“So let me get this straight.” The dark elf reading the ledger squinted, as if elucidating secrets hidden within the fine print of the documents therein. Or perhaps it was more apt to say that he was scrutinizing the written petition. Begging the fates, as it were, for there to be some reason for him to plausibly deny the request being made of him. “You two are Zeinavian nobles, looking to join our prestigious order to bring about a new era of prosperity to your land?”

He set down his papers and looked expectantly at the two sitting across from him.

Namely, the sparkling fellblood adorned in far too many colorful silks to be fashionable, and the bird whose feet didn’t even reach the floor where they were sat.

“That is precisely so, good sir!” Morrigan beamed, leaning forward and resting their hands on the knight’s desk, resting their hands on their chin. They absolutely had not been invited to do so. “My compatriot and I here have been absolutely chomping at the bit to engage in our own feat of heroism such as the ones you lovely gentleman bring to the world. Given our rather impressive accolades, we’d make a perfect fit for this organization, no?”

The unfortunate news: Morrigan was quite prone to over-flattery, to the point it was obnoxious.

The good news: it seemed to be working.

Well, you know the expression. It took someone with a healthy ego to appeal to the ego of another… that wasn’t a saying at all, but you get it. Morrigan understood exactly which buttons to push because they were the exact same way. Such charming was essential to make sure he didn’t look at the veritable rap sheet of forgery that stood as a testament to all of the heroism the criminals hadn’t done.

Morrigan trusted Fish’s quality of work, of course… but they each had their roles to play to ensure this venture went off without a hitch. Fish was the brains – Morrigan was the face. And by the gods, they were going to silver the hell out of their tongue to make sure that this poor bastard didn’t ask the wrong questions. They just needed those tokens, and they were home free.

“Of course, of course.” The knight muttered after a long moment. “It’s all very impressive. Tell me… which knight interviewed you again?”

“I believe her name was Lady Sue Deauxnim.” Morrigan said quickly, remembering the name Fish had jotted down on their documents. The only downside to this entire charade was that the Knights of Galavance were so terribly picky about the people they accepted into their order. Morrigan was far too impatient to go through the months of rigorous interrogation and scrutiny prospective applicants were subject to. That was all so boring. Simply lying about it all was so much easier. Riskier, but easier. “She said we were the perfect candidates. So, I believe we’re owed our heroic task and our amulets now, correct? There’s no time to waste here when there’s legends to chase out there.”

He reached into his desk and two emblems; for a moment Morrigan thought he was about to hand it to them, but he merely set them out on the desk. Clearly for both applicants to look, but not touch. “Now, that depends. What exactly are you looking to get out of joining the Knights of Galavance?”

He looked between Fish and Morrigan expectantly.

Here arrived their first hurdle of the scam – human interaction.

---

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: In Pursuit of Legend
Participants: Exactly Two
Post Requirements: 7 Post, 200 words per post
Reward: +1 Renown and Initiation into the Knights of Galavance (Unlocks Squire Subclass)
Description: After receiving your quest and emblem, you must find a way to earn a name, no a title for yourself. There are many ways to earn a title, often earned without realizing. These can be bestowed upon you by others after completing a heroic feat or something note worthy. Bards earn titles by completing their magnum opus, or warriors by defeating a great foe. But before your symbol can activate, you must do something so worthy that your title gets passed across the land. How this occurs is entirely up to you.

Bringing Pets
Nugget (Phoenix – counts against pet cap)
Bubbles (adult Drake – counts against pet cap)
Junior (Black Bog Leech - doesn’t count against pet cap)

What no one in this room knew was that Fish was already so far ahead of everybody they were going to need to revive Ziev and stop time to get caught up. One thing that had motivated Fish from their slump was catching up to Zarius, even if he was dead Fish still had work to do. That meant Fish was going to need to start putting eyes and ears everywhere, even the more noble and distinguished stratospheres of society.

Wheels had been in motion since before anyone knew they were embroiled in this game. Fish hops from their chair and wheels around a corkboard the knight officer kept in his office. The face of the board was covered in notes, tasks, potential applicants, quests, and other such minutia of an office worker. BUT the real show was when Fish flipped over the board, on the opposite side were pictures pinned to the board, clippings of news, and red string connecting the pieces.

