Okay. So quite a lot has happened since I last wrote. I'm still at Cabotton, but there have been a lot of things having happened, primarily two things.

First, let's talk about the crisis with Carol and Rachele.

I do not remember much of the Bookkeeper that came before Kelvin Cross, former Headmaster Martin Cross' son, but Kelvin, the new Bookkeeper appointed by Dungeonmaster Rachele, made quite a memorable impact on the Society this past month.

So it came to be that the Society was in a crisis, with Carol seizing control of the Dungeonmaster's Office while Rachele was nowhere to be found. Earlier this week, we had a special Caucus Meeting to be presided over by Bookkeeper Cross. During that meeting, my roommate, Valian, called on Cross to have Carol banned, since Rachele was not there. However, all that Cross did was confirm that Carol was no longer the Dungeonmaster and then recommended that Rachele has the right to ban Carol.

Valian was enraged at this. He was angry that Cross, himself, was not taking any action, that he was simply allowing two sides within the Society to fight each other. "You're just like your father!" Valian said.

Then Cross said, "My job as a Bookkeeper is not to make the rules, not to enforce the rules, but only to interpret the rules as they apply from case to case."

That was true, indeed, but we had about thirty Members desert us over this ordeal. And even I began considering leaving, myself. I came to the conclusion that moving back to North Kempton with Cray Fenton was the best option. I sent a message to him over the ticker, but got no response, yet again. I then made a telephone call, which went through but was answered by "Sophie," who said that Cray was still out of town. I called up to Daylram, but found that he had left to return to North Kempton.

They have since lifted the curfews and opened the borders, though society is still on high alert.

The problem was that I had no idea where Cray Fenton was.

A few days later, meaning two days ago, I got a ticker message from Sari Frame, who said that she, Cray Fenton, Meona Bell, Rachele Evernorth, and Sarah Marks were meeting in the Standler in Ebony Valley, and that they wanted me to join them the next day, so long as I promised not to tell the public about this meetup. I was a little doubtful at first, because I know that forty years ago, Daniel Carter had encountered the notorious Darius Weller at the Standler; and Darius was well-disguised, posing as another seeming safe figure. In fact, the Standler had always had a shady reputation, from what I recall.

Regardless, I decided to take the risk. I reasoned that my only other viable option was to simply go home to my parents, to simply back out of all of this and start over. Though that was the safer option, it was one with devastating consequences. Furthermore, the risk was relatively low at the Standler despite its reputation, so long as the meetup was not on one of the lower levels.

So I went.

To my relief, I was directed to one of the suites on the third floor of the place. And indeed, nothing was shady here. As I expected, Sari, Rachele, Sarah, Cray, and Meona were all there, as well as Tom Pero. They, including Rachele, had been made aware of the card agenda these last few days; in fact, it was Cray who told Rachele after Tom Pero told him, apparently during their stay in Daylram.

Rachele then told me that she was actually willing to lift the card ban, so long as the avatar cards were regulated. Basically, she would appoint me as the Cardkeeper of the Third Level Society, setting a precedent for Dungeonmasters to appoint Cardkeepers in the future; and this would have to officially be approved by the Third Level Society Caucus. However, instead of serving directly under the Dungeonmaster, I would be reporting to the Bookkeeper, who would have to approve every policy I implement on the cards to ensure I did not violate the Statute of Principle.

The party here did not have a favor attached to that per say, but they did request that I helped Rachele in her response to Carol. Rachele had been considering the notion of invoking what Bookkeeper Cross said that she would invoke. The issue, however, is that since the whole nation is enveloped in quite the state of panic in the wake of the Lykian attacks, Rachele was concerned that moving against Carol would cause her to spout false accusations so publicly so as to catch the attention of the federal authorities again. So Rachele and the others at the Standler resolved that it would be better if someone would try to soft-talk Carol into stepping down peacefully. They determined that I was the best fit for this, because while I had been the one implementing the card agenda, Carol was convinced that Rachele had been the one putting me up to it, perhaps against my will, according to Carol's beliefs.

This tasked did feel dangerous, I will admit. Nonetheless, I agreed to it.

So yesterday, I approached Carol Owen. I knocked on the Dungeonmaster Office door; and she let me in. She distrusted me at first but I kept telling her that I was willing to listen to her and be her supporter. She was still a bit skeptical, so I explained that I used to be friends with Rachele and Cray, but that I had now defected. I reminded her that Rachele and I, having used to be a romantic couple, broke up.

Now of course, I am still friends with Cray, and even with Rachele again, as well as that whole party, but of course I did not tell Carol that bit. And Carol seemed to buy what I said aloud to her, so much so that she was willing to share with me her side of the story.

So according to Carol, Rachele was extremely manipulative over Cray Fenton, subduing him completely or so Carol led herself to believe. She also believed that Sarah Marks intimidated people into supporting her and then deployed Rachele to pose as a rival in order to keep the Society divided.

In other words, Carol believes that Sarah Marks manipulated Rachele Evernorth into subduing Cray for some motive.

Of course, in my mind, I did not believe Carol on that, but I told her that I understood her now, which was technically true. I then told Carol how well I knew Cray, and that while he could have been fooled early on, it was only because he was an outsider to the whole thing; after all, he has largely nothing to do with the Third Level Society. However, Cray would pull out as soon as he detected treachery, which I told Carol that he seemed to be doing right now. I took a few moments to explain how Cray had his own dymensional plane organization out in North Kempton. I told her that while it may not be as dynamic as the one here in Cabotton, because it is based more on the real world, things are also not so political.

"Would you be willing to leave Cabotton to the birds if Cray offered you some leadership role in North Kempton?" I asked her.

She said that she would consider it. But of course, we would have to wait and see.