//------------------------------//
// Level 36.25: Stemming the Scarlet Tide 
// Story: Equestria Was Merely a Setback! 
// by Thunderscourge 
//------------------------------//


A/N: Special thanks to PrinceUniversa, Kitsuja, the other sans, AdmiralPopeyesBeard, and EchoWing for commenting since last time! Your thoughts are very much appreciated, and I hope to continue hearing from you!

This chapter has some new players to our little story...some you'll likely recognize off the bat 


I hope you all enjoy, and please leave your thoughts in the comments below! Your support recently has been what's allowed me to write so much in such a short period of time! This is basically spillover from the chapter before when a lot of people weighed in and I managed to churn out quite a bit!






"Luna!"

"Celestia..."


"You shouldn't be holing yourself up in your room so much. I know it's difficult, but you need to deal with this."


"I wonder if this was how mother felt..."


"What do you want me to do, Luna? What do you want me to say? That it's your fault? That I'm sorry? Tell me, because I've lost my sister once and I'm not about to let you slip away when you're right here beside me."

"How are they?"


"Missing their mother. Don't neglect them and repeat the mistakes of our past."


"Why, is Hela crying for her mother?"


"You and I both know she can't, all the more reason for you to be with her and not sulking over these shallow graves. Your drove your first away, you need not do the same with your second."






"Lieutenant!"

Having landed in the closest Scarlet Crusade stronghold of any true size and strength, the escaping Crusaders from the Monastery were ready to collapse from their ordeal. While some had managed to find some rest on the overcrowded vehicle, most had been too paranoid about their situation to sleep on the way or too rustled from side to side to even attempt it. As such, Lieutenant Messa did not respond when he heard his rank called as he departed the zeppelin and stumbled into the base. He had no particular reason to react to it anyways given that it was a lower rank on the totem pole and many others held it as well, but its coming repetition would eventually grab his attention.

"Lieutenant! Lieutenant Jerid!"

A blonde woman with the delicate features of a civilian were noticed finally by Jerid as he hazily turned his attention towards where he could hear his name being called. He had been mentally frozen for hours, reliving the traumatic experiences he had suffered in such short order over and over as he sailed to safety, and now he was facing the first truly new input since he had been pulled aboard the zeppelin.

"I..." he brought a hand to his head, which had become bruised from the struggling to get on the ship and to stay on it in the related chaos. The throbbing from the wound distracted him some, but it did help draw him out of the fog he had entered since he had collapsed on the zeppelin, tortured by the memories of his best friend and his mentor both dying in front of him, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

The woman pushed her way past some wounded soldiers to meet with Jerid, her slender body able to fit through the crowd of armored figures as if she had done it before. She took a moment to look around Jerid as if to find someone before smiling to him instead and giving a small bow to the man bruised in body, ego, and soul.

"My name is Amelia, and I don't know if he mentioned me, but I'm Kacricon's lover," she smiled brightly at Jerid after standing up fully again, "He's told me so much about you that I knew it was you. He spared no detail about his best friend. He said you were like a little brother to him."

One of the Crusader's knees almost buckled as he heard her, though he was fortunate enough not to show his surprise and despair due to a flare in his chest that left him breathless and conspired with his leg to force him to fall down. Amelia held out a restorative potion to him which Jerid hastily grabbed and consumed, his body far sorer than almost any other survivor of the affair and his manners forgotten in the deep pain throbbing through him at the moment.

The rudeness of his grabbing the potion offered was ignored, since Amelia could see just how much the battle had taken a toll on him, and in fact had brought what she felt was enough for her husband, his friend, and a few others they may have brought with them.

Once Jerid had finished the vial of healing liquid, he dropped it to the ground and panted for breath given how hard he had chugged it. Ignoring the shattering potion container, Amelia began to look around again for her husband, "I heard you all were attacked but that many escaped and were coming here, so I came to meet Kacricon. Do you know where he is?"

Jerid's face seized in pain, making Amelia reach for another potion at first since she thought it a symptom of his wounds, only for her to pause when she thought she saw his eyes tearing up.

