Kaldalis’s Jump cooldown let him hop the wall with only minor difficulty. He had to find a clear place to stand at the base to be able to get enough height to clear the top of it, but the ability to jump cleanly over the mob of Xorn gathered around it made it trivial to reach such a space. He only had to dodge two or three giant monster fists before he was on top of the wall, able to look over the battlefield, inside and out.

The interior was a familiar sight. Groups of adventurers were gathered and partied off, positioning around the inner gate. It looked like a couple of them were competing in an energetic rock-paper-scissors tournament to determine who was going into the killbox to open it up and start fighting the Xorn. It was a waste of precious time, but it looked like nobody was taking command of the gathered adventurers to get things taken care of.

He didn’t have time to try and correct that mess, though. He needed to locate the council and try and talk them out of their previous course. They should have been here taking command of the situation, but they were likely in the town hall being pissy about this development.

Kaldalis leaped down off the wall and made use of his Jump cooldown to bound over the group of adventurers towards the town hall. He heard more than a few people call his name as he passed through, but he was on a mission, and ran on.

The reduced duration of the Jump ability - from Sivima’s modification to his spear - meant that he had to actually run on the ground like a normal person for the last dozen feet to the town hall.

Bursting in the front, Kaldalis almost ran face-first into Captain Kensah as she was storming out.

“You!” she barked, immediately clamping a small hand on his wrist. Despite her small size, her grip was like a band of iron.

“Yes, me,” Kaldalis said quickly, fighting down the instinctive urge to struggle. “I’m here, and I need to talk to Cerh about this attack. I think we can use this opportunity to-”

Kensah was obviously not listening as she turned on her heel and dragged him into the town hall, marching him to the council chambers. Shoving him inside, she slammed the door and took up position to block the exit.

“That was quick,” Demriv observed. “I anticipated you would find more of a struggle.”

“I came here to talk to you,” Kaldalis said, “why would I struggle?”

“As if you don’t know,” Jetmorpan snapped, slamming a fist to the table. “You ignored our orders and ran that damned dungeon anyway!”

“Me?” Kaldalis said, blinking incredulously, “you think it was me?”

“Of course it was,” Jetmorpan snapped, “who else would be so brazen in their obvious sabotage?”

“Listen, you saw the name of the guy who did it, right? Same as the rest of us?” Kaldalis said quickly, mentally scrambling for a defense. “That obviously wasn’t me.”

“And ‘three other adventurers’?” Demriv asked. “One of them very well could have been you.”

“Think critically for just one second.” Kaldalis started a sentence and hoping his brain would figure out the end of it before he got there. “I don’t know Voker, and I couldn’t possibly be in a party with him. Voker is obviously the name of a tank player - a Bodyguard. I’m a tank, so obviously, the three other adventurers were a healer and two damage dealers.”

“Obviously a bodyguard- '' Demriv began.

“Voker? As in Voke? The common shortening of Provoke?” Kaldalis said quickly, realizing the only way to make such a flimsy defense work would be to move past it. He had to change the subject. “Nevermind that. I had no part in it, I promise. What I’m here for is to point out the opportunity this gives us.”

“And we’re supposed to believe this wasn’t your plan from the start?” Jetmorpan snapped. “You run the dungeon, cause this attack, and then come to us with this opportunity?”

“For five minutes,” Big Mike cut in, slapping the table with his palm, “can you not place all the blame for everything on the lad? Since we arrived, you’ve chalked up every setback to intentional malice, and not just the general behavior of their type, but specifically this one boy! Lay off him for one meeting, or else the next time he’s in a position to save all our hides, I guarantee you he’ll stay his hand and let us fall!”

Jetmorpan’s face turned from red-purple to just red, and before he could do more than sputter, Cerh raised a clawed hand to silence him. The Talsar didn’t speak immediately, he just looked between Jetmorpan and Big Mike for a long moment. Cerh’s normally professional demeanor gave that pause a lot of meaning. Despite Cerh’s shared dislike for Kaldalis, he was agreeing with Big Mike’s assessment by letting it hang in the air.

