Last Monday's 284th meeting of the High Council of Britannia started with a grisly discovery: Thirty-three heads had been placed strategically around the Council Chambers in the Jerred Ghyss Civic Center in Compassion Grove. These were not the heads of criminals, prominent public leaders, nor political pundits. They were the innocent faces of the children of Britain, brutally slain by the vile hand of Nosfentor as punishment to Britannia for her defeat in Britain.</P>
A scroll was left with the head of the youngest child, no more than two years, on the central podium in the chambers. It read:</P> <table Align=Center border=0 CellPadding=0 CellSpacing=0 Width=50% Height=0> <caption></caption> <tr> <td>"Warning
We have given you many opportunities to end this peacefully. I told you that blood would be spilled if you entered Britain again! I must admit I had thought the previous warnings that we have given you would be enough. I was mistaken... I have decided to return your children of Britain. Here are their heads...
You forced my hand on this. All I asked was for you to stay out. If you try your luck with Cove and for some unknown reason you win, don't expect to see the children of Cove with their heads! Or, maybe you'll just see their heads...
Nosfentor" </td> </tr> </table>
The High Council and the Field Marshalls of the Britannian Armed Forces were aghast at the atrocity committed by Nosfentor and the Crimson Order, and by extension the Empire of Tokuno. The 'peaceful end' that Nosfentor speaks of would be the unconditional surrender of Britannia to her sadistic rule, an option unlikely to be embraced by Virtuous citizens. </P>
"Once again, Empress Miko Nakamura heaps dishonor on her people by harboring that witch of cowardice!" said the Minister of Virtue, Lord DaKaren. </P>
"The Empress told the Council she had ordered the safe return of the Britain children, not their execution!" said Kemmler, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs.</P>
Grief stricken parents swarmed the courtyard of Castle British after the announcement, angrily shouting how the government had let them down. </P>
"Ye save tha stone city, wi'out first rescuin' the hostages? Me family's mo'important 'en some damn castle or bank! E'en Magincia got mo'attention 'en us!" yelled Martin, a local farmer who lost his daughter. </P>
The parents were quickly ushered into Castle British to meet with people specially trained in grief counseling. "The parents of Britain will get all the support we can provide them," assured Chancellor Max von Bayer. "Our hearts go out to them for their terrible loss..." </P> The Britannian Armed Forces have redoubled their efforts to find the missing children of Cove, sending secret scouting parties across the Tokuno Islands. Their only leads in locating the children have been that they are 'on an island mining minerals for some project.' Considering that aside from the three main island-continents, the Tokuno Empire consists of forty-five smaller islands, the B.A.F. has a difficult search ahead of them. Hopefully, the B.A.F. Presidium will wait to launch a campaign to liberate Cove until after the children are rescued.
The Empire of Tokuno refused to comment for this article, and my pigeons to Nosfentor could not locate her.</P>
If you hear any information about the children's whereabouts, please contact the High Council (meetings every Monday night at 8pm under the central skies in Compassion Grove 14o4'N 35o34'W) or any B.A.F. branch member (Royal Knights of Redemption [RKR], Yew Militia [YM], Highland Light Infantry [HLI]) </P>
May the Virtues protect you and your family,</P>
<font face="Monotype Corsiva" size="5">Martyna Z'muir, LofS</font></P>
