While Rhett is probably raiding Rico’s backpack for tinfoil to start constructing hats, Wilder steps in to provide the necessary exposition. “Allow me to explain,” he says. “The Six Clans consist of us, the Duck Clan, and five other clans: Lizard, Karaya, Safir, Chisha, and Alma Kinan.” God dammit, I’d somehow been under the impression all this time that the Safir Clan was the one based here in Chisha. We never actually see the Safir Clan because–spoiler–it’s been wiped out by the Harmonians. And yet it is mentioned as one of the Six Clans, when the Carna Clan of Le Buque, which still exists, albeit under Harmonian subjugation, is excluded. Even Wilder’s attempt to clarify Grassland anthropology has left me more confused than before. Anyway, he adds, “This is the first time I’ve met anyone from Alma Kinan,” and Rhett echoes this. Unsurprising, Yumi says, since they almost never leave their village. I suppose this is the roundabout way of conveying that Alma Kinan is more or less treated as a creepy ghost story by the other five six four Grassland clans.

This fucking guy.

In keeping with that idea, both Rhett and Wilder overreact again to Fred running his fool mouth some more. Even Wilder, the supposedly sensible one, goes, “Be careful! Your rash behavior might earn you a curse!” Yumi spares me the need to point out how racist this is, telling Wilder, “A curse? Excuse me! That’s not very nice to imply.” Now he’s going to be cursed! Oh no! He falls all over himself apologizing, and she says, “Well, I guess I’ll let it be. You’re merely misguided in what we do, although it does involve rituals and spirits.” I’m sure the ducks only heard the last three words of what she said. Yun says they all must be tired, and that they should go inside the Chisha Nazi bunker and rest, as “she” has not yet arrived anyway. I like Yun and all–it’s hard to dislike someone as adorable as she is–but girl has a fucking Ph.D in intentionally mysterious dialogue, and it bugs.

Now that Chris has met the Alma Kinan ladies, Chief Sana is waiting at the bottom of the hill to meet her as well. “Welcome to our village!” she tells Chris, and then adds to the AK girls, “Are these the ones?” Yun’s all, “Yes, they will be the perfect human sacrifices for our demonic blood altar.” Actually, she says they will bring “good” to Chisha. And iciness. Yun also says “the bad ones” are on their way as well, and this of all things leads Nash to wonder what the hell is going on and how Yun can know all this stuff. So when she knew about Chris’s dad, and about some lady who is about to arrive, and about them being the saviors of Chisha, that was all above board. But Yun stating what he himself already fucking knows is just too much. Seriously. “Yun is possessed with the gift to see many things,” Yumi again non-answers. Yun adds, dropping some dark-ass foreshadowing, “I see certain things very well, but this will not last for much longer.” See, they’re going to go ahead with the human sacrifice, but they’re only going to use Nash and Fred, whose ghosts will chatter at them so incessantly that Yun’s all-seeing third eye will roll back into her head and get permanently stuck.

On cue, I guess, a Chishaclone runs down the hill, yelling to Sana and Yun, “They are here!!!” Yumi tells Chris, “This is what she meant.” Some people have come! Only a psychic could have predicted this! It turns out “they” are Franz and the other mantor trainers, buzzing down toward the village on their gross locust mounts. The Sinister Happenings Are Afoot music cues up, as if the sight of a bunch of giant insects with two-foot-long pincers wasn’t enough of a clue. Neither Chris nor Nash has seen these things before, though that doesn’t stop the latter from mansplaining to the former what they are. Naturally. Chris says, “Let’s go before there is trouble. I don’t need to find out if her prophecy is true.” This sounds an awful lot like Chris wants to blow this pop stand without helping the Chishans at all. Yes, she is going to end up helping, but it also casts Hugo’s big old freakout about her presence here in an interesting new light.

Chris leads her entourage, including Yun and Yumi, up the hill, where Sana is already face to face with Franz, still atop Ruby and bobbing awkwardly in the air. He clearly thinks addressing her from above, while riding a creepy insect, is the kind of power play necessary to lend him some authority, but as with everything Franz, it just makes him look like a jackass. “Listen up!” the jackass shouts. “Bishop Sasarai, the leader of the Holy Harmonia Kingdom’s army, wishes to avoid further conflict. Thus, I have been ordered to locate the Fire Bringer gang. This village will be under our rule for as long as this situation remains. You will obey our orders. Is this clear? This is not a request. It is a decree!” It could not be more obvious that third-class Harmonian citizen Franz is getting his rocks off on being the one issuing the decrees for a change.

