"Forty-three-percent of the Vespars budget is allocated to city-alert..."

Yawn.

"There is only a very slim chance of the Niles deal passing through.  Setevali has been more disagreeable than ever before concerning it.  Our analysts have reason to believe that this is due to pressure from the renegade nation of Western Setevali.  The chance of overcoming this pressure is very small in both personal and industrial terms and most likely the deal will have to be compromised to the point of being unprofitable if it should even be passed through at all."

What was that?  Something about blackmailing and profit and other rambling...

"Due to the fact that it was too soon to commission some transportation from the Galliope isles, the route shall have to be taken by land.  This decreases the efficiency and ups the travel cost by eighty percent and thirty percent respectively.  Recently, thief attacks particularly from one Lexia Hackandine have increased to extend even beyond her normal area of activity in Alistaire.  In addition, the non-preferential nation of Altiere lies in the most direct route to Setevali, and the renegade dangerous savage war nation of Alistaire is very close by.  Thus in this case, risk does not equal reward."

The long black-haired speaker continued talking on the podium as the girl with the hood over her eyes thought of falling asleep.  Several others looked the same way.

"Further studies would show that even if the Niles deal were to be heavily in Macbelious' favor, it would still be more reasonable to just use the funds that would have been spent on the Niles deal to fund more Vespars.  They are guaranteed, and in addition Macbelious already gets the discount for frequent hire miles.  The price of the Vespars is in fact only ninety-four percent of the average price that we can expect from the Niles deal in terms of firepower provided to the square mile.  The fact that some Vespars are actually being expended to lead the trip to Setevali only furthers this fact and..."

She didn't have the heart to tell the speaker that you know you're really boring when you can make even boring members of the Macbelious Senate fall asleep with your speeches.

Maybe she could just close her eyes for a few seconds...

"I know you're asleep under that hood of yours."

"W... what?"  The cloaked girl quickly glanced over at the speaker, who had apparently finished a while ago and sat down next to her.

"You never did care about politics much back in law school."  She continued.

"Oh Lin, it's not just that."  The lady replied.  "Well, okay, so maybe I did get bored out of my mind for a moment back there.  But I'm also wearing this because I don't want mom to notice I'm here."

"I hope you realize anonymity is illegal."  Linda remarked.

"Don't worry about it.  My latest boyfriend had everything checked out.  This hood just barely meets all the requirements of facial revealing and yet is good enough to conceal my identity from a distance when she walks up to the podium."  The cloaked girl quickly looked around.  "Speaking of my boyfriend... you should probably put this on."

She quickly took off the cloak and hood and plopped it over a rather surprised Linda.  A few moments later, a certain lawyer spotted her and walked over to take the seat to the other side of her.

"Ah, my dear Alexis!"  Johnson somewhat eagerly greeted, but in a whisper so as to not disturb the current speaker that was speaking.  "I didn't know you were here.  Generally this was a private Senate meeting but I got invited in because I'm directly involved with the issue being discussed."

"I had some connections."  Alexis replied.

"Hmm... is this a friend of yours?"  Johnson glanced over at Linda, but couldn't recognize her since the hood was covering her entire face, as Linda was still trying to put the thing properly on.  "I see you let her borrow that hooded cloak I brought you last year."

"Oh, her?  This is Lin.  She was a friend of mine since I entered law school."  Alexis glanced over at Linda, but didn't bother trying to help her put on the hood.  "She was invited to be a guest speaker here."

"Hmm... intrigueing.  Good day, then, Lin."  Johnson remarked, trying to figure out why the other woman had stopped struggling and just decided to leave the hood completely concealing her face.  "Shy, isn't she?"

"Erm, yea.  Let's talk about something else."  With that request, Alexis quickly changed the subject.  "So, do you think your trip will be approved?"

"I believe it's officially called a mission of diplomatic trade, but I suppose trip is a nice shorter way of referring to it as."  Johnson straightened out his collar and smiled.  "For some reason, the Libercrats haven't heavily opposed the idea, and the Radicans are all for it.  All I need is the approval of the current holder of the Two-Hundredth and Thirty-Fourth seat, Olmen Murray.  Well, technically I don't legally need it, but certainly it would definately help from a public relations standpoint.  Olmen Murray leans more towards the Radican side, so I believe that nothing can go wrong.  Ah, it's his turn to speak right now."

A rather upper-middle aged sixties year-old man in a generic brown Macbelious lawyer suit slowly walked to the podium.  His gaze went from left to right, and the wrinkles in his face deepened as his eyes squinted.

The audience became even more quiet than before to see what the current holder of the two hundredth and thirty-fourth seat had to say regarding the issue.

