Chapter 27: The Third Grand Strategy Meeting and Execution!
And so our entire group, suddenly substantially bigger, all piled into the Ostland and gathered around a table in the main living quarters. We all took our seats and stared at each other in silence. Pure. Unadulterated. Silence. No one was saying anything. BORING!
"So. Where do we start?" I ask, finally letting something be said. "We have quite a few bits to discuss."
"I-I suppose I should start," Josette says. I think. I'm pretty sure it's Josette, because I don't remember Tabitha ever having a stutter. "I'm sure that's what's on everyone's minds, isn't it?"
"I'm certainly curious," Kirche says.
"Please talk," Tabitha adds.
"I'll make it brief, so I don't waste anyone's time," Josette says. "See, Tabitha and I are twins-"
"So you were separated at birth to avoid throne disputes," Emily finishes.
"We could figure that one out pretty quickly," Montmorency adds.
"It's more common then you'd think," Guiche comments.
"The problem with that now, is how did you ever find that out?" Louise asks. "If you were separated at birth, how did you find that out?"
"I highly doubt you have a memory that stretches that far back," Kirche says.
"Unlikely," Tabitha confirms.
"Th-that clearly wasn't it," Josette says. "How did you even- never mind. See, a few years ago I met Julio."
I could practically hear the sounds of all of us biting our tongues. Yeah, we can all see where this goes from here. I mean, the universe apparently decided to pile as many cliches on her character as possible, so we can just add a few more to the list. We decided to let her talk though, since we're worried we'll scare her off if we predict her life too accurately.
"See, Julio helped me out a lot," Josette says, ignorant of the amount of willpower being utilized in this room. "I never had many people to take care of me, I imagine that should be obvious. Having Julio around was… nice. It was very nice. Having someone look out for me was a unique experience. I suppose it was only a matter of time then."
"Hmm?" Kirche hums. "What was only a matter of time?"
Josette stays silent, a blush slowly crawling along her face. She seems to realize that she's starting to blush, because her blush grows even larger immediately.
"Oooh," Those of us who hadn't already figured it out finally seem to have caught up. I mean, they didn't verbalize that thought, which is probably for the best.
"A-a-a-anyway," Josette tries to change the topic as quickly as possible. "Julio is the one who told me about my heritage. The void magic was a surprise that came rather recently. I wasn't lying when I said I never got proper teaching and could only cast low-level unaligned spells. Until recently that was all I knew. Even now, the only void spell is the spell that changes how something looks and I'm far too weak to use it on anything that isn't me."
"Well, that's all well and good, but how did you know that Julio was telling you the truth?" Kirche asks.
"He could have lied," Tabitha says.
"I wouldn't put it past that guy," Guiche says. "From what I've heard, he doesn't have a very good reputation."
"Guys," I say, "you're seriously going to ask how she knew if it was true or not? Even I could figure that out!"
"And what, pray tell, might it be then?" Louise asks. "Don't keep us in suspense any longer then we have too, I might die of anticipation."
I point. "Ooooh." is once again the prevailing thought. At least it is for Louise. Everyone else is simply confused as to why I'm pointing at Emily who's busy fiddling about with her iPad. She looks up when she feels everyone's gaze on her.
"… What's up?" she asks.
"Emily, how long have you known Josette?" I ask.
"Around three years," she answers. "She was actually the first person I met when I came to Halkegnia. Any meeting with her after that was fought for, tooth and nail, but that first meeting is the only reason I know her."
"And at any point during your stay here has she asked you to look up anything?" I ask.
"… Yeah," she says, not sure where the conversation's going. "She asked me to search for some stuff. Oooooooh. I get it. Yeah, everything she's saying is true. I can vouch for that. She Tabitha's twin, void mage, she and Julio hung out, la di dah."
"Thank you Emi," Josette says. "It wasn't that long ago that Julio convinced me to summon a familiar. I never had one, and he said that he thought I would benefit from the experience. This happened maybe… a week ago? It was before I met Joshua and Louise, but not that long before. I did the ritual, and Julio walked through the summoning portal."
… Lucky bastard, getting a proper summoning that didn't involve falling face first and inhaling a crapton of smoke.
"Josh."
"Yes Louise?"
"You better not be thinking about how he got the better summoning," Louise warns me.
"The thought never crossed my mind."
"Wait," Kirche interrupts. "If you and Julio are a thing then why are you fighting against him? Shouldn't you be supporting him?"
