Together, we Conquer

Inciting a Plan

March 21

Madran sifted through the laundry that the hotel staff had done for them before they left, picking out her clothes and folding them. Suga and Sheila did the same, with everyone packing all of their bags.

"Oh, Madran, have you texted Farjis-san yet?"

"Yeah. Mom knows."

"Ok, good. I heard that Suga's dad wasn't able to get to the train station on time."

"Yeah, he's kinda busy at the moment. Thank you, Madran."

"You're welcome. Um, when were we leaving?"

"Um, about two-ish hours."

"Good. I'm tired of this place."

"Uh, Sheila, what's wrong?"

"Well, the panel was trash, and I just don't like this place. Like, Philemon's gone missing, everyone looks at Madran weird, I only get asked really bad questions and only see my worst fans, it's just, I mean..."

Sheila sighed. Madran then patted her on the back.

"Yeah, I feel ya. Some places are nice, though."

"I started hating Junes after the guy who said hi to us at the front started to flirt with me. Like, he doesn't even look 15! His name even sounds like a stripper name! Teddie? What kinda crap is that?!"

"I meant the inn."

"Oh, right. I love this place, and the train station."

"Why there?"

"Because it's the way we leave this place."

"Oh, yeah, right."

Suga sighed.

"I chatted with Baofu some more during the panel. He seemed fully supportive of us going after Philemon."

"Maya asked to go with us."

"Really? Wow."

"Yeah. Philemon had left her a note on the note that we found in the TV about Philemon. This drove her to want to save him as well. We even decided on a codename for her!"

"And that is?"

"Rumor."

"Ooh, cool. Also, I saw you with Mitsuru as well. Was she bugging you?"

"Well, no, she seems perfectly nice and all. Although, I could feel her other self poking a metaphorical icicle at me when we were speaking."

"You mean her persona? Baofu says that it's Artemisia, the queen of Asia Minor and advisor to the Persian Lord at the time, Xerxes. Apparently, she can use slight scanning abilities, ice spells, a few healing spells, and Marin Karin, which misses a lot."

"Wasn't Marin Karin that move Shadow Shiini used on Madran to get her to Maragi the team?"

"Yep. That's the one."

"Goodness. How unlucky, if it hits so rarely."

"I mean, isn't that the case with most ailment spells?"

"I guess. Well, Nefertiti told me that with our strength growing, she gained a boost to her ailment's effectiveness."

"Cool. Um, anyone else?"

"Well, Nightingale is constantly saying that our scanning is getting stronger. Like, before Shiini's palace, my path-of-best-results was rather short and only showed a few feet in front of me."

"So, that's why you got so close to doors before picking them?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, that could get annoying after awhile. Also, we seemed to learn a metric ton of skills once we got to the fourth palace."