((Sure, you can name the Archmage Arthur... I didn't even have a name for him, so Arthur works fine. By the way, what was Mexic's name before she was Mexic, does anybody know? Because the Archmage doesn't remember her as Mexic...))

((What do you mean, "have the Vicemage come down himself"? I'll take a guess... do you mean enter the castle as himself? Yes, he's going to, but later he'll change appearance so that if he is caught while slaughtering the Archmage, he won't be the person convicted. I'm just guessing... maybe your question isn't even in reference to my post, in which case I can't help you... just specify.

All right, returning to Jinni... um, let's say it's the next day now. She got her job and everything's hunky-dory.))

Jinni hummed to herself as she dusted the Grand Dining Hall. To her utmost surprise, the Archmage had three dining halls: the Lesser Dining Hall, the Great Dining Hall, and the Grand Dining Hall. She found this frivolous but amazing.

She'd spent the night cramped in a small attic room and the early morning interviewed by a stand-in secretary while the other went on the lam, and finally she was a maid. Prepostrous to think that this prospect delighted her, but she enjoyed this much more than the dull days spent in Alcigam giving her mother medication and shining shoes to earn money, not to mention entertaining Xaviar.

He was the only thing worrying her. After thinking things over that night, she'd concluded that her father's dying idea was nonsensical. He'd been delirious, after all, not in his right mind. She's promised, but it just seemed stupid, and she wasn't fulfilling a stupid promise to her dead father when there were far better opportunities. Let's bear in mind she's not the most honorable child.

But Xaviar... it so happened that kind old Mrs. McCreedy had eight children of her own, and was a widow. Jinn didn't want to force her difficult little brother on anyone, least of all sweet Anne McCreedy, but she herself was in no position to take care of a boy barely out of toddlerhood. During her lunch break she wrote a letter.

Dear Mrs. McCreedy,

Thank you for watching my little brother. It means an awful lot to me. But I can't force you to take care of him forever, so I'd like to request that you take him to an orphanage. With luck, a family will adopt him, and then we'll all be better off. Thank you again.

And one more favor, though I've already asked so much of you... shuld you happen to see or hear anything of toy boys about my age answering to the names Xeliex and Larco, or chance upon a teenage boy with dark hair and eyes or sandy blond hair and gray eyes, then please let me know IMMEDIATELY. I have something very important to tell both of them.

Everything is well here; I've gotten a job as a maid and am receiving ten pathos a week, plus room and board. So far I haven't encountered the most friendly of people, but I'm at lunch currently and seated next to a shy-looking girl caled Sara. She seems nice.

Thank you again, and give my best to your children, Xaviar, and the villagers.

Warm wishes,

Jinni Francis

Archmage's Palace

Faerhoven, Gamicuotnyn

((I'm blanking on the geography we worked out... from what other people have written, I'm guessing that Faerhoven is a miniscule country, more like a city (Vatican-type?), and Gamicuotnyn (gam-i-coo-ot-nin) is the continent on which Alcigam, Alnoitidart, and Faerhoven, and maybe a few other countries are located. Mexic is from Wasila, which somebody else thought up, and I think it's relatively far away.))

Jinni gave the letter to a page to be mailed and tried to kindle up a conversation with Sara, the young girl next to her.

((Right, let me explain that hair-dusting I had Sara doing. Well, Jinni and Sara were already at lunch when Lena had Sara turn away in embarrassment from her conversation with Jinni, so since they were eating that sort of confused me- I guess we just had a little mix-up, and that was my weird- very weird- way of clearing it up. We can just completely disregard that now, but at the time it fit in.

Starfire is helping Xeliex out- good. We needed that. But now I'm a little bewildered. I thought the two partners in crime :), Xeliex and Larco, were traveling together. Apparently not. So maybe Rueben could post and explain why and how Larco ditched Xeliex. It can't have been too complex because they only knew each other a few hours, but we do need a general idea of what unfolded.

By the way... over a hundred posts! If Dmboogie wasn't on the other side of the Earth or something, he/she would have my congratulations for a really successful roleplay!

I'll cover Eggwald here. Anybody has permission to use him because technically he's nobody's.))

Lucifer had just a few more loose ends to tie up before leaving. Firstly, he would need someone with the guise of the made-up murderer he was impersonating. That way someone could take the rap for the atrocious slaughter of the Archmage while he kicked back in the newfound luxurious power he'd soon be enjoying. This was easily remedied.

"Walter!" he bellowed. A servant came running. Walter was a rather unpleasant, ratty boy. None too handsome; pimpled and gangly, about nineteen years old at youngest but no older than twenty-five. Lucifer didn't make it a point to find out about such trivial things; why would he care about such lowly creatures' lives?

"Yessir?"

Lucifer waved his hands and mumbled some words. A simple hypnotizing spell that would wear off in about two weeks, giving Lucifer plenty of time. When the servant was completely under his control, he spoke again. "Walter, in one week, you will not be Walter any longer. You will drink this beaker"- he gestured to a small extract of his transfiguring potion- "and forever become Ulysses Petron. He is a man of crime. A murderer, kidnapper, et cetera- you know the type. He is you and you are him, in one week. You will never mix a potion to turn back to yourself or reverse the effects of this beaker, and you will never, ever, under any circumstances, tell anyone about anything I have told you. Comprehendo?"

Walter nodded, his eyes glazed over. "Yes, master."

Typical of him to pick the silliest line ever, thought Lycifer to himself. He clapped his hands to dismiss the boy after giving a few more instructions. Then he turned to his next task.

"That Luanna shall never know what hit her," chuckled Lucofer to himself. "Those Wasilians- so stupid. Just like her stupid parents. Can you imagine, she believed the mayor when told they'd been eaten by some sort of wildebeest. Preposterous! The nonsesicality of it all! And at least someone thought to change the wretch's name. Brilliant enough; it never entered my mind that she might be the same girl. Daughter of Bruno and Anajara- figures. If only she knew how I've dealt with- am dealing with- those buffoons."

He laughed a snarly type of snicker. Then he worked out a rough plan. By hypnotizing a maid in the castle, he could easily give Arthur the mind-dulling drug and do away with Luanna "Mexic" Bricyi in one shot. He had, of course, done careful research on a few maids picked out of a hat and concluded that a few would simple be too bothersome due to obstinate personalities, such as Alessandra and Jinni, and some were too low in rank to bring the Archmage his coffee, such as Anara and Ellessa (or something like that; he couldn't remember, such was their obscurity), but he did have one particular lass in mind, a shy child, only about eleven, who would be easy to push around. Sara. It would be so simple it wasn't even funny. Pathetic little slip of a girl could probably be made to do his will through sheer threatening, but hypnotizing was by far the safest way to go, and easier. He would first have to kidnap her, though. But that was hardly a chore- quite the opposite. Though he had to publicly retain a face as a respectable political figure, kidnapping people- especially children- was one of his favorite pastimes.

((By the way, where has that bird-guy been? His absence isn't messing anything up, but I liked reading KitKat's work and I am curious.))