Noticing that Johnson was distracted in anticipation, Linda took the oppurtunity to have a few more whispered words with his girlfriend.

"Johnson?!"

"Quite a catch, isn't he?"  Alexis beamed back.  "With Johnson along, Alexis Corp's future is guaranteed."

"You know what, I'm not even going to bother to ask."  Linda sighed.  "You always do things like this."

"Membership has doubled since last time."  Alexis proudly proclaimed.  Of course, she already knew that Linda knew that wasn't saying much considering that Alexis Corp membership had a count of approximately one, but it was still fun to rub it in.

"Interesting."  Linda must have figured she could use this brief opportunity to find out more about her opponent.  "What do you know about Johnson's loyalty to... Corporation de Lavencroft, anyway?"

Seeing that Linda still had trouble acknowledging her wonderful little syndicate as valid, Alexis was slightly irritated, despite the fact that her wonderful little syndicate was obviously not valid.  She decided to ignore Linda's question.  "Johnson's loyalty isn't being questioned at all, if that's what you want to know.  Why?  Something going on with mom and the Libercrat party?  I won't tell."

"Against all my objections, Miriam Ravenlosk has decided to lead the Libercrat party to actually endorse Johnson's mission of diplomacy."  Linda replied with an extremely dissappointed tone.  "She believes that it will fail miserably and thus prove the Libercrat point.  All studies of mine show that will probably be the case, but Johnson never was one to follow predicted results.  Predicted results followed him, usually too far behind for anyone to realize who's fault it was that they came."

Olmen Murray was still waiting, seemingly enjoying making the tension rise.

Linda continued, though by now she was more talking to herself than anyone else.  "Our old school... Macbelious Cielmaron University... it's only a shadow of what it once was, now.  You know that, right?"

Alexis rolled her eyes.  Something she did often whenever she was talking to her room mate.  "Lin, I hardly think you can blame Johnson for that."

She didn't get a response, though Johnson chose that time to finally speak again.

"What is he waiting for?  This is absurd!"  He remarked.

As if he read Johnson's mind, Olmen Murray smiled and finally started talking.

"Good day.  I am senator Olmen Murray, number two hundred thirty-four."

That was an odd way of stating his position, but everyone simply shrugged it off and continued listening.  Olmen Murray, despite holding one of the lesser positions in the Senate, was extremely well-respected.  He could have climbed the ladder higher if he wanted to as he certainly had the popularity to do it.

"I see you are all waiting for me to voice my opinion on this issue.  In doing so, you believe I also will be voicing my opinion on the candidate that I believe should succeed me."

This resulted in a little surprise from the crowd.  Olmen Murray was right, but no one had dared to say it out loud to the entire public.

"This also means that I won't be running again.  Ever.  It means that I am no longer politically bound to look good in public.  It means that I don't give a damn about how I look in public.  Which means I can say whatever the hell I want to say."

The old man coughed and cleared his throat, but his pause wasn't long enough to give anyone enough time to give a reaction.

"You all suck.  This idea sucks.  The entire damn system sucks my... oh nevermind.  You'll never listen anyway and you all run around like chickens with their heads cut off so who the hell cares what I say?  This is probably illegal of me to talk like this but it doesn't matter because any law regarding that sucks and you all know it does, despite your immense collective suckage.  Good day!"

The old man walked off the podium.

Alexis wasn't sure if she agreed with what he said, but one thing was for sure, the look that Murray's speech gave to the two people she was sitting in between... no, the look it gave to the entire senate was rather priceless.

Now if only they said out loud what the look in their faces said.  "What the FUCK was that?!?"

She would have paid good money to see that.
 

***
 

"Mr. Minstrol?"  The curly-haired brunette secretary adjusted her glasses.  "Mr. Murray will see you now."

"Ah, excellent!"  Johnson stood up from his chair and saluted the secretary.

She smiled back.  "I suppose I should give you a small warning about Sir Murray.  Be brief and to the point.  He despises presentations that last more than three minutes."

"I thank you for the advice."  Johnson kindly replied.  "Well, time to get started then."

The senator-potential stepped into the office.  It was significantly more elegant than most offices with redwood walls and floors, a painting of what looked like six people on the wall, red cushioned chairs, and a clean oak desk, in a room on one of the higher floors of the tower, showing Murray's rich success despite his low official position in the political scheme of things.  Olmen Murray himself, was simply looking out the window, and didn't seem to care much about the new visitor.

"I know why you're here."  He bluntly stated.  "You want to try to convince me to give you my political support for your pointless little campaign."

Hmm... this was quite unorthodox already.  Some shrewd negotiation and debate would be necessary here.

"Well, get on with it."  Murray snapped.  "I haven't got all day.  You probably won't convince me but in the end it won't make a difference.  What do you have to say about your little 'adventure'?'"