"It's because I'm not a genocidal maniac!" Josette yells. She quickly "eeps," and clasps her hands over her mouth. She says more, but I can't hear her at all since she's whispering so softly a mouse couldn't hear her, and she still has her hands over her mouth.
"Mind repeating that?" I ask.
"I don't like hurting people, that should be obvious," Josette says. "How could I ever go along with a plan that involves the slaughter of so many innocent people? I feel horrible just thinking about it, and I start feeling worse when I realize that I helped them. After all, now Julio is Myoznitnirn and Vindalfar. He can control all magical artifacts, and animals."
"I have two knives on my wrists and a sword," I reply.
"A sword that you never freaking use!" Derflinger yells from the corner of the room. "Come on, I thought we were partners and then you just ditch me the second you pick up those fancy toys! They're nothing compared to me, the mighty Derflinger!"
… I actually almost forgot he could talk. That speaks far too much about me, I feel.
"I'll bring you along next time, don't worry."
"Hmph. You better," Derflinger says before shutting himself inside his sheath.
"Anyway, so that does put us at a bit of a disadvantage," I remark. "Nothing too drastic, I hope. I mean, he's only been Myoz for a week at most, that's hardly enough time to get used to all the intricacies of it. I imagine he still has to work for a bit before fully mastering a particular item."
"Is that how it works for you?" Guiche asks.
"… I dunno, maybe," I say with a shrug. "I never really worked with it so I couldn't tell you."
"Alright, so here's an idea," Montmorency says. "What if we had Tiffania summon something? She's a void mage too, isn't she? We could just have her summon Joshua and that would give us something, wouldn't it?"
"I wouldn't recommend it," Emily says. "It would likely give us Lifdrasil, and I have no goddamn clue how that works. I mean, seriously. I don't blame the books for not telling us about it in more detail, for obvious reasons, but then F's all like 'it's totally a void magic boost that kills the familiar' and I'm all like 'What? That's crap!' especially when the novels pretty clearly implied it was some kind of bomb like thing designed for genocide and… Wh-what's up? Why're you all looking at me like that?"
"You did that thing again," Josette says. "Where you start talking nonsense."
"She does this a lot?" Louise asks.
"Constantly."
"S-sorry, I kind of nerded out there for a second," Emily sheepishly apologizes. "Anyway, I can't recommend Lifdrasil because there's no way of knowing what it would do and we probably don't have anywhere near enough time to test it and find out."
"Besides, Montmorency said something about summoning me, how could we even know that would happen?" I ask.
"Well it's not like it can't happen," Momo points out. "Julio got summoned twice, after all."
"Yeah but… Gimme a sec."
I mean, I kind of had a theory that void summonings only summoned forth potential love interests, but that's a little fuzzy and I don't know if I should being it up. I mean, me and Louise are a thing, Julio and Josette are kind of a thing, Sheffy and Joseph was a one way thing and I'm very sure that Brimir and Sasha was implied to also be a one sided thing. That kind of falls apart when it comes to Julio and the pope, but an exception or two is always allowed. If we follow that theory then there's no way that Tifa could possibly summon me. I can't prove it, but that's not important. I need to make it seem like I was actually thinking about something important right now instead of just dreaming up crackpot theories.
"No, that wouldn't work," I say. "If Emily doesn't know what it can do, then it's probably a bit too dangerous to try out. Besides, where is Tiffania anyway?"
"She's with Darling up top," Kirche says. "They're busy keeping a lookout should anyone decide to investigate the boat with four wanted criminals on it."
"F-four?" Josette asks. "Do you think they'd try to arrest me too?"
"You do know what's going on," Guiche says. "Honestly I'd be far more surprised if they didn't try to incriminate you."
"Well, I suppose if that's the case then the number will be jumping up quite a bit soon," I say, noting the sheer number of people here. It again occurs to me that almost everyone I know in this world is female. I know Guiche and Colbert, but I'm still not entirely convinced about Guiche, and I'm not super familiar with Colbert. I need more guy friends.
"Alright, I suppose we should move on to the next topic of discussion since Josette's probably done," Emily says. "You are done, right Josette?"
"I-I can't think of much else to say, no," Josette confirms.
"Next topic then," Emily says. "Where do we move from here?"
"What's our next move, you mean?" I ask.
