Kayde, Kali and Lunette reenter the city through the sewers, arriving at the same rooms they had previously booked at the inn. That morning, they begin their search around the city for more priests with the object manipulation abilities. They comb the bustling city, unable to find any sign of the priests before lunch rolls around.

“I’m getting hungry, let’s take a break for lunch,” Lunette suggests, her stomach starting to rumble.

“Sure, it’s not like we are having any luck anyway,” Kali agrees. They find a restaurant in a nearby edge of the city square they were just searching in.

“This searching stuff has been so boring,” Kali starts to complain.

“It’s okay, it’s not like we are going to find any of these people super fast; I mean, there are only seven of them here,” Lunette points out.

Kayde nudges the two of them on the arm.

“What?” Kali asks, having been filling her mouth with some food at that moment.

“Look, carefully, over there,” he draws their attention to two people sitting at the other end of the restaurant.

Lunette recognizes them as two of the priests from the files.

“Alwin and Oswald,” she whispers confirming their names. Kayde nods.

“Damn, we got lucky,” Kali burps a little, not used to so much food.

“Check please,” Kayde immediately stands up, wanting to wait for the two priests outside instead of being held up waiting to pay. They quickly give the server their gold and exit the establishment, heading into the nearby alley to lurk.

Minutes later, the two priests exit, one of them laughing at what would seem like the other’s expense. Luckily for Kayde, the priests head straight for the alley they are currently occupying.

“Come on, it will be faster this way,” the more boisterous one tells the other.

The priests walk directly past Kayde and the others. Using two needles that were dipped in Lunette’s concoction, Kayde and Lunette each knock one of them out. Kayde picks up one while Kali grabs the other.

“Great, now let’s head back,” Lunette comments, pleased with how smoothly they were able to pull this off.

Meanwhile, back at Lunette’s laboratory, “Alright it’s time let’s go,” Drakthar picks up his axe and heads for the door.

“Let’s do this,” Gwendolyn agrees, following right behind him.

Fore, noticing they are about to leave, rushes to the door and blocks their path, still adhering to Kayde’s request. Drakthar looks down at the scrappy wolf at his feet.

“Stand aside,” he demands, the severe tone of his voice striking fear into Fore. He starts to tremble a little but stands firm, his friendship with Kayde something he values over anything else.

Gwendolyn takes a different approach, she leans over and starts to rub Fore’s head, meticulously scratching behind his ears before moving her hands to underneath his chin. For a second Fore forgets what he has been tasked with, mystified by Gwendolyn’s skilled hands. It’s when he hears the creaking of the door behind him that he snaps out of it.

Fore turns to see Drakthar starting to leave.

“Hey you can’t go out there!” Drakthar and Gwendolyn only hear as barking. Fore bites into Drakthar’s pant leg, making sure not to catch any of his flesh.

Drakthar steps forward, not even registering the wolf stuck to his pants. Fore is dragged along the floor.

“Drakthar stop, don’t hurt him like that,” Gwendolyn alerts him to Fore’s presence, annoyed with the wolf’s behavior, but not wanting to see him hurt.

Drakthar stops, for the first time realizing Fore is attached to his right leg. Gwendolyn picks Fore up and starts to wiggle his jaw, trying to get it removed from Drakthar’s pants.

Fore hangs tough, resisting their efforts as well as he can.

“I’m done with this,” Drakthar leans over, tearing the back part of his pant leg clean off. Fore starts whimpering, releasing the piece of fabric within his jaw.

“He seems so sad we are leaving,” Gwendolyn notes, crouching down to look into the wolf’s eyes.

“Who cares? If we are doing this we need to go now,” Drakthar grabs the back of Gwendolyn’s collar, having had enough of these antics.

“Hey you don’t need to drag me, I’m coming,” Gwendolyn gets up, whacking away Drakthar’s arm. They head out the front door; their noses pick up on a particular smell. It is only when they feel a substance squish beneath their boots do they realize what the source of the smell is.

They find their boots coated in wolf droppings, looking down to see a five-foot patch of it right outside the entryway. They turn their heads to see Lunette’s wolves, the culprits looking back up at them.

One of the wolves, whom Lunette calls ‘the doctor’, runs over to a rope connected to the roof and severs it with his teeth. Drakthar and Gwendolyn look up just as a mixture of wolf excrement and moss begins to descend upon them.

Unable to dodge in time, the two of them stand there, feces completely coating every inch of them. Gwendolyn is mortified, slowly bringing up a hand to her normally silky smooth hair.

“No…” she cries, shock freezing her entire body.

Drakthar, unfazed by all of this, wipes off his shoulders, pushing off the poop along his arms.

“It’s fine, the river is right over there,” he begins heading there, finding this more of a chore than anything.

He looks back to see Gwendolyn still frozen there, rolling his eyes as he realizes she isn’t following.

