"How ridiculous," seethed Albel, shaking his head.

"Surely this can't be right, Farleen," said Clair.

"That was my response as well. Tynave collected several books on humanoids. We figured that if this was alive, it'd have to be from one of them. A single result returned: it is from the Rockfolk that predominately inhabit Greeton."

Everyone in the conference room held some form of shock—the Queen gasped, Albel stiffened slightly, Lasselle slammed a hand on the table, Tynave nodded her head somberly, and Clair's eyes widened slightly.

"Thus, we have connected Alvar with Greeton through this rock sample. All we do now is determine a course of action. I believe we do have time, seeing as Greeton's borders are still open and that the Dragon Brigade is in the process of raising hatchlings," Nel said.

Alvar is guilty. He is the one staging the coup, after all....

"I knew not to trust those Airyglyph scum!" exclaimed the Magistrate through gritted teeth.

"Now Lasselle, King Airyglyph is unaware of the situation. And why would he? He is distracted by wedding preparations. This is why they call them coups," said the Queen. Directing her attention to Clair, she continued. "Do you advise that we notify him?"

Clair shook her head. "We need to keep everything…underground, so to speak. Exciting the King will only lead to public knowledge, and that is the worst thing we can do right now. We want to disable this whole operation from the inside out. Besides, we can't bother him when he is in the midst of more personal affairs."

"I agree," said Nel, getting ready to conclude the conference.

"Wait!" you say suddenly. "Albel and I have one more item to discuss with Your Majesty and the Secret Legion."

"Yes? Go ahead," replied the Queen.

You reach under your chair, heaving the black suitcase on top of the table. You open the clasps, and leave the contents for curious eyes to scan apprehensively.

"Tynave and Farleen, this is what Albel and I were really talking about. We wanted to go to the Kirlsa market to see wares from Greeton. And…this is what we found."

"What is it?" squeaked Farleen at the gleaming metal.

"They call it a machine gun, newly developed technology of Greeton. Their forces are equipped with it, according to this Felinefolk humanoid. And by forces, he is referring to their updated Mechanized Corps."

"Preposterous! The Holy Mother herself drowned them all at Suferio using the Sacred Orb," Lasselle said.

"Idiot," said Albel simply. "That was a long time ago. Don't you think they would have refined them by now?"

The Magistrate gasped, taken aback.

"You do not understand the gravity of this news! If Her Majesty allows, I would like to demonstrate outside," you say in desperate tones.

Aquaria XXVII nodded, standing up with the rest of the group.

They led you to the back of the throne room, outside facing the gardens.

"These metal cartridges fit in like this," you say, fumbling the apparatus awkwardly. The group looked on, skeptical. "Metal pieces called 'bullets' fly out," you say as you aim at a nearby tree below.

You fire off several rounds, the noise tearing and ripping through everyone's eardrums. After the smoke cleared, the tree's bark was stripped in some places, and the clean bullet holes stood testament to the weapons deadly skill.

"Would anyone volunteer to see how devastating this would be in the flesh? How about you, Lasselle?" you ask with a smirk. Albel laughs maliciously.

"That is quite enough!" Lasselle's voice betrays a tremor. "Y-your Majesty, in the face of this superior technology and a lifeless enemy, how could we win? We don't even have standing forces!"

"It seems that we will simply have to outsmart them," the Queen sighed. "For now it would be wise to continue our intelligence search. I would like the Secret Legion to go investigate Suferio. After all, there is a populace of Menodix humanoids there. I would like to know a link between the prophecy and them. If nothing turns up, I want you to find the missing pages somehow. It is imperative that we retrieve them. If not, we may not be able to divine the enemy's plans of attack," said the Queen, stenciled brows coming together in thought. "So far the Secret Legion has done an excellent job in finding this much information." The Queen turned away to the throne room as Lasselle continued to think.

"Wait…Ikelo's Book of Prophecies was heavily guarded. Someone in the upper levels of the castle must have been able to steal them," Lasselle said suddenly. "There is another traitor among us!"

A/N

Is there a traitor as Lasselle claims? Or, is Lasselle eager to place blame, yet again? If there is a traitor, who can it possibly be? This coup is more complex than it seems, I hope you stay tuned to see it all unravel. I have a lot of surprises, just you wait! :3 Especially for Ryoko and Albel….

Recent News: My laptop computer has been assaulted by many viruses and now I can't access the desktop OR any programs...it is going to a specialist and I hope that it can be fixed, because I have more chapters on there! =0 Also, my school life is picking up again (and I am a President of a club), so uploading may be delayed. However this IS a three day weekend, so I will see what I can do about writing.

Thanks to the reviewers that are still sticking around! :'D And the readers as well.