“In the interest of our continued survival,” Cerh said, bringing the pause to a close, “this council will table the issue of punishment for this infraction. We open the floor to Kaldalis for his so-called opportunity.”

There was a grumble from Jetmorpan, but he crossed his arms and stayed quiet. Captain Kensah finally left the door to take her usual seat at Cerh’s left hand. Kaldalis was a bit disheartened to see her surly attitude back after he thought he’d got her on his side, but he counted himself lucky that she wasn’t actively antagonizing him. Yet.

“The council has the ability to activate the event to upgrade to a town, right?” Kaldalis said, looking around the group. “We can use this attack to prepare favorable conditions. We thin the numbers - especially of the Globins - and then trigger the upgrade. The final fight will begin with the enemy dramatically weakened, and with Seal weapons having been the flavor of the month, we’ve been preparing for this fight for the last three days.”

“We have already decided when the upgrade will happen,” Jetmorpan said, standing up and wagging a finger at Kaldalis, “it will be in two weeks when the reinforcements arrive. I should have predicted this was-”

“Your reinforcements will still be welcome,” Kaldalis interrupted, looking over to Big Mike. “Making Panbu into a town will make them show up that much faster, right? Not to mention the barracks upgrading to a real guard headquarters.”

“Why would you want that?” Demriv said, crossing her arms over her torso. The posture drew attention to her chest, momentarily making Kaldalis flinch at her resemblance to Onirioago. “And why would we? The purpose of these reinforcements were to support the upgrade.”

“Demriv, please,” Kaldalis said, putting his hands on the table and staring across it at Cerh. “I’m not that naive, so you don’t have to pretend to be. I know why you want those reinforcements, and I think you’re right to want them. Let me rephrase this: would you rather spend two weeks in a camp full of my kind - who have demonstrated quite readily that we are so out-of-control we can’t follow a simple order for a single day - with only the security you brought with you, or would you like to have your standing army here and on hand as soon as possible, so you can rely on them for your safety instead of us?”

Jetmorpan visibly sneered at the comment, but Cerh’s scaled brow furrowed in obvious consternation. He looked over towards Captain Kensah, and when she met his eyes, she grimaced for a long moment. But her head inclined in a very slight nod.

“Kaldalis, this council hopes that you understand that the ice you are on could not be thinner,” Cerh said, “and the water beneath it could not be deeper. If this fails, you’ll never work in this town - or indeed, anywhere in Zara - ever again.”

“The defense submits that it has learned how to swim,” Kaldalis said, trying to hide his smirk. “Cotanaku paid for this upgrade. If I have to pony up my reputation for it as well, consider it done. Willingly and without hesitation. ”

Cerh arched the bony ridges that served as his eyebrows. The Talsar hadn’t expected that. Indeed, Kaldalis felt a flutter of anxiety in his gut now that he’d said it. He didn’t expect it either.

Kaldalis tried to tell himself that he had total confidence in their defenses. He tried to tell himself that they were prepared and ready for this.

Of course, he’d believe that the first time, too. And how did that go again?

Instead, he told himself he could probably shack up with Heluna for real and leave with her on the rebuilt Persimmon. Become a pirate, or whatever she and the crew did when they weren’t carting adventurers around.

He just had to learn how to tie a bowline and cuss every third word.

It wasn’t much of a plan, but, oddly enough, having any sort of backup plan put his mind more at ease than the first plan did. He tried not to think about what that might mean.

“What do you need from us?” Cerh asked, breaking the tense pause.

Jetmorpan gasped. “We’re not seriously entertaining this idea, are we?”

“This council has decided,” Cerh said, raising a hand to silence him. Kaldalis thought it was a nice change that Cerh’s draconian hold over authority here was working in his favor. “What is your grand plan, Kaldalis?”

“Give me and my people thirty minutes,” Kaldalis said. He started speaking with his hands, the movement helping to calm his anxiety slightly. “I get everything ready, you hit the button, and we rock and roll.”

“Consider your clock ticking, Kaldalis,” Cerh said, steepling his fingers.

Kaldalis realized he would have made an excellent anime antagonist.