“Come on,” he grabs her arm, yanking her towards the river. Gwendolyn’s body stays rigid and she loses her footing, falling directly into more shit.

Behind them, Fore looks on, proud of the plan he put together to stop them from leaving.

“You!” Gwendolyn glares up at him, her anger boiling over from being toyed with in such a manner.

If Fore was scared before when Drakthar told him to stand aside, he is now terrified beyond belief at the woman before him with nothing more to lose. She gets up, the poop hanging off her making her appear more like a monster than a person.

Fore retreats around the back of the cabin, not looking back at Gwendolyn attempting to wade through the pile of shit in order to wring his neck. Drakthar stops her, wrapping his arm around her waist. She feels herself being lifted into the air and starts kicking in vain, furiously trying to break free so she can kill that damned wolf.

“Chasing him is what he wants,” Drakthar tells her as he drags her towards the water.

“Now get in there and clean yourself off,” he tosses her into the river. Gwendolyn lands right on her ass in a shallow part of the river.

“You could have not thrown me!” She yells at Drakthar.

Whatever, Drakthar thinks to himself while entering the river as well. They both begin to wipe the wolf excrement off of themselves, causing the salt-water river’s normal blue color to turn a to a shade of brown.

After getting his clothes clean, Drakthar strips them off to get the shit off of his skin. Gwendolyn does the same making sure to tell Drakthar, “Don’t look,” before removing them.

“Wouldn’t want to,” he responds, uninterested in such trivialities.

After cleaning themselves off they gear back up and prepare to head to the tunnel Kayde found underneath Juliana’s house.

“Should we change?” Gwendolyn asks, not wanting to walk in wet clothing.

“No, we’ll just drip dry; if we go back inside there might be more traps laid for us,” Drakthar points out, wary of Fore’s tricks.

“Yeah, okay,” Gwendolyn agrees, the two of them heading towards the city.

Kayde, Lunette, and Kali return to the lab, the two priests, Alwin and Oswald with them. They find the mess the wolves created on the doorstep, clueless to the hijinks that just happened hours before.

“What the hell is this?” Kali asks, looking to Lunette wondering what is wrong with her wolves.

Kayde watches as Fore appears from behind the house, still cowering, afraid of the monster known as Gwendolyn.

“Hey what happened here, buddy?” Kayde asks.

“They got away. I tried my best, but they went to the city,” Fore is ashamed to tell him.

Kayde sighs, “To be honest I knew this would happen. From the look of things, I’d say you did your best, so good job buddy. I can always count on you”. Kayde pats him on the head, not wanting him to take it too hard.

“Those idiots!” Lunette exclaims, not impressed with Drakthar and Gwendolyn’s decision-making.

“Are we going after them?” Kali asks, not sure what to do now that they have two captives.

“No, we need to talk to these two first, and hope that Drakthar and Gwendolyn will be okay,” Kayde declares, not willing to abandon the greater mission.

“They won’t, those imbeciles are headed towards their deaths,” Lunette insists, angry that they didn’t heed her warnings.

“Hey, give them some credit. They are stronger and smarter than you would think. If they work together, they will be fine, I believe they will live,” Kayde defends his friends.

Lunette turns away, “Fine, I’ll be inside,” she walks carefully, avoiding the feces strewn all over the ground.

“Hold on,” Kayde follows after her, “Watch Oswald for us while we talk to Alwin”.

“Fine, I’ll knock him out if he gets up,” Lunette preps her needle dipping it in the jar.

Kayde takes Alwin to the back room sitting him in the same chair that Dunstan was in.

“What are we going to do this time? It will be really easy for him to get away, there are only two of us,” Kali points out, down on the manpower they had before.

“Don’t worry we will just blindfold him. He can’t switch with anything if he can’t see it,” Kayde points out, having thought of this already. Kayde attaches some cloth around his eyes before waking Alwin up.

He wakes up, still groggy from the toxin.

“Look, I know I messed up, just give me a break,” he pleads, thinking he was caught by someone else entirely.

“What are you talking about?” Kayde asks, confused but also intrigued by what Alwin is on about.

“Wow… I don’t know your voice… I thought this was another punishment for not showing up for duty on time, but apparently, I’ve found myself in a serious situation here,” Alwin realizes, believing it was his superiors that were holding him.

“It doesn’t have to be a serious situation if you cooperate, we just want to ask a few questions,” Kayde explains, trying to set him at ease.

“Shoot,” Alwin agrees, oddly not put off by being blindfolded by random strangers.

“What do you think about cyborgs?” Kayde asks, not being able to see Alwin’s reaction to him seeing as how his vision is blocked.

“That is one random ass question, how is that the first thing you ask?” Alwin starts to question Kayde’s method of interrogation.

