CHAPTER SIX




The sky over Hollidae is grey and murky.

The ground is marshy with pools of water. Cliff is here, squelching carefully along.

Cliff encounters Eladea, taking stock of a collection of crates and boxes currently sitting just outside the open gate into town. Zabelle comes and picks one up. Eladea and Zabelle notices Cliff walking up from behind.

—Eladea—
Hm...?
Oh!

—Zabelle—
Ah, hello...
Cliff, wasn't it...?

  Cliff Mason
That's me.

—Eladea—
Apologies for the state of our home. Hardly a state befitting its divinity.
Unfortunately, we have been seeing... intermittent flooding, lately. We have been struggling to keep up.

  Cliff Mason
I getcha. That time of year, huh?

—Zabelle—
I hope not... dealing with this annually would suck...

—Eladea—
I have faith that in time we can make some victories to cheer our Goddess' mood.
Until then, we've elected to store some supplies in the temple for safekeeping.

  Cliff Mason
Well, hey, just let me know if you need any help with that. Moving heavy objects is one of my best...

Cliff looks over at one of the boxes and notices it's stacked with Casandra's orbs.

He looks incredibly conflicted.

Casandra shows up behind him.

—Casandra—
Scoping out my orbs, huh, beef man?

  Cliff Mason
Jesus!

—Casandra—
Casandra, actually. What are you doing here?
Just drinking in the sight of my merchandise? You'd better be planning to pay up if you're thinking of getting your mitts on any of that.

  Cliff Mason
Hey, I'm just here to, uh...
...to check in on Coral!
You know, because she came around here a few days ago and I just wanted to make sure everything was cool.

Casandra suddenly looks very awkies

—Casandra—
Oh! Oh.

  Cliff Mason
So, uh, you know where I could catch her?

—Casandra—
Yeaaahhhhhh. Of course. Where Coral is.
That sounds a great question... for someone else to answer!