The Zailiens landed in the forest outside of Versal, the common area outside of the restaurant proving far too crowded to touch down there. It took a long while but the people of Ad Limosa were safely offloaded into the heart of Versal. From there, it was up to them. Of the nearly hundreds on board, two refused to leave, choosing instead to remain with the crew that had saved their life: the Yeumux guard captain of Ad Limosa, whose name was Chix, and the elven jeweler that Lawrence had parlayed with, whose name was Alphonse. The two of them, having nowhere left to go and a rapport with the four that had saved them, decided that their odds were better with these four than attempting to make it on their own. Chix pledged himself as a sword if the four of them ever needed another set of hands, and Alphonse offered his services as a merchant to barter with the numerous cities they would no doubt travel between, seeing it as a fruitful business opportunity and promising the four a cut of the money.

The six members of the crew of the Zailiens finished cleaning up all the loose belongings and tidying up from playing host to more than two hundred souls. Once all was said and done, they convened at the helm for a meeting.

"So..." Lawrence began. "Now what?"

"That is the question..." Simon mused. "We can fly anywhere we want- so where first?"

"How about the Church of Deruthmoryx?" Dianna asked eagerly. "I would love to show this-"

"Any other ideas?" Lawrence interrupted.

"W-well, I wouldn't mind visiting the village where I was staying before this..." Mina added sheepishly, "... if we aren't doing Dianna's idea."

"We should do my idea." Dianna said sharply.

"We've been over this Dianna," Lawrence groaned. "They'll just put us all to work or kill us."

"To work for Deruthmoryx is the greatest-"

"Let's go visit Mina's village," Lawrence cut her off again. "How about you, Simon? Chix? Al?"

"Nowhere I'd like to go," Alphonse said. "Ad Limosa was my only home besides the sea."

"I was born in Itherskit," Chix said, "but I got no reason to go back. I'm fine right here."

Intelligence Check: 15

Mina passes.

Itherskit was one of the three major colonies of Kreumux, the Yeumux empire. The Yeumux do not settle in new places and build new cities there, like most species do, but instead continuously expand their existing settlements. The empire of Kreumux is composed only of three large colonies and six small colonies, each created after the great exodus of the Yeumux underground during the War of Extermination nearly eight hundred years ago. Now, the Yeumux are looked upon as any other species, but there was a time when they were abhorred and hunted, which culminated in the War. Despite this shift in others' perception, the Yeumux still generally prefer to remain underground.

"I wouldn't mind visiting my family," Simon said. "It's been a long while, and I would love to show them the Zailiens."

"Alright," Lawrence nodded, "which one is closer?"

"My parents rule over the Rhias Dominion from Rhialin, in southeast Eldenvale," Simon answered. "It's pretty much on the clear opposite side of the nation from where we are."

"My village is only some twenty miles southeast of here, by the foothills of the Dreinrichs."

Intelligence Check: 10

Everyone passes.

The "Dreinrichs" is a colloquial name for the Dreinrich Mountains, an impassable wall of steep mountains that separate West Disglair from the rest of Disglair. On the west side of the Dreinrich Mountains lie the machinist nation of Lagos, the desert nation of Auhgrens, and the beatiful forest nation of Eldenvale, where the crew of the Zailiens is now. To the east of the Dreinrich Mountains, there used to be many nations, but following the Great War some sixteen years ago all that lie between the Dreinrich and Felgore Mountains is the great Empire of Velstadt, a militarist and industrialist superpower.

"Then we can head over to Mina's village first," Lawrence nodded. "Any objections, besides Dianna?"

Dianna opened her mouth to say something, then closed it and pouted.

"Actually," Simon perked up, "while we're here, why not pay a visit to our client?"

"Oh yeah," Mina cocked her head. "It's been nearly a week, and I'm sure she'd like to see what we've done!"

"What if she tries to take the Zailiens for herself?" Dianna asked.

"I somehow doubt it, with all the way she was talking," Simon said.

Five of the members of the crew- Simon, Mina, Lawrence and Dianna, as well as Alphonse- stepped up towards the host at Versal on the water. Chix elected to remain in the ship, in case anyone would attempt to hijack it while the others were away.

Stolen novel; please report.

"How's it going?" Simon greeted the host. It was the same host as the one they'd met when they first arrived.

Perception Check: 18

Dianna passes.

Dianna quickly took notice that the woman went on edge as soon as she recognized Simon and the others.

"It's going well," the woman responded to Simon. "Here for another meal?"

"No, actually," Simon shook his head, "we're here because we want to give a status update to our client, the owner."

"That's not necessary," the host insisted.

"No, it's fine," Dianna snapped back defiantly. "We'll go see her."

Dianna pushed past the host and towards the stairs to the second floor. Lawrence and Simon looked at each other and shrugged.

"Guess she's still mad about the church thing," Lawrence shook his head as the four followed her upstairs.

"Is... is the owner out right now?" Dianna asked, confused. She stood in the entryway of the room where the four of them had originally encountered the owner of Versal on the water, now significantly more well-lit than when they were first here. Across from her, sitting at the desk where the masked woman sat, was a man they'd never seen before- a man who was very, very uneasy. He was a dwarven man of humble appearance, whose height barely cleared the desk once he stood up from the chair.