"Right. Now they have both Pieces of Eden, and all we have is a dusty old mirror," Louise points out. "Assuming the mirror even works as it's supposed to, how are we even going to get close enough to use it? The Pope can turn the entire city into his own personal army if he wanted to, or create one all by himself if he doesn't feel like doing that."
"Why don't we just burst down his doors and rush right in?" Kirche asks. "Things like that have worked for us in the past, haven't they?"
"No good," I say, shaking my head. "He has too many guards. Even if we were somehow capable of taking out every single guard stationed there, he can create illusion guards which can hurt. I know they're not real, but they still pack a punch. I should know, I fought twenty of them. Sort of. It's a weird story. Point is, they do hurt. I don't know if they can kill, but as long as it's a possibility, I'd rather not risk it. Though he won't need to do that since, like I said, he had guards FREAKING EVERYWHERE! Everywhere! He had like, three or four guard towers just lying around, and then there was at least ten patrolling the front. I didn't even get to check the back and who knows how many are inside the place?! Freaking ridiculous, that's what that is."
"Okay, so that option's dead," Kirche says, pouting as she does so. "It would have been fun too."
"If it's that heavily guarded then all he needs to do is sit there and wait as his plan falls into place while we flounder about unable to reach him," Guiche says. "Truly a cunning adversary."
"Alright, then what are we supposed to do?" Louise asks. "Anyone have any ideas?"
"It's not that tough," Josette says. "All we need to do is draw him out of there, right?"
"… Wait. Could you say that again, please?" I ask.
"D-did I say something wrong?" Josette asks.
"No, you hit the nail right on the head once again," I tell her. "Josette, you figured it out. We just need to get Pope Asshole to leave his house. He certainly won't leave without his stick, so we can make out move then."
"Okay, that's easy to say," Louise says. "How do we pull that off? It certainly won't be as easy as knocking on the front door. 'Hello, Your Holiness? Could you please come out so we can beat you up and steal your most holy artifact and ruin everything you've worked for for years? Thanks.' I have my doubts that would work."
I mean, it could work. I wouldn't put it past this world to have a stupid resolution like that. Nothing would surprise me.
"Well, if were to do something to catch his attention he would probably come out to denounce us," Josette says. "After all, we're wanted, but he never made any public announcements to that effect. Considering Louise is still considered a saint to some, I imagine he'd need to say something to the public at some point if he truly wants people on his side."
"Josette, keep it rolling, you're our best idea person ever," I say.
"E-eh? Th-that's not tr- nevermind!" Josette seems to be unable to handle compliments. "Alright. Um… If we're going to get his attention we need to do something big and flashy. Something like… Um… I-I don't want to say it."
"Josette, it's probably a better idea then any of us could come up with," Emily says. "What's the worst that'll happen, we ask you to tweak the idea somewhat?"
"Please tell us," Tabitha says.
Josette seems hesitant, but decides to speak up. In a very quite voice she delivers the following line:
"What if Josh tried to kill the Pope?"
… I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say anything about what I think about that. Instead, I'm going to calmly ask her to explain this in a bit more detail.
"Josette, why do you hate me?" I ask. "Is this payback for the thing with the towel slip-up?"
"N-no, of course not! That was just an accident, I'm at blame for that!"
"Is it payback for the card game during the housewarming?"
"No! That was Emily's idea, I can't blame you for that."
"Don't throw me under the bus!" Emily complains.
"In that case, it's not payback for the shower incident, is it?"
"Wait, what shower incident?" Louise asks.
"Don't remind me," Josette says, blushing an even deeper shade of red then earlier. That one was pretty bad, thinking back on it. For what it's worth, I'm so sorry.
"And, just to be clear, it's not payback for naked apron thing?"
"What exactly has been happening with you two when I'm not looking?" Louise asks, sounding rather suspicious. I don't blame her, that one was far worse then the shower incident. More for Josette then me, but still. Most people would be suspicious after hearing about things like that.
"… Founder, you have given me a lot of reasons to hate you," Josette seems to realize. "Th-that came out wrong, I don't hate you! Wait, that's not the point. See, we need to do something big to both grab the Pope's attention, as well as make him want to actually come out of hiding and publicly announce what a threat you are. What better way to do both of those then to attack him directly?"
"I mean, I guess that makes sense," I say. "There's just one problem I see with it though. Okay, I go and attack the Pope. Then what? My intent clearly isn't to actually kill him, so what do I do if I make it to him, just run off? And what if I get captured, pray he doesn't off me on the spot?"
