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Starlight Bandits     The ceremony begins at sunset.

    The citizens of Chapter are gathered around the vast pit that descends into the Opera Bibliotheca. Above it, scaffolding has been constructed to create a gallows. The trap doors hang directly over the hole, and the nooses are long. No doubt, anyone put through it would experience a long, terrifying plummet before a sudden, sharp stop takes their life.

    Perplex himself strides across the gallows, looking at everyone who stands with a noose around their neck. There is the old king, and members of his court who were apprehended during the initial revolution. But there is also Forrester Houl and his band of self-interested turncoats, who were eager to utilize the new government to advance their own interests over the people. Forreseter himself has been gagged, and his face is beet red. No doubt he shouted himself hoarse on the way here.

    "People of Chapter!" the passionate new leader begins to speak. "It is with a heavy heart that I must show you more deaths on this eve. But I do so in the hopes that they will be the last for my entire reign." He walks to the king and his council and shouts, "For the crimes of forcing his fellow man to toil and die beneath the earth for mere books, how do the people find you?!" A cry of 'GUILTY!' rises up from the masses as the king sheds a single tear. Perplex next walks over to Houl and his traitors. "For conspiring against the new government to benefit your own greed and arrogance, how do the people find you?!" Another cry of 'GUILTY!' as Houl tries to scream around his gag.

    "Before I condemn these souls however, there is thanks to be given out. Firstly, to the Concord. For rooting out this corruption and helping Chapter reach a new dawn, we cannot thank you enough. As promised, for your efforts, we award you the Opera Bibliotheca. You may do with it as you see fit." The young man produces a roll of parchment-an official deed promising the underground library to the Concord. It is presented to whomever cares to come up to the platform to accept it.

    "And next, to the Watch," Perplex says, drawing some murmuring from the crowd. His outburst at the Bandits' auction was well-known at this point. "Even when I turned my back on you, you never turned your back on Chapter. You rushed to help cleanse our government even when I rejected any more help from you. I have nothing to give, but my bottomless gratitude and sincerest apology." He bows to each corner of the crowd, knowing that they're probably here somewhere.
August Kohler August stands in the back left corner of the crowd, dressed in a hood with his mirrored bracelet at his side. He stands, watching the execution dispassionately, chewing on his nail as he listens to Perplex speak. He's just here to watch and make sure everything goes smoothly, not doing anything to make himself more visible when Perplex thanks and apologizes the Watch, though the redhead does accept it.

Instead, August is glancing at the king. The man seemed sympathetic, in a way. He was willing to give in when he saw how far it went, and even here, all he does is shed a tear. It's not that August is against the man's fate, more that it changes how he views things. Even the sympathetic must die for the good of the people.
Sanary Rondel Sanary's loitering amongst the crowd listening to Perplex, showing up largely to just see what's goingon now that the largest issues in Chapter seem to have been resolved. Sure, there's probably some loose ends around that she hasn't quite picked up on yet, but at this point?

    Surely something would have happened by now if it was important at all. No, the healer's expecting this all to go swimmingly so she can enjoy the fruits of her labor and get a much needed meal. Watching an execution probably isn't quite so good for building up an appetite, though, but...

     Well, she's already here. Might as well see what's what. She's still wearing her usual too-long white coat with her too-shoddy tunic and sweatpants, though, to try and blend in a little bit more with the crowd.
Count Kord     Kord is there. He stands with a notable distance made between himself and the rest of the crowd, making him very easy to spot among the others. He stands completely still, his head fixated to stare at one point: The gallows. He doesn't raise his hands to clap, he doesn't fidget as if anxious, he just silently watches. This is because Kord hates public executions. Everything about his posture and silence speaks more to how he feels than any input he could possibly have here. He is simply a tall, powerful figure, watching this turning point for the sake of posterity.

    His first movement since stopping to watch is to advance and retrieve the parchment indicating possession of the Opera Bibliotheca, carefully lifting his hand to bodily move people aside with his inhuman strength on his way, mindful not to bowl anyone over or cause a ruckus. He makes sure to carefully stow the parchment under his chestplate so that it cannot easily be taken from him.

    "Thank you," he says, his voice neutral. He glances aside at the King from this closer vantage, lingering for a few seconds...
Flamel Parsons     Flamel Parsons is here. He has, of course, refused to be up on the scaffolding. He is a man in black! An agent of a vague yet menacing government agency! His place is slightly interposing himself into dramatically blurry shots of major political events like this. As such, he's been hard at work making sure that he spends as much time being ominously present just to one side of basically every possible record here. A vague yet menacing government agency furthering secretive agendas has an utmost duty to mark its presence very slightly with symbolic presence that could be interpreted as simple coincidence and chaos, only by the /sheeple/.

    Of course, he will be up there on the stage ominously just to one side of view when someone takes the deed. Hopefully Priscilla or Kord, as his own words on this exchange may be /politically inappropriate/. Most of the time, though, aside from that situation, he sticks to those aforementioned locations of maximum mystery, as befits his status. It's not like he's specifically /trying/ to do that, but the protocols of being both vague and also possibly menacing in government work tend to produce it purely as an incidental side-effect. He's probably just doing some kind of espionage-oriented security sweep and defense protocol.
Lyria Mason Things have been one hell of a mess in Chapter, really people getting screwed over, and those wanting to burn things down regardless of the price they might pay. They had however been able to out a rat and it was time to hopefully deal with things one way or another. Hopefully things would end well and it seems to be that the guilty parties are going to meet justice will be served shortly. She listens as they are thanked and she just watches the king there's a sad look on her face at this poin. There's nothing to be done about it in the end though.

She wonders if another fate might be better for the king but the anger of the people is mighty, not only justified as well.

Still she might speak if a chance is there.

She does not seem bothered about the books being sold to the Concord they would see use, and it might make work for the locals n some area even if it's just selling services to Concord workers. It has not ended in a massive blood bath and the books surviving is a bonus. She gives the concord a look for a moment.
William Pauwel Will is...

...Being utterly inconspicuous. He's hidden amidst the crowd, glaring up at the gallows from under the brim of his hat. Not at the people there-- but at the gallows themselves.

Is this the right thing to do?

That king, in his own way, he only wanted what was best for his people, didn't he? Was the pursuit of the underground library entirely self-motivated?

Nevermind that. Public executions are just... Distasteful.

Will's only here for one reason and one reason alone: the Bandits haven't shown their hand yet. Whatever they have planned, and he's sure they have SOMETHING planned-- he feels it in his bones-- it's going to be... A thing.

A thing is definitely what it will be.