“Just answer the question,” Kayde insists, trying to gauge if this is a person they should install as the new king.

“I don’t know what you want me to say… I don’t really think anything about them, it’s not like there are a bunch of them around here anyway,” Alwin isn’t sure how to answer.

“Okay, what about people from the desert?” Kayde moves on, trying to see if Alwin is like Dunstan at all.

“Tough as hell, had to fight against some of them in a battle once,” Alwin responds, not sure what is going on here.

“Cool, cool, now what are your ambitions?” Kayde continues, hopeful that they can actually use this guy seeing as how he doesn’t seem to harbor any extreme prejudices.

“This is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me, what is going on?” Alwin is perplexed by the questions Kayde is asking.

“Just answer the question,” Kayde tells him again.

“Fine… well… I’m not that ambitious. I just want to nap, but like a lot. My stupid family forced me to become a priest; it pays, but it’s not like we were struggling for money. It’s too much work for a guy like me,” Alwin answers honestly.

“I see… it looks like you're not the one we are searching for, but you aren’t a bad guy either,” Kayde sighs, not sure what to do with him.

“Thank you oh disembodied voice of wisdom, I am sorry I am not the one,” Alwin responds, mentally putting air quotes around ‘the one’.

Alwin makes a face, suddenly remembering something, “Wait, I was with Oswald… What did you guys do with him?”

“Don’t worry, he’s fine; he’s just in the other room,” Kayde sets him at ease.

Alwin sighs, “Good, that’s a relief. Just don’t hurt him okay, he’s a good kid”.

“I’ll keep that in mind; one last question though, do you know the location of a man called Xander?” Kayde asks.

“I see… it all makes sense now. You guys must be his friends… Well, I’d tell you, but year twos don’t have that kind of knowledge. I just know that he is being held by the church,” Alwin puts it together.

“Year twos?” Kayde notes, not sure what he means by that.

“Oh right, you wouldn’t understand that. It’s like this; there were two waves of people who got the powers that we have. That guy you have out there and me are a part of the second wave. Only people from the first wave know where Xander is,” Alwin explains what he meant.

“If I name a bunch of people could you tell me whether they are a part of the first or second wave?” Kayde requests, wanting to know who is going to have the information they are looking for.

“So you are trying to get me to betray the church… I’m not really opposed to the idea, but I want something in return if I give you this information,” Alwin offers, looking to get something out of this.

“What is it?” Kayde is willing to negotiate.

“Two things, tell me who you are, and let me take a nap,” Alwin tells Kayde his offer.

“I’m good with that, tell me who is from the first and second waves and I’ll tell you exactly who we are,” Kayde agrees.

“Alright, list em off,” Alwin is ready.

Kayde starts to list and Alwin answers, “Wulfric?” “One”, “Juliana?” “One”, “Godric?” “One”, “Ulla?” “Two”, “and Mila?” “Two”.

“So other than you and Oswald, Ulla and Mila are the only other year twos?” Kayde confirms for himself.

“Yup, so now who are you?” Alwin asks.

“You know that scientist guy who gave you all your powers? Well, that guy created me,” Kayde explains it to him, not worried about him having that sort of information.

“Bullshit! Like I’m going to believe that,” Alwin doesn’t believe it for a second. Kayde isn’t afraid of Alwin trying to run anymore knowing the man really just wants to take a nap. He removes the blindfold from his eyes and Alwin for the first time sees Kayde.

“Holy shit! Well, I believe you now, only that crackpot could create something that looks so ugly. No offense, but your eyes are just… haunting,” Alwin flinches, intimidated by Kayde’s look.

“Eh, don’t worry about it; I’m aware of how I look,” Kayde doesn’t take it personally, long used to that reaction.

“Cool dude, I’m gonna nap now, you got anyone using this bed or…”

“This is kind of where we like to question people,” Kayde explains, preferring Alwin to nap in the other room.

“It’s fine, not important, I can nap anywhere,” Alwin goes into the other room, yawning as he passes through the door. He sees Lunette next to Oswald who is still unconscious.

“Sup, the creepy looking guy said I could take a nap, I’m just going to use this couch here,” he explains to her, lying down on the couch. Seconds later Kayde and Kali enter the room and grab Oswald.

“You know, this guy looks kind of familiar,” Kali comments looking at Oswald’s golden locks and boyish face as he sleeps peacefully while incapacitated.

“Hold on, he looks like Xander, well the hair is a little lighter; but other than that they are pretty similar,” Kayde realizes who Kali means.

“You’re right, wow, it’s uncanny. It’s actually kind of freaky,” Kali notes adjusting Oswald’s face side to side to closer examine the similarities. They put Oswald down in the chair, not worrying to blindfold him like they did for Alwin.

“Hey wake up,” Kayde knocks him lightly on the arm a couple of times, waking him up.