When did Fish have time to make all this? WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO KNOW WEATHER BOY? Emblazoned across the top is the question WHO IS MINX EAU SUDE?

They hand Morrigan a note card with a response to read and give the appropriate amount of flair.

"We want nothing from the Knights of Galavance, but Justice. What is more heroic than undoing injustice and corruption from within the very ranks of the Knights of Galavance?"

The panache and flair does seem out of character for Fish, but they did run this idea past Aunt Izzy. Fish is ready with a pointer to accentuate points as Morrigan goes through the evidence.

Heh. Little did anyone in this room know, Morrigan had been playing a game of wits so convoluted that its origin spanned months before this scheme to lie their way into the knighthood had been cooked up. Yes, the truth was that Morrigan had been constructing an entirely fake character of their own, one who would be the perfect scapegoat to implicate in the tale of corruption and treachery they were about to embark on.

You see, while Fish had been forging documents and getting them through the door of this esteemed knighthood, Morrigan had been weaving a tale of their own. One that spoke of lies and deceit and corruption that ran all the way to the top of this golden group of nobles. And it started, fittingly enough, with Lady Sue Deauxnim.

It was only a matter of time before Sir… Jared, according to the elaborate nametag on his desk, realized that the woman they’d designed to act as their interview liaison didn’t actually have the power to hire them, by virtue of the fact that she didn’t even have a real knighthood. Or a body. Or an existence. Fish had been the one to forge Sue Deauxnim’s documents, and as such, they were ironclad. But all fake identities were limited when it came to person-to-person interaction. And when Sir Jared learned that, it would certainly be the end of this charade.

Or WOULD IT?

Morrigan had spent the last few months carefully crafting this identity; the tail end of a string of forgeries and skeleton employees within the Knights of Galavance that, if unveiled, would certainly be impressive enough to light up those little medallions on Sir Jared’s desk! It was only natural to turn a weakness into a strength - it was a risk, to use their hiring official, but who was Morrigan if not someone to go in all or nothing? Full of unwarranted confidence, Morrigan plucked the paper handed to them by Fish, and stood from their chair.

“My good compatriot wills me assure you, good Sir Jared, that we want nothing from the Knights of Galavance, but the cold, hard sting of our muses - Truth… and Justice. After all, what could be more heroic than saving the heroes themselves? Than undoing injustice and corruption from within the very ranks of the Knights of Galavance?” They concluded their retelling of Fish’s assertion with a fake crocodile tear down their cheek that they delicately wiped away with a clawed finger. Alright, tone it down there thespian, we get it.

At least that was one good thing you could say about Morrigan Moonweaver. They never pulled their punches or half-assed.

During this wordy assertion was when Fish would have time to set up the Minx Eau Suede board; a detailed docket so carefully curated and maintained by Fish after months of planning. And, if Morrigan had bothered to pay attention, they would have seen exactly what Fish was going for - a femme fatale criminal wanted by the government for the string of murders regarding high-profile nobles… yet, all signs pointed to her being paid by the Knights of Galavance to commit increasingly disturbing crimes for them to solve, making them look better by comparison.

And Morrigan paid attention to none of that.

Procuring a document from their pocket, Morrigan slammed it on the table with panache and a puff of glitter that got all over Sir Jared’s desk. “You see this? This is an affidavit from a well-known forger in the Pale City whose statement I took myself. A witness to a horrible crime. He asserts that Lady Sue Deauxnim, the woman we supposedly met… doesn’t actually exist..”

… Maybe if Morrigan had bothered to look back at the board they would have seen the signed and notarized wanted poster for Minx Eau Suede, signed by Sue Deauxnim; a pivotal piece of evidence that Fish had crafted to prove this criminal’s existence.

Now the real game has started between the master scammer and their reluctant protege. Fish may not enjoy the panache and grand gestures that Morrigan is wont to do, it was impossible for the bird to say they had learned nothing from the fellblood. Haphazard as Fish may think Morrigan is, they are very good at rolling through the lies.

