Factol Hashkar sat at his oversized desk deep within the walls of the City Courts, pondering as usual. Since Sarin was killed two weeks ago and since the Harmonium was greatly unorganized, the crime rate had almost tripled, and his Courts seemed to always be full with criminals and other things. If this were to continue on, Sigil would fall to a complete Anarchy. Some had to do something.

At that moment, an idea popped into his head. Taking a scroll and dipping a feather pen in an ink well, he wrote a few lines down and rolls the scroll up. He tried it up and put his personal seal onto it. After checking to make sure it was all neat and orderly, Hashkar being an incurable neat-nick, he summoned his personal messenger.

"Yes sir?" A young girl of about 16 years walked in. Though she was very pretty, Hashkar hadn't chosen her for her looks. She was one of the quickest people in the city, and she knew where every important building was by heart.

"Take this message to Hall of Speakers. Make sure that one of the City representatives gets it. It is a very urgent security matter."

"Yes sir." She took the message and run out the door. Hashkar hoped that his plan would work so that he could have some time to rest throughout this whole ordeal.

The messenger ran quickly along. Despite what had happened just two weeks ago, it was actually a relatively nice day in the City of Doors. The smog that hangs Sigil overcast most of the time had gone today, and there was a refreshing breeze out. She inhaled deeply and picked up her pace. She dodged the crowd easily and made it to the Hall of Speakers in less than 3 hours, a good time since it was halfway across the city.

Strolling in casually, she approached the front desk and handed the message to the clerk. All of a suddenly, the clerk's face took on an appearance of severe urgency. The clerk handed the messenger some silver and thanked her for the message. Shrugging, the messenger ran out and went on about her merry way.

The clerk got up and walked quickly into the back halls. The message was urgent to the well being of the city, so urgent that he would be justified to interrupt the government debate sessions. There was no time to be wasted. This had to be put to vote immediately.

Two large and bulky Mercykiller guards stood stiffly at the hall entrance. As the clerk tried to blow past them, the guard on the right grabbed the clerk collar and yanks him backwards hard.

"Where ye going in such a hurry then?" said the guard on the left.

"I have here a proposal which must be heard by the house floor immediately." Said the clerk, slightly shaken from the burly guards.

"The house is in meeting at this time. You may come back later to propose something." Said the guard on the right.

"But it is vital to the city's security. Here, take a look"

Handing the left guard the message, he stood back to watch. The right guard came over and the two talked for a moment. The clerk wondered if these two were psychically bonded, like two parts of the same whole. But that's the Mercykillers, he thought.

The two separated and still held their ever-emotionless faces. "Due to the urgency of this message, we shall let you pass," said the guard on the right and the clerk booked down the hall as fast as he could.

The Hall of Speakers main debate room was alive with argument as representatives from all 15 faction fired words at each other like arrows between opposing armies. A Deader was barking some nonsense at a Sensate, a Bleaker was giving a cold stare at a Guvner, and one of the Hardheads was just about to light into a Xaositect.

At the center of it all was Darius, The Factol of the Sign of One, and just about the vainest person that ever existed. She was wrapped in an all manner of obviously expensive clothes. She, like all the other Signers, believed she was the center of everything, that she was imagining the multiverse. Of course, it was plain to see why most regard these as barmy. But somehow the managed to get themselves into the position of running the city legislature, so everyone had to deal with it.

The clerk got up to Darius's desk without being noticed, as everyone else was busy debating or arguing, but for some they were the same things. Tapping Darius on the shoulder, she handed her the message and allowed her to read it. After a moment, her face got rather serious due to the message's contents. Taking her gavel, she hammered it repeatedly, but with no effect. She finally belted out from the top of her lungs "SILENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!" The halls immediately got quiet from the factol's sudden outburst. She nodded and dismissed the clerk.

"Representatives, we have an important situation on hand that is relevant to the Harmonium situation," Darius called out. "The current motion shall be delayed, and the new motion shall be presented immediately."

Falling into silence, the representatives sat down and the house clerk began to read.

The following morning, Hashkar was at his desk looking over cases and hearing from the previous day. More toil and work, as usual. A desk job was boring, and after this Harmonium thing, he had been spending more of his time on court cases than on pursuing the faction goal, finding out every little bit of secret and law the multiverse had to offer. Such is the reason the are masters of the courts; they have a vast knowledge of laws and have been selected to interpret them.

Then they're a knocking at his door. "Enter," he called. One of his clerks walked in carrying a message.

"Urgent missive from the Hall of Speakers, sir," said the messenger.

"Thank you." Hashkar took the message and opened it. He looked up to see the clerk still standing there. "You are dismissed."

"Thank you, sir." The clerk turned around and walked, almost marched, out the doors.

Hashkar studied the message for a moment, and raised his eyebrows in surprise. This was in response to the message he'd sent only yesterday. He had never seen 15 different, almost warring faction reach a decision in only a day, but this was a very serious circumstance.

