Jackal Among Snakes

“Essentially, the one person you thought as your lifeline was the one with the most comprehensive designs to take your throne,” Argrave told Ji Meng. “He really only had one condition, other than the standard marriage pitches. And condition that was to sideline you, keep you out of everything.”

“My daughter wouldn’t tolerate a marriage with the family that ended her father.”

“Your daughter was sitting right beside him when Governor Zen said that your death would be a desirable outcome,” Anneliese stated bluntly. “She remained silent.”

The words made Ji Meng feel physically ill, but he tried his damnedest to let none of that shine through in his face. He couldn’t even verify it was true, but the fact King Argrave and his wife had come here personally to say it made him think that this was no mere bluff. And if it wasn’t a bluff… the implications of that set his stomach churning further. His own daughter had come here? She had witnessed this meeting and said nothing?

Ji Meng felt like a plant growing on a rock, subject wholly to the whims of passersby. He had all the power of a newborn.

Argrave rose to his feet. “I’ll let that play out in your calculus. That thing you did with the commanders, having them duel me… I respected that move. But you ought to think very carefully about everything you do, henceforth. With things as they are, you’ll be making a few more public appearances. And after…”

Argrave deliberately didn’t finish his sentence, then helped his wife up for them both to leave the room. Yet even once they’d gone, Ji Meng could show nothing. The walls had eyes, his guards were neutered, and elven giants stood vigil over him at every moment. These were bright, dangerous fires, threatening to consume him if he stepped one inch off the path. Yet from their light, he could see the whole path ahead.

Ji Meng was a fruit plucked from a tree. This fruit was to be wrung dry of all its juice, whereupon its drained carcass would be composted and used as fertilizer for another empire to flourish. The idea made bile rise to his throat, and he grabbed for the nearest drink. He found it—the Ebonice tea given to him every day.

He drank deep of it, not leaving a single drop.

#####

Their discussion with Ji Meng proved to be surprisingly fruitful, according to Anneliese. Their declaration had rattled the emperor far greater than either of them had expected. It seemed that, while Ji Meng was a master of the calculus of power, he was utterly without staunch allies outside of the military that idolized him. His own daughter would prefer to side with her grandfather over him. Argrave imagined Sophia doing such a thing, and felt a small amount of sympathy for the emperor surface.

But the coming days set them on a busy path. The day after, Elenore summoned Argrave and Anneliese alone to a secluded room in the Sea Dragon without windows or more than one entryway. Once they were there, she paranoidly commanded Anneliese to make a ward to block any and all sounds.

“I’ve eliminated all possibilities of where the leaks might originate, and I’ve come to an answer about where they come from,” Elenore informed them, looking between Argrave and Anneliese with dark bags about her eyes.

“Seems to have kept you up,” Argrave gestured at her face. This room was meant for storage—he shuffled a crate and sat down upon it.

“Shadows at home tend to seem far darker than those beyond it,” Elenore rubbed her tired eyes. “I’d take care of this on my own, ordinarily, and with great pleasure. But I think there’s a huge problem.”

“Do tell,” Anneliese urged, leaning upon her staff.

“Our leak is divine. Or divine-adjacent.” Elenore crossed her arms. “The Blackgard Union is compromised, not our people.”

Argrave cradled his forehead as extreme annoyance crept up like a geyser through the wrinkles in his brain. Anneliese patiently indulged, “How do you know?”

“Because everyone who knew our plans, outside of the gods, I have complete confidence of their loyalty. Not instinct, either—cold, hard, logistics. I can account for them all, always, through my networks and our guardsmen. Unless you sleep talk secrets out your window, all of our inner circle? We’re fine.” She looked at Argrave. “You divulged a great deal about everything in that trial you did at Law’s Court. Now, that information is disseminating through either a god themselves or their direct servants. Disseminating to Governor Zen.”

It made sense. Argrave felt it was all but certain Governor Zen had been partially, if not totally responsible for the disappearance of key commanders here in the south. Everything beyond that… a god could plug that gap in his information. The gods had envoys in Blackgard. They had information from the trial in Law’s Court. It was viable—no, likely.

“We should call for a trial in Law’s Court at once, then,” Anneliese suggested.

“They would all need to leave the warfront exposed,” Elenore shook her head. “Law most of all. We can’t afford that. Kirel Qircassia would send minions to overrun us in moments. We can fight some gods with our armies, but only temporarily. I don’t want the casualties, though, nor the tremendous loss in already-thin unity.” His sister clapped her hands together once as she declared, “No. We need to find them, isolate them, expose them, and tear their guts out as a message to Zen and others. My hands aren’t strong enough to tear guts. I’ll have to call upon you.”

Argrave nodded. “Puppeteer me.”

“In time. I need to do proper investigations. Only… hah.” Elenore laughed, hiding her eyes and shaking her head. “Only this time, it’s gods. We’ve chewed off a huge meal.” She looked up at him, gray eyes glinting as she muttered, “But when I call you, be ready to tear. I feel some extreme violence is long overdue.”

Names floated in Argrave’s head. Rook, Yinther, Lira, Almazora, Law, Stout Heart Swan… who among them, if any, would Elenore pry from Zen’s grasp? And what would this mean for the alliance? He supposed that time would tell.

“But there’s another thing, too.” Elenore retrieved something and handed it to Argrave. “Sophia wrote this. It’s about ‘Castro.’ She came up with something, and I think… I think it merits consideration.”

Argrave and Anneliese both moved into action, taking the paper.

