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As we walked toward the center of town, Ruby explained that Port Royale was divided pretty much across the middle, east to west. On the south side of the line had gathered everyone who supported Elizabeth as mayor and her push to use the Expanse club to rack up VIP points. On the north side were folks who support the old council more.

Steve added, "More specifically, on the northwest side are mostly crafters and non-combat folks, while the fighters and militia are more on the northeast."

"People sure are putting a lot of effort into dividing everyone."

"More than you can imagine," Steve grunted.

"You got the pulse of the place pretty fast."

He shrugged. "I know how to keep my eyes open."

All of his eyes, apparently. Probably had some clones scouting for him. Those were proving more and more useful.

My team had set up tents along the outer rim of the northeast side, near the demon statue marker number 18. The statues were placed so close to the outer perimeter that the thick defensive wall had been built with cutouts around each one.

When we passed the first one, I nodded toward the alcove with the statue inside. "Why not just knock those down? Would have made construction easier, right?"

Steve shrugged. "Apparently they're very hard to break and the columns extend pretty deep. The builders were in such a hurry, they didn't want to waste time. Elizabeth decided they looked neat, so ordered the cutouts."

"She should have kept a perimeter walkway along the inside of the wall."

Instead of simply following the wall around to our tent area, we had to head toward the center of town first. All roads radiated off of the central axis roads. It made a cool spoke effect visually, but made crossing residential areas kind of a pain. Next time, I'd just stay on top of the wall to move around to our area.

Despite the encroaching twilight, the center of town was pretty chaotic by the time we arrived. With the fighting over, the streets were packed with folks repairing buildings, shopping, or just discussing the attack. Tensions seemed a lot higher than I'd ever seen in town on lower stages. Did the close proximity cause it, or the attack, or was the tension between town leaders trickling down?

Speaking of angry town leaders, the square in front of the castle was packed with people gathered around Elizabeth, who was embroiled in a shouting match with Tony and Burns. They were arguing about the attack and the town's response. She was angry that defenders under Tony and Burns's authority had allowed so much damage, while they were angry she wasted so much time and town resources on frivolous things instead of buying much-needed defensive arrays.

I tried to slip around, but Burns noticed me and waved. "Lucas! You're back. Get over here."

Fifty people turned to stare. I seriously considered just leaving. I didn't want to get dragged into their arguments, but I did have important news to share. So I squared my shoulders and headed in.

Elizabeth Maberly, the illustrious town mayor, was dressed like an adult copycat version of Jasmine from Aladdin. She wore blue bikini shorts with wispy leggings that did little more than showcase her shapely legs. The bright blue halter top left her shoulders bare, along with a pretty impressive set of abs. She might be insane, but she was good looking. She'd changed her hair to thick, black tresses that hung down her back to her waist, held back from her face by a golden circlet wet with a huge blue sapphire.

Tony wore Tony Stark business casual. He'd retracted his flowing Iron Man power suit and looked ready to walk into a board meeting. Burns's matte black fantasy kevlar breastplate looked battered, but he looked otherwise unharmed. I didn't know most of the people flanking Elizabeth, but didn't bother Identifying them yet.

As I approached with my team trailing behind, Elizabeth was still complaining. "I can't believe you failed to capture me a Mech-mantis for interrogation. I could have garnered a lot of points from such an encounter.

"I guess we were too busy trying to keep our people from getting slaughtered," Burns responded flatly, burly arms crossed over his armored chest.

She snorted and rounded on me without missing a beat. "And you! What took you so long? Again the town was in danger and again you were late!"

She was in rare form, but I didn't sense real anger. It was more like she was playing a character. Did she think she'd get more points by acting like a tyrant? Wasn't working for me, so I waited just long enough for her to impatiently open her mouth to demand something else.

I cut her off, speaking calmly. "Way I see it, I just saved the town. Again. Even killed 3 mini bosses. You need me, and I delivered. Stop whining."

"You were still late. People died who might have lived."

Yeah, that was a valid point. I'd checked the counter on the walk over. We'd lost like 50 people since I'd last looked. We'd driven off the monsters, but we couldn't afford such losses. There were barely 300 of us left. Still, I couldn't protect everyone all the time.

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"I was busy."

"What could possibly be more important than protecting the town?" she demanded, assuming a disgusted pose, head cocked, hands on hips.

"Meeting with Queen Marisara."

That shut her up. It also triggered a wave of excited murmurs through the crowd. Hopefully idiots weren't spreading rumors that I was colluding with the enemy, or anything.

"What did she say?" Tony asked.

"No," Elizabeth interrupted. "This is vital news. You must meet with the council." She waved toward the castle. That didn't sit well with a lot of people, who started shouting that everyone should know.

"We will share the information once we have ascertained its full import," she promised, but didn't look away from me.

"Sure. Happy to tell you what I learned, but I want the old council to join us too."

Both Tony and Burns looked pleased, while some of the folks standing close behind Elizabeth scowled at me. She made a fake little laugh. "You are such a treat, Lucas. I have no use for Paul. Crystal is still serving an important function." She waved toward Tony and Burns. "You two may join us this time."

"We're in charge of the militia, so we'd better," Burns responded.

That was still better than I'd hoped, so I nodded, then turned back to my team. "I'll be back soon."

"I need to help check the wounded anyway," Ruby said.

Tomas added, "Me too."

He was an actual Earth surgeon, but he didn't have a healer class. Ruby could probably accomplish a lot more with her magical first aid kit.

Steve said, "The rest of us will help repair the gate before the insects come back."

