Scenario:Jamil - Thin Ice
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Thin Ice
During an audience with Queen Orchis, the crew learns that the Erste Kingdom's investigations into the former Imperial Intelligence Bureau have failed to make any new headway. After pledging their support, (Captain) and company return to the Grandcypher, where a dream steeped in childhood memories reawakens Jamil's thirst for vengeance.
Erste Kingdom is currently locked in battle with banished members of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau, which was dismantled when the Empire's forces were overthrown.
Hoping to drive a wedge between Erste's throne and (Captain)'s crew, the exiles captured Jamil during his lone reconnaissance mission—only to be snarled in a web of their own making...
Orchis: Oh, Jamil! Thank goodness you made a full recovery. I nearly went out of my mind with worry when I heard you'd been injured.
Jamil: Apologies for any distress I've caused. As you can see, I am alive and well—and back to attending upon my master.
Lyria: We tried getting him to rest longer, but he looked so sad cooped up in his room...
Jamil: I never should have left my master's side. Even a lifetime of service cannot atone for this disgrace...
Vyrn: Seriously, you gotta stop beating yourself up. You're back in one piece, and that's how we wanna keep it. Right, (Captain)?
(Captain) nods, adding that Jamil's safety is all that matters.
Orchis: If anything, I should be the one apologizing. My actions are at least partly to blame for the danger that befell Jamil.
Jamil: Master, Queen Orchis...
Orchis: Freesia and her vision of a grand empire had its appeal. She was ringed about with supporters, many of whom would become the Imperial Intelligence Bureau.
Orchis: When my allies and I reclaimed Erste as a kingdom, we made a lot of powerful enemies, despite my best efforts...
Jamil: Those oath-breakers got no more than they deserved.
Jamil: Every subject's duty is to the royal family. It is treason to fawn at another's feet—though it be the Prime Minister herself!
Orchis: People do not mutiny without reason, Jamil. We must have let them down one way or another. I can't imagine that a member of the Urzhuwan Clan—
Jamil: That traitor is not fit to be spoken of!
Jamil: What reason can one have to slaughter one's own family? To sell the very techniques with which we were supposed to defend the throne to turncoat imperialists...
Jamil: My apologies! You too suffered greatly at this traitor's hands, and yet I...
Orchis: Don't apologize, Jamil. I know that you speak from a place of devotion to me and my family.
Orchis: In much the same way, the former IIB have their own allegiances. Values they believe worth fighting for.
Orchis: But they never should have gotten your crew involved, (Captain). There was no crime on your hands.
Vyrn: Wasn't none on yours either. From what I'm hearing, Erste sounded like a chill place until the IIB turned it into an evil empire.
Vyrn: And now they're miffed 'cause they got kicked out of a kingdom they helped destroy? What a bunch of babies.
Jamil: Precisely.
Orchis: Well, now my government is doing everything it can to locate the former IIB so we can bring its members to justice.
Orchis: It's just... we haven't very many leads yet.
Jamil: That would be thanks to the Urzhuwan traitor. Stealth is the most elementary of our clan's techniques.
Jamil: Still, it's no easy task to impart our skills to outsiders. We must be up against a master.
(Captain) offers the crew's services in finding and apprehending the former IIB.
Orchis: Thank you, (Captain). Goodness knows we could use the help.
Orchis: I hate the thought of putting you and your crew in danger again, but... you're our greatest strength.
Orchis and (Captain) promise to regularly exchange information, and the crew returns to the Grandcypher.
Jamil: ...
Vyrn: What's the matter, Jamil? Lookin' kind of wobbly there.
Lyria: Are you tired? That was the first big trip you've taken in a while. Maybe you'd better rest up...
Jamil: No! Please, don't concern yourself about me.
Choose: Want to take a nap together?
Jamil: B-but... One of my foremost duties is to keep watch over your slumber...
Vyrn: Yeah, but lemme tell ya, you being on edge all the time ain't helping anyone catch their Z's. It'd be easier for (Captain) to relax if you'd just sleep in the same room.
Jamil: I-I'd never considered it that way. Well, I suppose if it'd help Master rest... The crew has been shouldering a great number of missions lately...
Jamil: Is absolute!
Jamil: Of course... But...
Continue 1
Jamil trails off and stands there helpless. (Captain) grabs his hand and leads him to the captain's cabin, where they all tumble onto sun-warmed sheets.
Lyria: Hehe. Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite!
Jamil: ...
Jamil: Yes. Pleasant dreams.
Jamil closes his eyes and lets the sound of (Captain)'s steady breathing rock him slowly into slumber.
Jamil: (Master... Lyria, Vyrn, and Queen Orchis... They're all looking out for me.)
Jamil: (Come to think of it... Today was the first time... I'd ever exchanged words with the queen...)
Jamil: (But the first time I saw her... feels like a lifetime ago...)
Jamil: ...
???: ...!
???: How could you even think such a thing?
???: The Urzhuwan clan owes a debt of eternal gratitude to King Byleistr.
???: Owe? An eternal debt? Do you hear yourself? These are the words of a bondman!
???: Do you mean to shackle all our progeny to the past? Will you not allow them to lead their own lives—their own futures!
???: There is no shame in being bound to protect. By living in the shadows, the Urzhuwan keep safe all who walk beneath the sun.
???: Save me your sanctimony. You have no right to speak for our children—to forever deny them the golden embrace of day.
???: We are being used! But you will not see it. You have allowed the throne to exploit your blindness and stupidity—
???: You forget yourself!
???: No. You are the one who has forgotten. Everything we have accomplished. The honor we have earned. You let those royal robbers take it all!
???: How dare—
???: Jamil? Did we wake you up? We're sorry. We shouldn't have raised our voices.
???: ...
???: Now, come with Mother back to bed... And as for you two, don't you need to prepare for tomorrow?
???: Yes, of course... Though our presence will be unnoticed, it is a great honor to be entrusted with the safety of the royal procession.
???: Would you not agree?
Jamil: ...
Jamil: (What a vivid dream...)
Jamil: (No, it wasn't a dream... It was a memory... Of the night before my first Founding Day Parade...)
Jamil reconstructs the dream in his waking mind, meticulously going over every detail, every sensation.
Jamil: (That man to whom Father and Mother were speaking... He was of the Urzhuwan clan...)
Jamil: ...
Jamil: (Back then, I was too young and too scared to fully grasp my father's fury. But at last I understand...)
Jamil: (To deny us the golden embrace of day...)
Jamil: (Those were no more than gilded words... meant to hide the ambition and treachery nesting in the serpent's heart.)
Jamil: (My parents must have seen right through him.)
Jamil: Father... Mother...
Jamil: ...!
Jamil whips around to face (Captain), who regards him, bleary-eyed.
Jamil: Yes... Nothing to be concerned about.
Still wrapped in the fog of sleep, the captain smiles faintly at Jamil's answer before sinking back into placid dreams.
Jamil: Nothing at all...
Jamil: (What kind of guardian am I? How could I have been so lost in my thoughts that I didn't sense my master's awakening?)
Jamil: (And moreover... How could I have lied to (Captain)?)
Jamil: ...
Jamil: (I despise the man who betrayed the royal family and butchered my clan... The man who killed my parents. As long as he lives, I will not know peace.)
Jamil: (But I cannot allow my heart to forever be torn in two. This hatred is corroding my loyalty... and my love towards my master.)
Jamil: ...
Jamil: I must put an end to this.
Jamil looks at his hands resting atop the white sheets and clenches them into fists.
In the dark, listening to the deep breathing of his captain, he comes to an understanding. Before he can live in peace, he must first put to death the war raging within.