"You really needed to drag us all out here at midnight just for this meeting? You know that the slip of paper you left behind just said that we'd meet on this day, it didn't even say when. If you hadn't sent us another message you would just be waiting here in this disgusting sewer intersection."

"I had to do it this way. We couldn't risk anyone coming here before us and trying to interrupt this meeting. Those kids were curious enough to go roaming around the city at that time, who's to say they wouldn't come here as well? I dug out a whole little safe area for us in case anybody comes by as well. Do you want to lie down on the executioner's block?"

"How did you get the guards out of here anyway? I heard that some kid who had one too many beers was roaming around near the Ladle boasting about how cool he was, and then got taken in for questioning. I came around another day and saw the city guards swarming the place, so that meant they must've gotten into the sewers too. Not even Bagadoth's Gate would stop the whole lot of them."

"Kronifel had some spare lab rats for me to use. They looked like they would rather be put out of their misery than live another second, so I released them into the sewers. Whatever collection of diseases they had is now in every single guard that searched this place."

"I don't think some random soldier who's just doing his job deserves to be inflicted with the modern-day equivalent to the White Death. It's not like they support the royal family, they just need food for themselves and their families."

"How kind of you. I'm sure they'll remember you as a good samaritan while they watch your head get cut off for treason."

"If you two argue about the right way to get to the point we're at now we'll get knocks on our doors from the guards before we even get the chance to arm our weapon."

There were three voices, all with the same high-pitched male tone. There was some kind of magic at work here. Well, I couldn't dismiss the possibility that they were triplets. What if they were inspired by the Ernstoff Twins because of their similar birth scenario? But what would their name be? "The Kingfall Triplets"? No, that doesn't sound good. The word "triplets" just doesn't have the same effect as "twins," one makes you think "deadly duo" and the other just makes you think "posse." For the sake of my greatest solve yet not being dedicated to idiots who don't know how to think of a good naming scheme I'm gonna believe that there's some spell masking whatever their true voices are.

"I have the weapon with me right now, I couldn't leave it back at the house unattended to."

"What? Why would you bring it with you? What if you trip and fall? Does the risk of it getting stolen mean more than the risk of us getting blown to high hell?"

"Mordr! What did I just say?"

"I don't care about your little pacifist shtick, I'd rather not be working with someone who makes stupid decisions like these."

"You're right, I did choose the risk of dying over the risk of our entire plan failing. If we die here at least we won't have to beg for scraps after spending everything on a plan that went to shit because I decided to leave the crux of it someplace where I'm not."

"Speak for yourself, if this falls through I'll just go back to Verile and stay with my family for a while."

"Mordr I'm going to kill you before the bomb has a chance to go off if you say another word."

So it was a bomb. I heard mumbles that sounded like begrudging acknowledgment.

"This sewer system leads us right under the royal palace. The only catch is that to get the bomb there we have to carefully arm and through it down a pipe that'll eventually reach directly under the main ballroom. Draeca, I think you can shoot it with the right amount of force to get it right where we want it, but if you use too much it'll either go too far or blow up right on the spot."

"When are we going to detonate it?"

"My plan right now is about a month from today. I'll find some substitute for the weapon that I can give you to practice. I got an old schematic of the Prymdor Sewer System from a couple centuries back when it was being made, so as long as it hasn't changed from then I'll be able to tell you how far you need to get it."

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"Who's to say they haven't changed it in a whole two hundred years?"

"I'm gonna go with the three holy wars, two assassinations, and six calamities."

"They could care a lot about sewage."

"Sure. Anyway, do you think you'll be able to use your affinity that precisely?"

"Probably."

"As for you, Mordr, well I don't really have much of a plan for you. Up until our last meeting, we'll still need you around, but unless you have a role you want to play for the execution I'd suggest you go back to that family of yours."

"Of course, you'd suggest that now."