Sana’s basically like, “Fuck you, no, and fuck you once more.” She may be a quaker grandma but she’s not going to back down. Franz decides to threaten her some more, since he’s such a nice dude and only doing this for his people and his girlfriend he totally likes sexing all the time. “When the Safir Clan resisted our investigation not long ago,” he tells Sana, “the ensuing revolt against Harmonia resulted in tragedy. Do you wish that same fate upon yourselves?” Okay, so apparently enough time has passed between Geddy’s second chapter and Chris’s third that the Bug Brigadiers first attacked the Safir Clan and then came here when they didn’t get what they wanted. So the Safir Clan is one of the Six Clans, and the Carna Clan is not, because the former’s village just got burnt to the ground an hour ago. Fine. (For a game that is predicated upon synchronized timelines and seeing the same events from different perspectives, the actual passage of time is treated in quite the cavalier fashion.) This also means that this is now the second Grassland clan the Bug Brigadiers have attacked, and they seem to have developed a taste for cultural treason.

INVISIBLE BOUNCE HOUSE

To that point, Sana asks, “Then you are saying that we should be enslaved by Harmonia, just as you are?” Snap. Franz takes this criticism in a diplomatic, mature fashion–just kidding, he whips out his halberd to slice off Sana’s head. Chris can either watch grandma get shanked, or she can cry out, “Watch out!” I like Sana, and the Silver Maiden is a noble hero or whatever, so I make Chris leap between Franz and Sana. “Who are you?” he asks, as he and Chris point their long, hard weapons at each other. “You don’t look like a villager.” What the fuck does “a villager” look like? You know what, never mind. Chris doesn’t feel the need to reveal her identity “to a beast,” but nonetheless Nash joins her on the battle line, whining, “Our cover is blown! Weren’t we supposed to remain anonymous?” How did she blow their cover, by not letting Franz decapitate an old lady in front of them? And if all someone needed was to see her for their cover to be blown, given that she’s so fucking obviously Chris Lightfellow the Silver White Maiden Sue, that was going to happen at some point no matter what. Shut up, Nash. But he resigns himself to the fight, and concedes that this must be why all her gay knights are in love with her. Double shut up, Nash.

For what I think is the second time but feels like the 500th, the party must square off against Franz, Ruby, and their companion bugs and Bug Brigadiers. For fun I have Nash and Wilder deploy the Shredding against them, and it turns out the latter is a decent spellcaster. Who knew ducks were good for things? The double Shredding wipes out the BBs, and if only due to unconsciousness, wipes that smug look off Franz’s resting bitchface.

After the battle is over, of course the BBs are back on their locusts as if they didn’t get blown off by like two dozen tornadoes. “They told me there were no fighters in Chisha Village,” Franz complains. “Let’s get out of here!” So Harmonia has access to these terrifying mountable insects–in theory a tactically advantageous asset–but only deploys them where they will face no resistance? Except for the Safir Clan, who “revolted” but Franz still managed to carry the day? I don’t know anymore.

Once Franz and his boyfriends have noisily flown off and are out of sight, Rhett says, “They’re gone.” Thanks, buddy. But Chris won’t relax, mostly because she doesn’t know what relaxing is, but also because, “Yes, but they’re just a sample of the Harmonian army. If they’re on a recon mission, we haven’t seen the end of this yet.” I’m not sure which part of Franz’s decree sounded like he was on a recon mission, but he left without doing anything, and he has a flying mount, so there’s that, I guess. A black screen later, the group is back in the village and Sana is thanking Chris for fighting on Chisha’s behalf. Chris reiterates that this is just the beginning of the trouble, and generally refuses to just accept Sana’s thanks, because she didn’t magically eradicate the Harmonians once and for all. Surprise, Chris is being all weird and type A about this. “If you hadn’t resisted,” Sana finally tells her, visibly annoyed with Chris’s neuroses, “we would have, in our own way, for this land was once the land of the Flame Champion.” Cool, so he left a cache of weapons around here, is what you’re saying. Nice.