Now he just has to wait and see just what that -thing- is. As long as that painful throbbing in his chest doesn't bid him to action first.
Priscilla     Priscilla is there also. She has absolutely no hope of blending into any crowd on the face of the Multiverse without turning invisible, and thankfully, it's not her job to do that anymore. It is, in fact, quite the opposite. Rather, she takes a place far outside of it, close to the gallows while refusing to actually set foot on them, neither watching the execution as a spectator, as it had been the Concord's doing as much as anyone else, nor participating, as it was Perplex's choice to make.

    Up close, it gives her a good look down at the size of the pit the king had dug, and a good look at him, his staff, and the traitors. She is all too accepting of Houl being put to death, both as a show of the Concord not tolerating double crossing, and on a personal level, wherein it has always only made sense that oath breakers of such magnitude are killed. The King had been deposed before her notice, and his crimes were previous to her attention, but she can't help but be mildly intrigued that the tyrant, rather than the rebel, is so able to accept his death with dignity. It makes her wonder what kind of man he actually was.

    Personally though, she views hanging as pretty barbaric; a human custom from far away that she's seen gone wrong enough times to disfavour it. Getting Kord to accept the deed is a bit of a relief from having to get anywhere near the ropes, though she waves him over right away so she can check on the deed's authenticity. "Indeed. There shalt be no more need for those of this city to worry themselves with the grand library any longer. Consider the matter closed."
Starlight Bandits     Flamel, Sanary, and the Watch may notice that they're not the only vague entities hanging out in the crowd right now. A few hooded figures are lurking about in the crowd. Some of them have bulges in their cloaks that may indicate weapons.

    Perplex is not intimidated by Kord in the slightest. He bows his head to the shadowy man as he hands over the deed. "Now, we begin. As your leader, I must carry this nation on my back. I'll not bloody the hands of someone else when I am perfectly capable of doing it." He walks over to the lever to the gallows, and clutches. "May you find absolution in the next life," he intones. Houl and his merry band are still screaming, and some of the King's advisors are starting to sob. But the king stands tall and just nods, as if to say 'get on with it.'

    The lever is pulled, and the trapdoors fall open. They all plummet, the ropes chasing them to a fatal end.

    And then, an explosion of movement from the crowd.

    Two figures in hoods rush through and leap over the edge of the pit. Ropes are secured around their waists, allowing them to abseil down the sides. Gunfire rings out, severing each rope before they tighten. Even so, it's a long way down... but the whinnying of horses echoes from far below. An escape plan?!

    "Guards, after them!" Perplex shouts. The armed soldiers begin to mobilize, heading down into the pit, but the hooded figures in the crowd suddenly jump them! Perplex looks furious, looking about for the Concord, as well as the Watch. "This may be Houl's doing! Please, stop him!
William Pauwel That's...!

"Ahahaha--" Will's eyes blaze with light. That's them! That's what he was waiting for! "I knew it-- I knew you guys would come through in the end!" He wastes no time. Will breaks into a sudden sprint, knocking aside anyone between him and the pit. His face is aglow with a tremendous, triumphant grin as he...

Leaps, boldly, from the precipice.

This is no suicide attempt, though. Will knows exactly what he's doing. His grapnel launches from its anchor on his arm and smashes, anchoring into the bottom of the platform. "YEEEEEEEE--" Will screams as he swings down, "--HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!!!" The Solano's barrel surges with light as he unleashes a hail of blaster-fire...

Into the path of whatever guards might be incoming.

As he goes swinging down into the pit.

"Molly, Irvine!" Will yells after the two people he's sure-- ABSOLUTELY SURE-- are here somewhere listening. "I'm coming to help! Let's get these folks gone!"
Priscilla     Of course. Of course it couldn't be that easy.

    "Kord. Parsons. Pursue." Priscilla says, dropping the usual titles for the sake of expedience. She doesn't see the guards being effectual at this point, even if they're freed from the flash mob suddenly slowing them down.

    She takes a deep inhalation, walks to the edge of the pit, and then expels it as her breath weapon, slashing a scintillating lasers of blue-white soulfire across the ropes used by the two robed figures. From there, she takes two steps lightly to the precipice, and as Will reaches the full extent of his pendulum motion, she lunges from the edge and tackles him out of the air.

    Down we all go.
William Pauwel Will is tackled out of the air by some kind of... Some kind of--

"W-wow, miss," Will says even as he's bodyslammed in mid-air. "Y'all... Y'all are really soft...!" He seems to be blushing. Even as he's dropping like a rock.

Well, almost.

"This is pretty dangerous, though," he says into Priscilla's soft, fluffy everything. "Don't worry! I've got a PLAN!" Will's grapnel might come away from the platform, but he still has his gun. The Solano's barrel blazes pure white as he lines up a shot into the murky dark. Its barrel distends and reshapes, transforming into some kind of snub-nosed, shotgun-like arrangement.

And then Will fires.

Over and over, short-ranged bursts of pure kinetic force erupt from his handcannon-turned-shotgun and somehow seem to arrest his fall, if even by just a little.
August Kohler August's first instinct is to help Perplex. Houl fucked up, and he wants him dead. But then Will gets involved and goes assisting the escape...and it might be the Bandits doing it? August noticeably frowns, and then begins moving through the crowd as Will launches himself at the pit. August looks pretty upset, but he knows exactly who he's going to side with, even if he still wants Houl dead when all of this ends.

As Priscilla bodyslams Will down the pit, August makes a running leap and jumps, moving to grapple onto her back. He'll try and grab her tail for support gritting his teeth as they fall. "Will, you're a DUMBASS! But sorry, First, I can't let this dumbass die."
Flamel Parsons     Parsons seems quite intent on heading for those hooded figures with the possible weapons, before they suddenly make their move the moment he has any kind of chance to jump on them! As he follows, word comes from Priscilla: Kill the traitors. Kill Houl. You know what? Flamel Parsons can work with that. Kill a man who wanted to hold a library hostage, to receive the library. It fits perfectly into his priorities. He leaps, descending into the pit with all speed that gravity can grant him, and then some!

    How he intends to make it to the bottom without a rope or something to break his fall becomes apparent when his levitation kicks in, giving him a dramatic, whooshing glide, the moment he sees the ground threaten him. He never lands, but finds psychic purchase just above the ground; his levitation's activation means he's well equipped to take off straight for wherever the group might be escaping to! He's ready to fire off his psionic blasts and take them out, though hopefully they won't find themselves in any delicate parts of the library...
Sanary Rondel Sanary letting out something barely resembling a whistle as things start to go down rather quickly, the excitement of the whole situation putting an amused grin on the healer's face. Although a more primal part of mind is still disappointed at the lack of COMEUPPANCE, she's not about to miss... Whatever the hell this all is!