Or not.

Johnson paused, at a loss of what to say.  He eventually decided that the only thing he could resort to was the small talk, since Murray apparently wasn't in the mood to debate anything.

Johnson cleared his throat.  "I've been thinking... you seem to be a bit disturbed about something.  You definately aren't acting like the Olmen Murray which the public has grown to admire so much."

"That's none of your business."  Murray turned to look back out the window.  "If you have nothing to say then, just leave."

"Well, I apologize for being blunt, but I did come here with something to say although it's already painfully obvious that you are not in the mood to listen."  Johnson dissappointedly remarked.  "Perhaps this is a bad time."

"It'll always be a bad time."  Murray commented as he watched over the city-state of Macbelious from his vantage point.  "Are you finished, yet?"

Johnson sighed.  "I guess that would be it then.  Do you have anything that you would like to say?  You weren't exactly very specific with why you felt the way you do about the Niles deal back at that meeting, and I'm curious as to why you called my mission of diplomatic trade an 'adventure'."

"Of course I have a lot to say."  The old man snapped.  "But it won't affect anything since no one will listen."

"They can't listen if there's nothing to listen to."  The visitor was getting rather annoyed with the stubborness of the old man.  "I can see that this is sadly pointless.  Well, good day then."

Johnson turned to leave the room.

"Wait."  Olmen Murray smirked as Johnson turned around.  "You're an idiot.  I like that.  Do you really want to hear about it?"

"I'm not exactly what 'it' is, but I would most certainly love to hear about it regardless."  Johnson replied.

Olmen Murray walked over to the crudely-done painting of six people on the wall.  "Do you see this painting, Johnson Minstrol?  You probably can't identify the six people in it.  Because it's a piece of crap.  Allow me to tell you about them.  Of course, one of them was me..."
 

***
 

In the large barren desert, the sandstorm continued raging against the two helpless men.  They shielded their eyes and continued struggling onward, persisting... daring to traverse the desert... mocking death in the face.

Johnson, in the meanwhile, stared at the two like an idiot wondering what was going on.

It was hard to recognize the two amidst the sandstorm, but one of them did look rather similar to Olmen Murray, except he was much younger, more energetic looking, yet still retained the angry look that Olmen had taken up ever since his final speech to the Senate.

Only when some sand flew right into his eye did Johnson realize that he should probably hurry up and follow the two.  One of them pointed to a city in the distance, which oddly enough the sandstorm wasn't even touching.  They pressed onwards, struggling to make those last necessary steps.

Johnson, meanwhile, was blind as a bat after the sand-in-the-eye incident but when he opened his eyes, he found that he too was in the city.

He realized that the one that looked like Olmen was really Olmen, though quite a bit younger.  He looked to be in his mid thirties instead of the old sixties senator that Johnson was accustomed to.

Johnson looked around the desert city of sandstone buildings.  In the sky, several people rode by on broomsticks.  Some merchants were trying to deal with the general citizens in the marketplace, though they obviously weren't having much success.  The one listening to the story glanced around.

"This... this is Altiere!"  Johnson stated, quite surprised.

"Yes!  This is Altiere!  We finally made it past the desert!"  A young man with short brown hair behind Johnson eagerly spun around and hugged a rather annoyed Olmen.  "Elron Gatti will give us the deal for sure!  This marks a new age for Macbelious, Olmen!  We'll be famous!"

Olmen spit out some sand and wiped his eyes.  "Dammit, George, it's a lousy trade agreement regarding some simple reagents, you moron.  I hardly think that qualifies as a new age."

"That's... George Revarre!?"  Johnson stood back in shock as he slowly realized he was seeing the past-version of thecurrent Macbelious Radican party leader.

"Well, duh!"  George snapped.  He glanced at Murray.  "Hey Olmen, who's this loser?  When did he join us?"

"He's an idiot.  Just ignore him."  Murray replied, not caring about Johnson's growing annoyance with that commentary.

"You think everyone's an idiot."  The future Radican leader stated.

"Oh very well."  Murray conceded.  "This is Johnson, and he doesn't exist.  There, are you happy now?"

"Forgive my remark but..."  Johnson stared at the storyteller.  "I didn't know that you were... erm, such a stingy old man persona when you were young.  This is most certainly an unexpected surprise."

"Shut up."  Murray responded.  "Do you want to listen to the damn story or not?"

"My apologies.  Please continue."

Murray motioned to George.  "That's George Revarre.  He's a dim-headed overly-enthusiastic twit.  One of Cielmaron's six private students.  You know him as the current leader of the 'we want change for the hell of it because change is fun' Radican party."

