November 04, 2023

Hook

Along Treacherous Lines VII - A Deal with the Devil [S&S]

Plot Synopsis

Early in the morning, Wisteria leaves for Ulos to speak with her mentor, Sunflight Tsorren. The party, meanwhile, heads to the Kentaro estate hoping to support and resolve things there. However, unbeknownst to anyone, Kentaro has called in an arrest on Yugon. They are surrounded by guards, and Yugon heads to jail without a fight. On the way over to the prison, they run into a devilkin diplomat named Zima, who Cyrus immediately feels is suspicious but has no evidence to back up his hunch.

Kentaro, Raiden, and Yugon enter an interrogation room, and Kentaro offers Yugon a deal: his estate, and the Raikougan as a whole, will forget about him and treat the Kasha as well and truly dead - if he promises to never again harm a Raikougan citizen and aid the Shogunate in the war; even floating the idea of invading Ruefang. Yugon seems receptive to the first condition, but absolutely refuses the second: he will not be a weapon again.

Rilo and Cyrus hear the whole thing, and Cyrus starts to hatch a plan to break Rilo out. Meanwhile, Rilo notices a rat that seems to have been dead for a week moving around, and then is suddenly dead again. Baffled, he heads out and just sits around, trying to process the past few days. He overhears a conversation between Zima, Kentaro June, and Kentaru Shinobu - where Zima is encouraging the two Kentaros to support invading the continent and they flat-out refuse.

That night, Cyrus breaks into the Kentaro prison, stabs a guard, and knocks out the one guarding Yugon’s cell. To cover their escape, he sets a fire - which distracts Ryou enough for them to escape mostly unnoticed. Raiden and Rilo, who were both staying at the Raiden household, notice the flames and rush over, arriving just as Cyrus and Yugon escape through a portal to Yugon’s village. Rilo dashes after them, barely making it through, as Raiden summons a storm to put out the fire.

At the village, Yugon and Rilo begin to get into a brawl before Same Bo, Yugon’s wife, interrupts and demands to know what’s going on. Rilo doesn’t answer, but Cyrus covers for him. They get into a tense discussion about Yugon’s past, and Same reveals that she knew he was the Kasha all along. The topic of conversation turns to death and dealing it, and Cyrus pulls Rilo and Yugon aside, sharing his experiences with death.

He then undoes his bandages and reveals he is a skeleton, taking the other two… less by surprise than he had thought. Coming to a temporary truce, the group goes to bed. Raiden and Kentaro speak with Michi, who mentions that Zima is heading to the Shogunate palace next morning.

In his dreams, Raiden meets an aspect of Mishra in a war-torn dreamscape, who expresses a load of vagueries to him and, after Raiden begins to get frustrated at the lack of information, reveals that someone is going to attempt to steal the Shogunbane. Before Raiden heads back to bed, he tells Ryou and Michi to meet up early the next morning to head the thieves off.

Noteworthy Postgame Events