     Although there is the issue of the pit and everyone just jumping right into the damn thing. It's quite a long way down, and Sanary's not quite sure how deep it even is. Still, with everyone else diving into the hole to continue the pursuit...

     Why not? She puts some energy into her anklets, mutters a quiet motivational psyche up to herself, then dives on in after everyone else! She's not actually attacking anyone just yet, though, seeming intent to just see where all of this is going to go. The mid-air collision between William, Priscilla, and August has her watching them closely in particular, although she's still clutching her side as if holding onto something delicate inside her coat.
William Pauwel "Dangit, August!" Will yells as his BEST BUDDY FOREVER jumps on Priscilla's back-end. "You're too heavy! ALSO GIT YER OWN FUZZY FLUFFY CUDDLY SKY LADY."
Count Kord     Kord had redirected to show Priscilla the deed when things got very out of hand, very quickly. The gallows had been opened to let the to-be-executed plummet, and inevitably a group interferes in this. Kord makes absolutely sure the deed is intact and then he advances on the pit, but he doesn't leap in. Instead, he does something extremely rude, because he knows what his priorities are and those priorities are to make sure his boss doesn't hate him forever for neglecting his duties.

    He leaps down. His wings spread. And he flaps several times to build speed until he's going much faster than anyone absolutely should. And he aims directly for one of the figures abseiling down, to grab for THEIR rope with his vice-like grasp. Once he's done that, he pivots in the air, and tries to use a combination of his mastery of flight and his incredible strength to whip them up, over his head, and into the side of the pit as hard as he can. Because he is very not tolerating these people.

    He makes a loud, monstrous 'RRRRRAAAAAARGH!!!' noise of fury as he does this. There's a lot of reverb in this pit!
Lyria Mason Lyria Mason shows the respect ot watch the end of those who had caused the trouble here. She watches and still cna't helop but cringe it's not a godo way to go but that is in the end that. She was not expecting much more but it seems someone else has other ides. Two figurs appear and the guard are sent after them. Then things pick up a bit more and she moves to see Priscilla tackle will and she sighs. She needs go go after Will at this point.

"Damn it Will!"

She's now going to try to get down there and she too pulls a grapple like degice out and is following August's lead.

"Right with you Capt."
Starlight Bandits     The pit was only dimly lit, but Priscilla's mouth laser lights it up! At the bottom are several figures, and a bunch of horses, upon which those who were just rescued are being loaded onto. Tarps lay on the ground, likely used to catch them as they fall. They all mount up and begin to flee into the library, leaving two horses behind.

    The abseiling figures run along the wall to avoid Priscilla's mouth laser, and respond to Will's hails! "Ah, young Will! Welcome to our little rodeo, glad to have you al-WHOA!" He is suddenly assailed by Kord, who grabs his rope and begins to whip him around! "Molly!" he calls to the other figure, who reloads and fires a single shot! It hits... not Kord, but the rope he's holding, sending Irvine flying hard into the wall! But he lands feet-first, allowing him to fold like a spring before launching off the wall to slash at the Count with his gunblade!

    Regardless if he succeeds or not, he tumbles as he lands, and takes a second to get to his feet. That impact against the wall must have sprained an ankle or something. Molly also reaches the bottom, just as Flamel whizzes past in pursuit of the fleeing convicts! "If you're with us, catch up!" Molly calls out before she and Irvine mount one of the remaining horses and take off into the tunnels!

    As Flamel pursues, he sees the crowd of people on horseback navigating the wider tunnels carefully. The beasts can only manage a canter on the uneven ground, but it's faster than the running speed of most men. The figure pulling up the rear removes his hood and turns to regard the psychic. It's Dion, the scarred leader of the loyalists! And he has a rifle, which he trains on the psychic. "Let us be, Parsons. I know you don't want this place to come to harm. We have no intent on continuing our operations, we just want to take the king elsewhere."
Flamel Parsons     Oh shit, yes yes yes. Moments of intense dramatic tension as his quadruple agent work comes to pure and absolute fruition. Parsons' fingers are pressed hard against his temple as he matches Dion's rifle with his own dramatically "loaded" hand-gun, which is to say, pointing his fingers at Dion. "Oh, definitely! What I want is the library, but safety's just one part of it! You know I need access too. The only way I can get that is fulfilling my end of the deal. But Houl and his people, they were rebels too, weren't they?"

    "They tried to put the library at risk. Why are you rescuing them?" His voice shifts from much more positive to holding hints of intense venom. It's clear that this is a critical and key sticking point; if Dion is planning to do anything but turn Houl over to the man -- or shoot him himself -- as he maintains his matching pace and his mexican standoff, there's going to be violence. Priscilla ordered this priority, but Parsons would pursue it quite well on his own.
Priscilla     Priscilla's reaction to discovering the person she had blind tackled is Will, and at discovering what he thinks of her, is not much more than a noise of confusion and mild discomfort, which quickly bridges into actual disgust when August leaps on her back and Will starts /fighting/ over it. "Thou art both-" she stops for one of those jolting shotgun kicks. "-a thousand years too young to speaketh to mineself in such a way."

    During the next one, when the ridiculous arrangement is most destabilized, her tail recoils at August's grubby fingers, and instead wraps around his arm, going up his shoulder to curl around his neck with the kind of flexible strength of a python. Fluffy it may be, but it'll be less comfortable when it suddenly squeezes hard enough to choke him out and near-break his arm simultaneously, probably leaving nasty bruises on both in the process.

    Will is not spared either. When they approach the ground, Priscilla inelegantly elbows him in the back of the head to screw up his last couple of momentum-arresting shots, draws in a deep breath, and then tanks the remainder of the fall with her boss health bar, letting the momentum unsettle the two all over her, so she can grab hold of the Chaser and over-arm spike him like a football, as a not-so-gentle reminder that she does not, in fact, get any weaker when she ceases to be 20 feet tall.

    She's not actually chasing after the horses just yet. Flamel and Kord have that relatively covered. She wants these Watch kids to regret thinking they could touch her.
Count Kord     "EGKH--!"

    Kord makes a really unflattering noise of startle and pain when Irvine retaliates. This isn't to say he was struck directly, but more that he wasn't expecting the retaliation to happen so swiftly, since few people are agile enough to recover from such a thing. The teamwork is, frankly, exactly what is needed to disorient him. There's a spray of sparks as hands go up to deflect the majority of the slash, and a spatter of his blood from a slash hitting his shoulder on the deflection.

