Ark offered his hand out. "You're one of the more honorable people I've known Vace. When the fight hits here, odds are one of us is bound to die. I just wanna' thank you, for stickin' around this long."

Vace shook Ark's hand and said, with much more confidence then he felt, "Not sure what all the pre-death sentiment is about, it's only a war, nothing to worry about. I've been in a war once, nasty buisness, but as long as you watch your friends backs, they'll watch yours, so as long as we all stick together, the only ones that will be doing any dying are Cid's army. The goal of war is to make some other poor bastard die for his country so you don't have to die for yours, just remember that."

After a bit, the servent came out again, "Excellent, is everyone here?" He looked around. "Miss Seilen is already in the meeting room, providing his majesty with information about the army... So if everyone is present, we will depart now, please follow me."

The man then led the group through the winding and twisting halls of the Alban castle. Before long, they came upon a large metting room. The officials of the capital were sitting around a very large table. It almost looked as if they were going to sit down and have a friendly dinner, but the mood was too dark to be anything good.

The king stood at the front of the table, along with his Chancellor, "Please, my good friends, have a seat." He said, motioning to the empty chairs.

After everyone had found a seat, the king began.

"Thanks to our inteligence and help from Lady Seilen, we now have enough information to decide what our course of action will be..." The king's face looked bleak, but yet, he kept his chin high and spoke clearly, "We have sent messangers to every town and city in Alba, seeking the assistance of every able man to help in the cause. ...But yet... I fear it will not be enough."

The officials looked at each other with startled looks on their faces. Some of them whispered to one another.

"But... just because there is no hope, does not mean we won't go down fighting. We will need any information you know about their army to help us have a fighting chance. We are planning on evacuating the woman and children to the border, where, hopefully, our Avionan allies will come and give shelter to our survivors. We have already sent a messanger to Aviona, we can only pray he will get there in time."

The king then stopped pacing, and turned to the group, "Which is where you come in. We ask you, please escape from here with Lady Seilen. I fear that you eleven are our only hope in stopping Cid..."

(OOC: whew. next plot advancement! )

"No. Frickin. Way." Ark crossed his arms. "Your nation is a scapegoat. A scapegoat that we caused. You might be thinking that you give a half-assed effort to save thousands of lives, and all you've worked for in your life, but I'll give it my all to save your work. You might not have the spine to fight, but I sure as hell do. No way I'm running and abandoning my homeland."

"It's been common knowledge among the Mercenaries Guild for months now that the Hessian have been working on newer and improved siege technologies. A friend of mine said he was there for a demonstration of a device he called a mortar. It is used to launch an exploding stone over a castles walls. He said the device launched the stone at a range of just a half mile. But he has been known to exaggerate."

Atleast they know their screwed...

OOC: Why are you still trying to make Cid look good?

"I have a small suggestion since Ark brought it up. Perhaps some of us should stay here to help in the war effort, while the rest of us travel with those evacuating to make sure they have a safe trip." Dawn spoke up softly. "Those of us who have experience fighting can stay, and the rest of us leave..."

"I agree with Dawn, the fighters should stay and help in the fight." Vace and Ark will unfortuantly die, but atleast Tama, Gin, and Jude would be gone...

"We can't just abandon you at your final hour like this. Cid's army is coming, we can't stop that, but we can't just leave you here to die either. We've too come far and through too much to help you, and we won't just quit and retreat now. When Cid is done with your army, he will simply have more time to grow and become more powerful before he continues his conquest, and if we don't do our best to slow him down or stop him now, then in the future we might not be able to come up with enough to stop him." Vace said.

"Agreeing to throw away your best warriors again Lynx? I remember you did that once before. At Beiden pass you ordered your troops to their deaths. I was there. I was the sole survivor of the fifteenth wave you sent to their deaths."