There was a reason Fish could only pull off this job with Morrigan. Big Fella and Sevar were too serious to do this, Kvasir too honest, Izzy a touch too unpredictable, it had to be Morrigan. So, Fish aggressively slaps the board with their pointer to help accentuate Morrigan's pooints as they move along.

Sir Jared, for all the pomp and circumstance, seems....confused to say the least. He has definitely not heard of this Lady Sue Deauxnim, but being middle management meant he wasn't great at remembering names of his underlings. In fact, it was that knowledge that Fish may have intentionally poisoned the knight who was supposed to handle interviews. A quick few tablespoons of milk of magnesia in the coffee and the true commanding officer was out of commission. In steps Sir Jared, who the pair can more easily bamboozle into approving their applications.

"Well I see....this is a major accusation...but I don't know a Lady Sue Deauxnim." Sir Jared strokes his chin in thought as he dusts off glitter from the documents.

His attention is snapped back to the pair as Fish slaps the board again. A new notecard is handed to Morrigan.

"Exactly! You weren't supposed to know her, it is a complicated web of lies and deceit we have untangled involving these three!"

The next phase of the story involved some real people, actual people to pin all of this on. They had the "evidence" to prove it, it was up to Morrigan to sell it though. Fish admittedly took a risk by leaving the story up to Morrigan, but Fish had seen that time and time again Morrigan worked better when the script ended. The fellblood had a knack for lying and schmoozing their way through a scam.

Fish's adaptability came in the form of gadgets and making things, Morrigan's came in never being verbally pinned down. If you think Morrigan has lied themselves into a corner, it's more likely they lead you into that corner intentionally.

Sir Jared looks between the two with interest. This certainly isn't how he expected the interviews to go, but it is far more entertaining than whatever boring candidate came before them. The question right now was if the knight assistant manager was actually buying any of this.

Perfect. Morrigan could work with this.

Taking advantage of Sir Jared’s confusion, Morrigan slid a second piece of parchment across the table for him to peruse. This one was a piece of artwork; a depiction of a human woman with generic enough features that any rational brain would be able to fill in the gaps. Perhaps even close enough to people who worked in this very outpost.

“See here! This is a portrait of the woman that my esteemed compatriot and I met, months ago. At first, everything seemed completely legitimate. We had no reason to suspect that the perfectly pleasant woman who gave us cookies had anything to hide. But then a clerical error in one of our application papers caught our attention. An interview which bounced back with a curious denial stamp.”

This, too, they slid forward. This one was an easy enough falsification – an application which Morrigan had Fish stamp and notarize so it resembled a rejection due to a missed meeting (with a real hiring official, whose name Sir Jared would recognize.)

“Supposedly, we missed our interview! But how could this be possible, when we’d met with Lady Sue Deauxnim days prior?” They mused, more for his own benefit than anyone else’s. It was then Fish passed them their note, which Morrigan delicately unfolded, skimming and reading as they spoke. “Exactly! You weren’t supposed to know her, it is a complicated web of lies and deceit we have untangled involving these three – wait, three?” Where the hell had the third person come from?

“Now there’s a third culprit in play?” Sir Jared gasped. “This is news to me!”

You and me both, pal! Morrigan wasn’t even aware there were two people?

Uh, let’s see, okay, Morrigan could work with this. They finally glanced back at the board Fish had carefully constructed, and finally – finally – saw the name Minx Eau Suede at the top. Okay, let’s see, she was a criminal… wanted by the crown… had warrants out for her arrest…

Alright, Morrigan was connecting the dots.

“Yes, three!” They exclaimed, pounding a fist against the desk hard enough to make the wood rattle. “Precisely three people. Madame Minx Eau Suede. Lady Sue Deauxnim. And…”

They turned around to Fish’s board, picking at random.

“That guy!”

They pointed to another sheet in Fish’s list at random. The thief had done a great job at combining falsified documents with a smattering of real people. The best way to tell a convincing lie was to root it in the truth; something the audience could latch onto, and build their own narrative. Which was precisely why Fish had included very real criminals in their wanted list. In particular, wanted figures from the Frostgale Specters. And real military officials.

The one Morrigan pointed to just so happened to be Sir Jared’s boss.