    He does an ungraceful twist and cartwheel through the air thanks to pain stunning him, but he recovers quickly. He does not, however, pursue the Starlight Bandits. He knows one vital thing about them, and that's the fact that they can teleport for a quick escape if absolutely needed. Instead, he turns in the air and moves with alarming speed to catch up with the rescued prisoners, Flamel and Dion...

    He is using darkness to slingshot himself at incredible, bonebreaking speed through tunnels to close the distance. The buffeting of wind follows him as he tries to close the distance and then completely pass them, and halt at a choke point in the tunnels with a beat of his wings that's hard enough to hear up ahead (WHUMPF) and then there's an disquieting hiss and hum of something magic happening ahead.

    Oh. That's a floor to ceiling wall of darkness standing in the way of the horses. Kord is trying to stop the entire charging group with little regard for how much the sudden stop might injure people.

    Whether it holds under the force of all those horses is another matter. He's going to try, though, standing with both hands up against the solidified shadows to brace against it with body and arcane power.

    "This might hurt," he mutters to himself, closing his eyes to brace for the impact of a bunch of horses.
August Kohler Priscilla is far stronger than August is. As her tail wraps around August's arm and neck, he can't stop it, and finds himself unable to breathe as they begin to crash into the ground. In his attempt to resist, August glances at his arm, summoning his Persona and using it to force her tail off of his neck, before the heavy thud into the ground.

August rattles onto the ground, arm and neck pretty fucked up as he gasps for air. He can't do anything but watch as Priscilla tosses Will, the redhead forcing himself and his Ego to their feet as the Persona aims its gun at Priscilla. His every breath is a bit ragged. "Alright...alright. Listen here, First of the Concord. I want Houl dead as much as you do. I don't care one way or another about the king. But I'm going to make sure both my friend here and the bandits survive this. I don't know why they're doing this. I'm a bit ticked off by it. But I have loyalties to maintain." The Persona's gun fires, and a click. An aura of endurance covers both August and Will.

"I doubt you'll accept this, but I'll pitch this to you. If you can forgive what's happened so far, we'll gather Houl for you. Hell, I'm betting the Bandits abducted him to execute him themselves. Let's talk about this like rational people instead of slamming each other down pits."
Lyria Mason Down they go into the pit, there's some light from the mouth laser Priscilla has used do help. Then as she makes her way down she hears the Bandits okay they are here that explains a bit. Even with her grapple line the impact getting down isn't fun she is alive and able to fight still though. Will is caught in harms way from Priscilla and this is just getting messy but in the end? She cares about Will living.

She's also not going to attempt to fight yet she sees August is trying to talk here and she'll move to back him up, she summons her own weapons out though she's not a fool with a pistol and blade in hand she'll form up with August.

She's out of the way of the attack as she's took a bit longer to get down but she's an open target now.

"I'm with August I'd rather we Parley!"

She's clearly ready to fight if it comes to but she's trusting in August's plan here.
William Pauwel "Oh man, Irvine, Molly! I knew it was you two! Ahahahaha! I dunno what you've got planned, but I've got your back!" He winces a bit when Irvine goes smashing into a wall, but he's... Probably fine! He's made of surer stuff than that.

"Hey!" Will protests at Priscilla's complaint, "I am old enough to hold a gun, my liquor, and a conversation. I am old enough to-- oof!"

Elbow right to the noggin. That's gonna sting. Will's last shot goes wide, but thankfully Priscilla is there to absorb much of the impact! Unfortunately, she then decides that Will should suffer grievously for the sin of landing face-first in the fluffy fabric of her tremendously fuzzy dress.

And so she goes to spike his skull right into the pavement.

But... She neglected one thing. Sure, falling from a great height might unsettle an ordinary man, but Will is not an ordinary man! He is ALSO not an ordinary boy! He's kind of in-between those two points of age, but not ordinary regardless of age. Priscilla goes to turn his body into a human volleyball and Will is...

Already pointing his shotgun at her.

He fires right as she winds up her pitch. The kinetic force hits like a thunderclap and sends Will flying right out of Priscilla's grip. He skids across the floor with a grin.

And then August... decides to parley.

Well.

"I'm definitely up fer negotiations, but my friends're in trouble right now. August, I'll go on ahead! Y'all keep on negotiatin'. I've got a couple've bandits t' see!"

And with that... Will straight up takes off down the corridor after Flamel, Kord, Molly, Irvine and the others. His gun shifts as he breaks into a run, and then into a roll, his motorized skates screaming to life as he charges after the others.

Reinforcements are on their way, bandit pals! Flamel might need to watch his back, because Will's already started to drop some suppressive fire his way.
Starlight Bandits     Dion sneers slightly at Flamel, apparently disgusted by the same thing, before replying, "I don't know. That we rescue everyone was the condition of that ridiculous pair. We had to relent, there was no way we could handle it otherwise." However, his group comes to a sudden, abrupt halt as the horse of the loyalist at the front comes to a sudden, whinnying halt. The wall of darkness has them spooked, forcing the escapists to halt.

    Dion snarls, and turns to point the rifle at Flamel. "That's the fellow that butchered my men, isn't it?" That trigger finger is itching, regardless of the finger gun pointed at them. The loyalist at the front also levels a rifle at Kord's construct, unsure of what to do. From behind, the sounds of more galloping... the Bandits are catching up! They look back and see Will pursuing, Molly reaching out to offer him a hand onto their horse. It'll be a tight squeeze. "Thank you, young man! Can't let that fat fellow get away!"

    Back outside, a call for negotiations begins. Perplex and the guards who had managed to get through the loyalists descend the ramps like sensible people. "What is going on?" the leader demands. Not to anyone in particular, just a cry for an explanation. "Where are the prisoners? What tunnel did they escape through?"
William Pauwel Will's grin only widens as he takes Molly's hand and swings up and into the saddle. "You got it, Molly! Leave the fire-support to yours truly. But uh, I gotta wonder, why're y'all chasin' him down after y'all set him free? Got any plans for him?"
Priscilla     Will is not only rude enough to make all those untoward remarks, but also rude enough to point his shotgun at the exact lady he was just squabbling with August over moments earlier. Sure, it's not actually lethal force, but when Priscilla recovers her balance she looks like she's pretty much ready to murder the two on the spot. When the Tin Soldier suddenly displaces thin air, the Lifehunt Scythe does as well, and she ends up staring down the gun without flinching, probably moments away from violence.

    It's an odd coincidence, then, that august has something reasonable to say. Enough that the majority of her hostility quickly drains out of her posture. "Whether or not the Bandits live to see the sunrise depends much upon what actions they chooseth from hence, however, I hath no objections to thee attempting to persuade them of wiser courses of action. Mine forgiveness pends a satisfactory conclusion, but for the moment, thou hast mine blessing to seek Houl for such a purpose." See? She did say she knew August could be reasonable sometimes. "So long as the boy is given a suitable blow to the head in the process." Them's the terms.