“Wha… where am I? Wait! Where is Alwin? He was with me, then suddenly I don’t remember anything,” Oswald looks around frantically for a sign of his friend.

“He is fine, in fact, he is in the other room sleeping,” Kayde lets him know, setting him at ease.

“Good… now what exactly is going on here?” Oswald asks, seeing what he thinks is a cyborg and someone from the desert standing over him, a priest of the Purity.

“I wouldn’t worry about it if you are anything like Alwin you’ll be fine,” Kayde tells him, assuming he doesn’t have to worry about Oswald, partially because of how Alwin handled this and also because his similarity to Xander makes Kayde feels comfortable around him.

“You know, you don’t seem to be revolted by us like most of the people here are,” Kayde points out, trying to discover if Oswald is secretly a xenophobe like Dunstan was.

“No… is that important or something?” Oswald is still discombobulated, not sure what is going on.

“Good point, it’s not,” Kayde starts to move on; realizing Oswald isn’t inherently racist, “So, what are your ambitions?”

“Hmm… I don’t know how to interpret this question, I’ve never really thought about it,” Oswald gets introspective for a second, forgetting he just woke up in a random room he’s never been in before.

“Okay, let’s try it this way; why did you become a priest?” Kayde tries to go down a line of thinking that will help Oswald think of the answer.

Oswald starts to explain how it happened, “They put up notices all around the city. They were advertising for people around my age to get checked if we were compatible for an opportunity that could make us gold. Turns out the job was with the church and the compatibility was for this,” he switches an apple that was on Lunette’s desk with a scrap of metal nearby on the floor.

“Needless to say, I was compatible and my family needed the gold. Before I got this job we were struggling to stay in the city. That’s why I became a priest,” Oswald finishes explaining.

Kayde is more than hopeful that this kid might be exactly the sort of person he is looking for.

He jumps at the opportunity to ask, “And what would you do if you became the king of this place”.

Oswald freezes, unsure of the ramifications of answering a question like that, “That’s a dangerous question. I don’t think I would want that kind of power… although I would change a couple of things. First, too many of our people are dying because of a war that is really pointless, so I’d make peace with the desert and stop trying to take over their lands. Secondly, I would stop killing cyborgs like you. It’s not like you guys choose to be like that, it’s just that some people aren’t fortunate enough to have all the parts of their body functioning correctly”.

“Holy shit,” escapes Kali’s mouth, not believing they would actually find someone amongst the church that could have these viewpoints.

“Yeah, I think he is exactly who we’ve been looking for,” Kayde agrees with her, knowing exactly what that holy shit meant.

“I’m sorry, why have you guys been looking for me?” Oswald is still more confused than anything with everything that is going on here.

“Don’t worry about it, for now, why don’t I reunite you with Alwin,” Kayde leads him into the other room.

Oswald sees Alwin asleep on the couch and hits him on the arm, “Hey you good?”

“What? Just let me sleep man,” Alwin waves him off.

“Come on, now is not the time to be napping,” Oswald doesn’t give up.

“Shut up, I’m trying to get the shut-eye I was promised,” Alwin tells him, referring to Kayde and his previous deal.

“Seriously? We got kidnapped and all you can think about is napping?” Oswald is starting to get angry with him.

“Calm down, these guys don’t seem so bad; plus they are keeping me away from work, so this is really a win-win,” Alwin yawns, adamant to continue sleeping.

“I have a proposition for you two. If we can agree, we can become allies,” Kayde offers.

“We are dissatisfied with how the empire is being run…”

“Who isn’t?” Alwin cuts him off, having his own share of grievances towards those in charge.

“I want to find a just ruler who can guide this empire out of this era and into a new one; one where the Purity no longer exists and the people here are not brainwashed into hating those from foreign lands. The thing is, I think that ruler is you Oswald,” Kayde lays it all out on the table for them.

Alwin starts to break out into uncontrollable laughter, “You want to make this guy king?” The thought of it only causes him to begin tearing up. Oswald doesn’t say anything, he begins staring at the floor, actually thinking about what this means.

“Why do Xander’s friends want Oswald to be king?” Alwin thinks to ask once he has composed himself.

“Wait, you guys are friends of Xander’s?” Oswalds asks, this being the first time he’s heard of it.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Kayde notes, knowing it is fully true.

“Alright, I’ve decided. I’m going to help you guys get Xander back, but I’m not going to become the king,” Oswald comes to a decision.

“You think anyone else in the church would be better at it?” Kayde asks, wondering if there are more like them.

Alwin takes a second to think about it, “Nope, I’d say Oz is your best bet”.

“You have to do it Oswald, think of all the people dude,” Kayde tries to coax him back into it.

“No, that was what I was trying to say before, I’ll help you get Xander back, and then he can be the one to become king,” Oswald finishes his thought.