"All I'm saying is that I don't think you'd want to just sit by the gates anxiously waiting for us to succeed. Do you have an idea of what you would day if you stuck around?"

"I'm guessing you'll hold the bomb in place while Draeca prepares to shoot it down the pipeline?"

"Yeah."

"I'll tag along in case anything new develops. The guards could get cured by a miracle, they would not wait to continue searching the sewers if that happens."

"Alright."

"What's the plan for getting the king? If even a single story about him is true, all this will do is blow up the palace. He'll be unscathed."

"I haven't found an answer for that yet. If we can actually kill the king that would be a miracle itself, but blowing up the royal palace and surrounding area would be chaotic enough to send the capital into ruin for a week at least. Even he wouldn't be able to run the country with a good third of the city reduced to rubble."

"Do they even use half of the space that they took for that place?"

"You're preaching to the choir here. I don't think any of us need to be convinced that this is the right course of action."

"Well, I can still despise them with people around me who agree. Makes for better company than any adventurer's guild."

"If this succeeds, Kingfall will amass large amounts of new followers. What will we do with our infamy?"

"We'll need to hide away for the first two months after. Do you think we could flee to Elknid?"

"Elknid is supposed to be our next target. I told you about the Night of Unmet Prayers didn't I?"

"And we can deal with the ongoing power crisis after our faces aren't plastered over every wall throughout the continent. Blowing up a third of the royal capital isn't something that other nations will just bat an eye to."

"Where would we even stay in Elknid then? I assume you thought of the fact that a good part of the country is basically undiscovered."

"How hard could it be to set up a little cabin with my affinity? None of the forests there compare to the one everyone knows here, we would just have a slow life of hunting and farming."

"That would work for Jade, but you and I both have family. After the first week of searching for us, they'll go after them and get whatever information they can beat out of your relatives."

"I'll call it retribution for kicking me out of the house at sixteen. Plus, they don't know anything about me anyway. Eventually, they'll bring a mage in who can tell the Vastros that nobody is lying to them. You never tell us anything about your family, so I can't help you with that part."

"I was more worried about you, my family is probably a month away from the grave right now, so they'll either be dead when the Vastros get to them or be killed during interrogation."

"You brought up a good point, what will we do with our new followers? It will have been a while since the Resetter movement had people openly supporting them."

"I wouldn't go that far. Maybe behind closed doors, they'll talk about us, but whoever takes the reigns of Melantia will start by making us a crime to even speak about."

"Well we're talking about the distant future here, they can't restrict the entire country like that forever, they probably wouldn't be able to reliably enforce that for a whole month."

I had slowly inched myself through the opening in the corner to get back into that room, but I was struggling to stay silent. Every single word that came out of their mouths fed my rage. How could these people just stand there and talk casually about ruining the lives of thousands? They had the nerve to plan for the future, to talk about where they'd go to destroy everything next. What could have possibly happened in these people's lives to make them this insane? What, your parents kick you out for being a deadbeat so you turn to reducing everything around you to rubble? You grow up without parents so you try to inflict whatever pain you experienced on everyone else? What was the matter with the third one? He just disregarded his entire family because they were old.

This trio was no longer a mystery to me, they weren't some solve that I'd take pride in. I couldn't care less about the credit at this point if I'd tried my hardest. Every bone in my body screamed for justice, every single instinct was pointing towards the sheer madness of the people who sounded like they were having a casual discussion of blowing up an entire third of the city over tea. No, that didn't sound like what they were doing, that was what they were doing. Some sort of immense apathy allowed them to think like this, some inspired utter lack of care for all life broke the constraints of common sense within them. This wasn't some sob story about poor children who were never cared for, these were people who deserved to starve in a jail cell never getting to see the light of day for as long as they could hold out.

I removed myself from the opening as quietly as I could, and just as they held the lamp they had brought with them in my direction I leapt at the cloak with that same purple and green glow that the Laudle brothers had described to me.