    Priscilla sighs as the guards arrive, then simply says "Follow." before giving chase. On foot, yes, but fortunately, she is also not actually any /slower/ than a 20ft tall person would be. This makes catching up to horses pretty much a certainty. If she meets the Bandits on the way, she will struggle, but pointedly ignore them, instead tracking down which. Her goal is to figure out which horse Houl is on, and then take it out at the knees.
Count Kord     Sigh.

    Kord steps through the wall of shadow. The way it melts around him to emphasize that it is, indeed, a physical wall of dark probably isn't comforting to look at. He stands with his hands out at his sides.

    He stands there, totally unperturbed by the gun now pointed at his center of mass. He just holds that position, as if going 'what?' at the guy with the firearm.

    "My name is Kord," he explains, "I am not a man that makes idle threats. If you shoot at any of us, especially him, I will snap the neck of your nearest subordinate faster than you can take your next breath. This kind of threat is what I gave to the men I, rightfully, did not trust to keep themselves from doing something stupid. Like the man I butchered for trying to attack the First, Queen Priscilla." 'Especially him' indicates Flamel.

    "Do not make me even more of a demon to your people. I tire of proving my point to the stubborn."

    His tone is one of calm amusement, to get the point across that he is not afraid of any of them. And that he will, in fact, slaughter anyone defenseless enough to get in arms' reach to him, if it proves his point.

    The wall of shadow remains. Is he still concentrating on keeping it solid?
Sanary Rondel With everyone chasing after someone else, fighting each other, attempting negotiations, or simply trying to figure out what the hell is going on, Sanary's... Actually not entirely sure what the deal is between people trying to abduct the King, kill the king the king, rescue the people abducting the king and possibly killing them later. It's all become something of a mess for the healer to try and understand, and so...

     She just sticks with William and August for the time being. Even if she's not fighting anyone, she can at least do what she does best: Be ready to heal indiscriminately!

     Not that she's doing that yet. No, she seems more interested in seeing where it's all going first. "Looks like y'all're having fun down here. Uh... But really, what the hell /are/ the Bandits goin' for, anyway?"

     That part is still eluding her. "And if you're gonna negotiate... Er. Do we still need this book for anything?" Without much fanfare or drama, Sanary produces the weird future-book for a moment before slipping it back into her coat for safe keeping.
Flamel Parsons     THAT PAIR.

    This chaos is getting bad and Parsons has absolutely no control over where it's about to go. A bullet slams into his body, where his psionic constitution takes over and converts the wound to a heavy orange light that seems to bleed, before Parsons gets a shield up, enough to intercept the rest of the fire. "Wow!" He says, cheerfully and positively. "What a complete mess!" Parsons knows he can't even get close to reasserting control over the situation. The only thing he can reliably do in this case is add to the chaos and hope that he'll be able to ride the wave to his destination.

    "You know, I really love my job!" He says, with bright eagerness. "I get to meet interesting people, and go interesting places, and do interesting things. It's a wonderful job -- that is, being an agent of a vague yet menacing government agency. And I even love the twists and turns of all the local politics! Getting to serve all the weird interests and further mysterious agendas. But there gets to be a point where I really just can't excuse mixing business and pleasure!"

    A pulse of white light shines from behind his sunglasses as he runs Astral Projections through as much of the group of loyalists as possible. Dion, he can't turn so quickly and easily, he's a man with a strong mind, but the others, he might be able to flip switches on. Using his astral projection, he'll attempt to set them to fire back on Will, and even the Starlight Bandits! He can't exert a long-term influence over their alliance that Dion won't be able to shake them out of with strong words or angry orders, but maybe it'll be enough to buy time.

    Parsons continues that cheerful tone. "The Starlight Bandits have a secret. Houl knows the secret. I'm betting this is to stop a contingency release, something to keep them from killing him instead of working for him when he blackmailed them! Something set to help make sure they keep him alive! I don't have time to interrogate you about what they did. I definitely have time to let my friend Kord kill you. Work with me. Figure out your way through this that ends with not getting between /everyone/ and the one they want to murder."
William Pauwel "Hey Sanary!" Will beams. "Great of y'all to join us. We uh. Well, I'm not sure! But I trust 'em. That said, why ARE we doin' all this, Molly?"
    he situation develops.

It's almost... Almost as if people are just not getting in the way of Will's gun! Kord is further up ahead, Priscilla is back with August, Flamel is... Deceiving a bunch of innocent(??) men into shooting at him!? Well that's just unsportsman-like! Will whispers a quiet curse as he ducks behind Molly. A smaller profile is harder to hit, and he trusts that she can handle her ride well enough to not go down to a few stray shots. He has other business to worry about. Business like... Breaking right through Flamel's mind-shield.

How?

Well. That's pretty easy. After all, Will knows Flamel well enough. He knows how his powers work. They need his mind to be working well, don't they? Well! First thing's first. The Solano begins to burn bright white, then brighter, and brighter again still. Will dips out from behind his cover just in time to fire a single thundercrack of a shot right into Flamel's barrier.

...But then his weapon seems to change again. The white light gives way to rippling waves of coruscating energies. Will fires again, a quick trio of raw electromagnetic chaos all aimed at the psychic agent ahead of him.

It might not put him out permanently, but if Will knows anything about how brains work, he knows that 'getting electrobolted' kind of... Hurts.

All the while, he trains his eyes further ahead, trying to figure out which of the riders among the others is Haul. It's probably not hard. He's... Got a pretty unique... silhouette.
August Kohler August just stares up at Priscilla, nodding, before moving forward to the horses himself with his Persona, trying to catch up to Will. He begins glancing through the horses for Houl's sillohuette as he passes through the tunnel, speaking to the bandits. "Molly, Irvine, I like you two, but you need to hand Houl over at the minimum. Or atleast like, confirm you're going to kill him yourselves!"
Starlight Bandits     "Why, isn't it obvious William~?" Molly asks. "We're going to kill him ourselves!" And then, Flamel's mindjack grabs the loyalists, including the one up front who was glaring at Kord, and makes them turn and fire down the tunnel at the three! "CEASE FIRE!" Dion barks, before staring hard at Flamel. "Let them go, you freak!"

    Irvine ducks low and urges the horse on, as does Molly. The poor thing eats a few bullets and goes down, but that preserves the three riding it! Will fires back as the two faction leaders come down the tunnel (hopefully they don't get shot!)