Johnson was too surprised at other news to take note of Olmen's criticizing of his political alignment.  "Cielmaron?  The great holder of the first seat in the senate for almost thirty years?!  I didn't know he had students!"

"You'll see why he didn't make it public soon enough once you get a load of the other idiots I had to put up with as fellow classmates."  Murray muttered.

Revarre dumped some sand out of his shoes.  "Whew, I thought we weren't going to make it there for a moment, Murray.  We'd better hurry up and go see that Gatti fellow."

"Yea, sure."

Murray followed Revarre to a nearby tavern, but Johnson figured he'd take a look around Altiere for a moment to see if it was still as he remembered it.  He didn't get very far though when he found himself in the tavern that Revarre and Murray were heading to.

A big hammer appeared out of thin air and bonked Johnson on the head.

"Hey, stupidhead!"  Murray snapped.  "This is my damn story!  You can't go around exploring independently during a flashback, dipshit!"

Johnson rubbed his head.  "Er... sure, I'll make a note to remember that next time I get sucked into someone's flashback."

While Murray was reprimanding Johnson for not following the story, Revarre had eagerly dashed up to two older men.  One was wearing a Macbelious suit but also had an ascot.  The other wore a rather flashy neon robe... as opposed to pants.

"Hey Sir Elron!  We did it!  We took your dare and traversed the Altiere desert!"  Revarre proudly stated to the flashy mage.

"You WHAT?"  The other man next to Elron was shocked.  "Do you know how dangerous that was?  You are too reckless, Sir Revarre."

"Hey teach, don't worry about it."  George grinned.

"Teach?  That's Cielmaron?"  Johnson blinked.  "Why is he wearing an ascot?"

"There are some things you have to do to achieve an end, but sometimes the ends do not justify the means."  Cielmaron stated.  "This is a fatal flaw of yours.  You would be wise to correct it before it's too late."

"Ha!  I know what I'm doing!"  Revarre replied.  "You don't need to worry about me.  We're still alive, aren't we?  And we're getting the deal, too!"

"Not quite..."  Elron slowly commented, with a small hint of anxiety in his voice.  He looked over to another corner of the tavern, where a broody eighteen year-old wearing a jacket who looked to be about twenty two years old was brooding and a beautiful blonde wearing a sparkling dress was leaning over him talking to him as another girl, this time with black hair, yabbered on not noticing that he wasn't listening.

Revarre slapped himself in the forehead in aggravance, then stomped over to him.  "Hey Skoud, didn't do the delivery, huh?"

Skoud slowly glanced over to Revarre, and scoffed.  "Whatever.  We don't need it.  I don't care about this deal, anyway."  His gaze shifted to Cielmaron.  "Cielmaron, why did you make us come here if you knew these people didn't listen to reason?"

"There are many things which can not be accomplished by reasoning alone."  The teacher replied.  "I had brought you all here to see if you realized this, yet."

"Are you just going to give up?!"  Revarre yelled at Skoud.  "Would that make you happy, you quitter?  I don't think the rest of us would agree, right guys?"

"Don't worry Skoud darling.  You know that whatever makes you happy makes me happy."  The blonde commented, laying a finger on his chest.

"H... hey!"  The second black-haired girl yanked Skoud away.  "Why do you still hang out with that tramp?"

"Tramp?"  The accused slowly grinned evilly at the remark.  "Dear, I only happen to know what your 'boyfriend' wants.  You obviously can't fulfill his needs."

"What?!?"

The two were about to engage in what would probably have been quite the cat-fight, until Cielmaron calmly stepped in between them and raised his hand.  "I believe that's enough."

His quiet remark made both of them immediately stop.

Murray tapped Johnson on the shoulder to get his attention, then pointed to the blonde in the sparkling dress.  "That's Miriam Ravenlosk.  She's a damn tramp.  You know her as the current leader of the 'we're too damn wussy to have change because we're scared little children that want to cry to our mommies or boyfriends' Libercrat party."

"That's... an interesting way of describing her."  Johnson remarked as he watched her hitting on Skoud, whom already obviously had a girlfriend.  "I'm thankful that Alexis isn't like that.  'scared little children that want to cry to their mommies and/or boyfriends' is certainly a rather... colorful way of referring to the Libercrat party as."

Continueing to ignore him, Olmen motioned towards Skoud's girlfriend.  "That extra-airheaded girl is Alana Milan.  She's naive.  Not much more to say about her.  Being a student of Cielmaron's obviously didn't improve her very much.  No wonder why he decided to stop taking in more students."

"Hmm... don't recall hearing about her..."  Johnson commented.

