TRAPMASTER: Fabrizio declines the offer and prepares to approach Costelli himself! Zeno is crushed, and finally realizes the extent of his blunders! In a suprise announcement at dinner, he reveals he will be joining the Church!
Has Fabrizio been too hard on Zeno? His mother, Signora Toscianni, turns against him, yet the court supports his actions. Departing to the mountain home of Costelli, Fabrizio is denied an audience with the master craftsman...
(if you go left) An addendum: Signora Toscianni's reticience stems from an ill-fated liason with Duke Giovanni, the TRUE father of Zeno, who threatens to reveal all unless his republican sympathies are supported.
Fabrizio is freaking out! Due to the gossiping Tomolo, the entire kingdom knows of his gambit for the egg! In desperation, he seduces the unglamourous daughter of Costelli, knowing he will be forced to craft the egg as dowry.
We cut to twelve years later! Fabrizio is a respected monarch, narrowly avoiding civil war on several occasions. Yet he is troubled: what is the cause of his recurring nightmares? And why do they seem to centre on the crystal egg enshrined within his newfound treasury?
(due to these seperate paths leading back onto the same one, there wont be a seperate page for these paths!!!)
(if you go left) Signora Toscianni, recognizing in the egg a potent symbol of the sublimated desire for (sexual?) power which was responsible for Fabrizio's denunciation of his potent brother, attempts to smash it... only to be stabbed vigorously by the furious Fabrizio!
(if you go left again) Fabrizio detects treachery in every nook! His reign becomes increasingly bloody and his favourite punishment involves forcing parents to devour their own screaming children! It's pretty wild!
(if you go right, where the path originally splits) Fabrizio becomes more archaic in manner... During an esteemed civic banquet, he sprays blood from his chest, adding little to the already strained peace talks... His court grows increasingly hysterical... He starts taking midnight trips to see the egg...
Fabrizio is literally screaming for an OCEAN OF BLOOD to be spilled when a MYSTERY MONK arrives and demands to see him! Fabrizio, no friend of the church, dispatches guards... only to find they are strangely unable to draw swords on the stranger!
The intelligent reader will by now have realised that this monk can be no other than the prodigal Zeno...
...having discoved the secret of his lineage, to remain vessels to the machinations of regal ancestor "Leopard", whose use of alchemy allows him to exert psychic influence on his scions, an influence to which Zeno is immune due to his illegitimate nature...