The ducks leave the party, their services no longer required, I suppose. Yun and Yumi also bail, no doubt so Chris can seek them out later and hear more clairvoyant claptrap about her daddy. For now, though, she returns to the village entrance–I sure have endured a lot of walks up and down this goddamn hill–and stands there with her shoulders up around her ears until Nash asks her what’s wrong. “Nash, what am I doing here?” she asks, gritting her teeth. “I helped burn down the entire Karaya Village. They should despise me as their enemy. Why am I helping these people? Is this going to make up for what I did?” Do we know for sure that Sana even realizes who she is? I’m sure she does–Sana is no fool–but Chris and Nash are both acting like that confrontation with Franz ended with Chris flying the banner of the Silver Maiden overhead behind a prop plane. None of this matters, though, because this is more about Chris coming to terms with her own actions, regardless of who knows about them. Anyone who has been paying attention can clearly see that is half the goddamn point of her character arc.

So that leaves Nash. “No, it won’t,” he tells her. “And we’re not getting anywhere here. You don’t want to be recognized, and you’d be better off helping overthrow the Grasslands.” Chris kicks her icy outrage into fifth gear. “What?! Overthrow the Grasslands?” I’m not even sure how it’s possible to misread Chris this badly, but Nash goes on, “Listen, the Lizard and Karaya Clans can’t afford to oppose both the Zexens and the Harmonians. Ally with Harmonia, and you can crush the Grasslands from both sides and divide the spoils between you. I hear that Harmonia already has some close ties to the Zexen Council.” If this has been Nash’s play all along, it was extraordinarily poorly thought out. And bringing up the Zexen Council? Dude, do your research. Chris tells him to never bring up this “treacherous” bullshit again, or she’ll be sending him back to his precious, totally real wife in a pine box. I really do hope he brings it up again.

I’m not optimistic that anything, even death, could silence Nash.

“Don’t get so upset,” he tells her, shrugging. “We obviously see the situation differently.” He is never going to stop being patronizing and gross, is he? Should I just give up on that? But he does change the subject, at least, asking her if she’s still thinking about looking for her father. Uh, dude, that is literally the only reason she’s out here, letting her hair fly wild and free and hanging out with one annoying gay man instead of five relatively nice ones. “Thanks for reminding me,” she answers, with what I hope is withering sarcasm.

On that note, Chris runs back down the hill–sigh–to the village, where Yun and Yumi are waiting to move the plot forward. After possibly forgetting Yun’s name, which is hilarious, Chris finally asks why Yun was waiting for her here. “We two came to this place for two reasons,” Yun says. “First, to defend the village. And because we haven’t completed our first mission yet, I’ll have to wait to tell you the second.” First of all, Yun isn’t even a combat character, so shut up. Second, remember that we saw in Hugo’s chapter that Chris will leave with the AK ladies before the main Harmonian force arrives. So shut up again. Nash’s takeaway from all this? “To defend the village? You and her? Just the two of you? Don’t tell me–you must be the daughter of the Flame Champion, inheritor of the True Fire Rune, able to burn even water like wood.” And a third shut up to you, sir.

Yun tee-hees that she can totally talk to spirits and stuff, which will help keep the village safe. Chris has some icy skepticism for this idea. “Don’t be silly! That’s nonsense. A foolish superstition.” Yun tells her, “But it did work just now.” See, she asked the spirits to send the Silver Maiden, a creepy man with a bad perm, two ducks who would burn her at the stake if they could, a fake knight, and a pudgy girl with a giant backpack. And the spirits got that shit done! So simple. But they’ll need more than that to deal with the next invasion–more than the apparent army of spirits at her command can help her with, for crying out loud–so she asks Chris for a favor. “If you help us,” she says, “I’ll tell you why I was waiting for you. Is it a ‘deal,’ as you say in Zexen?” Do only Zexens say that? Really? Anyway, the favor is to go fetch “someone” from Duck Village. Caesar, obviously. So does Yun get credit for telling the spirits to bring her a Silverberg, too, since the spirits brought Chris and Chris is going to bring Caesar? How far is she going to carry this?

Uh huh.

All that said, I’m glad at least some reason is given here for Caesar’s assistance, even if it’s “the spirits brought him to us,” because that’s more than we got when he showed up at Buttfuck out of the blue. Chris agrees to help. Such is her desire to hear whatever a 13-year-old girl with delusions of magic powers has to say about the father she’d presumed dead for years.