"Jerid?"

The normally loud mouthed man who spoke his mind too much was unable to open it as his mind cruelly played for him the horrifying sight of seeing his best friend incinerate before him thanks to that teenage brat Vanessa...the same child who had taken Lila's life, Jerid helpless to intervene in either instance because of his own weakness at the time. He felt bile in his throat as he felt blame internally mount upon himself for being unable to help them, but it began to fade into a pool of fury as he pictured the face of that raven haired girl who had days before humiliated him only to later kill his friends and defeat him in combat.

A mixture of pain and rage on his features gave away what his lack of words both hid and implied: that their shared connection was no longer a part of the world.

Amelia gasped and took a step back as she realized all this, her previously soft and kind features replaced with horror, "No, you don't mean..."

While some of his wounds had been further fixed by the healing potion, many others still lingered since not even that Elf lookalike had fully managed to heal him from all Jerid had suffered. His emotional grief sapped the willpower he had been using to stand and so he soon bent down on one knee as it came crashing down beneath him. His fists balled up as he used them to support his weight in lieu of his useless leg, and so he remained there in tears as he struggled to find a way to deal with the now grief stricken woman before him.

"Lieutenant..."

Silently watching the two's interaction was the woman who had pulled Jerid aboard the zeppelin when it was launching. The aqua haired woman was not one of those suffering from major wounds, and so she had stepped aside as their healers all came forward to tend to those in need, but she had lingered close enough to watch the man she had saved.

"Pathetic."

Blue-green hair moved to one side as the woman turned to see someone now standing beside her, someone she recognized quite well: Brigitte Abbendis, their current leader now that Dathrohan was out of the picture and perhaps even dead. Abbendis was looking down at the wounded lieutenant with scorn, though it was not just scorn born of seeing him in this weak state, but rather something unknown to the others.

Abbendis paid a minor glance to her subordinate as they knelt before her, "My lady, I apologize. I did not expect you to come meet us in person."

Like Amelia, Abbendis had come to locate someone in particular, and as she stood a few dozen feet from the Lieutenant she found herself looking where there ought to be someone but could not find anyone, "I..." she stopped her search and scowled while shaking her head irritably, "I needed to see someone."

"If there is anything I can do to help you find them, it would be my honor to help."

While grateful for the proper respect being shown to her, Abbendis did not care to reveal her secret so easily, "If he was here, I would have found him by now."

This was taken by the younger Crusader woman to mean that Abbendis was looking for Grand Crusader Dathrohan, who would have been quite the presence and thus easy to locate, not that Brigitte was searching for her secret lover who had been sent to the Monastery right at the time of its fall.

Suddenly feeling appreciative of her subordinate's proper manners, Brigitte decided to remember them for future occasions, "What is your name, soldier?"

"Trainee Mouar Phara, ma'am."

Staring down at the collapsed Jerid, Abbendis thought privately for a moment before nodding down at him and then turning her back on him to walk elsewhere, "Bring that man to me when he has recovered. You will not have much time for rest though, only tonight, for I am sending you both on a mission."

Mouar was surprised to receive orders directly from their leader, but she did not hesitate in snapping a salute or in inquiring about the subject matter, "A mission, ma'am?"

Her boss did not want to explain it twice, so she waved her hand to dismiss the other woman and dissuade her from tagging along, "That's all for now. I expect you both to report to me the first thing in the morning."

While Abbendis left, Mouar stayed behind to look back over at the man she saved as well as the widow who had fallen to he knees beside him. Whereas he could not stand from the physical pain he felt, Amelia could not from the shock she was in: she had figured that if anyone could have survived, it would have been her Kacricon given that he and Jerid had been at the top of their trainee group. Unfortunately being the best of your class meant little when one was then thrust right into warfare involving others far more powerful and experienced.

"Jerid..."

Elsewhere, Abbendis had found where many of the veteran Scarlet Crusaders were gathering from the retreat and so she began to call out to those she still wished to find: her initial concerns were over, and now she had to attend to her administrative duties.