"That's easy," Josette says. "You said yourself that there's tons of guards there, correct? All you would need to do is evade them long enough to get to the pope, then stall until the guards show up. That'll provide an excuse for you to want to escape, you can lose the guards and run back to the safehouse. I'm sure you can do that. And if on the off chance you do get captured, I imagine he'll want to hold a public execution for the nation's most wanted criminal. That'll allow us a chance to strike at the Pope and save you in the process."
I mean, yeah, it sounds pretty good, but I'm not sure. I still think this is her getting revenge for that naked apron thing. In the little over a week I've known the shy and reserved Josette, that was the first time I've seen her get seriously pissed. She was not happy with me. She apologized later for losing her cool, but I still thought I was going to die. It wasn't my fault, I swear! I'd recount the incident for your pleasure, but in honor of Josette's privacy and out of a sense of self-preservation, I shall abstain.
"Okay, then what can the rest of us do?" Kirche asks. "We came all this way, I'm not leaving as soon as we got here!"
"We're helping," Tabitha says.
"And do I have the job for you!" Emily says. She puts her iPad down on the table and opens up what looks like a map of Romalia. How she got this map on her tablet I will never know. I doubt she downloaded it from the Halkegnia wiki. I mean, all I've got is an iPod I use to listen to the Blazblue soundtrack on repeat when I'm walking my dog, I'm not a tech expert so who knows what she managed to pull off.
"Here's the layout of the city," Emily explains. "Thanks to Josette and Louise spying around a bit earlier in our stay, we know that there tons of guards stationed around the city on high alert. More specifically, they were able to locate quite a few guard hideouts."
"You mean, all the places they've been stationed?" Momo asks.
"Not all of them," Louise says. "At least, I assume there's more. I refuse to believe that we found all of them. When there's as many people on the guard force as there are, I simply will not believe that the six locations we've found are all of them."
"But that's really all we need," Emily says. "That's going to be our job, neutralize the guards. That'll reduce the overall guard force and make it far easier for us to move around, as well as reduce the chances of getting caught. They can't catch us if they can't call on their friends to help, right?"
"That… Certainly makes sense," Montmorency says. "Though I have to ask, how are we supposed to 'neutralize' what are likely highly trained and heavily armed guards? What does neutralize even mean?!"
"You know, make sure they're not a threat," Emily says. "Tie 'em up, put 'em to sleep for a bit, I don't really know, I don't care. Freestyle. We really only need them out of commission for a few hours at most while Josh does his thing against the Pope. Nothing permanent or even that long lasting at all."
"I see. Okay, that sounds pretty good!" Kirche says. "How do we split up who goes where? You said there were six, right?"
"Louise can take station one right about here," Emily says, pointing to a spot on her map. "Josette, you can get this one not too far away from it, right?"
"I-I'll do my best!" she says.
"Tabitha, Kirche, you can take hangout three, right?"
"Easily," Tabitha says.
"No problem for the two of us," Kirche says with a wink for added flair.
"Momo-"
"It's Montmor… Forget it. You guys win. Momo's fine," she surrenders.
"Momo, you and Guiche can take care of this one over here, right?"
"Such a trivial obstacle is no match for the efforts of me and my beautiful Montmorency!" Guiche declares while brandishing his rose/wand.
"Station five can go to Tiffania, and the final one can be handled by Colbert. That sound about good to everyone?" Emily asks.
"Wait a minute," Momo says. "I know why Josh isn't taking any of the stations, he's going to be busy. What are you going to be doing during this whole operation?"
"She's got her own thing to work on," I assure Momo. "Something that she probably should have been done with by now, but considering the interruptions, I'm not going to blame her for this one."
"I think I'll take this opportunity to finish that up," Emily says. "… Wait, we should probably call Tifa and Colbert down and fill them in on everything that's going to happen. Once we get that done we can get started. Everyone good now?"
"Sounds good. Let's get started."
*Louise POV*
"Okay, this is the station I was assigned, right?" I look around, and I don't see anyone else. Well, I can see Josette down the street and that serves as my visual indicator that I'm in the right place. I pointed this out to her when we were on our mission together, but I still don't know why they have two guard posts so close together. Doesn't matter now, I suppose. I just need to keep them busy, right? I suppose I could cast Explosion and destroy their building. No, if anyone's inside then they get caught in that and explode. In addition to the fact that I don't want to kill anyone, it would be a bitch to clean up. Shoot, I'll need to put a coin in the swear jar later. … Wait a second. Clean up.