"There's a reason for that."  Olmen responded, though he moved on and didn't delve further into that issue.  "And finally, that quiet broody pretty boy, that's Skoud Strifenheart.  He just sucks.  Though no one seems to realize it.  Currently Miriam has her sights set on him because he's the heir to a lot of money.  Supposedly his ancestors were great heroes and he was destined to save the world or some piece of crap like that."

Elron waved a piece of paper.  "Look, gentlemen, if you're not going to prove yourselves, how can I trust Altiere's finances to be spent on your silly little reagent deal?"

"You sure enjoy trusting them all to buying out Altiere's police force, don't you?"

Elron quickly turned around to spot a young tall man with purple hair and rather bushy eyebrows.  A smirk grew on Elron's face.  "Ah, if it isn't little boy Glasford Junior.  Here at this tavern to get some booze to continue feeding your father's little habit, I see?"

The magician noble had apparently pushed the right buttons, because 'Glasford Junior' had become noticeably peeved off.

"Hmm... who's the police boy?"  Miriam asked.

"Glasford is the family name of the current second in command of law enforcement.  Thus, I believe that is Gregor Glasford himself, judging from Sir Elron's tone."  Cielmaron whispered.  "This seems to be a private matter.  We'd best not intervene."

"Hmph.  Police."  Murray muttered under his breath.  "Useless.  Altiere police are nothing but pawns of Alitere's nobility, anyway."

Gregor Glasford, meanwhile, was remaining calm and composed but, judging by the twitching in his eyes, that wouldn't be for too long.

"Cut the crap, Elron.  You know that you can't go through with any trade deals without the support of the Altiere Senate."

Elron gave a haughty laugh before responding.  "Oh please, little man.  It's gotten to the point where I can say in public that the senate is but our puppet, just like your father.  Ha!  Or did you forget, boy, about how Glasford Senior requires Gatti's monthly hundred mark payments just so he can survive?  Because we all know that without his oh so precious little booze, he'll diiiiiiiiieeeeeeeiiiiiiieeee!!!  You know it, I know it, he knows it, and thus the law enforcement will forever enforce OUR laws.  Now get out of my face, little man."

That really ticked the officer off.  Gregor stood there angrily, but apparently couldn't think of a response, perhaps because he knew that what Elron said was true.  He stared at Elron for a moment, before finally running off.

"Futile little worm..."  Elron muttered.

Miriam blinked.  "Monthly payments of one-hundred marks?  That's... like... worth... ten thousand Macbelian Dollars... every... single... month..."

She glanced at Skoud then back at Greg, then looked at Skoud again.  "Forget you, darling.  You're too depressing, anyway.  And you have a serious ego problem.  You're always thinking of yourself when you should be thinking about me.  And that poor man is really in need of someone special to be there for him.  I can't just leave him there to cry all alone on good conscience, can I?"

With that comment, she dashed out of the tavern after Gregory.

Murray took out a notepad and read it over, then turned to look at Skoud.  "Congratulations, dipshit.  You managed to keep Miriam's attention for a good two years.  It's a new record.  You get the award for biggest moron who let himself be taken advantage of for the longest time."

Skoud shrugged.  "Hmph.  Doesn't matter."

But secretly, a tear formed in his eye.  Because broken love makes angels cry.  STOP MAKING THE ANGELS CRY!!!!

Alana was elated, though.
 

***
 

That night...

Johnson looked around the hotel.  "I'm sorry, but do you know where my bed is?"

Murray sighed.  "You don't have a bed, you moron.  You don't exist here, remember?"

"Well, if you knew you were going to include me in your flashback, the least you could have done was prepare the proper room and board."

"Bah!"  Murray snapped.  "When I was your age, we didn't have no stinkin' newfangled 'room and board.'  I had to walk through almost the entire Altiere desert just to get a simple reagent trade deal passed and..."

Johnson sighed.  Didn't Olmen already tell him about that?  Fortunately a knock on the door interupted the narrator.  Revarre burst into the room.

"Hey Olmen!  Hey nonexistiential loser guy!"  Revarre excitedly greeted.  "Elron got a vital tip from an informant!  If we help him out tonight, we can get the deal to go through and teach will have to give us an excellent grade for sure!"

"Is all of this shit worth it just to be able to say that we had approval of 'the great' Cielmaron, himself?"  Olmen sighed.  "Well, what is it this time?"

"Remember that underground alcove we stumbled across in the desert with the crystals embedded into the wall?  I mentioned it to Elron.  He thinks that it might be the legendary Khalidahlillama crystal!  All Elron wants us to do is lead him to it and he'll give us the deal!"

"Isn't that the same cave where that damn antlion tried to eat us?"  Murray replied, unimpressed.