"Whitemane! Mograine! Report!"

The two officers in question were at the center of those gathered, being the ones nominally in charge after Dathrohan fell and given that Doan had died earlier at the Monastery. Whitemane stood up to face Abbendis, leaving Mograine on the ground where she had been healing him of wounds suffered during the retreat on top of those remaining from the battles he fought against the invaders.

"A force led by Kael'thas Sunstrider assaulted the Monastery..." Whitemane began as she tried to justify their loss, "If he could raid Silvermoon City, it is not wonder he could take the Monastery."

Abbendis strode past Whitemane and to Mograine, who she had been told was a good part of the reason they had lost the fortress, picking the one armed man up by the throat. She began to squeeze the life out of him with furious zeal as she yelled, "He did not have an army of Fel Orcs or that brute Kargath at his disposal this time!" she threw him down onto the ground and barked at him, "Now get up, stop licking your wounds, and do something about this!"

"Please, let me finish tending to Mograine, he-" Whitemane tried to intervene, but was brushed aside by her leader's righteous anger: Mograine's quest for glory cost them one of their most important facilities, and could actually have just weakened their army to the point where they might lose this standoff with the undead armies surrounding them.

If Azeroth had any real knowledge of them, they might call Brigitte's attitude hormonal with how furiously she chewed out the now sniveling Mograine, who despite all his delusions of grandeur was weaker than her by a large margin, "Any weakling begging for healing after a crippling defeat they allowed deserves whatever pain may come their way. I entrusted the Monastery to you all, and what did you do!?"

"They defeated the Grand Crusader..." Mograine choked out in pain and fear both, not sure of what to say in order to save himself from her fury: he was not well known for his intellect or judgment, just his brute strength and experience.

"I can tell that, or else it would not have fallen! Where were you when he was being assailed by these meddlers, Mograine? Where were you, Whitemane?!"

There were no more excuses the two could offer for being defeated by such an inferior force, and so they lapsed into silence with the hope of their leader calming down when not given a retort.

After a sixth of a minute passed in silence their prayers were answered, and Abbendis visibly lost some of her edge as she worked off a good deal of the anger and grief she was feeling then, "I will deal with you two later, but know that this discussion is not over. I will see to it that this defeat does not go unanswered!"

Seeing an opportunity, Mograine crawled up to kneel before her.

"Allow me to regain my honor and defeat those who caused our humiliation. I know how dangerous they are now and will not again underestimate them."

Nodding once, Abbendis kept her eyes narrowed at her foolish subordinate, "You will lead one half of the team I will send for our revenge and no more."

"And the other half, my lady?"

"I received a letter from Dathrohan sent before your defeat of a group of soldiers he had taken interest in. Only one now lives, but if the Grand Crusader saw potential I will not be the one to squander it. I am assigning Lieutenant Messa to lead the other half I am sending, which will be comprised of our rookie and junior members," Abbendis revealed her interest in meeting with the defeated Jerid the following morning. If Dathrohan saw potential in him, then Abbendis was willing to give the man a chance even if he looked to be in a sorry state after everything. At least he had not lost them the conflict unlike Mograine, and reportedly had gone toe to toe with one of their more deadly members, a young Rogue who had infiltrated their ranks if the yammering of those who escaped the battle meant anything.

Mograine could have been irritated that he was going to be basically sharing the operation with a rookie, but instead he grinned at the opportunity, "Leaving the experienced soldiers under my command?"

"Do not waste this chance I am giving you. I will not be so forgiving of another failure. The Crusade cannot afford another setback."

"As you wish, my lady," he bowed to his leader's command, his mind not truly heeding her warning but instead beginning to turn and consider how this would benefit him.

Whitemane stepped forward and knelt down on a knee, "May I participate in this campaign, Grand Crusader?"

"Do not call me that yet. Dathrohan is missing, not slain," Abbendis corrected, "And as for your question, I already said that I had assigned Mograine to redeem his honor. I expected you to follow after him whether I ordered it or not, so go and be wary of disappointing me further."

