"What do you mean, plunder? What do you mean, 'every little bit adds up'? If the ritual fails, the deal fails. What are you even talking about?"
"???" Isaac stared at Philo, dumbfounded. He asked in disbelief, "Don't tell me you have something as amazing as an Emperor's Decree and you're *only* using it to make deals with Outer Gods? You're not pulling a few strings on the side?"
"???" Philo looked back at Isaac, just as dumbfounded. "Wait," she said, "you can't possibly mean... you do more than just make deals with Outer Gods?"
"What else would I be doing?" Isaac said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "If I'm going to take a shortcut, I'm going to take the fastest one. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a shortcut, would it?"
At that, Isaac suddenly paused. He blinked, a dazed look on his face. "Wait, you guys don't do it this way?"
