"It is time," Flynn said, looking at the clock, "The first ever important meeting of the high council will commence."
"With Lady Estellise's final order, I have been made interim council president until a new Emperor is elected," he said, neatly turning his pages of notes.
"Council members confirm you are present," he cleared his throat to begin listing.
"Cecil Krümstone, Mayor of Halure"
"Here," the elderly gentlemen said.
A lady with a book and quill sat in the corner, taking down everything that was said.
"Mayor Hanks of the lower quarter"
"Here."
"Rita Mordio, of Aspio"
Rita rolled her eyes, she saw this as a pointless exercise, why couldn't they just say they were all here?
"Here," she said, trying her best not to mock the process.
"Karol Capel, of Dahngrest"
"Here.!" Karol said, trying to not sound too excited.
"Judith, representative of Kritya"
"Present," Judith smiled.
"Patty Fleur, of Patty's Seaside Mysteries and primary sponsor of the local orphanage"
"Aye!" She nodded.
"And Flynn Scifo... of the... Imperial Knights..."
He scratched his head a bit, "Here?"
Flynn turned to the lady with the book and quill, "Did you really have to write that I 'paused awkwardly'?"
The lady wrote down every word of what he said and nodded at him.
"This particular session is important, as it concerns the mass production of Blastia," he spoke to everyone, including all of the audience members in the town hall who had decided to attend.
"Mrs. Mordio, why don't you start us out?" Flynn motioned for her to take the center.
"Thank you, Flynn," She took a deep breath and presented her slides.
"What I am proposing is fully repurposing the tower of gears to be recommissioned as a giant Blastia factory," She clicked past slides of the tower to show everyone what it is, "It was once a weather machine, a weapon, but it could be turned into something very beneficial for the entire world."
Rita turned the pages on her notes and flipped to a new slide, a blueprint. "The output for the tower would be large enough to produce enough barrier blastia for all of the major cities in a month, and continue making them for cheap for centuries to come. Bhodi Blastia would also be possible."
"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I assume a project like this would cost a fortune?" The mayor of Halure spoke up.
"Indeed, yes," Rita told him, "But it is a worthy investment. This project would dispense enough Blastia to protect everyone and run the world."
"I thought you said the metal to make these Blastia was rare?" Karol asked her.
"Well, yes, the metal to make the higher quality ones will still be rare, but a much simpler and more common metal, while less effective, will be more than enough to protect a town and provide a cheap form of Bhodi Blastia for healing Artes."
"I assume the upper quarter nobles would end up with the expensive Blastia while we got stuck with the lower quality stuff?" Hanks, the mayor of the lower quarter spoke out.
"Well, maybe, but these are still very high quality and more than good enough for you-"
Rita was cut off, "Oh, so these aren't good enough for the royals?!" Hanks was offended.
Rita was frustrated, "I'm proposing nearly free Blastia and you're complaining?!"
Flynn motioned for them to calm down, "Alright, let's settle down here. We can worry about who gets what Blastia later, the important thing is that they get to come back."
"We at Halure would love a new Blastia," the mayor of Halure told Rita, "The ol' tree could use a break."
"Let us know if there's anything we at Halure can do," The Mayor finished.
"Thank you," Rita nodded, "I'm glad there are some people that APPRECIATE what I am trying to do," she glared at Hanks.
"To be honest, I was hoping to be a little more... privately funded..." She said, turning to Patty.
"I figured that's where this was going," Patty said, "I don't think I have quite enough to fund this project immediately, but maybe we can do it in phases, start small?"
"Of course," Rita replied, "I assume this project will take at least a year."
"Excellent, we can work on a budget sometime together, then!" Patty smiled and sat back down.
Silence befell the council, the issue had seemed to be resolved.
"So, what's next?" Judith asked.
"Umm," Flynn flipped through pages, "Mrs. Mordio pretty much covered everything..."
"That's it, then?" Judith asked.
"Uhh..." Flynn said, "We were scheduled to meet for 2 hours today..."
"Nothing wrong with ending early," Patty was the first out of her chair, walking towards the door.
Flynn stood for a moment and then shrugged his shoulders, "Oh well, I guess we're done."
The citizens that had attended to spectate began talking amongst themselves as the council left.
"Rita, wait!" Patty chased Rita down a hallway, trying to talk to her privately.
