Notes : Chapter 428 has been written and added to the queue !
Started playing Heroes of Might and Magic : Olden Era, and I gotta say, I like this a LOT more than I did Songs of Conquest.
There was construction yesterday, which drove me to the edge of insanity, but none today thankfully. Had there been I would have flat out called the cops.
Tomorrow the hellscape starts again. Fml. I'd intended to up the patreon pace again to four chapters a week, but that's on hold until june, at the very least.
Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 424
Barrier Mountains, Western Baronies
In Flight
Glarvistar was waiting on the deck when the guildmaster landed. Or rather, his hologram was. Getting a working projector had been...expensive, to say the least. Making sure it could transmit even in the heat of battle, even more so.
"Guildmaster Eriksen Dragonslayer." Said the dungeon core, before bowing. "You honor us with your presence."
"Cut the crap, Glarvistar. We both know I am a guildmaster of a dead guild, and there is no honor in my presence here." The archon glared at the dungeon core from across the deck, and Glarvistar felt a shiver despite himself.
Disgraced guild or not, the man he was talking to could still easily destroy this entire expeditionary force.
"The adventurers guild still lives. We have never reneged on our obligations to you, and the Sapphire Kingdom has not dismantled your branches there."
"They only haven't because you are buttering us up for our vaults." The guildmaster shifted. "What are your intentions here?"
"This isn't an extermination strike." Quickly said the dungeon core. The UDC had done them during the United Dungeon Wars. Part of the reason why the death toll had been so high.
They didn't have the troops to spare for conquest. They were already struggling to hold onto their dungeon towns.
So instead they sent rampaging swarms of self sustaining monsters in rural regions. It was hard to send field armies to crush rebellious dungeons when your food supply had collapsed by virtue of your peasants being eaten.
Even the most brutal regime was willing to negotiate with its dungeon cores after being subjected to that.
"Good. It means I won't have to hunt you down and kill you."
Glarvistar felt a shiver go down his core.
Eriksen was probably bluffing. But his title of dragonslayer was well earned.
"An outcome I am sure we would both rather avoid. And I am not here to conduct raids either. I intend to take and hold ground."
This time the guildmaster looked visibly surprised.
"Not your preferred tactics." He tilted his head, and smiled. It wasn't a particularly nice one. "I am guessing it has something to do with your enemies, and their reaction if you made bloody raids."
"Perhaps."
Erisken's smile disappeared.
"You're going to lose, you know, old friend."
He didn't mean the expedition.
"I do." Softly answered the dungeon core.
The guildmaster seemed to deflate. Suddenly he looked tired. Tired and empty.
"It's been a long way since Malagos."
Glarvistar nodded.
Centuries, even for them, was a long time.
A long time since they'd talked to each other, trying to find a way for the United Dungeon Wars to not repeat themselves.
The guild's restrictions on dungeon cores, and the trade with them, couldn't have been just imposed after all.
Truth be told, the UDC had wanted to limit it as much as the guild had.
It was much easier to control new cores if they were so limited after all.
"It has."
The guildmaster looked off into the distance, to the south east.
In that direction lay Rebirth.
"Do you think we could have avoided this?" He asked, his voice barely a whisper. "Some place where we went astray?"
"There isn't any one decision that ended with this. Not one of ours, anyway. The only one you could blame would be the God of Fire, making Crystal and placing her there." The guildmaster tensed, subtly, but Glarvistar kept going. "But even she was just the catalyst. Accelerating what was already happening."
"Yes. A catalyst. An apt description." Eriksen turned back towards him. "The guild is dead and buried. No matter what fragments you try to preserve for your own ends, it will only be a rotting corpse, propped up by necromancy, waiting to be struck down. I, myself, remain someone of power within the new Empire for reasons I don't fully understand. Take this message to those who are coming: I have slain wyrms, krakens and cores. I have accepted the death of people I venerate for my goals." That last sentence was spoken with so much feeling Glarvistar twitched. The hell was he talking about? "But this is where I will draw my line in the sand. I am tired of compromise. Tell those who will command after you that when they take up the mantle, they can either behave like people and be treated as such, or behave like monsters."