    "Well, of course we're going to kill him! Why else would we rescue him?" Irvine says. "He tried to blackmail us. And like Irvine says, 'if you want someone dead, you should do it yourself and make sure!'" Priscilla advances on the horses, one of which is being rode by a large man. As the halfbreed gets close, he tries to urge it on, but she's already slashed the legs out from under it. He and the mount falls, his leg pinned by the thrashing animal. "GOD DAMN YOU ALL!" the traitor yells, wincing as the beast's final motions grind his leg against the rocks.

    "You can't let them kill me! I know their secret! It's something well worth learning! Save me and I'll tell you!" His eyes look around frantically, before fixing on Sanary. "Girl! You still have the book! Give it to me and I'll show you all the future I'll bring about. It's the best possible end for Chapter! You have to let me live!"

    The Bandits now look around warily as Houl tries to sell their secret. Their faces are hard as stone.
William Pauwel Oh no! Poor horse. Sanary... Sanary, maybe you should heal her? Um.

Will dismounts as the noose closes in. He frowns as Haul begs and pleads and...

"Uh, Mister Haul," Will says, closing in on the Fat Man. "You know... I know you think that that's a powerful thing you have. But tryin' to tell people someone else's innermost secret is... It's not right, you know? But besides that, this is Molly and Irvine here. No matter what kind of secret they've got- and it's theirs to tell- I'm pretty sure nothin' much would change t'ween us an' them."

"They're August and my heroes, you know? Y'all can't change that with just a secret."

There's a beat. He looks around at Molly, Priscilla, Irvine, August-- at everyone.

"Do we really have t' kill this guy? He's... He's more pathetic than anythin' else, ain't he? Could just... Toss 'im in a brig for the rest of his life or somethin'. Or Flamel could wipe that secret out of his mind. Or... somethin'."
Priscilla     Priscilla interjects with a sudden violence and very large amount of blood and screaming. That's sort of what happens when natives of Lordran get involved. When Houl is down on the ground, legs thoroughly put out of commission by the thrashing of his would-be escape mount, she takes the time to flick the blood from her scythe, grab him by the collar, and haul him off his useless feet, like a pinata dangling lightly from her fingers.

    "That may very well be." she states, slowly. "Perhaps, in some way unbeknownst to us, thou art the best future this city of Chapter hath. Perhaps the secret of those two is very much one worth knowing. If that is so, I wouldst appreciate very much to hear it." Priscilla pauses for a few, tense moments, before continuing.

    "However, there is an unavoidable truth to all of this, which changes not no matter what else one considers. The Concord didst give its word. /I/ did'st give mine word. A Covenant was made, and it was broken solely by thee, under no extenuating circumstances; thou simply believed such wouldst be a better outcome than upholding the oath thou were sworn to. I do not suffer oath breakers lightly, Houl, and neither the Concord nor its Partners suffer those who thinketh themselves clever enough to taketh advantage of them."

    Then, slowly, she looks to will, and it's with the kind of frighteningly unconvinced stare that's supposed to be used on the one begging for their life, not an outsider simply suggesting he be spared. "I fail to see why one wouldst spare the effort. He was aware of the danger of the game he was playing. I shalt tolerate not those thinking the Concord is so soft that they can simply escape penance for betrayal by a minor alteration of memory."
Sanary Rondel "Yeah, I wanted to see what was going on. Had a feeling something was gonna happen, and... Well." Sanary steps back as Flamel and Will engage in FIREY LASER BATTLES, furrowing her brow while getting a ball of green healing light swirling about in front of her. There's certainly options on how to help recover, but getting in the middle of their fight like that?

     ... No, she's more than happy to just watch those two duke it out instead.Alas, there's still the matter of Houl's execution floating in the air as well as his incessant shouting and attempts to plead for his life. "Say... What if you brought him back up to the top, then? I mean, if everyone's agreeing on it... Might as well give the locals a show, right?" She suggests out loud, then turns to Houl once he starts spouting out things about secrets and futures.

     "... Right. Uhm. About that. I've seen the kinds of PRESENTS people like you have already made. I don't need the book to figure out what a future with /you/ in power is." Sanary scoffs while moving over to the de-legged horse and healing its stumps. At the very least, it won't die from blood loss!

     It just probably doesn't have much of a fate left beyond becoming glue. "But a secret... I dunno. You really think there's a secret good enough that'd be me worth busting my ass trying to save yours from-"

     And then Sanary just gestures at ALL OF THE ELITES around her. "-ALL of them? I mean, I know I'm good, but..." Sanary actually grins somewhat smugly at that, then turns to William. "Oh. You know, I can heal him if he gets hurt. So we /could/ keep him alive and just..." She pauses, then shakes her head and trails off.

     It's probably better that she doesn't elaborate further. "... The dragon-lady's got a good point, though. He did kinda fuck it up for himself, anyway."
August Kohler Well, the Bandits are doing it for the reason August guessed. He sighs in relief and nods. "Alright. That's a fair reason." And then, the Tin Soldier's gun trains on Houl's head, as August stares at him coldly. "I don't need your secret. I could have learned it myself from your blackmail. You fucked up. You betrayed everyone here. You betrayed what we made, and stooped to the same acts of villainy as the previous rulers. I hate /you/ more than I hate them, because to my knowledge, they didn't break any oaths or promises." He glances at Will, staring straight at his friend.

"No. Consequences are a thing, and this fucker doesn't get away with what he's done. He's betrayed us, threatened the Bandits, and backstabbed the Concord. Why the hell should he live? What reason besides 'empathy', 'not wanting to kill people', do you have?"
Count Kord     Kord holds his posture and uses his incredible strength, his experience with chaos and violence, and his current advantageous position in the situation to stay almost as still as a statue. Mostly because he doesn't want to let on that it is terrifying for him to be near all of this gunfire.

    "Boy," Kord speaks up, "I am going to talk down to you now."

    "This man is a traitor. He is a traitor to his own, and a selfish cur for using someone's deepest secrets against them. Despite how ... tempting it is to hear him out..."

    He lowers his hands. He brings them both forward. It's a deliberate movement, like any spellcaster would do, to evoke an effect. He aims it right at Houl. There's a small window to react and maybe stop him from doing this, before he jerks both hands upward like a conductor demanding a rise in volume. An array of shadow spikes jut out of the ground violently beneath Houl. It might be a miracle of anyone nearby doesn't get covered in blood, if no one saves this guy.

    "Traitors must die."

    Clearly he doesn't care if the Bandits called dibs.
Flamel Parsons     Parsons is knocked off his feet by the sudden blast of electrical energy that surges past his shield by conducting straight through and into his mind! His hold over the other men is broken by the impact, and he slams onto the ground, sizzling and smoking from the brain.

