act17mini

While you're short of customers, Fatwallet, you need to get your stuff outside the cordon. I can help.

Eh, fine by me. Not like I've got any customers.

Really?

That's great! I'll get started, then.

Gonna need payment first though. If I have to move my whole stall, then you're gonna have to rent the spot from me.

R-Rent? But this is just an empty spot by the road...

Well, it's mine now. It's a good spot by the Furnace, lots of slackers hanging about. It's warm, too. You can get your three squares a day here, without having to waste energy at home. It won't be cheap.

Anyway, that's enough free talk. You want anything more out of me, it's gonna cost ya. You're getting in the way of business here.

Hey—

Nymph looks to the Soul Furnace with worry. It might be her imagination, but the smoke appears to be getting thicker.

A job only I can do?

Sure, Ermi! My purse has been pretty light lately, so this is a lifesaver! What do you need from me? Repairs? Looking after burdenbeasts? I can do a little bit of everything.

Oh, I would never task you with something so trivial, o kind and considerate Nymph. It'd be a terrible waste of talent.

Let me think... What should this position be called... Neighborhood... Officer?

Neighborhood Officer?

Alright, I may have just come up with that title. But it's really important! You'll be the friendly neighborhood solver of any tricky issues.

As you know, ever since that Victorian business, we've been dreadfully spread thin, and maintaining order in the streets is becoming more difficult by the day.

But when it comes to making sure everyone's safe, you're one of the best. You're Kazdel's most considerate Djall, after all.

I... I am?

But... Okay! I get the idea!

Make sure everyone's safe... Just leave it to me, Ermi! I'll do my very best!

Fatwallet, if I rent this spot from you, you'll move outside the cordon, right? That's what you said. Let me see, my...

Where's my purse?!

Wait, it's definitely on me somewhere... I must have put it in another pocket... How could this be...? Maybe I forgot to bring it with me when I left the house...?

Looks like I've got a fool on my hands. Maybe you're a nice, honest soul? Nope, there's no such thing. So a fool you must be.

My purse is gone... And the ceremony's almost over now...

Fatwallet! Please please please move your stall away, please? If you don't move, then Steelskull won't either, then everyone's going to get burned by the Furnace.

Ugh, that big lummox still holding a grudge? All I did was store my goods in his house while he was out fighting. Not like he said I couldn't.

I looked after that daughter of his for years! Him? He slinks back from Victoria, tail between his legs, completely empty-handed. You think I babysit for free?!

You looked after her? You raised her to be a *Sarkaz swearing* thief! I gave her a name so I could send her off to learn to read and write! And you ruined all that!

Wait, please stop fighting. The Furnace... the cordon... there's no time!

Ah! That's my purse! Please don't run—

Ow!

Nymph is tripped up by the girl and lands face-first in a puddle of mud. Bystanders chuckle as they help her up, and covered from head to toe in muck, she glances dejectedly at the quarreling duo.

Everywhere she looks, people are going about their business as usual within the cordon. Even the pushover wandering singer is sitting cross-legged, composing a new song by the light of the furnace.

Oh what to do, what to do~♪ What she wants~ Is really simple~♪♪ But now she finds herself~ In a pickle♪

You done yet? What's taking so long? Wasn't the last few times real smooth?

If you can't hack it, just step down and let me. Hey—

*sigh* Who even let you up here, Wiš'adel? Did I not instruct Ermengarde to keep everyone away from the ceremony?

It's bad enough that you're here, did you really have to bring that one along too?

You've been floating up there forever and nothing's happened. I came because I was worried about you!

You came because you wanted to rubberneck! As for being worried about me, best you worry about yourself.

What's to worry about? I wasn't the one who stuffed our ancestors in the fire to roast like sweet potatoes.

Good. Those who dare speak to a revenant in such a manner tend to meet an unhappy end.

The murderer... returns.

Is it him? He must... pay! MAKE HIM PAY!

Pain, agony, forsaken... all his debts! How dare he...

Silence, all of you! Listen, to what he has to say!

Debt? I owe you nothing.

It was all... a necessary price to pay.

Then why did you not stay?

Then why do you not throw them in too?

Then why did you return?!

I am here to pick you up.

Your duty is at an end.

I've come to welcome you, as you leave this cramped purgatory.

Ridiculous! Laughable!

It was you who threw us in here! You who left alone!

How dare you? HOW DARE YOU?

How dare you return? So brazen and condescending?

I will see you pay the price! I will see everything burn in the raging flames of this furnace as we did!

I understand your anger. I will face your wrath.

But now, I just want you to come up and see the Kazdel today.

Come and see. See the city you've devoted yourselves to. It is proof that you lived—

You have no place to say that to us!

No, wait... You... the one we called the eldest of revenants...

Why have you become like... this?

Hah...

You need not feel sorrow for me.

My shattered soul has been burned away. Nothing is left.

Eldest of revenants... Why...?

Why are you in a cannon?

No, it's more like a Sankta gun.

Our vaunted elder, trapped inside a Sankta gun.

Haha... Hahahaha!

Hahahahaha...

What're they arguing about, old man? Translate for me.

Hmm... I'm not entirely sure it could be called an argument.

Huh? Why so quiet all of a sudden? They hashed things out already?

Pffeh... Pffh! Maybe don't blast ash in your guest's face?

What the hell was that?

Based on my prior dealings with these fellows, that would be the equivalent of spitting in your face.

Me? What did I do?!

*Sarkaz swearing*! Hey, you old farts! What gives?!

I... This...

You... are all...

BEYOND REASONING!

What's going on?

General! Our cannons! They've started charging on their own! I think it's the remnants of the revenant fragment in the core, it's—

Starting up our guns, is it? What's the target?

If I'm reading this right... It's the Soul Furnace!

Quick! Cut all power—

Fantastical lights explode and streak across the night sky like a rain of fire.

Cold, weary, and unchanging as ever, Kazdel silently absorbs their fiery descent.

There is always someone awake, yearning for a glimpse of something different from the small patch of night sky outside their window.

Something like... a sudden, violent burst of fireworks.

The Furnace!

Who! Fired! That! Cannon?!

My roof! Darn it, I just fixed it up a few days ago. Where'd that big rock even come from...? And what's that burning smell?

Ow! My head... hot hot hot!