I pull the hood tightly over my head. As long as I keep my head low they shouldn't be able to recognize me on sight. I stand right outside their door and start casting the spell. I'm not casting anything particularly complex at the moment so it doesn't take too long. I finish the spell and make sure the result is as intended. Perfect. I turn towards the door and knock on the door. A few seconds later a guard opens the door and looks at me. I keep my head low and avoid contact.
"G-guards! Guards! I saw her! The assassin! I had to alert someone as soon as possible. Thank the founder you were around," I say to the guard, raising my voice a few pitches to disguise it.
"You saw the assassin? Which one and where? Quickly! This is a matter of national importance."
… My ass it is. Dang it! Another coin in the swear jar. I blame Josh, he's been a poor influence on me.
"The Saint of Aquellia. I saw her over there," I say, pointing in a direction. I look over and shriek.
"Wh-what is it Miss?"
"She there! She's right there!"
The guard walks right past me and looks in the direction I'm pointing. His eyes slightly widen when he sees "me" standing around, looking incredulous. He manages to lock eyes with "me" and "I" panic and run off.
"Guards! At arms! The would-be assassin has been located! Come quickly!"
The guards runs back into the establishment to grab his weaponry before running after "me." He's swiftly followed by around seven other guards all similarly armed. I grab one of them by the arm as he's about to run off.
"Mister Guard, will you be able to catch her?" I ask.
"Don't worry, we've dispatched everyone at this establishment, there's no way we can't catch her."
I smile.
"Thank you sir. Good luck!"
The guard salutes me and runs off. Perfect, the place is empty now, right? The illusion spell has probably worn off by now so they're simply on a wild goose chase. I imagine that won't hold them off for very long, they're bound to realize that they lost me quite quickly. That thought in mind, I start chanting immediately. The spell starts building up inside of me as the words pour out of me. When I finish the chant I point my wand at their base and release my magic. There's a small light that slowly grows, and grows before engulfing the entire building. There's an explosion far larger then I intended. I actually get knocked backwards as a result of it.
"I need to work on that still, it seems," I say as I pull myself to my feet. "Still, looks like their building's gone. Even assuming the chase only lasts a few more minutes, they'll be picking up their home for quite a bit longer."
A job well done. I do feel a bit bad though. I just destroyed their house for no reason. … Well, they were going to do far worse to us so I'll file it under acceptable losses. I suppose I should fall back to the safe house before someone come by to check out that huge explosion.
*Josette POV*
*Knock Knock*
The door opens and a guard appears in the doorframe.
"Hello sir," I say with a bow before righting myself and smiling at the guard. "This is a guard's residence, correct?"
"Indeed, there are several guards currently staying here," he says, eyeing me suspiciously. "What of it?"
"I was just curious. After all, I had some information about the supposed assassins that I though might be crucial to the effort to catch them. May I perhaps come in and share it?"
"Information? What kind of information?" the guards seems more suspicious.
"If I told you I knew where they were staying, would that help matters?" I ask. I mean, it's not a lie.
"You know where they are?" the guard seems surprised. "How did you find that out?!"
"If you perhaps let me in I could sit down and explain it to you and your men," I say, biting down my nervousness.
"By all means, please come in," he says, inviting me inside. "You're doing this nation a great service."
If only he knew just what I was doing for Romalia. I'm sure he'll find out in time. That done, I walk into the building with him.
*Kirche POV*
"Oh, is that so?" I ask the guard. "And so, what are you doing to catch them?"
"We've got plenty of guards stationed all over Romalia," the guard tells me. "No matter where they've decided to run, we will find them. Don't worry."
"By the way, what's your friend doing over there?"
I look over at Tabitha, who's quietly whispering to herself in the corner. I turn to the guard and smile.
"Oh, don't worry about her," I dismiss his concerns with a wave. "She's just a worrywart who's busy praying for your success in your capture of those terrible assassins."
"I see," the guard says, nodding in satisfaction. "When she's done, please tell your friend I'm grateful."
"I'd be honored," I tell him.
He opens his mouth to say something, but icicles can't talk. I walk up to the frozen man and tap on the ice.
"Took you long enough," I tell Tabitha. "Is freezing everyone solid really that complex?"
"No," Tabitha says.
"Oh, you just wanted to make sure it was strong enough to keep them frozen for long enough?"