"W-why, yes he is out at the moment," the dwarf stammered out. "Could I, erm, take a message?"

"He?" Dianna cocked her head. She instantly clocked that something was amiss, and stepped forward.

"Hm?" the dwarf cocked his head in return, seemingly unaware of the mistake he'd committed. Dianna stepped forward, and approached the man. She swiftly grabbed him by the collar, and hoisted him up onto the desk, slamming his back down against it.

"When we were here, we met with a woman in a mask. A. Woman. And now you're saying a man? Either you're rather transphobic... or something here is deeply wrong." Dianna shoved the man against the desk, harder. "Explain yourself."

"I don't know anything!" the dwarf shouted.

Dianna conjured a psychic knife, and slowly brought the tip of the blade towards the man's temple. "If this pierces you... well, I doubt you have the Vitality to survive. And the blade will leave no marks, no wounds, no traces of my presence. To onlookers, it will appear as though you simply... died of natural causes, in your chair. We wouldn't want that, would we?"

Charisma Check: 10

Dianna passes.

"Alright, calm down, let's talk this out!" the man exclaimed worriedly. "I don't know anything about the man- woman- whoever, all I know is that he approached me, offered me a ridiculous amount of money to use this place as a venue to meet with some clients, and paid me extra to get to say he owned the place."

Dianna slapped him. "Enough with this 'he' business! I'm certain the person we met with was a woman. Are you saying that there was someone else, a man pulling the strings?"

"I don't know! Once the money changed hands, I left to go spend everything he gave me! I wasn't here for a whole goddamn week!"

Dianna stood up. "...Useless." She turned, and hastily left the room.

"What the-" Lawrence said, taken aback as he entered into the room as Dianna was leaving. "Were you getting freaky with the lady? Wait a sec, who the hell is this?"

"I'll explain on the ship," Dianna scoffed.

Dianna gained 2 Experience.

"A different man?" Mina asked worriedly. "You're saying the woman we met with does not actually own Versal, and was simply using it as an interim?"

"That's right," Dianna nodded. "I had some suspicions about her when she wouldn't remove her mask, but now I'm certain. That woman was scheming something."

"Any ideas what?" Simon asked.

"No clue," Dianna responded. "But I think we'd better keep our guard up against her in the future. Take a look... at this," she hesitantly withdrew her original invitation from when she and the others first met the mysterious woman. "This invitation was addressed to me, obviously. But what worries me is that, well, the invitation was not originally addressed to me. I don't have it, but the original envelope this invite came in was addressed to a different woman. A woman I... killed. But more importantly, either our mystery woman knew I would be targeting this woman, which I doubt, or she was able to change the contents of the letter to myself posthumously."

"I... would doubt the second one," Lawrence replied, "a boy stole my letter, but it didn't change to match his name. So either it's magic that only works on death, or it's the first thing you said."

"Why did you kill her?" Mina asked sheepishly. "Was it self defense?"

"In a way," Dianna said while looking down at her feet. "I was defending the Church's secrets from falling into the wrong hands."

"So an assignation." Simon said bluntly. "Well, I can't say I'm surprised, honestly."

"Water under the bridge, frankly," Lawrence nodded, "I've killed more people for less."

"I hate to admit it," Simon added, "but me too."

"Y'all are freaks," Chix said.

"Agreed," Mina nodded. "I've never killed a person in my life."

"Whoa now, I didn't say none of that," Chix took a step back. "I was a god damn guard captain. And before that I was a gladiator. I just think it's wild that y'all be killing for no reason."

"It wasn't for no reason!" Simon shouted. "It was... well, it's a long story."

"Want ta hear about all the lads I've killed?" Alphonse asked.

"Back on topic," Dianna rubbed her temples, "I'm worried about what this revelation might have in store for us. Based on what she said back when she first told us to find this ship, and what Dagon said... I think that owning the Zailiens has put a target on our back. And a rather large one, too."

"Speaking of that..." a somber look crossed Simon's face. "Do you think we did the right thing?"

"Flying a bunch of people to safety?" Lawrence asked. "Of course that was the right thing. Are you stupid?"

"No, I mean- do you think that all that devastation could have been avoided if we handed Dagon the Zailiens?"

"Like, instead of saving everyone?" Dianna asked. She furrowed her brow and thought to herself a moment.

"It would make sense," Mina said quietly. "And we haven't had it for very long... so it wouldn't have hurt to give it up to him."

"Yeah..." Simon shook his head. "And what I'm most ashamed of... is that I didn't even think of that as an option. I was so blinded by power... and it's not the first time."

"Don't worry about it," Lawrence put his hand on Simon's shoulder. "I didn't either. I think none of us did. Our first and only thought was to save everyone, and we did it the way we thought was best. That's what matters."

"But..." Simon continued to remain downtrodden, "would the people of Ad Limosa forgive us, if they knew we had another choice? A choice that wouldn't have cost all of them their homes and livelihoods?"

"I do," Alphonse patted Simon on the back. "So don't worry about it to much, mate."

"Yeah, what he said," Chix said halfheartedly, hiding his surprise about this other option and blatant disapproval of the cost of all of Ad Limosa. "And there's no changing the past or whatever."

"Thanks," Simon smiled faintly.