#####

The end goal of the development of Sophia’s power was something different than creating—it was modifying. They needed to use Sophia to transfer Argrave to where Gerechtigkeit existed, and destroy him permanently. The Alchemist thought it was something that she would be capable of, and to that end, teaching her how to modify life was more important than creating it. If she was capable of acting at the same scale as they had seen in Sandelabara, she would be able to help them end this cycle of judgment.

Sophia’s suggestion, then, was completely delightful for both Anneliese and Argrave. It boiled down to a simple idea. What if they were to put a person who couldn’t function inside of the body of someone who could?

Of course, Sophia wasn’t thinking of people who couldn’t mentally function, but rather those who had been rendered invalid; those who were in a coma or a similar state, or those who had lost limbs. In a world with healing magic, cases of that sort were appreciably rare—even something like a brain tumor could be purged, as it had in the case of the current Archduchess of the North, Diana of Quadreign, by use of House Quadreign’s flame. But cases of invalids did exist. And Sophia might be able to help not just one, but all.

Argrave and Anneliese discussed the merits of the idea at length, but it didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that it was a very worthy cause. What made them even prouder yet was the fact that Sophia had come up with the idea on her own. Neither Anneliese nor Argrave had interfered excessively for her to come to this conclusion.

They came to her, and after she gave them an enthusiastic greeting, she ended up using Argrave’s leg as a bench as they sat at the table.

“Sophia, we received the letter that you sent,” Argrave informed her. “And Anneliese and I have been discussing it. We think it’s a wonderful idea,” he praised her.

Sophia smiled brightly, barely able to contain her excitement. Anneliese spoke first, however, asking, “But I was curious—how did it come to you, this idea?”

“Umm…” Sophia looked down at the ground. “I think… I think I shouldn’t say. You might get mad.”

“Mad at you? We said we liked the idea,” Argrave assured her.

“Not at me. Umm… do you promise you won’t get mad at her?” Sophia looked up at Argrave hopefully. She looked like she wanted to tell.

“Mad at who?” Anneliese pressed.

“Please promise?” Sophia pleaded.

“Alright, I promise,” Argrave conceded.

Sophia inhaled, gathering her words, then launched into her explanation. “Elenore told me her father hurt her really bad. Cut off her feet, and other…” she trailed off, uncomfortable with the topic, before she shook her head quickly. “Well, I asked people about it. They said that Elenore couldn’t walk, and she couldn’t see. But then you made it alright,” Sophia looked up at Argrave. “I thought… it was really nice. Then I saw… I saw the… the thing that I…”

“Castro,” Argrave finished. “And you thought you might use him for the same purpose.”

“Uhuh,” Sophia nodded. “Everybody loves you, Argrave. They said you rescued Elenore out from under the nose of your dad, and then you took her to a volcano, and then you fought a bunch of bad guys and healed her! And then I thought that I could do the same thing! Help people walk again, give them eyes…!” Sophia described, positively bubbling.

Argrave looked at Anneliese. “You’re right, Sophia. You definitely could. Not just Castro, either. A bunch of people, far more than I ever could. But… are you sure that’s what you want to do? You’ll be seeing people with their legs, their arms…” Argrave searched for words, then decided to say it bluntly as he looked into her red eyes. “You’ll be seeing victims of war, of mining accidents. People at their lowest, and their most gruesome.”

Healing limbs was one of the few things that healing magic couldn’t achieve. But Sophia… she might actually be able to do it.

“I’ve seen a lot of people without limbs,” Sophia said quietly. “My dad showed me. And he… tried to make me do it, too. I wish I could’ve helped those people, then. But I was too…” she sniffled.

Argrave gave Sophia a hug. “I don’t want you to think about that anymore, Sophia.”

Sophia clutched his coat as tightly as she could, then asked muffled behind his coat, “So… can I do it?”

Argrave pulled away and looked at her. Her request brought with it a lot of other considerations. If word spread that Sophia was capable of true healing—restoring limbs, eyes, and broken minds—she would become a target. And the nature of such healing meant she’d need to travel far and wide to find these people. They would have to make certain arrangements for her protection. Yet even despite all of that…

“Sophia, I’m extremely proud of you.” Argrave smiled, then looked to Anneliese. “Aren’t you, Anne?”

“Of course I am,” Anneliese walked up, kneeling down.

“It might not happen today,” Argrave explained to her. “It’ll take some time. And you have to keep in mind two things.”

Sophia nodded intently. “Okay. Anything,” she promised.

“Listen to it first.” Argrave lifted her off his leg and set her on the ground. “If you ever feel uncomfortable with this, you have to tell someone. Okay? Don’t keep anything inside.”

Sophia nodded.

“And two…” Argrave hung his head a little. “I think it’s time for you to be brought into the bigger picture. You’re family—I mean that, Sophia. But all of us came to Sandelabara for a reason.”

“Argrave, is this the right…?” Anneliese interjected quietly.

Argrave looked at her, then said, “Given the maturity she just displayed, I think it’s warranted, Anne. I don’t want to keep secrets from her.”

“Rich, coming from you,” Anneliese whispered, but nodded. “Alright.”

Argrave refocused on Sophia. “Let’s talk about Gerechtigkeit.”

“Ger… Gereck…” Sophia’s eyes widened.

“Gerechtigkeit,” Argrave repeated.

“Gerektikeit?”

“Gerechtigkeit.”

Sophia closed her mouth, fearing to speak.

“Gerry,” Argrave shortened it.

Sophia brightened and said clearly, “Gerry?”

“That’s right.” Argrave nodded. “Gerry, destroyer of worlds.”

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