Space warped. Glarvistar took a step back as he found himself with his hologram's porcelain mask centimeters from the guildmaster's face.
"At which point." Whispered the guildmaster. "I will uphold the highest ideal and first duty of the guild: Killing. Monsters."
Glarvistar knew he didn't mean their defenders.
He nodded.
"I will carry your message."
"Thank you." The guildmaster took a step back. "I hope you survive this, old friend."
"Likewise."
The guildmaster barked out a laugh.
"My death warrant was signed a long time ago."
He stepped onto the deck's railing, and then simply...walked into the abyss.
And he was gone.
The ship's sensors tracked him, in a corner of Glarvistar's mind.
The guildmaster didn't even bother slowing down. He simply impacted the ground like a comet. And walked away, disappearing into the trees.
The dungeon core simply stayed on the deck for a few seconds, then sighed.
"This is going to take some explaining to Mytaran." Said his hologram, before vanishing.
*****
"Well, a lot of his story checks out." Said Trira, as she flopped down into a chair in Allya's office. "He was part of what we can politely call an interface, and less politely a bunch of smugglers a scumbags that specialized in taking the dirty work of bigger fish. Basically, the guys paid highly to keep their mouth shut and be seen holding the bag if things went south. And he was under magical contract."
"But?" Asked the Empress, pulling out two glasses from a drawer in her desk, and filling them with brandy.
"But, where exactly he came from or why is less clear." Trira grabbed one of the glasses, and took a sip. "He's clearly under a new identity the interface gave him. And he has his reasons for bringing you this proof. The criminal syndicate that owns that interface group is still kicking, and they probably want his head. He's knocking three birds with one stone, getting access he would never be able to otherwise, to the merchants guild and Alexandra both, removing his foes from the board, and eliminating probably the only people who knew how he got here and why."
Allya frowned as she tasted her own drink.
"He said he had some 'unfortunate encounters'. I'm going to assume that means trouble bad enough to require falling in with these guys. Given that he, apparently, assassinated Alexandra, who we can both agree is one of the most, if not the most, dangerous person we have ever met, that was probably something pretty bad."
"So it should leave some traces, got it. I'll see what I can dig up. But honestly, I don't know if devoting so many resources to it is a good idea. We have two wars to run."
The Empress smiled thinly.
"We're talking about Alexandra's past. Given what she's done in two years, I'm not going to take any risks on the amount of chaos someone associated with her could bring, let alone the person who managed to assassinate her." She shrugged. "Besides, even if we ignored all that, he's trying to open up dungeons for trade and offered us proof that elements within the Eris Empire were moving against us. And have been in motion for quite a while."
"True enough." Trira stretched, and growled. "I'm getting too old for this. Once this whole mess is over, I expect a castle, a title, a fat retirement package, and some cute, overly eager butler waiting on my hand on foot."
Allya snorted, before taking another sip of her brandy.
"I'll see what I can do. Though you'll have to find that butler yourself."
"I'm sure you could provide. What about that lieutenant in the city guard? The one who was found with the mythril breastplate. I like my people dangerous."
"Estar Hautmont? He's a captain now. But I had him seconded to my personal guard." She smiled. "I was looking for a seneschal...herald, whatever you want to call it. Someone to shout my titles and introduce me. He's got a good voice. And since we know who he used to be, and who we're going to receive shortly..."
Trira laughed, and Allya chuckled. Estar Hautmont had, according to the information they'd gotten, been a revolutionary in the Eris Empire's Protectorates. He, himself, was born and bred in the Empire's core territories, but he had ended up trying to free his own country's vassals.
Needless to say, it hadn't ended well, and he had ended up running onto the only continent where the long arm of his homeland would have trouble reaching him.
Picking him was intended as a not so subtle message to the Erisian admiral who was about to arrive at Erakis. Also, he had amply demonstrated his bravery, courage, and absolute dedication to the cause he had given himself over to without mindless fanaticism. He would make a fantastic inclusion into the Imperial guard.