    But, that's not a knockout! And he can hear Houl. That secret, that secret... He was knocked out of Houl's mind before. It's gonna be now or never. Photos. Photos. PHOTOS. Where are they... The man's going to get executed here. Parsons has never been inside the mind of a man when he dies. It's a terrifying idea. Who knows what the effects could be like. Who knows if he'd even resurface from that ocean with the information he's trying to pull out.

    But he has to admit that he's curious.

    In those last moments, disabled and seemingly knocked out on the ground, Parsons tries to sneak his way quietly into Houl's mind, down to where those photographs might be remembered, and grab the mental vault that contains the memories of them, to bring back into his mind, not even bothering to look inside on the way out.
Lyria Mason It seems August was right about what the Bandit were up to she seem to relax for now as she turns to Houl for a moment she looks at them for a moment she listen to August and she grunts.

"Not taking what you are selling Houl. Sorry, you'd just shove a knife in our backs the first chance you got. We're not stupid and I'm not very fond of you either." When August asks the big question of why should we spare you she finds herself nodding. What worth does this man have? She's never claimed to be a hero, no but this guy had done some seriously nasty shit which had touched people she considers worth keeping in the world.

"So come on what matey, you going to say somthing or not? Your getting Parlay which is more than you deserve."
William Pauwel "Well ain't that obvious?" Will says to... All these doubters, nay-sayers and so on and so forth. "Sure. This guy screwed up. He... Screwed up big. But that's the thing about screwin' up. He DOES deserve punishment fer it. Real bad. He hurt a lot of people. But killin', killin' just ends it. There's no chance for him to learn from what he did. No chance to maybe, sometime tomorrow, for him to make a better turn. He'll die someday anyway. Everyone does. But until then, killin' ain't justice. It just makes us feel better about things. It--"

Kord acts.

Will reacts, maybe a sliver too late. With a cuss, he launches his grappling hook at the grovelling man's chest and pivots to try and yank him out of the onslaught of tenebrous blades. "Dangit, guys. I know I'm bein' stupid about this, but a man's gotta have principles! If y'all are gonna kill him, at least have the courtesy of knockin' me out first, and THEN lettin' the bandits get their revenge!"
Starlight Bandits     Houl has the look of a man who realizes the whole world is against him. He begins to sob pathetically as a bunch of things happen all at once. Kord swings his blade, aiming for the neck. Will uses his grappling hook to try and pull him free. Flamel dives into his mind to extract the secret.

    Unfortunately, Will was just not fast enough. Kord's blade sinks through the fatty folds of Houl's neck and severs his head. All the while, Flamel gets to experience what happen to the mindscape of one who is dying. A palace of grassland and dirt starts to go out-of-focus as Houl's head lays on the ground, his brain rapidly dying as it is deprived of oxygen. It's nothing so grand and dramatic, just a gradual fade into peaceful, dark oblivion.

    When he peruses that vault later, he would find that the fade to darkness affected the contents. They look like overexposed versions of whatever the photos were, useless for divulging what the secret was.

    In the real world, Molly lightly kicks Houl's head as Irvine checks the body's pulse. "Welp, he's definitely dead!" he says, before going to eagerly shake Kord's hand. "Thank you sir! Saved us some bullets, you did!" Molly also goes around, giving everyone big hugs (and proving very eager to do so if any resist). "I can't believe we have so many good friends who came along to ensure he died~ Thank you all! I think Irvine said we don't care about what happened to the others, so feel free to kill them too~"

    "Wait, please," the former king says suddenly, looking to Sanary. "Young lady, you possess the Foreteller's Tome? Please... destroy it. That book... it is believed that the people who created this library destroyed themselves over it. The whole reason I put my own people through this hell, digging the place up, was to find it, and ensure it would not happen to us. Please, honor the request of this condemned man, and burn it..."
Count Kord     Kord lowers his hands after very decisively killing the man. He looks down at the deceased fellow, all the darkness having gone back to normal. He doesn't seem pleased by this, he just stares until Irvine approaches to grab him by the hand and shake it. He looks down at the hand as if not sure how to react to the gratitude of someone he moments ago tried to splatter across the side of a cliff.

    And then he gets hugged by Molly and he makes a growling noise of pain and then calmly pries her off of himself with both hands. His shoulder is still bleeding, and the startle made him exacerbate the wound a little.

    "Even the purest of nations have the death penalty for traitors, William," Kord mentions, "Not all men are interested in being good men. In his last moments, he chose to endanger others to save his own skin, to spill secrets that were not his. He was angry at us for daring to defy him or call him wrong. That does not deserve your sympathy. Just be glad he never forced you to realize that yourself."

    He can't maintain eye contact as he talks, and his tone suggests respect for Will, in a way. He likes people that behave as William Pauwel does.
August Kohler August flinches away as Kord executes Houl. Molly's hug distracts him, even if he grimaces as she puts pressure on his neck and arm, which are starting to show their bruising. Instead of arguing about Houl with Will, though, August steps up to the king. "So you enslaved your own men for this? Atleast you understand why you have this punishment. Maybe in another life you would have been a beloved king, if you actually mean what you're saying. I believe you do." There's a glance to Sanary, as if he's lingering. "But, Rondel, it's up to you. The book is yours, after all. You bought it fair and square. I'll provide the flames if you need." The Tin Soldier's still there, after all.
Sanary Rondel Sanary's about to chime in with something (she thinks is) witty (but really isn't) shortly after Kord unceremoniously decapitates Houl. She doesn't, though, and instead keeps fairly quiet considering the William did attempt to stop the whole thing. Is that... Restraint?

     That, or she's trying not to put her foot in her mouth yet today. Instead, her attention turns Molly when she comes around for a round of hugs, laughing and patting her once on the back before turning her attention to the former king. She strokes her chin lightly as he pleads for her to destroy the book, then draws it back out of her coat to flip it open. "What, this thing? Yeah, that's because the people that made your library were dumbasses." She snaps the book shut and gives it an irritated look, then...

     Slips it back into her coat. "Idiots didn't even figure out this thing don't even work right. It's a neat magic trick, but I ain't seein' how this could do any real damage if I just keep it somewhere safe. Like..." A glance left, a glance right, and then she pats the bulge in her coat. "I'll hold onto it, August. Ain't nobody gonna get this useless thing, but it'll be a neat decoration."

     MISSION ACCOMPLISHED...?
Priscilla     Between Will firing the grappling hook and Kord firing off the shadow spikes, Priscilla is pretty much caught with blood splattered all up her side and a limp corpse being wrenched out of her hands. She remains, frozen in position for several seconds, before looking down at her bloodied dress and then squinting at Kord. Squint.

