With Fran Chapter 3
Hours later, as Fran cooled down her bike in the early morning sun, Jeris contacted Cid to report what they'd found so far. "So, what have you learned?" "We found the source of the surge... with some help from a very talkative royal... It was a device that harnesses immense amounts of Myst and radiates it throughout Rabanastre, beginning with the palace." "I'll ignore that bit about a royal for my own conscience... Now we need to figure out what to do about this device and where to find it." "No need. I stole it." Jeris stated proudly with a mischevious smirk. "You what? If the Prince finds out you know I'll have no choice but to arre-" "No worries... no worries. I stole him too." The screen on Cid's end of the orb shifted to include the Prince bound and gagged in the hover-bike's side car. Cid's mouth opened and closed several times before he simply let out a long sigh. "I warned her already but she'd not hear me." Fran's voice said through his sphere. "I propose we question him then use a small hit of Amnesia before returning him post haste." "He was quite helpful already, until he realized who I was of course." A dual glare from both ends of the transmission hit Jeris hard enough that she flinched from the viera and Judgemaster.
"So... those stuck up nobles convinced you to drive out the viera?!" "As acting Prince while Her Majesty Ashelia is away on a political matter it is my duty to protect my people, MY people, not some invading leporine women. I-" "But now you've driven out everyone including said nobles and turned the city into an uninhabitable battleground! Brilliant!" Jeris stopped, her eyes suddenly glued to the device sitting in the dirt before her. It was clear to all near enough to see her face what was rapidly growing in her mind. "Jeris..." Fran started warningly. Doned wrung his hands is unease as Jeris clenched and unclenched her own in anticipation. "If... if you smash it, it won't stop the signal. You may even lock in the pulse." "What?!" The Prince shrunk under her glare. "I, well, my engineers, used a shard from this region's crystal to power it. It's become part of the area now, the device is just the on/off switch." Jeris grit her teeth, her mind racing for another solution. Erté sauntered off to wait somewhere where he wouldn't be choked by the shared frustration in the air. "If we are done with him I've readied the Amnesia." Fran said disdainfully. "I'll still know you! I'll know that face, that color will send up a red flag in my mind!" "Yes, but you won't know why." Jeris replied, a dark look in her eye. "Hit him. I'm done here." Then, with a flash of a proverbial light bulb, she stopped, eyes twinkling and barely audible, "What we need here is another outsider... One with experience destroying crystals."