See, middle management in the Human Resources department was made up of a select member of people who were too soft for jobs on the field; or those who’d been honorably discharged due to injury. But who was the manager that hired the hiring manager? That would be Sir Jared’s boss, Lord Dex Mis’anue, keeper of the castle that was currently being used as a Galavance outpost.

“We’ve connected the dots! This man has been working with the Frostgale Specters to create a cavalcade of false identities – both in and out of the knightly order – in a complex and elaborate money laundering scheme, sapping money from the coffers of the Frostgale elite!”

… Morrigan hadn’t connected shit.

Fish would once again snap their pointer to the picture that Morrigan points at. It's all about emphasis. For all of their faults, and Fish had a detailed list of Morrigan's faults ranked and weighted by how much they annoyed Fish, Morrigan did teach them the art of a scam very well.

"Baron Deus Eax Meunie?" Sir Jared raised an eyebrow at the fellblood.

Time for Fish to seal the deal with a classic scam, the Three Card Morrigan. Fish plucks the pictures off the board and hops onto the chair in front of the desk. First Lady Sue Deauxnim, then Madam Minx Eau Suede, and finally Baron Deus Eax Meunie. Each picture carefully laid out then shuffled and shuffled and shuffled.

When Fish overturned each card they had switched to pictures of the Baron. Secretely Fish had multiple copies of each photo in their bag, they had no clue who Morrigan would zero in on, but they had plans for all of them.

"hrm....well this is quite a show but I need proof." Sir Jared has fully taken the bait so to speak. Time to hook him for good.

Fish takes a moment to reach into their bag and find the right marked folder for the correct batch of forged evidence. Tax evasion.....illegal smuggling...some blackmail about two women and a ham covered in honey and pineapples, there we go. Embezzlement.

The manilla folder is handed up to Morrigan for the final bit of panache.

“I am all too aware, good sir, of the how difficult it is to place a noble man - one you consider a superior, a leader, a confidant - under scrutiny.” No one had ever accused Morrigan of failing to commit to any act once it was presented to them. It was time to tighten the noose on the proverbial neck of this operation.

“Proof? Oh, we have plenty of proof, right here!” They held out their palm, as if expecting Fish to give them said requested evidence. That was what they appreciated about their little partner in crime - Morrigan generally planned and prepared fuck all for any given situation. Planning was for other people. Morrigan much preferred the loom of the self-weaving story, never certain where they might end up.

Fish, fortunately, provided.

They flipped open the envelope, remembering those old entertainment shows that people used to hold in Zeinavian casinos; a little bit of harmless fun, a chance to try your luck for money. What’s behind door number one? Guess the amount of money in the envelope and the cash is yours!

Ah, here we go. Embezzlement.

Morrigan barely skimmed the contents of the envelope before grabbing a piece of forged evidence at random, shoving it in Sir Jared’s face.

“How is THIS for proof?”

The proof in question being a report supposedly submitted to the Frostgale chamber of commerce. Bills to the royal family for services rendered. Namely, the cost of capturing and holding criminals, all neatly laid out and notarized by a forgery of the Baron’s seal. At the top was the name Minx Eau Suede’s name, with a charge for her capture and arrest for bringing in her bounty.

“… I’m not sure where you’re going with this. These are just regular reports.” Sir Jared frowned. “And it doesn’t count as proof that my boss has done anything illegal.”

“Ah - but therein is where the contradiction lies!” Morrigan tutted. “There is no denying that we met a woman - Sue Deauxnim. There is no denying that there has been a warrant out for this woman’s arrest.”

They gestured for Fish to tap at the board where the criminal’s portrait was. You know. For emphasis.

“Yet, you’ve never even so much as heard of any of this. Why is that? If record of them exists but doesn’t exist, what does that mean for you? Could it be that your boss doesn’t want you to learn about them? Why could that be? If you’re so certain he’s not committing a crime, if Sue Deauxnim and Minx Eau Suede are real, then… you don’t think he’s intentionally hiding something from you, do you?”

“He’d have have no reason to lie to me!” Poor, poor, middle management Jared. He did his job well enough, but never enough to be in the loop. You could see the gears in his mind turning, trying to figure out why such a discrepancy could exist. It meant either his boss was lying and hiding illegal activity, or - if Morrigan and Fish weren’t telling the truth - that his boss hadn’t trusted him enough to let him in on important comings and goings of the Knights of Galavance.

