Wish away

[Anastasia]

Okay, you want to get wishy with it? Okay. What's your plan and goal here?

[Iron Dragoon]

Consecutive wishes like Cor suggested, and to either identify or capture the assassin.

[Anastasia]

Okay, set yourself up and we'll roll from there.

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa calls Jarem and Emily to her quarters to discuss the plan.

"So, Emily's mother suggested consecutive wishes to batter down our assassin's defenses. I think it's a good idea, but I think we can couple it with the trap idea. We'll be useless for casting, which is fairly common knowledge, so we'll be at our weakest. A prime target."

[Anastasia]

"So roll over and pounce when they pounce?" Jarem asks, "Walk me through this, Alyssa."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Well, either we beat down their defenses with the wishes and either capture him or find him, or we tip him off with it and he realizes we are vulnerable and he comes for us. I'm thinking of something like... a small item for an alarm or something and a reaction team to short range teleport in. Other ideas?"

[Anastasia]

"The only problem is that it's risky," Jarem says, sitting back and closing his eyes, "If he has more resources than anticipated or something unexpected happens, we may find ourselves in a pinch. However, no plan is without risk." Opening his eyes and with a nod, "We have to stop these assassinations, and if you think you can use wishes to power past, then we'll try it."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa shrugs. "Emily's mother seemed confident that it would work. The only question is how many wishes to put into it."

[Anastasia]

"If we do it, go all out until the limit of what we can withstand. Casting multiple wishes is prone to failure and injury," Jarem remarks, "So we need a plan in case we can't manage to string them together by misfortune."

[Iron Dragoon]

"I was thinking of having summons dig a safe room, and then be on standby under us to drop us to safety in case."

[Anastasia]

Emily hums at that, "That's not a bad idea, along with summons to buy us time if we need it. Though we'll need ones with a good duration, a typical summon monster spell isn't really adequate if this takes long at all."

"Yeah, Princess. But that depends on how fast we're forcing this," Jarem says, tapping his fingers against the side of his armor. "Have an elemental check before digging too, in case we choose somewhere with stability issues. Islands aren't always great places to dig down, especially near the shore."

"Oh, that is true," Emily admits, "We wouldn't want anything collapsing, but as long we check, it should be fine."

[Iron Dragoon]

"I have another idea as well. I think we should have someone near or hidden in that underground space that can cast a Time Stop. If needed, they can use the few seconds to put barriers up to protect us. Or, better, lock the assassin in a force cage."

[Anastasia]

Jarem slowly licks his lips, "Doable, doable, if we can casually get an archmage to help. Of course, this is predicated on him overcoming the wishes and biting on the bait. Do we have a move if he doesn't take the bait?"

[Iron Dragoon]

"The agent, I suppose. Emily brought along a... maid... of sorts that seemed eager to go after the assassin. I think Emily might have been pushed into putting serious effort into it as well, so she might have better ideas on how to deal with it."

[Anastasia]

"If this fails, then we rest and try again," Emily says, standing up straighter. "We may lose this first time, but the important thing is to keep going and going. If at first you don't succeed, try harder. We'll pick ourselves up and keep going. We won't give up!"

Jarem claps slowly, "Bravo," he says, "Admirable, though all those trite metaphors and maxims you used rather dimmed the sentiment, Princess."

Emily turns, blushing at that, "They fit!" Her fists ball up, arms down at her sides.

"So they do. You also have a well trained voice, but you aren't trained in oratory at all. I can tell. What you say and how you say it is as important as your sentiment. In fact, your sentiment hinges on it, because it's the vehicle in which you express yourself. Emotion can carry you far, but it's still pushing you along in a wagon missing a wheel if your word choice is poor." Jarem goes on, a gesture with his pointer finger, as if going across a chalkboard. "It's the same in writing, only more pronounced. A poor writer suffers before no matter how profound and important what he has to say is, his words and structure don't support his message. Think back to the last thing you read that was written poorly. Consider how it impacted the way you learned and understood the material, as well as your opinion of the greater work."

Emily's mouth closes and then she goes, "Ooooooooooh!"

"Yeah, get it?" Jarem says, "Well, that's my lesson to you for the day. Don't make me repeat it."