"No, that was the fourth cave we came across.  And the fifth.  Well, actually, nearly every cave had an antlion in it.  But this one's the second, right in between the one that caved in on us and the one where we found that freaky skeleton."

"Oh, THAT underground cave.  Yea, I remember it.  Remember where it was, too."  Murray was rather annoyed at the memory.  "Damn, we really got off track back then."

"Hey, it looks like we hit paydirt!  I don't know what the heck a Khalidahlillama crystal does but Elron seemed excited enough.  I already told Skoud and our Vespar escort about it."  Revarre dragged Murray out of the room by the arm.  "Come on!  We don't have all night!"

"We don't?"  Murray sighed.
 

***
 

"Khalidahlillama crystal is something straight out of certain less popular Altiere fairy tales."  Menith Svenwell, a Vespar mage of about thirty years, explained.  "I hardly think this was in the job description.  Did your master Cielmaron approve of this?"

"Hey, Cielmaron hired you to protect us, not to be our parent!"  Revarre snapped.

The mage frowned.  "Very well.  But can we leave Lavian behind?  She's too young for this sort of thing. and diviners aren't meant for combat, anyway."

"I see dead people!!!"  Ten-year old Lavian cried.

Everyone frowned.

"A diviner, huh?"  Elron stared at the hole in front of them then glanced back at the group consisting of Murray, Skoud, Revarre, Svenwell, Lavian, the ever-nonexistant Johnson, and several of his own mage bodyguards.  "If she sees dead people, this might be more dangerous than I thought.  I heard that diviner's sight is so well that they can see history.  Her seeing dead people would indicate that people died here."

"Lavian ALWAYS sees dead people."  Murray muttered.  "You shouldn't worry about that."

"Hmm... well, I suppose the risk will be worth it for that crystal."  Elron replied.  "You all get to take frontline, of course."

The group was about to enter what looked like just another one of many antlion dens when Alana came running up behind them.  She was rather beaten from travelling all the way across the desert but apparantly didn't care.

"Skoud!!!!  Wait!!"

Skoud turned around.  "Alana?"

"Please don't go!"  Alana cried.  "It's dangerous!"

"Whatever."  Skoud replied.  "I have to."

"Then I'm coming with you!"

"Alana, it's too dangerous!"

"But Skoud!  I love you!!!"

"Alana..."

Murray turned to Johnson.  "Hmm... lessee... well, here Alana went over a very touching talk with Skoud about how her rich family was going to force her to marry someone she didn't love then she met Skoud and he gave her a reason to live and she can't live without him and they had a very nice emotional talk which changed the way they viewed each other forever.  But it's incredibly stupid and boring so I think I'll spare you the details of that conversation."

Johnson blinked.  "Erm.... my thanks... I guess."

Suddenly, a sandwhirlpool generated by a humongous antlion appeared!!  Fortunately most of the group was far away enough from it to avoid it, but Skoud got caught into it and was about to be dragged into the antlion's ravenous claws!!  NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Then Menith encased Skoud in a huge shield of water and levitated Skoud out of the antlion's clutches and the annoyed antlion gave up and delved back into the sand.

Deep inside the cave with a happy Alana next to her broody fairy boy, Elron inspected a glinting rock from the wall.  He had a pleased look on his face, and waved to everyone to continue.

That's when the really big mean antlion decided to strike.  It headed directly for Skoud!!!  NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

One dead antlion impaled on Skoud's big ass sword later and deeper into the cave, the group had finally come to a clearing.

"This story is getting very confusing..."  Johnson muttered.

Murray glared at him.  "Shaddup."

Elron's eyes grew wide as he stared at the humongous white crystal formation in front of him.  "KAHLI DAHLI LLAMA!!!!!!!!!!"

Menith sighed.  "They really need to think of a new name for that crystal.  Is it no wonder that the fairy tales that it's mentioned in are so unpopular?"

The happy Gatti family mage dashed around the crystal inspecting it from top to bottom.  "Yes, I believe this is it!  Legend has it that this crystal when refined has the ability to modulate one's physical energy into magical energy, instead!  With this, my family's power will rise above that of the other families and Gatti shall be declared the most powerful magical force in the universe!!  Someone hand me a pickaxe, quick!"

"But sir, isn't it dangerous to fool around with the crystal in its purest form?"  One of Elron's mages protested as Elron frantically chipped away a piece of the crystal with a pickaxe, then picked it up.

A huge fireblast instantly vaporized that mage and all the rest of Elron's mages as they were unfortunate enough to be in the near vicinity.  Elron, not caring that he had just killed his own troops or that he was stumbling around dizzily, was too busy insanely laughing with glee... as well as coughing with convulsions at the same time from expending so much energy.