Neither option was good.

But admitting he was a liar, for Jared, meant swallowing the bitter pill that something was wrong with his boss, rather than… himself.

A clever bit of psychology. Establish a me versus them - and people were selfish. They were wont to pick themselves every time.

Morrigan grinned. “If you don’t believe me, why don’t you go grab this month’s expenditure reports from your archives? We can compare notes. Think about it, good sir. If what we’re saying is the truth… and the Marrowvines found out you were the generous knight at the epicenter of unfolding a conspiracy… don’t you want a piece of that glory? Don’t you want to be the hero, for once?”

There was the final killer. An attempt to break his resolve.. and get him out of this room, for even a second. An opportunity to plant even more evidence in this room and maybe even gaslight him that the signs of conspiracy were in front of him all along.

Normally any command from Morrigan, no matter how small, would be unimaginable for Fish to follow. This was the rare moment where Fish did not resist, their professionalism was on the line, so point they do with their whole chest.

The show in front of them was the reason why Morrigan was the choice for this job. The fellblood seemed to do better with as few details as possibble. Fish only needed to supply the highlights and let them run off with the rest.

"These look in order....just make sure the reports.....take a bit off the top." The bird opens their beak and the voice of the baron escapes.

The few words from his superior are immediately recognizable to Sir Jared. This is the most damning evidence, it is at least enough to crack the last bit of his resolve. Oh yes, Fish was meticulous enough to have tailed each of the choices Morrigan could have picked, learned phrases, and found enough to create a damning enough admission of guilt. The good Sir Jared didn't need to know that the comments were made on different days to different people, the last one being the Baron's barber.

"I...I need to gather the heads of the Order immediately. Stay here for the moment." Dainty gauntleted hands tremble as Sir Jared got up from his desk to run out of the office.

"That went easier than expected." Fish signs up to Morrigan.

Yes days of trailing multiple people, creating several different and malleable conspiracies, and smuggling in a chalkboard full of said conspiracy was easy. Solaria help whoever was on the business end of a job that Fish would consider difficult.

All that was left now was to wait for whoever would return, hopefully only have to deliver a condensed version of this report, and this infiltration would be done.

Whoa. Where had Fish managed to actually hear the Baron talking about the very same and very false treason which Morrigan was accusing him of? Considering this was a lie they’d only half-decided on and vaguely planned on the way to this very meeting, Morrigan was impressed at the foresight. That was what was nice about working with Fish. They were meticulous. Morrigan would not be surprised to learn that Fish had snuck some sort of paper with those very words written on them just to hear the Baron say them aloud. But when would they have had the time to do that?

Or maybe he was truly just guilty of some other, unrelated embezzlement.

Wouldn’t that be fortuitous?

Whatever the reasons, they certainly had Sir Jared spooked enough to rise from his seat and abscond, leaving Morrigan and Fish to their own devices.

Unsupervised.

It sure would be a shame if…

Someone were to sneak a little bit more forged evidence into Sir Jared’s desk.

Morrigan was already up and poking around while Fish signed to them, the charlatan’s tail swishing behind them with a languid sort of curiosity. “Hmm?” They peered up just to catch what Fish had to say. “Oh, I didn’t think dealing with Sir Jared would be terribly difficult in the first place. Once you get through with all the paperwork and the boring legalities, people are easy. You just tell them what they want to hear and the rest is history… oh!”

They grinned as they pulled out a piece of parchment from Sir Jared’s desk. It looked like a letter – some boring petition or the other regarding a promotion, one which had been denied by the baron himself because, according to this reply, ’the man was not very memorable or heroic’.

“This man already had a bone to pick with his boss, and what do we have here? A rather juicy denial. Sir Jared has everything to gain by going after his the lord of this keep. How did I know this beforehand, you may ask?” Morrigan spoke like they were lecturing a student, even though Morrigan really had nothing of value to teach anyone, really. “First off – no one likes their superiors, in the history of ever. Second – his name is Jared. I’ve never met someone with that name who didn’t have anything to prove.”

They pulled another slip of paper out of their pocket.