I followed Elizabeth and her new council up to the spacious council chamber. The first new councillor was a 40-something woman with a severe face and huge eyes. More buggish than alluring, though.

"Elayne Dubois. Baby human, level 45. Team Wheel of Time. Class: Backroom Advocate. Channeling her lingering resentment at never achieving greatness as an actress, Elayne has developed a fascinating build around poisons, stealth, and back-stabbing."

Paul had warned me about her once, but I'd never interacted with the woman. She sat at Elizabeth's right hand, dressed in a brown medieval blouse and black slacks. She regarded me with a not-quite-hostile gaze, and I vowed never to turn my back on her.

The other 2 new council members were both men, and both on Elizabeth's team. The first, a middle-aged, rather pudgy guy with flat brown hair, wore the brightest jumble of clothing I'd seen since arriving on Arasha. The cut of the clothes reminded me of period films, but the colors were off the charts.

"David Collins. Baby human level 40. Team Pride & Prejudice. Class: Whisper Bluff Stitcher. Combining his love of great clothes and towering pride at winning the honor of serving someone so much better than himself, David loses himself in the work of bringing clothing fantasy to life."

Huh. That was weird, and rather uninspiring. The other man was physically the total opposite. Young, good-looking with well-styled black hair, he looked fit and confident.

"Cobey Scott. Baby human, level 42. Team Pride & Prejudice. Class: Twilight Fortress Guardian. With dreams of being a hero, Cobey has dedicated himself to protecting his team leader and all she holds dear."

That could have been more enlightening. Both men watched Elizabeth with the absolute dedication. I didn't expect to hear any original ideas or even a dissenting comment. Elizabeth had filled her council with true lackeys.

Elizabeth settled into the soft chair at the head of the table with the air of a queen holding court. "Now, Lucas, tell us about your meeting with Queen Marisara."

"What was she wearing?" David interjected eagerly.

"The same scale armor from the most recent video."

He actually pouted. "I can't work without inspiration."

"You'll figure something out," Elizabeth soothed.

Okay, then. I briefly explained about getting teleported to the Atlantis dungeon entrance cave, but got immediately interrupted by Burns.

"You're sure Martin and Trish Briggs are in league with the enemy?"

"Absolutely. They're probably lurking around town, and their old pals from the Teamsters' have made it clear they'll give them sanctuary."

"Idiots," Tony cursed, then turned to Elizabeth. "Can you get Ray Winstone to understand the truth?"

Ray was one of the Teamsters leaders who had fallen under Elizabeth's charm. Might get something good out of her influence after all.

"I will," Elizabeth promised. "Continue."

When I related Queen Marisara's offer, Burns actually barked a laugh. "Good read on that one, Lucas. We took a huge risk allying with the zombies."

"It paid off mostly," Elizabeth argued.

He shrugged. "I doubt we'd get so lucky with Marisara."

"You should have used a little imagination," Elayne chided me. "Maybe a full partnership is out of the question, but just think about how many VIP points we could get if we managed to secure a little 1-on-1 negotiating with that Thalorian angel marshal of hers."

Elizabeth leaned back, nodding at the idiotic idea. "I wonder if we could re-open negotiations. Lucas, where was that dungeon?"

"I have no idea. I didn't use the door. Even if I had, Queen Marisara is not someone to trifle with. Forget about playing games with Thalorian. That guy's seriously terrifying.

That only seemed to intrigue the ladies even more. Did they forget our ultimate mission? I glanced to Tony, who rolled his eyes. Burns just scowled.

"I managed to escape the trap and learned a couple other important things."

I shared what I knew about the clockwork insects and the flying fish, including the fact that the Mech-mantises controlled the clockwork beasts. I still had no idea who was in charge of the flying fish, but that last map page I hadn't managed to scan in detail had suggested it might be mermaids.

I shouldn't have said it. As soon as they heard "Mermaids," Elizabeth's cronies got way too excited.

"We need to meet them," Cobey said.

"An exotic encounter would win so many more points," Elayne agreed, while David was already sketching mermaid-themed night gowns on a long, rolled parchment with a magical pencil that changed colors constantly.

I tried to turn the conversation to what I'd learned about Echo City, but Cobey interrupted. "We need to make contact with those mermaids ASAP."

"Maybe arrange to include one of them in a pageant," Elayne suggested to gasps of excitement from the others.

Idiots were going to get themselves butchered, thinking of monsters as potential partners they could use to rack up points. When we did find the stage bosses, the fools would get slaughtered if they didn't wake up. Or worse, lead monsters back into town.

I should just get up and leave, but I couldn't help trying to shake them back to reality. "Listen, your drama club won't work with bosses. We have to plan to defeat them. We need everyone--"

Bug-eyed Elayne interrupted. "Ooh, Drama Club, I like that."

Elizabeth snapped her fingers. "David, get the word out immediately. Drama Club is the official name of the contest for winning the most VIP points. We'll roll it into the pageant tomorrow."

The entire group started chatting about plans to move some of the party events to the castle while the club was being repaired. They seemed to totally forget the town had nearly been overrun just moments ago and that we were under a huge time crunch.

It wasn't like any of them would take part in the raids to take on the bosses anyway, but it was like they'd mentally cracked under the pressure of the past 2 weeks.

"I'll leave you to your plans," I said, rising and heading for the door. Both Tony and Burns followed.

Outside, Burns blew out a long breath and said, "That insanity is getting to a point we're going to have to intervene."

"Not here," Tony said sharply. "Paul and Crystal will be waiting. Lucas, will you join us? I have some updates for you too."

"Lead away."

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