With this Abbendis stalked off to be by herself and left the two officers behind, who in turn were left alone since soldiers had begun to funnel away from the landing site to get rest or to be better taken care of medically. Once Abbendis was out of earshot Mograine slammed his fist down and growled angrily at his present circumstances.

"So many threats...who does she think she is?"

Whitemane looked around to make sure no-one was listening in on them, wary of anything treasonous the man she loved was about to say, "She is our superior."

"For now," Mograine spat before twisting his face into a sick smile, "But this will be the perfect opportunity for us. If we let that rookie wear them down, we can defeat those upstarts and take the credit for ourselves."

Whitemane grinned at the thought of using their weaker subordinate for their own goals, as well as whatever forces would be afforded to him, "How unfortunate for the cannon fodder..."

With Whitemane's power to raise the dead, they could just throw these recruits into a meatgrinder of combat, then swoop in and deal the finishing blow to their hated enemies. This was a thought they both understood and shared at the same time, with Mograine verbalizing it to his own glee.

"We throw them against them again and again, then seize an opportunity presented to us and redeem ourselves for what happened at the Monastery. And then from there, we may be able to lead a more noteworthy campaign...one which grants us a platform to seize even more power now that Dathrohan is out of the way and that twat Abbendis is fully in charge."

While they were plotting, however, others were mourning. The shell shock would not last much longer for Jerid, whose rage and desire for retribution would soon subsume any other emotion he had, and elsewhere Brigitte was mourning what she considered to be the loss of her lover, whose lack of return from the battle broke her heart given that she had only just opened it for the first time since her father's death. Not only that, but her surrogate father figure Dathrohan had been lost and was as good as dead with how the Undead had swarmed the place. Her condition manifested itself with intense nausea that cost her what meals she managed to choke down, and she would remain locked in her own room there without visitors until the next day at dawn when she gave her decree to bring those who conquered the Scarlet Monastery to justice.





"Harbaron, I see that you've brought me gifts..."

"It is just as you predicted, my Lady. These invaders to our realm must be punished for their insolence! Their flesh still burdens their souls..."


"Leave the Night Elf for Guarm, my pet could use a good meal...I think I shall let our soulflayers have their way with the other before I bother dealing with her."

"As you wish, Lady Helya."


"Mortals...so foolish. They battle over life, when death is where they shall spend eternity. But you know that already, don't you, my pathetic captive? You thought you could come here, to my realm, and do as you please? Hah! I shall make you suffer the agony of death you visit upon others for the rest of your miserable existence."

"Bitch..."


"I do hope those will not be your final words. You never were very talkative, but do not worry, I will be bringing you a companion to perhaps converse with. I hear some others are looking for her, but what do the bumbling efforts of mortals amount to but incompetence when compared to gods such as us?"

"Nothing to say? I could make this easier for you if you just give me the secrets of your power...no? Well then, I suppose the sounds of your screaming will have to do. Will you be as tight lipped when your sister is the one having her soul shaved away, I wonder?"





When Yang was about to speak about the Alliance, he was interrupted by a sudden cry from someone.

"Hey!"

Dirge had caught Vanessa attempting to steal from him the letter he had just finished preparing, the object in one of her hands as he gripped the other arm's wrist and kept her from escaping. It seemed like he was restraining himself, keeping his power back so as to not actually harm her despite his seeming desire to for how she dared steal directly from him.

"You reacted faster than I thought you would. What's a guy like you doing with a pretty sealed letter with a rose attached to it?"

This drew everyone's attention, especially the bit about having put a rose along with the envelope. Trixie snickered at first when she saw Vanessa playfully trying to undo the seal on the envelope to open it and read it, foiled by her only having one hand to do so and a magic seal being in place, but Trixie recovered from her first impulse and put on a disapproving face.

Karl, seated semi-close to the Priest, shrugged and took a swig of pain relieving alcohol, "Flower? Maybe iz one of Priests who like little boyz."