"What is it?" Rita asked her.
"There's a flaw in the design," Patty told her, "Well... more like outside the design."
Rita sighed, "I think I know what you're referring to."
"That too many Blastia could spell trouble for the world?" Patty asked.
"Yes, everyone owning a blastia could potentially be dangerous," Rita told her, "I have a few ideas on that but it could present some real destructive problems."
Patty handed a slip of paper to Rita, the paper contained a massive line of math that Rita understood, but didn't specialize in. When she finished the math in her head, her jaw metaphorically dropped.
"This is," Rita read some more, "Fantastic, brilliant!"
"I know," Patty smiled, "A Blastia Magnet! I'm a genius!"
"You came up with this?" Rita asked with a mixture of disbelief and amazement.
"Yes, of course," Patty told her, "Why do you sound so surprised?"
"It's just..." Rita paused, "You've never shown any interest in this kind of work before, but you just designed a revolutionary piece of technology."
"That's because your math is math I don't understand, but this math I've been studying my entire life with my family," Patty defended herself well, but raised another question for Rita.
"Wait, you have a family?-" Rita didn't realize the sensitive nature of the question she had asked until it was too late.
"Blood? No." Patty answered, clearly not offended or hurt by it. "A couple at Capua Torim sort've used to let homeless children shack up in their lighthouse, they were kind and caring people."
"That's incredibly generous of them," Rita commented before letting her continue.
"Aye," Patty nodded, "I stayed there the longest, being the youngest, I would often hop back and forth between there and my quest to find out who I really was."
Patty paused and reminisced on her bittersweet memories of her childhood, "I called called her mom once at breakfast, they paused and looked at me but didn't say anything. From then on I called them mom and dad, simply because it made sense, they gave me shelter, fed me, clothed me, and loved me."
Rita had few words, "That's... beautiful..." Something clicked inside Rita at that moment, she didn't know what, but she knew this conversation would have a major impact on her later in her story.
"Me and my brother-" Patty realized she hadn't mentioned him yet, "-Who was the other kid who stayed for lengthy periods of time," she explained, "We learned math together in our spare time. It sounds boring, but it was the only thing that we had in common."
Patty pulled out her notepad and a pencil and began writing, "We would butt heads about everything from our favorite foods, to our views on world events..." Patty finished writing, she tore off the paper and handed it to Rita, "But this math, this brought us together."
Rita took the paper and held it in her hand for a moment, "I don't understand, what is this?"
"Gibberish," Patty responded, "It's just what the front of our first advanced textbook looked like, it's burned into my memory..."
Now that their bonding moment was concluded, therewas a long and silent lull in the conversation, in which Patty broke by turning the conversation back to its original topic.
"Anyways," the blonde haired pirate stretched her arms, "This will be useful for Flynn and his knights for keeping the peace," Patty told her, "It's excellent non-violent weaponry."
Rita rolled up the blueprint, "As soon as I get it manufactured they'll have it in their arsenal. It is Flynn's to do with as he sees fit."
"It's been great talking, I've gotta run and check up on the orphanage," Patty told her.
"Yeah, it has," Rita waved at her as she ran off, her blonde pigtails bouncing around.
Rita took a moment to take in the conversation that she just experienced, was she the first one that Patty had talked to about this? Is this the last she'd heard about it? And what was that feeling she got?
Rita cut through the back alleyway, as to not be seen leaving the front. She planned to rejoin her friends at Yuri's house in the lower quarter, which is where she assumed they were.
However, as she made her way down the quiet alley, she couldn't help but feel like she was being watched.
Her paranoia was confirmed as someone in fully blacked out armor jumped from above, landing behind her.
"So how do you want this to go?" The hot headed mage played with fire in one hand, and held her sash in the other.
Yuri, Repede, Raven, and Estelle sat near the front gate of the town hall. They were awaiting the return of the others, the ones attending the meeting.
Estelle tapped her foot nervously, humming a repetitive and annoying tune.
Yuri sighed, "You know, you are a princess," Estelle shushed, "I'm sure they would let you right in."
"No they wouldn't," Estelle told them, "I'm just an ordinary citizen now, and the seats for spectators are full," she resumed her humming.
Yuri interrupted again, "What I mean is, I'm sure they'd recognize you and let you in, or Rita could get you in since she's on the council." Yuri went with the Rita approach, knowing full well that Estelle was the most beloved person in the world, and she could get anything she wanted.