"Precisely. Thanks for stalling."
"Anytime," I say as I ruffle Tabitha's hair a little bit. "Though, you are sure that they'll thaw out eventually, right?"
Tabitha is silent as she ponders.
"Likely."
"Well, we'll check back after Josh is done with his thing. If it looks like they need some help I can thaw them out."
"Understood."
*Montmorency POV*
"That was the best you could come up with?" I ask. "A rock?"
"A large rock that's blocking the entrance!" Guiche tries to defend himself. "That way they can't get out!"
"What if one of them's an earth mage?" I ask. "They could just get out."
Guiche immediately deflates.
"I hadn't thought of that."
Of course not. For all the things Guiche can do right, thinking is not one of them.
"Look, just give me a few minutes and I can whip up another sleeping potion. Remember Gallia?"
"Ah, of course! As expected of my beautiful flower Montmorency," Guiche says. "Simply trick them into drinking some of that and falling asleep for the next few hours! Ingenious! Ah, but Montmorency. How will we accomplish that? Last time we had those dancer outfits as well as the efforts of Kirche, Louise and Slyphid's human form. Now it's simply you and me."
Hmmm. He has a point. I eye Guiche from head to toe, an idea slowly forming in my head.
"Guiche, ever thought about how you would look in a dress?"
*Josette POV*
"Hmph," I sigh to myself as I walk out of the guard's house. "What jerks. At least they're taken care of now."
I look back over my shoulder and see all the guards knocked out and tied up on the floor. That should hold them until after Josh is done with his part of the plan. Better head back to the safehouse for now.
"Next time, behave," I tell the unconscious guards before walking off. "And learn to keep your mouthes shut."
*Emily POV*
"Excuse me, sir! Could I have a chat with you for a second?" I say as I run up to a random stranger.
"Hmm?" he asks. "Who are you?"
"Name's Emily, nice to meet you. See, I was wondering what you thought about the current state of affairs."
"What, you mean the whole thing about those terrorists trying to kill the pope?" he asks, to which I nod. "I mean, what's there to think about it? Either they tried to kill him or they didn't. I don't know why anyone would lie about something like that, but it doesn't affect me, does it?"
"I see, I see."
"What's that thing you're holding?" he asks.
"This? It's an ancient artifact that allows me to record people's words and play it back to them," I explain.
"What, like a scribe writing down people's words?" he asks. "Not very impressive for a magical artifact."
"It's a little better then that. Listen."
I press play, and the man's words are played back, exactly as he said them. The man certainly seems surprised at that. TAKE THAT! Modern technology wins again!
"That's incredible," he says. "I haven't seen anything like that. How'd you get something like that?"
"Isn't it obvious?" I ask, look at him from over my shoulder as I walk away. "I'm the Shadow Broker. I can't run the largest information network without at least this, can I?"
Okay, one down, let's try to get some others done. I run off before the guy could question anything else. Now, where else in this city should I head for?
*Josh POV*
Siiiiiiigh. I'll say it again, sigh. No point in complaining about it anymore. I'm just going to get this over with so we can move on to the thing where he gets out in public and we attack and solve everything and get this done and over with.
That thought in mind, I walk up to the door of the Pope's mansion/house/chapel/whatever, and knock on the door. The door opens up, and I see Catherine standing in the doorway.
"… Oh come on," I say.
*Author Notes*
Uncreative: Three more! Only three more!
Jocelyn: Wooh! We're on fire! Alright, what happened here?
Uncreative: Everyone talked and got the strategy mapped out and started working on that plan. Okay, Tiffania and Colbert were originally going to get POVs as well, but it just wasn't working out as well as I would have liked, so it got cut. I really hated to lose those, but I just couldn't come up with anything good enough for it.
Jocelyn: That sucks. At least everyone else got something written for them.
Uncreative: There was another one who was going to show up too, that elf Bishadal from the Gallia thing.
Jocelyn: That guy was going to show up? Why?
Uncreative: I dunno. Why not? I thought it would be interesting, but then I couldn't think up anything else so he got cut.
Jocelyn: It's always interesting just how much gets cut out of things like this.
Uncreative: Alright, next chapter we detail the attack on the Pope's house. Again, only three chapters left. Plus an epilogue, probably.
Jocelyn: Epilogues aren't chapters.
Uncreative: Damn right. Okay, see you next time everyone!
Jocelyn: See ya next time!