Vanessa continued to laugh at her party member's expense as she tried to escape, finding herself unable to even with all her strength to the teenager's surprise, "Hah, so who's it to healer guy? Come on, tell me, I promise I'll only tell everyone here."

"That is none of your business, child. Return my letter at once!" Dirge yelled again as he tried to reel Vanessa in.

Trixie crossed her arms and played the part of reprimanding parent since she was the only one there really capable of doing so to the girl, "Now, Vanessa."

"Oh come on, I just want to take a peek. Shouldn't we be wary of the traitor guy who just joined us? What if he's mailing some secret plot against us to the Scarlet Crusade?"

Trixie shrugged, not really worried about Crusaders now that she knew they could kick their rear end in droves while also not naturally distrusting others like Vanessa likely was used to, "When I met him on the road to the Monastery he wasn't a bad guy, so I doubt he'd change his character between then and now," "So give him his letter, Vanessa. I bet you wouldn't want people reading your diary, would you?"

"As if I have a diary. I'm too old for that sort of thing," Vanessa scoffed, playing her denial off convincingly.

Using telekinesis, Trixie picked up one of Vanessa's own bags and dumped its contents out onto the table in front of her. Ignoring Cookie plopping out of it and flopping onto the floor, she found what she was looking for: a well used notebook of sorts that had multiple bookmarks in it, and a magical lock on the side...which was currently not active since Vanessa had not thought to close it in all the many events going on since she met up with the group.

Trixie smirked as Vanessa's draw dropped, having found this when she was ruffling through everyone's things earlier for bread. As she began to read aloud Vanessa thrashed in Dirge's grip to try and free herself more seriously, wanting to do anything to stop Trixie from actually reading from the diary.

"Page thirty four, Infiltrated Silvermoon City today. Posed as a half-Elf orphan by wearing fake long ears over my own. Why is the security here so lax? There's like one guard every fifty feet, unlike Stormwind where they are everywhere. I think I forgot Father's mask somewhere, but I'm sure I'll find it before I leave. Saw a young Elf propose to a blonde Elf lady who looks like she could be his relative, though the idiot man bought yellow roses," Trixie was trying not to laugh as she amused herself on the contents, "Every man should know that yellow is for friendship, red is for love!  When I grow up I won't need such trifling gifts, but it still is an appalling display all the same. While they were distracted, I ate a pie she had made in their own living room, and I must say she is an excellent chef...I should have grabbed her recipes before I left, but I heard them come inside and so I left-"

She stopped when a previously concealed dagger on Vanessa whirled across the room and knocked the diary away with amazing precision. Having made her point to Vanessa about messing with other people's things, Trixie put the journal and things back (including stuffing Cookie back into the bag while he still was dazed) but kept the throwing knife.

"See? Not very nice, now is it?"

Vanessa grunted as she ceded Trixie's point and tossed Dirge his letter and rose back, "It's only fun when I'm the one taking people's stuff."

Dirge let go of her wrist and made sure no damage befell the letter or its attached item with some worry. Once done he let out a sigh and turned to the now sulking Vanessa who had her arms crossed, "If I tell you something you don't know, will you spend your time stealing from your substitute mommy and less prying into my affairs?"

Her interest piqued, Vanessa still kept herself restrained as she decided to bite at this opportunity, "There's plenty I don't know, and I don't care about a lot of it. What sort of something?"

"I know someone related to you who still is alive, perhaps more," was the flat, matter-of-fact response that made everyone else in their group do a double take. Vanessa gaped for a moment before scowling and pulling out her main dagger threateningly, no longer joking around whatsoever.

"If you're lying I'll make you pay."

Looking up at her briefly, Dirge pointed to her blue eyes, "Your blue eyes aren't all that common for a pure blooded Human, actually being quite the rarity, where brown eyes are most prominent. That means the chances of someone with the same eye color being related to you are greatly increased over some random bystander."

While this was true, it did not impress Vanessa much since she still knew plenty of other people with blue eyes, "And? So what? A bunch of people still have my eyes."

