Lea Monde: The Keep
Samantha: ...It is true. It is as you say.
Some parts were added later, but the original Kildean letters cover every wall.
The walls of Lea Monde, all carved with these glyphs ... What do they mean?
Guildenstern: These are the "spellsongs". Lea Monde is surrounded by sorcery.
Youl'll likely find them on every den and dovecote in the city.
This city ... it is unchanged these past 2000 years.
Neither the eroding winds nor the quake have sapped its strength.
The Dark is strongest toward the Center -- the great Cathedral. I have felt it.
The entire city is a circle of magic!!
Rosencrantz, offscreen: Brilliant!
Rosencrantz: A brilliant deduction, my good sir! Top of your class at the Academy, indeed.
Guildenstern: What, you knew?
Rosencrantz: Didn't everyone?
The city is the circle, the "wellspring".
And the "book" -- the Gran Grimoire -- for which you seek... you're standing in it. Lea Monde is the Gran Grimoire!
Guildenstern: Why did you not tell us? This is betrayal most foul!
Why have you done this!?
Rosencrantz: Your memory fails you. The Dark holds no power over me.
...Nor do I recall us ever being friends. My friendship with the Duke is fleeting as well.
Guildenstern: Have you no honor?
Rosencrantz: That, I do have... and enough sense not know not to throw my life away for some fool cause.
Guildenstern: You are naught but a glorified sellsword. You disgust me.
Rosencrantz: We live in peaceful, boring times. There's no rank to be had in killing on the fields of war.
We must seize opportunity where we find it. Do you not agree, Guildenstern?
You were using me, too, after all.
I'm your "opportunity". You know that.
You need me.
Guildenstern: You are a common harlot. You were born a worm, and you will die a worm.
LeSait was right to expel you from the Riskbreakers.
Rosencrantz: Such praise! I am not worthy!
Guildenstern: Where is the "key"?
Rosencrantz: Well, now...
Guildenstern: Tell me, or I will see you dead. (draws sword)
Rosencrantz: You, kill me? I was a Riskbreaker, you know.
Samantha: What is this? Where am I? What is this I see? [Her eyes glow red, and she falls]
Yet I am here!
Guildenstern: Samantha, it is I!
Samantha: W-where? Where are you?
Rosencrantz: ...They are linked. Samantha's rhythm is attuned to his, Guildenstern.
Guildenstern: Riskbreaker!!
Samantha, as herself: H-he is near ... He hides.
Guildenstern: It has passed, then.
[Rosencrantz walks off]
Guildenstern: We join with Tieger.
Samantha: Yes.
[Ashley goes to enter a door. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz walk through the door.]
Guildenstern: I did want to see what Sydney had planned for our little agent here...
But now it is time to end the game. Rosencrantz, kill him.
Show him your power. Show him how you will make the Dark kneel.
Rosencrantz: My pleasure. (Guildenstern departs)
...We meet again, Ashley.You have no idea how long I've waited to measure swords with you.
Ashley: What do you mean?
Rosencrantz: You see, I've known you for a long time.
Ashley: !!
Rosencrantz: I was the one who set you up as the VKP's errand-boy.
And ... I have you to thank for my current lack of employ.
Ashley: What?!
Rosencrantz: Here, let me jog your memory!!
[They fight]
Rosencrantz: Yield!!
...A shame your skill in the killing arts did not go the way of your memory.
Ashley: What "killing arts"?
Rosencrantz: You really don't remember. I should give the VKP more credit...
We were in the same unit, you and I!
Ashley: What unit?
You mean ... In the Kingsguard?
Rosencrantz: The "Kingsguard?"
...More VKP lies, I'm afraid. That summer day...
That warm summer day. I was there, with you.
[Flashback. Picnic scene, with Ashley and Rosencrantz standing over Tia's body]
Rosencrantz: Well done, Commandant! Both right through the heart!
...What? They're just peasants.
Their luck ran ill, is all.
All witnesses to our operations must be "dealt" with. It is our code.
They were wrong to picnic here.
You are the hand of justice. We...We are the hand of justice.
It is for the good of the realm. A few sacrifices is nothing--
Ashley: A few sacrifices?
You tell me why these people had to die! Why we had to kill them!
They were innocents...
Is it not our charge to protect these very souls!?
[Ashley throws away his sword and falls to his knees]
Rosencrantz: What has come over you?
You sound the addle-pated preacher!
[Ashley faints]
Rosencrantz: C-Commandant!
What is wrong!?
[End flashback]
Rosencrantz: The Riskbreakers may be the wards of the law now, but it was not always so....
We were always champions of justice, true, but a justice that served the state alone. We were above the law.
We assassinated political enemies of Parliament and sent sharp steel to bloody the civil wars of our neighbors.
To the people, we were the "Knights of Law and Order". To our enemies, we were the Parliament's hatchet-men.
You were a commandant, one of the best. If only your sense of justice was not so keen.
The VKP was not about to lose one of their best without a fight.
Ashley: And you?
Rosencrantz: Myself? I was picked up by the VKP, like you.
I learned about Lea Monde when I was sent to spy on Müllenkamp.
Then I made some friends...