    Then she just sighs. "If thou wish to be knocked unconscious, Sir Pauwel, such can still be arranged. As for the rest . . ." She shakes her hand, flicking the crimson drops from her fingers. "Retrieveth Houl's men and return them to the surface for proper execution, as the public demands. What wouldst becometh of the king and the loyalists is beyond mine concern. This entire rebellion had taken place well before I was alerted to it, or the Concord was involved, and it was not made our concern, thus it is not strictly our duty to see any of them hanged either."

    She's leaving it to August and the Bandits? Weird.
William Pauwel And... Kord just straight up kills the guy. Will swears again, withdrawing his grapnel before the cable gets sliced clean away by those shadowy blades. "Damnit," Will breathes a long, frustrated sigh. "Damnit. Well. I tried, at least. That's more than can be said for most."

At least at the end, that guy had one person in the world sincerely trying to save his life. To give him a chance.

Maybe that was of some comfort.

Maybe.

"Even if they aren't," he says to Kord. "People deserve the chance to show they are. Everyone does. Mistakes happen, some bigger than others, and we all do things that we regret." He shakes his head, then. "...I know he'd probably not... have gotten better. But my grandfather always told me: A man's principles ain't nothin' if he doesn't stick to them. Thick and thin. Day and night. No matter what, they're pigshit otherwise."

He turns, then, and looks Kord in the eye, then glances at the king. "This guy, though. I didn't do much to fight for the other one, but this guy I will. He deserves a chance to make things right. Maybe not in this world. Maybe in another. He made some bad decisions, but even I can tell his heart's in the right place."

"So I say he lives. That fine with you?"
Count Kord     Kord looks over to the King, a lazy sort of turn, with his eyes wide behind his mask. Surprise? Menace? Maybe hard to tell.

    He looks back to Will and crosses his arms. He doesn't seem to care.

    "Do what you will."
William Pauwel "I always do," Will says with a grin and a wink. "It's right in my name, after all."
August Kohler August doesn't move, but just glares at Will, before glancing back towards where Perplex and his men were. He remains quiet.
Lyria Mason The King asks not for his life, not to be spared but to destroy the thing that was the book maker's ruin so it does not destroy his former kingdom. That changes some of her mind about them. Desperation? The wrong method? She only looks to King now.

"That is all you wished? The tome is that terrifying that you took such measures to locate it?"

Somethings click into place and she doesn't give the late Houl a second though as she looks to the king and Sanary.

"The books yours Sanary but if the king was willing to ruin himself, to become called a monster for it or so she sees.

"Just think about that bit."

She also nods to Priscilla who seem to be keeping out of things here.

She watches Sanary.

"We should claim it was destroyed then, Sanary officially. At the very least. So people stop looking."

She looks to Will for a moment and nods.

"If your being given the call Will? I'll trust you on it."

no arguments from Lyria on whatever Will chooses to do.
Flamel Parsons     "Huh." Parsons says, watching the oxygen-deprivation slowly de-resolving the psychic content of the mind as he flees, vault under one arm. A bullet to the head could have been perhaps more traumatic to the interior, but this is... Surprisingly... Just BARELY managing to escape from a potentially psychologically traumatizing event that emerged from his obsession with gathering data. He definitely had a scrapw tih a kind of cognitive doom.

    And then he arises, shaking off the painful feeling of sympathetic oxygen deprivation. He seems to think on something, examining something inside his own mind, before softly swearing under his breath. Whatever secrets the pair have, they're safe. Until next time, you damn pair, if there was any suspicion that he would now know.

    He then crosses his arms and looks to Dion. There's a bit of a heavy breath before he manages to break into that cheerfulness again. "Hey! Looks like you guys can get away. Maybe even the king too! I dunno what's up with the First's decisions, but they're mine too, here. Boy, you made a real twisty mess of a situation, I haven't gotten an intense espionage workout like that in... Ever actually! Way too many close calls with psychohazard-tier stuff. Well, if the Count doesn't still want to kill you, I'm sure not going to keep you and your king around. Good luck furthering his secret agendas wherever you go for exile! Give me a call if it turns out to be vague yet menacing."
Starlight Bandits     The king looks disheartened as Sanary vows to keep the book. "I'll not stop you. But the book will linger after you're gone, and it may fall into the hands of someone less... reputable. Please, keep those who come after you in mind."

    Everyone looks to Perplex about what to do with the other prisoners. He looks at the loyalists, the traitors, and the king and his council. "They come back to be hung," he says, gesturing at the traitors. A couple of them sob, but the leader takes longer to decide in regards to the others. "The king and the loyalists may go. Leave and never return," he finally decides, drawing gasps from the council. "They partook in greater cruelties, and the people need some of them to die to assuage their desire for justice. As for the others, if I don't hear from you, I don't come after you." Dion nods as the king sighs. "Very well... please, look after my people."

    "Well, this was fun everyone!" Irvine says as he starts helping those who Perplex has deemed he would spare from their horses. "In exchange for your help, the least we can do is get these ones out of here for you." Molly nods, and produces the Terminal Getaway, pulling all their hands to touch it. "We'll drop them off somewhere safe! Thanks again, it was good to see you~!" Dion joins them, and inclines his head to everyone. Mostly the Watch. The Concord gets a cold shoulder for some reason.

    bip

    The Bandits, along with the king and loyalists, vanish. Leaving everyone with prisoners to transport back, and the corpses of a man and some horses to clean up. Hey, it's the Concord's library now, that's their job.
Sanary Rondel THey were willing to ruin themselves over something that doesn't even work. No wonder they ended up like this." Sanary shrugs lightly at Lyria and glances over at Houl's head, then at the gathered loyalists. "Saying it's gone should help, though, yeah. I can play along with that."

     She does peer inside her coat again, though. "... Do wanna keep it for the house, though. Make everything on the table look all fancy. And if you're /that/ worried about people trying to use it anyway..." Sanary grunts lightly, then strokes her chin. "Could... I dunno. Use it for drawin' stuff instead."

     It's... A solution? she seems satisfied enough, at least, but she goes quiet while listeningintently to Perplex's decision regarding the former king.

     It still doesn't make much sense to her. What makes more sense, then, are Irvine and Molly taking their leave!

     "... Huh. There's still a lot of work to do here, huh?" She glances around at the corpses, the prisoners, and the Elties still left here. She strokes her chin lightly, then starts letting out a barely-whistle while backing aaway slowly.

     Sanary clearly has no intent on getting roped into cleaning up /this/ mess.