Dirge continued his deduction nonchalantly, explaining step by step his argument for what would likely be a shocking reveal to the child while being a mild form of amusement to him, "Further narrowing the pool down is location. You are far more likely to be related to someone living in proximity to you than someone far away in most instances. That means your family likely comes from Westfall, where your Father moved, or Stormwind, where he was from. They aren't his eyes after all, so they must come from your mother."

"I didn't know my mother..." Vanessa said slowly, not sure where this was going now. He had probably just narrowed the list of possible relatives from thousands upon thousands to probably a few hundred or so, maybe a thousand. That meant his odds of having some true family revealed for her were increasing, even if they were still slim. She certainly was of the belief she was alone in the world...but what if she wasn't?

Dirge glanced over at the historian in the room who held his hands up in a way that said he didn't want to get involved really in this little spat, "And there aren't known records of any spouse to Edwin VanCleef, despite how notable he was to the Humans in the area. You would think there would be some knowledge about her disseminated around the area, even if only on the rumor level."

Kael was the first to nod and give him some credit for what he had said so far, understanding the man's logic so far, "He has a point. Still, there must still be many people who fall under such a large umbrella."

The Priest flashed a smile at the only person supporting him thus far in his argument, "Since there is a lack of knowledge, someone most likely is covering up her identity. But why would they do that? Who cares what the identity of VanCleef's lover is?"

Vanessa bit her lip as she realized that there weren't many who could afford or had the power to do such a thing, and those who did were the people she hated the most in Stormwind, "A...noble?"

Dirge shook his head, though his tone implied that she was nearly correct, "You are on the right track, but there is no way your father would take a rich noble as his lover given his hatred of them. Instead, it would have to be someone from an honored family who had a reputation to lose, but also are common born so as to not be unattractive to Edwin VanCleef."

Trixie nudged Kael and whispered happily, "It seems we have picked up someone quite intelligent."

Despite her whispering Dirge still heard her, and so he gave a graceful bow to the compliment as he deflected his own skills.

"Simple deduction is all I am using. Now, continuing onward, how many notable yet not noble families are there in Stormwind? How many of those produced daughters?" having narrowed down the possible candidates to the single digits, Dirge turned to a member in their group from Stormwind and gave him a knowing smile, "Lavitz, how fares your sister these days?"

The knight turned his gaze away, an old wound opening on him that he doubted would ever heal. It never would, for it was the reason his mother pressured him to bring home grandchildren: his sister never would.

"She passed away years ago."

To finish his point, Dirge tapped the space next to his own eyes, "And pray tell, what color were her eyes? Just out of simple curiosity."

While Vanessa looked between the two men in disbelief, Lavitz kept his eyes averted before finally looking up to Dirge with a sense of defeat. He could not have kept it a secret forever, and it seemed now it was going to come out whether he wanted it to or not.

"How did you know?"

"You hinted at it yourself when Vanessa was fighting my old comrade Jerid, and it just naturally came to me from there. You have been keeping an eye out for her beyond what one would expect of a man who was imprisoned and near tortured by the Defias Brotherhood ought to."

Vanessa shook her head and laughed, her mind not wanting to believe that a man she had starved for weeks, perhaps even months, was her biological uncle, "He's joking, right?" her laughter died down as she saw that neither man was indeed joking around, "Right?"

Dirge shook his head no again, a smirk on his face as he managed to be the one to humiliate the girl who sought to do the same to him moments before, "Now you had best keep your end of the contract. Do not take any more of my things. If you feel the need, I am sure your uncle would let you take nearly anything since he risked his life to find you."

Vanessa darted off to go upstairs and separate herself from the others, tugging on her bandanna to hide most of her face as she retreated away from those who could see whatever emotions she was about to display. Trixie rose to follow her, but Kael stopped her with a hand, "She probably needs a moment to herself. Leave her be."

Lavitz had to admit he was impressed with the intelligence of their newest ally, though he was annoyed that he no longer had the ability to reveal that secret to Vanessa himself...still, perhaps it was best this way, since he was not even sure he would have had the courage to do so, "What else have you figured out? I take it I am not the only one you have figured something out about."