"THE POWER!!!!  AH HA HAHAHAHAHA *cough cough HACK!*!!!!!"

Revarre, who, like the rest of his friends, had to back away and shield himself from the heat which still remained from the blast, stared at the ash that remained of Elron's troops.  "Great heavenly sweet merciful crap..."

"Ha!  With this... ack!"  Elron coughed again.  He paused to catch his breath, then continued, albeit still coughing every once in a while.  "With this, I can make as many *hack* magical soldier replacements as I want, anyway!  They say *cough* that in its purest form, Khalidahlillama crystal is *achoo!* so powerful that *HAAAARG!!* it *cough!* can grant magic power even to lowly nonmagical *hurk!* peons like you losers!!!"

Elron quickly handed a piece to the closest person, who in this case turned out to be Alana.  "Well, don't just stand there!  Try it!"

Alana stared at the crystal in her hand.  "Huh?  Magic for me?  Well... erm, this is... I guess I would always have liked to be able to cast a little lightning magic.  Just a little.  For the pretty lights."

Alana waved her hand but nothing happened.  Elron was extremely dissappointed.  He grabbed another piece of crystal and stared at it, then slowly closed his eyes and smiled.  "Ah ha!  I've discovered the secret!  Another rumour says that this crystal looks into your deepest wishes and grants them then uses that to make magic from the spirits of the ethereal realm.  Stupid girl, you didn't try hard enough.  Is there anyone here who isn't a coward who wants true power?"

Revarre backed up.  "No way!  That's some freaky shit right there."

"Yea..."  Murray agreed.

"Maybe I can try some?"  Johnson asked before Murray slapped him for being an idiot and forgetting that he wasn't supposed to exist.

Elron handed a humongous chunk of the crystal to Skoud.  "You there!  You try it!"

Skoud looked at the crystal and shrugged.  "Whatever."

He held onto the crystal envisioning dreams of greatness.  Dreams of glory.  Dreams of being the hero of the world.  For by his ancestors of the Strifenheart family, Skoud was destined to save the lands from the ultimate evil demon Astrogoth which was sealed away one thousand years ago and only now was coming back to life!  It was his duty.  It was destiny.

These thoughts were what went through Skoud's head as he transformed into a humongous brown long demon with a really long tail and long fangs potruding from it's blunt head which stuck out from the rest of its body, with a powerful heavenly atrocious leer levelling in catastrophe!!

"OH MY GOD!!!   This is it!  The entire soul of a person manifested into a magical energy creating the ultimate living being making an ethereal entity that is so powerful it can exist in the physical realm!!!!  The name of the Gatti family shall live on forever!!"  Elron excitedly exclaimed as the demon ate him.
 

***
 

"The dead people are in there!"  Lavian cried.

Cielmaron stared deeper into the cave and sighed.  "George Revarre, you've done it again..."

Even with that comment, Cielmaron was not expecting a huge explosion then his students and his other hired Vespar frantically dashing past him.

"Run for your lives!!!"  Revarre cried as Menith grabbed Cielmaron by the arm and dragged him away with Lavian running after them.

The powerful heavenly atrocious leering levelling in catastrophe monster dashed up to them.  It roared into the air an air-piercing cry.  "FRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!"

"Skoooooouuuuud!!"  Alana cried back, but the beast didn't cease it's pursuit.

Several blasts from Revarre's and Olmen's guns slammed into the beast.  The angry monster leaped to strike but Menith quickly put up another shield which knocked it back.

"Quickly!!!"  Menith exclaimed as the beast slammed into the wall.  "Now's our chance to escape!"

The group ran past the monster and dashed through another series of caverns before the beast came out of another passage and appeared right in front of them.

"We're all going to be die!!!"  Revarre's heart was beating too fast for him to use correct grammer.

"What the hell is going on?!?"  Cielmaron exclaimed.

Revarre and Murray desperately shot the beast again, but the monster despite being hurt continued it's attack.  It broke right through Menith's shield this time and landed right next to Alana.

Alana stared wide eyed at the monster as it reared back it's long claws to stab her.  Right before the creature struck, however, there was a huge flash and lightning blast through the ceiling that slammed the monster backwards.  She glanced over at Menith, who's magical blast had saved her life.  "Thanks!"

"I didn't know I could cast lightning magic."  Menith Svenwell stared at the charred monster.  He quickly changed the subject as the monster got up again.  "Ah!  We must get moving!"

The group had finally managed to dash out of the cave and into the desert, but the monster leapt out of the cave's entrance and had once again caught up to them.

"We'll never outrun it to Altiere!"  Revarre exclaimed

"This sucks."  Murray muttered.

The monster was about to leap again and land in the midst of the group, when a sandwhirlpool generated by an angry deceased antlion's mother in-law quickly sucked it down into it's depths.