“Now, what if I told you we could really sow some doubt into the operations of these good men?” There was likely no way in hell such accusations against the very lord of this place would fly over well. Even if they got everyone Sir Jared was bringing into this room believed their evidence, status quos were not so easily shaken.

Thus, the piece de resistance!

“I have here, Fish, a slip of paper which details this exact plot we have concocted… including the falsified papers for a Lady Sue Deauxnim. All we have to do is let them discover this in his desk, and bam! We have our true culprit, all in one. Lady Sue Deauxnim and Minx Eau Suede, all a ‘clever plot’ concocted by this man to steal glory and obtain the promotion he could never have!”

"Too far....we need someone in this that will be on our side." Fish plucks the paper from Morrigan's hand and places it back into the drawer. "None of these people exist except for Sir Jared and the Baron."

It is true, every single bit of thise was so deeply concoted by Fish that it is a miracle that it is working. This was generally the type of high level scam that Fish avoided, there was no immediate draw for coin so normally Fish would see it was a lot of work for nothing.

And yet, here they were. Weeks of work finally coming to a head. It was an odd and circuitous scheme, but it worked as far as the intended outcome. These knightly orders seem so administratively complex that people might have bosses they never meet. It was possible to get their wheels spinning so much chasing after ghosts that they never think to send them after the person that started this in the first place.

"The doubt has already been sewn, even if Sir Jared holds on to this information he will be thinking about it...if he pursues it, then it will only make the conspiracy seem that much more likely. More trails and evidence that we couldn't find because we didn't have the access he does. Or....we are hired and this is our first investigation in which case Fish forges more evidence against him and the Baron goes to jail. Fish is OK with this ending."

“What?” Morrigan stopped in their tracks, face flushed a deep purple as their mouth hung open, struggling to find the words. “I - I knew that!” Well, about Sue Deauxnim at least. They weren’t dumb enough to think that the woman they’d never even met for an interview was real. But, okay. Maybe they thought the other one was a real person… just for a moment. Not that they’d ever let Fish know that. “Which is why the blame should go on Jared! Nobody would care of some middle management average Joe was arrested for treason.”

They huffed and stomped their foot on the ground while Fish explained their rationale as to why Morrigan’s plan was, in layman’s terms, stupid as shit.

The thief did have a point. If Jared raised a stink about the sudden suspicious evidence after making a claim about treason. It would cast doubt onto the entire plan and perhaps even get the case dropped. Morrigan hated not being right.

“… Ugh! Fine.” They shoved their own forged letter in their pocket. Fish better be appreciative of how mature and cool and brave Morrigan was being right now! This was a once in a lifetime moment where the charlatan was swallowing their god-sized ego, mostly because they’d come too far to get thrown out now. “We shall do it your way.”

But that didn’t stop them from slipping a small harmless glitter bomb into the desk drawer as they closed it.

They stepped away from the desk and took a seat right as the door creaked open once more, and Sir Jared, the Baron, and a few other official looking dark elves poured in.

In a rare moment of kindness, Fish can sense the slight disappointment from Morrigan and endeavors to correct that.

"You were the only one Fish could trust this job to. Fish needed the best scam artist in Charon to properly sell this when Fish went through all of the contacts Fish had...Morrigan was the only one Fish knew would not fail."

It was one part a kindness to a friend and one part feeding that ego just enough to hopefully prevent the fellblood from going rogue. Fish was getting slowly better at recognizing what feelings were and learning to be somewhat careful with them. It was not always a perfect process, but it was easier to do with people Fish actually liked whether they would admit it or not.

The gaggle of officers that enter the room give the pair a cold look before looking over the evidence on the table. There is a lot of muttering between them as they are looking over all of the notes. Visible beads of sweat form on the Baron's face and neck as they pour over every detail and the notes Sir Jared had taken.

"Baron, you are under arrest for the crimes of embezzlement and fraud. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say is probably going to bite you in the ass." The dark elves work to restrain the Baron as he wails about being innocent.

Sir Jared clears his throat as he sits back down and straightens up the desk, "I am sorry for that horrid display, we will make sure justice is served. As for you two....while this is far from the typical extravagance and flair we expect from the Knights of Galavance, it is hard to deny that your detective skills and oratory prowess. Perhaps the knights could use more non-traditional applicants like yourself. If you still wish to join despite this corruption, the knights would be glad to have you in our service."