Taking pen in hand and grabbing a sheet of paper, he wrote up another document. After a few minutes of writing, he rolled it up, slid a ring around it, and summoned for the messenger.

The girl appeared in his office a minute later. She had her characteristic smile on her face. "Another message for the Hall of Speakers, sir?"

Hashkar shook his head. "No. This message is directed to the Barracks. And do hurry."

Handing her the message, Hashkar dug in his pocket and pulled out a few silver coins. He handed them to her and bid her on her way.

The girl curtsied. "Thank you sir." She dashed out and on her way to the Barracks.

Hashkar hoped the Hardheads would listen to him just this once. They always considered their way the best way, even if it was clearly wrong. Fortunately, this was an event that didn't occur too often.

Arctur was pacing nervously in his quarters. It had been 2 weeks now, and still no decision. Not only were things falling apart in the city, but also longer time meant greater chance that he would be discovered. If something didn't happen soon, someone would find out that he was behind Sarin's assassination, and that would assure that he would face the greatest of all deaths: The Wyrm.

He shivered. The Wyrm! The Mercykiller "mascot" was a truly horrible sight. Its wrath was reserved for only the very worst of Sigil's criminals. Some say its venom is used as a Potion of Truth. And then, everyone in town would come to see such a grant event. The city might declare the day a holiday. But the worst part would be staring back at Sarin's family. If looks could kill, theirs would tear him apart long before the Wyrm would.

A sharp rapping on his door snapped him out of his trance. He nervously piped up, "Who is it?"

"I have a missive from the Courts sir."

Arctur opened the door to let the girl messenger in. He was stunned at what stood before him. He wasn't normally succumb to lust, but the girl before his looked so beautiful, he couldn't help but to stare.

The girl smiled at him, spoke up, "Sir?"

Arctur shook his head. He couldn't believe what he just did. He blushed a light shade of and mumbled, "Sorry. Let me see this. "

The girl handed him the message and he scanned his eyes down it. One he reached the bottom, his eyes lit up with excitement. Finally, something to speed up the process, he thought. "Thank you very much, what's your name?"

"Dersonelle." The girl gave him an impish smile, and Arctur was staring again. After a moment, he caught himself and shook his head.

"Sorry again. Thank you again, Dersonelle." Arctur blushed once more.

"Your welcome!" The girl tossed her hair and strode back out, Arctur watching all the way.

After she left his field of vision, his eyes fell back down to the paper. A devilish grin crossed his face, and he said; "Now my position of factol is assured!" Then he started snickering. This grew into chuckling, and this grew into a maniacal laughter, echoing throughout the empty halls outside his door.

Deep inside the walls of the barracks, a group of old bigwigs hailing from the Harmonium, Mercykillers, and Fraternity of Order were taking a break of their extended debate. Ever since Sarin had been assassinated, the major issue was the next factol. Who would it be?

The two final candidates had been narrowed down to Lt. Factol Barbithka and Arctur Bonifest. Arctur was a very close personal friend and advisor to Sarin, but the Lt. Factol was the second in command at the time. The committee seemed to be in the middle of a stalemate. The Mercykillers and half of the Guvners wanted to have Arctur promoted to Factol. The Harmonium and the other half of the Guvners wanted to promote Barbithka. They had been at this stage of debating for days and it showed no sign of ending at any time soon.

A clerk had brought in lemonade and strawberry tarts for refreshment. The room had an eerie silence to it, the men obviously still mourning over Sarin's death. Some of the men were nervously sipping at their lemonade or chewing on their tarts. No one whispered a sound otherwise.

The long silence was broken by the sounds of the heavy oak double doors opening. A messenger walked in carrying the message from Arctur. "A missive from the City Courts, sirs."

Everyone started talking all of a sudden, especially the Guvners, wondering what could have been sent that they weren't informed of first. ""Let me see that," said the group's chairman. After reviewing the scroll for a moment, his eyes took on an even more serious tone. "Thank you, you are dismissed"

The clerk almost clicked his heels and walked out, the oak doors closing loudly shut behind him. The chairman looked around at all the faces staring at him. He finally spoke. "We are now out of time at this point. According to this statement from the City Courts, the Hall of Speakers has granted it the power to force us to choose the new factol of the Harmonium immediately, or they shall give the power of arrest to the Mercykillers."

All the room's patrons suddenly became active, some whispering to each other, and some shouting to the chairman. The chairman raised his hand and continued to speak. "We have until tomorrow to announce the new factol of the Harmonium. However we haven't the time to debate because we must make everything official, and that will take until tomorrow. So, gentlemen, the time has arrived to choose the very fate of the Harmonium faction. Your choices are Arctur Bonifest and Lieutenant Factol Barbithka. You have 5 minutes to decide and we shall use secret ballots. Good luck to the all of you."

With butterflies in their guts, they voted.