Dirge pointed to Trixie, "You are looking after Vanessa to compensate for the parental abandonment you feel and have been unable to resolve," he moved his hand slightly to point at Kael, "You doubt your ability to lead your people since either you are somehow like the tyrant in Outland or are inexperienced due to your amnesia and thus unsuited for leadership," he swiveled to point at Karl, "You actually enjoy the chance to get back at Stormwind by serving a Prince whose people are in opposition to them, something that contrasts with the fact you ransacked the Scarlet Monastery on Stormwind's orders."

As Trixie gawked, Kael sat uncomfortably, and Karl drunkenly ignored the conversation, Dirge pointed his finger upstairs and then to Trixie and Kael at the end of his next observation.

"Vanessa feels she cannot live up to her father's legacy which is why she is trying to act stronger than she is, while also carrying tremendous guilt over some family matter unknown to me which is why she is protective not only of the fish thing she brings with her but of the closest people she can relate to, that being this group, particularly you and you."

Kael was a bit surprised by this summation, pointing to himself in confusion, "Me?"

"You gave her the bandanna belonging to her father and helped her, so she feels indebted to you," Dirge then glanced back to Trixie with a raised eyebrow, "She also has unresolved issues concerning the death of her father, probably having seen his corpse or something similarly traumatic, given how infuriated she was at Telonicus when he pressed the issue. Are you going to tell her that one of your associates was the one who did it?"

Trixie averted her eyes, knowing full well that one of her friends had been the one to defeat Edwin VanCleef, "I don't know what you mean."

"It may be better that you let her know now so that she does not go on a rampage when she does find out. You won't be able to keep both of them if she tries to murder the other after all."

Lavitz scowled as he thought about the possible psychological effects of letting Vanessa know one of their biggest allies was in fact the person to cause her father's death, "Lay off it, Dirge."

Dirge smirked at the other man, seemingly drawing amusement from the man's strong moral code and empathy for his niece that bordered on masochistic given what she did to him, "You asked what I know, and so I have told you. I may know things, but that doesn't mean I'm all that nice, unlike you. You're nice, Karl is apathetic, and I think too much for the comfort of others."

Trixie noticed something and tilted her head to signal her confusion, "You have more theories about Vanessa than anyone else."

"I have not had enough time to deeply study more than one of you, but I chose your girl follower because she is a former enemy who now works with you."

"If something were to happen, if someone were to betray us..." Kael started to say, understanding what the former Crusader meant.

"You would assume it would be me, unless I have evidence that it was someone else. So I am keeping my eyes out on the former criminal who holds her thieving ways more tightly than the purses of those she steals from," he shrugged and sighed before adopting a self-deprecating voice, "Since my healing powers are sub-par, to do my job I needed to have other skills: keen observation allows me to identify illnesses and infections so that I can better remedy them."

With how astute the man was, Trixie snapped her fingers and grinned as a thought came to her mind, "You should be our spymaster!"

Kael whispered to her in a concerned voice, questioning her naming practice after naming a pet after the sound it made and now giving a silly title to someone, "Spymaster? That's a silly title, Trixie. Almost as ridiculous as Grand Engineer or whatever Telonicus was named."

"You're just jealous I came up with it," Trixie pridefully replied before turning her attention back to their newest addition, "But yeah, you're really smart, and someone's got to pay attention to all the little details nobody else will, and hear things most people can't or won't."

Dirge gave a grateful smile and nod to her, "I am not in this for your revolution, but for now I think we have a mutually beneficial arrangement: the Scarlet Crusade will hunt me down anyways for turning against them, and they will hunt you all too, so we can band together our efforts against them."

Something came back to mind for Trixie, who randomly added in, "Also, I don't have mommy issues."

"Yes you do," came a chorus of responses from everyone else save the hosts, who merely grinned at how unanimous the opinion was. This team effort made Trixie balk, and she turned to the others in the room for help.

"Innkeeper, they are ganging up on your poor guest, will you save me with more history knowledge to drown out their traitorous voices? I seek knowledge about the Alliance!"