Fódlan Alternative II

{Part Two: Crimson Flower} Chapter Twenty-Two: Unforgiven I

When the next moon arrives, You rise from slumber and sigh as Seraphine manifests before You.

Seraphine: We both know what's going to be coming next for us... Everyone else knows it too.

You nod and speak Bazler's name.

Seraphine: That's going to be it... He's the final line of defense the emperor currently has. As soon as we're able to take Bazler out of the picture, everything is going to fall into line. That's going to open Argades up for the final rush of an attack that we're going to have to execute afterwards.

You say that You are ready for it no matter what comes next.

Seraphine: I had a feeling you would say that... Well, let's go and see what the others have to say about this. After all, we need a plan if we're going to pull this off.

You nod and start to walk towards the cardinals' room as Seraphine dissipates. When You arrive, the Black Eagles are gathered together as usual.

Callisto: You've all heard the reports from the Knights of Seiros, haven't you?

Florence: Bazler is back in his old territory after we ran him out five years ago.

Chris: If I had to guess, I would say that he decided to use the distraction of us searching for Evenor to move back in. We've been keeping the place unoccupied for quite a while... I figured that we would try and take it, but the emperor has been keeping a watch on it.

Polly: I'm willing to assume that Bazler has been operating elsewhere in the meantime.

Chris: He knew that there would be a massive target on his back the second he moved back to his old estate after what we did five years ago to get rid of him. He stayed away until he thought it would be safe to go back.

Tuncay: Or, to be more accurate, until he realized it was going to be now or never.

Aquillus: Bazler is one of the most hated men on the continent...

Hegias: He had to know that we were going to come after him sooner or later.

Herwig: I suspect he figured that there would always be somebody pursuing him given who he is.

Zelhira: Nobody alive likes the man. There are going to be people after him no matter what he does.

Chris: He's been keeping himself hidden in the meantime to make sure that he's out of the way of everything that's going on, but since he had the chance, he decided to move back there.

Polly: He must have realized that any other locations he could have moved to were going to wind up compromised sooner or later too.

Zelhira: You're probably right. He was doing everything elsewhere, but now that we're getting ready for our final charge...

Aquillus: This was his only chance at safety, though I suppose that was a false opportunity for him to take.

Hegias: If anything, it's just painted a larger target on his back that we're going to have to exploit in this next fight.

Tuncay: At least he's making it easy on us. We don't have to track him down now since he's right out in the open.

Florence: Perfect. We know what we have to do, and we've already managed to fight him five years ago.

Callisto: He was planning on turning against the emperor back then... Things have changed so much since then.

Herwig: I must admit that still strikes me as strange even all these years later... I was under the impression he and the emperor got along.