the bar—"that my plans really panned out."

A purple hexagon was all that kept Agil's fist from knocking Neko across the plaza.

A/N: I couldn't resist. This is why Neko is my favourite character, he's the way I play with the tone of the story. Unfortunately, the result was that I turned Agil into a bit of a useless log outside that brief bout on racism. Meh, I'll deal with him later *laughs evilly, advances through three stages to maniacal villain laughter*

This chapter came late for a number of reasons. Firstly, I'm a lazy butt. Second, I got distracted with video games. Thirdly and most importantly, this chapter took a while to plan out. I had no plans going in except that there would be an angry mob sometime in day two. The original plan actually called for Alexis causing the thing, but that's beside the point. I just had some rough worldbuilding ideas, like the fact that the Merchants' Guild was based in the eastern quarter and thus there was a lot more travel and thus more inns there. I then had to work out the details for Prophet's incredibly complex plot. Then, even harder, I had to set up that pun. Jk, that was easy. Puns always pan out well for me.

Shit, I forgot to date the last chapter. That one should have been 2/6/16

10/6/16