"Oh..." Estelle said, looking to the gates of the town hall, where the meeting was being held.
"I don't want Rita to feel like I'm smothering her or worried about her..." Estelle told them.
"Why would she think that?" Yuri asked.
"Because I am worried about her..." She admitted, "She's a talented and capable person, but she's entirely new to politics and she has no idea how they work."
"Then go inside and see her," Raven intruded.
Estelle sighed and walked to the gates, motioning for the guard to come over.
Estelle was hoping she wouldn't be recognized, so that she could be treated as any other citizen. This may come to pass, since her clothing was much less unique, plucked from a thrift store in the middle quarter.
"I'm sorry ma'am," the knight said, "But this area is off limits to members of the council and authorized citizens."
The Knight began to walk away, but instead got closer to the gate and lifted his helmet off.
"Princess?" He asked, "Is that you?"
Estelle looked down in defeat, "Well actually I'm just a citizen now..." she told the knight. Apparently, her outfit wasn't as effective as she had hoped it would be.
"Oh, princess, of course you're allowed in!" The knight ignored her comment about being a citizen, and quickly opened the gate.
Estelle bowed her head, bashfully. Yuri, Repede, and Estelle made their way in, with Raven left behind in Dahngrest attending to his duties.
They entered the hall to find that while most of the spectators remained, a few members were missing from the council.
Flynn, Judith, Karol, and Hanks we're all that remained. Which meant that Rita, Patty, and the Mayor of Halure were gone.
Hanks was being difficult and chewing Flynn out about something, which came as no surprise to Yuri or Repede, who had watched him complain about anything and everything. His stubbornness made his position as mayor of the lower quarter very black and white.
"-I raised an entire town on nothing but pennies, I'm not about to have it once again screwed over by politics! Not on my watch! No sir!" Hanks talked over Flynn at every opportunity, shaking his bony old finger very sternly at him.
"Hanks, just listen to me for a moment-" Flynn tried to get a word in edgewise.
Hanks shouted over him once again, "I thought things would be different under you, but you're no different than the rest of them, you said nothing to stop it."
Flynn took his gloved hand and gently placed it over Hanks' mouth, shushing him in the process.
"The lower quarter will get fair treatment," Flynn told him, obviously out of patience, "I'll make sure everything works out."
"Geez, if anyone was gunna make Flynn lose his patience, of course it was gunna be Hanks," Yuri whispered to Repede, who nodded in approval.
"The only thing bickering at me is going to change is the way you leave this building," Flynn told him, in a quiet, yet stern, voice.
"You can either quietly leave here and assume your position in the lower quarter, trusting me to work things out," Flynn paused for dramatic effect, "Or, you can continue to bicker and be tossed out by my knights."
"Woah," Yuri expressed pride in Flynn's new strict attitude. It was about time that he took a firmer hand in things.
"I'm going to uncover your mouth now," Flynn told him, "Choose your next actions wisely."
Flynn removed his hand, Hanks was visibly furious.
"I-" he started, to which two knights responded by walking towards him.
Flynn held his hand up, motioning for the knights to wait.
Hanks simply stormed out of the building, muttering to himself.
Yuri clapped slowly, "Well done," he chuckled, "Well done."
"Don't you think that was a bit much?" Estelle asked him.
Flynn sighed.
"I thought it was powerful," Judith placed her arms behind her back, assuming her seductive stance which, even in her formal attire, was still mesmerizing, "I sooo love power in a man, a man who shows restraint but always knows when to use pressure to squeeze people.
Yuri rolled his eyes and looked away, briefly blushing, and Flynn tried to ignore Judith entirely.
"He had it coming," Karol told him, "In a position of power you have to have a firm hand."
Flynn shook his head, "I lost control, whether or not it was justified is irrelevant, I need to keep a level head in this."
"Hi everyone!" Patty showed up, "Sorry I'm late!"
"Patty, where is Rita?" Estelle began to worry for her newly made spouse, although she was probably just overthinking.
"I'm not sure..." Patty told the group, "I took off to check on some business, I left her here..."
"She probably went back to my place," Yuri assured his friend, "We'll head there now."
The party departed for Yuri's place, a solid distance away from the alley in which Rita would be in trouble.