Ashley: The Cardinal's men? Or Müllenkamp?
Rosencrantz: Both.
You weren't the only one unhappy with the old killing teams.
Threats, burglary, murder. We were not different than common ruffians.
They prey on people, we on nations.
There were others that tried to forget.
Some went mad. Others took their own lives.
Not I, however. I will use them as they used me.
You know "Them", eh?
The privileged, ruling from their satin couches.
Born with silver spoons in their mouths,
or shrewed moneyers standing on the backs of the poor.
But the pawns have seen the gameboard for what it is.
Now there is only one thing left--
Ashley: Lea Monde? The Blades, the VKP, they all want the power it holds.
Rosencrantz: Correct. And dear Sydney holds the only key.
... I cannot fathom what his intentions are in using you as a vessel for the Dark.
Regardless, his time is nigh.
Ashley: And the Blades will do your dirty work?
Rosencrantz: Those pious fools have been long steeped in filth.
[Earthquake]
Rosencrantz: I will not yield so easily next we meet.
Ashley: You are a poor loser, Rosencrantz.
Rosencrantz: Say what you will! (departs)
Ashley: Lying to ourselves... Believing our own lies...
Offscreen: ...ot? Where are you?
[Ashley turns and sees nothing]
Offscreen: ...re you alive? Agent Riot?
Ashley: Merlose? Merlose!!
Where are you? Where?
[Flash to the wine cellar, with a greyed-out Ashley watching Merlose curled in a corner]
Offscreen: Blast! Another o'them sigils!
Offscreen: We won't get through 'ere.
Hardin, offscreen: Fear not. The door will hold.
Hardin: I prefer leaving a guardian to back up my sigils, but I made this one particularly strong.
Merlose: Then you can summon the Dark Ones, as Sydney does?
Hardin: Come, we go to the Great Cathedral.
(Joshua looks at Merlose from behind Hardin's leg. We see a greyed-out, ghostly Joshua.)
-- He intends to die. --
Merlose: That boy...
(Joshua hides behind Hardin)
Hardin: The duke's son. Our honored ... guest.
He is timorous, though, and speaks not a word.
Merlose: He seems quite taken with you.
Hardin: Yes, he knows not who I am.
Merlose: Why did Mullenkamp seize the ducal manor?
Answer me!
Hardin: Why should I?
Offscreen: We turned banners against the duke.
[Merlose turns to see a greyed-out, ghostly Hardin watching]
Ghost Hardin: He sought to seal off our wellspring, after two decades of toil.
Merlose: He sought to seal off our wellspring...
Hardin: You...
Ghostly Hardin: The duke is mortally ill ... He fears he will pay for this life's sins in the next.
So he seeks to bury this city, as though that would bring absolution.
Merlose: And you seek to pluck the city from his dying hands, correct?
Hardin: You... a seer! What witchcraft is this?
(Ghostly Hardin disappears)
Merlose: Why? Why did you take the manor?
You will answer!
Ghostly Hardin: To inherit the city, you must have the "key". Only the bearer of the key can receive the power of the Gran Grimoire.
Merlose: The key?
Ghostly Hardin: The key-bearer, the duke, will soon die. If he dies without a successor, all is lost.
The duke thinks he can cut off the cursed Mullenkamp bloodline, but that must not be allowed to happen.
We will assume the legacy. Sydney is --
(He disappears again as Hardin stabs himself in the leg, to cut off Merlose's vision.)
Hardin: Hinder me no further. We go, now.
Merlose: This... this is my power?
Hardin: So it seems. As I can scrye on distant locales, so the talent of the heart-seers has flowered in you.
Merlose: Talent?
Hardin: We all possess energy, Inquisitor.
But it is a negative energy. An energy that should not exist.
Yet it does, and it awakens the sleeping power...
Merlose: The "Dark"?
Hardin: Yes, something like that.
Merlose: And Sydney...?
Hardin: He is the strongest I know.
Through the Dark, he sees peoples' past. He can even push his will on others...
He may have other powers beyond my ken.
Merlose: It is sad...
Hardin: What is?
Merlose: Even if he can see the past and clasp the truth, how are we to know if he speaks it?
If he can "push" us to believe anything, how do we tell truth from falsehood?
Hardin: Why single him out? Everyone lies, surely you know that.
Whether they are dark sorcerors or corrupt clergy, they all lie, and we believe. Am I wrong?
Ghost Hardin: He would not lie to me!
Merlose: The Gran Grimoire ... what will you do with it?
Hardin: ......
[Merlose looks for the spirit-Hardin, but he is nowhere to be seen.]
Merlose: Fine, then. Let us be off.
But ... Sydney hides something from you, Hardin.
Hardin: ... I will bring rope.
[Ghost Ashley is standing behind Merlose, watching the scene. Slowly, the scene fades back to Ashley in the dungeon.]
Ashley: The power to brand one's will onto another...
Sydney's "true past"... Was it a lie?
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Vagrant Story, all its characters, and all associated text is copyright © 2000 SQUARE Co. Ltd. All rights remain with original authors. This script is provided for educational and informative purposes only. WARNING: THERE BE SPOILERS WITHIN.