As the monster was dragged into the giant antlion's claws, it gave one last roar of both anger and pain.  "FRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!"

Everyone stared at the barren sand where the monster had once been.  All was quiet.  Menith slowly turned to Alana.

"Alana, I'm sorry... but that wasn't Skoud.  Skoud was lost the minute his soul was consumed by the magic energy."

Alana looked at Menith, then back at the desert and sighed.  "No, that was Skoud.  Only Skoud would try to impale me with such a long sharp device when anyone else would have used it in a swinging motion instead..."
 

***
 

"So... I see, that's a real 'adventure', isn't it?"

Johnson and Olmen were back in Murray's office and the present time.

"I miss those times.  We had many experiences like that before."  Murray sighed.  "That was our last adventure together.  Somehow, we were able to get the trade agreement through and past the police force without Elron's help.  But it was only temporary.  When it failed, things changed.  For some reason, Miriam became a hardcore libercrat and rejected Cielmaron's teachings of unorthodox methods, ascending to become leader of the party.  Alana had long ago faded into the background.  You know what happened to Skoud.  And my own partner Revarre, since ascending in power and becoming leader of the Radican party, he slowly forgot everything that Cielmaron taught us.  You do know by now what Cielmaron's lesson was, do you?"

"Well... that story was incredibly confusing, incoherant, and awkward..."  Johnson muttered.  He looked up at a frowning Murray and quickly changed his tone.  "But it was an incredibly intrigueing story nonetheless!"

Murray smirked.  "You know, then.  You just don't know that you know, I suppose."

He looked back out the window again.

"Very well, Johnson.  Tomorrow at the next Senator meeting I will apologize, tell them that I was drunk that day, and give my support to your mission of diplomatic trade."  Murray turned around and shook Johnson's hand.  "It's illegal to be drunk at a senate meeting but they won't care.  Because they're idiots."

Johnson quickly shook Murray's hand happily.  "Why, thank you, my good man!  You won't regret this!  I wish you good day, then."

"Yea, sure, you too."  Murray replied.

Johnson exitted the office and found himself back at the waiting lounge.

Murray's secretary at the desk was rather surprised.  "I can see by the look on your face that you've been successful.  And that was most certainly longer than the three minutes limit that I warned you about."

Johnson brushed off one of his sleeves and straightened out his collar.  "Yes, it was the strangest thing.  I didn't get to give my presentation at all.  I just had to let Murray give his own, and for some reason he decided to give me his approval.  Odd, isn't it?"

The secretary smiled.  "Ah, just remember, Sir Minstrol, there are many things which can not be accomplished by reasoning alone."

"Hmm.... yes, I suppose."  Johnson commented.  "I think I'm beginning to understand, if just a little.  Well, I must be off now.  Good day.  Oh, I apologize, but I don't believe that I've gotten your name yet.  You don't have a secretary name tag on your desk like most secretaries of Macbelious do."

The brown-haired girl snickered a little.  "Oh, I'm not Olmen's secretary.  I'm his student.  Pleased to meet you, Johnson.  I'm Jennifer."

Johnson saluted.  "Pleased to meet you, Jennifer.  Well, again, I must be off now.  Farewell."

As the visiter left the room, Olmen Murray watched from the doorway of his office.

"I gave up the chance to become supreme leader of Macbelious after I saw what power did to your father.  But even then at only the two hundredth and thirty-fourth seat of the Senate, I still feel that I've forsaken Sir Cielmaron's teachings.  Jennifer, do you think he'd be dissappointed in me if he were still here?"

Jennifer Revarre adjusted her glasses and addressed the old man.  "Don't worry about it, Sir Murray.  You're keeping his teachings from being forgotten, and that's all that matters, isn't it?"

The old man smiled.  "Yea, you're right, Jennifer.  Yea, you're right..."
 

***
 

"This is all your fault!  You and your stupid 'there are many things which can not be accomplished by reasoning alone' crap!  I hate you!!!!"

Alana stomped away from Cielmaron, blaming him for the lost of her only love.  Meanwhile, Revarre and Murray continued to stare at the large crystal formation that was still in the cave.

Cielmaron glared at Revarre.  "Are you happy now?  Your rash decisions have completely ruined the life of a young girl in her prime, have led to the death of an aspiring promising Macbelious citizen, the death of a very prominant Altiere noble, and we have nothing to show for it except a large formation of crystal that any magic user would kill to get that only we know about!"

Revarre and Murray continued to stare at the crystal, not paying attention to their teacher.  It only took Cielmaron a few seconds to realize why.

The great Cielmaron sighed.  "I'll go get the pickaxes..."