Had Morrigan imagined things or was that… genuine remorse in the words Fish signed to Morrigan while they waited for the council? It was ever so difficult to tell. Morrigan had worked with the young professional long enough to know their indifference – their annoyance – their general aura of detachment. They’d not seen this bashful side of them. What had changed? Morrigan stilled, trying to parse together exactly what kind of external influence Fish might have learned that particular emotion from.

They could not decide if it was a good or a bad thing.

Then they thought about how a year of living at the Desert Rose had softened their edges, showed them a breadth of emotion which some might consider a weakness. The Morrigan of the past definitely would have. Yet it had also given them a well of spite and determination to draw from, too. A font of inspiration which they could never have imagined in their wildest dreams. If Fish was learning to express themselves in new ways, there was no telling what kind of well-rounded person they might become.

Morrigan forced a grin, flipping their braid over their shoulder as they straightened. Secretly, there was a part of them that was quite pleased at the compliment… not just because of the flattery, but because of who it was coming from. “Ah, I’m just complaining. You know I much prefer things to be bigger and more grandiose. But to make a good scam believable, you must make sure that it is not too out of the park. Us dreamers need the realists to keep things going smoothly, yeah?” That was always how they operated. Morrigan, blazing forward, without a thought, and Fish, the one to make sure that Morrigan did not fly so far they detached themselves from the rails.

It worked for them.

And Morrigan was fine with that… even if they had to sacrifice a few grand finales here and there.

They did not have the time to say anything else, as the coalition of pretentious knightly dirtbags finally strolled in and it was time to begin the show once more. Morrigan pulled themselves into a standing position, spreading their arms out wide. “Ladies and gentlemen! We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter of upmost importance…”

And once more the evidence was laid out. Morrigan had to admit – it was irrefutable. Fish did an incredibly thorough job compiling everything and making it look real. And based on the sweat accumulating on the Baron’s brow, it was working. There was only one way this could end. With him in chains.

Morrigan still could not help the smug smirk on their face as the Baron was dragged away, whining about civil rights and innocent until proven guilty and other words that meant nothing, really. They hid it behind a cough when Sir Jared turned back to them with ready apologies.

“How could we not?” Morrigan reached over to his desk and plucked one of the amulets from atop it. Curiously enough, it had begun to glow. Huh. So evidently that counted as a heroic deed. Who knew? Twirling the emblem between their fingers, they fixed Jared with a serious expression. “So long as there is still corruption within this fine institution, then we shall devote ourselves to uprooting it!” And just like that, they’d gotten exactly what they came here for.

Morrigan managed to maintain their professionalism at least until they were out in the hallway, a few other knight hopefuls returning from their own heroic adventures traipsing the halls.

Under their breath, they muttered to Fish, “Man, that was easy, huh? We didn’t even have to do anything!”

Meanwhile, the voice of Sir Jared could be heard from inside his office – “Only a single Choldrith? You’re going to have to do much better than that if you want to have any chance of getting into this order! Next!”

It was slightly imagination in Morrigan's mind, Fish didn't feel remourse per se. It was a complicated feeling. There is no succinct way to describe the feeling of "Yes that idea you just had was very, very stupid, but also I don't want you to feel bad about being shut down because you were an integral part to this plan so while yes I am slightly annoyed by your desire to continously push things, I am grateful to work with you."



How do you convey that properly?



How do you convey that properly with an incredibly stunted emotional growth?



The answers is you don't and you just don't really think about it. Fish is eager to get out of here though. They had successfully completed their bamboozling of the upper management, so the longer they lingered the more the might slip up.



Thankfully, if the truth of their ruse was ever discovered the order would have a hard time find Vice Captain Of The Royal Manly Militia Montavius Sunsplitter and their Co-Captain Bird the Boisterous.



Morrigan could see the fake names on their official papers. Fish's plan may have been perfect, but they clearly had room to grow when it came to the more flamboyant parts of the scams. The bird has the mechanics down to a science, but Morrigan could feel Fish would be need the fellbloods help on the sell for awhile.