"Good choice then. He'll provide deadly eye candy to the visitors too. Though you won't appreciate it."
"Even if my tastes ran in that direction, I have plenty of candy to look at when I go back to my rooms. Anyway. Any updates on your work with Jared?"
"The counterterrorism operation? He's good at that. It's weird that a faceless pile of bolts seems to understand people so well. Kind of creepy too." The old assassin sect leader shook her head, and moved her glass for emphasis. Little of it had been drunk so far. Trira had never been much of a drinker even before her job made it suicidal to get sloshed at any point. "The disgruntled among the adventurers are starting to organize. Honestly, Alexandra wouldn't even need a false flag attack. These idiots are getting themselves worked up enough we could just feed them a few tips, fan the flames a bit, and they'd slip off the leash to attack the merchant."
"So there's a serious risk. Do you recommend we start stamping down on them?"
"Not this second. Right now they haven't finished pulling in everyone. We'd have to keep stomping down embers. Plus, Alexandra might want to make use of them."
"No argument there." Allya grimaced, and took a rather sizeable gulp of the content of her glass. "This is going to get messy, isn't it?"
"You're usually the first one to say it always is with Alexandra."
"Well, it is true. Anything new on the external side?"
"It's a bit of a mess trying to get everything together, what with three different countries reporting in, but Glitch is helping me with that. The Senate's credibility, even within its own ranks, is hitting rock bottom. Desertions are beginning in the Senate Guard as they realize many of the people they were sworn to protect had bailed on them. They might try to make a fight of it at Elkis, but they'll probably be amenable to a deal. News of how much money we're spending is starting to make the rounds, and there was some noises from the Eris Empire about selling us second line hardware. That got muzzled, hard. Oh, and I heard something I wasn't able to confirm. I wanted to keep it under wraps until I was sure, but..." She shrugged. "I think you'll want to hear it."
"Shoot." Said the Empress as she leaned back into her seat.
"They say that princess Cassissa Lumière has delivered a briefing to the Imperial cabinet. There's rumors she's not in disgrace anymore, and she's being tapped as an analyst."
Allya froze, with her glass halfway to her lips.
"What?"
"She's being treated with importance. Let out of the palace wing where she'd been unofficially detained."
Allya took a sip, and set down her glass, almost cracking it with the brusque gesture. The fine brandy tasted like ash now.
"Two guesses as to why her opinion is so valued now."
Trira slowly nodded.
"Pretty much. She knows you well, doesn't she?"
"She knows me better than my parents. Or my siblings. The only people who know me more than she does now are in this fucking city."
"Is...that going to be a problem?"
Allya thought back. At the talisman she'd sent Cassissa. It felt so foolish in retrospect.
And yet.
If she had betrayed the existence of it and its capabilities, the entire damn Empire would have come down on them like a meteor. Immediately. Cassissa wasn't stupid, but Oris, the Empress, would have understood more or less instantly that if Alexandra could invent something like that, you had to kill her now or not at all.
"No. She's loyal to her country. She'll give them her honest opinion of me and what I'm doing. But she isn't about to open my inner defenses to an assassin or set me up to be destroyed."
"That's not necessarily her choice to make."
Allya nodded.
"It's not, but don't underestimate the power of the person who writes the briefings. In the meantime though, we need to plan on the Empire having a good, broadly accurate idea of my surface level motives and way of doing things."
"Surface level?"
"Cassissa knows me, and can predict me." Allya downed the rest of her brandy. "But I'm not the only ruler of the Empire, am I? I have a power behind the throne. One they're not going to get a read on. I've known Alexandra for almost as long as anyone on Alcheryos. The only people deeper into her confidence are her girlfriend, her girlfriend's maids, her daughter and her AIs. if I can't predict what she's doing, Cassissa never will. Let's not even talk about their normal analysts." She refilled her glass. "Thank you, for telling me."
"I know she was your old flame."
"Yeah. I'm glad I'm helping her situation." The Empress smiled. "Even if it's in this roundabout way. Now, I believe we also had the delightful task of discussing your budget..."