Act 2: Upheaval II - Revelations and search

"Breeze. She's the only one who can do it, now."

Steve nods. "We'd be getting our friends back anyway but this just lights a double fire under our butts. It's why we rushed here in the first place."

Konrad nods. "We've tried ourselves so far, but that was a bust. Once, we had to rely on Breeze to keep ourselves protected from the Endless who had set itself against us. She was able to counteract possession by pulling mine out when it had taken over my body. Our hunch is that this will apply for our current situation, pulling out foreign orbs instead. Not just any fairy can do this though, or Fluffle would have had them out before we got here."

Fluffle lowers his head, sorry that he can't help his companions. Amber doesn't like seeing him in this state, so she wastes no time and pets his head to cheer him up. It seems to work, judging by his smile. Nadzieja observes this small interaction and after giving it some thought, she says stoically, "If you can't spare this orb for Duma, I'll have to kill him."

Her pragmatic perspective on this dilemma stuns both Amber and Fluffle, who can only stare at her with wide eyes.

Steve is shocked. His mouth is open in surprise. "Now hold on a moment. You can't just kill a man without trying to save him. He won't even know about it in all likelihood. How's that okay?"

"Is there any another to save him without an orb?" she asks.

"Yes! Do your chop-fu monk nonsense and stun him. Then lock him up until we find Breeze. Jeez you're extreme."

"He's one of the fourteen szef of Myr. If we lock him up, all of the clans will be looking for him. And if I get caught..." She considers the possibilities. "Well, it'll be very bad."

"Why can't we just tell them why we did it? Won't they need to know either way? You guys are under serious attack here."

Konrad doesn't flinch at the idea of Duma dying for world peace. "How will we prove it? I'm not arguing for killing him, but how would we prove to the guards that what we are saying is true?"

"You can't just knock down the board and go to open war with an untold number of Aspects out there - that's what'll likely happen if the Enemy thinks this spy business isn't working out for them anymore. If we could somehow have the Elemental's connection drained, that might help, but i know too little of what'd happen if we tried."

Then focuses on the Szef again - "But i don't see why we're discussing this. I already said this is why we were saving the Orb. We do have someone else we'll need to help down the line, but we're here now, and i'm not about to let the man die when there's a way to cure him." - he pauses a moment, back to the party in general - "That being said, we can' just walk up to him and shove it in his head. His Elemental will know, and figure out we're on to it in a second. And i don't know what kind of reprisal will follow for cutting off their King Piece so brazenly."

Konrad listens carefully. "So, if we want to give him the orb, we will have to catch him unawares, so that the elementals never know what happened."

"That'll be the better option, yes. They would never know for sure why his strings were severed. Then again..." - he frowns pensively - "I've been wondering if we can't start playing our enemies against each other. We do have a few valid reasons to give someone an Orb, outside of the Elementals. An Avatar that's so inclined can twist you into it's bitch in no time flat, and we've already had a visit from an Endless - who can see through your entire mind just by looking at you. If we played some deception, we might be able to make the Elemental believe it lost Duma over a coincidence."

Konrad strokes chin thoughtfully. "Intriguing...please, continue."

Nadzieja, Fluffle and Amber wait for Mihai to continue.

Konrad's eyelids close halfway, and he reaches out with his sixth sense for any intruders.

Spellcraft 28
I am checking trying to detect the green mage summoner link, aspects, or even yellow magic.

"I'm guessing everyone over at the Arena will want to know about the Werewolf. Duma probably won't resist a bit of an insider scoop, if we offer it to him in private. We might either name-drop the Endless or just describe what it does, and pretty much just tell the truth of the matter - that it's a creature that can see everything you know unless you're protected, and there could be one in the room right now reading through our every thought - i have a hard time believing the one last night was acting alone anyway." - he pauses a moment - "Then if he wants to help, we ask him to turn around for a moment or something, and just use the Orb on him before the Elemental can tell what's happening. For all it'll know, we Orbed Duma to protect him from any Endless that might be lurking."

"They will. And that's what i'm counting on."

"Ah...I see! You were always bold, but this is to-the-wall." A smirk begins to form at the corner of his mouth. "It checks off all the boxes, though...I really like it. I just wish there was some assurance that it would succeed."

"I like it too. It's clever and simple, so long as we can get him to show up and look away long enough for us to succeed."

Mihai shrugs - "There's never assurance. All we can do is play our hand the best we can. If all else fails, we can still do it by force. We'll only need to land one hit."

"You have a point. Although, come to think of it, I suppose we do have some assurance, that..." He glances over at Nadzieja, still smiling, "...he can't possibly refuse our request. Alright, I'm in!"

Amber chooses this moment to interject. "Uh, what if the Elemental isn't linked to Duma when you explain everything to him? They'll just assume he was given an orb because he was a green mage, right?"

"Ooh!" Fluffle exclaims, not having realized that himself.

Nadzieja nods and waits for the others' response to this problem.

"Well, when i was a Green Mage, i..." - he trails off, realizing how that just sounded - "In Nick's memories, his connection to Smirk was on by default. But if not, it's still not a loss for us. The Elemental still won't know a thing. It'll just know it lost contact with Duma for some reason, and even if it'll piss them off, they won't know enough to take action. Like the Fire Bitch said a year ago, they have all the time in the world. I assume that precludes acting rashly."