Grand Game 587: Questioning

Breaking off from my musings, I raised my head to scan the sands ahead. Kartara and her subordinates were approaching. My deliberations about the new House would have to wait until later. Now, it was time to deal with the brotherhood. 

Sitting down on my haunches, I observed the six advancing brotherhood members. Kartara was in the middle. The other five players—Cait, Senzo, Duskar, Fiona, and a dwarf named Heglin—formed a tight circle around her, almost as if they were seeking to protect the huntmistress from the big bad harbinger.

I snorted. As if Kartara needs protection.

Lidding my eyes, I focused on the only brotherhood player I’d not yet met—Heglin. Given the dwarf’s steel-clad form and the bits of conversation I’d overheard through the farspeaker link earlier, I assumed Heglin to be the brotherhood’s infantry commander.

The dwarf’s gray eyes were stony, and he walked almost in Kartara’s shadow, shielding her back. More than anything else, it signaled his loyalty to the huntmistress.

“Ghost, it's time you got going,” I ordered as the brotherhood officers drew closer.

The pyre wolf, seated on her haunches beside me, turned her head my way. “Why? They’ve seen me already.”

“That may be,” I allowed, “but I rather they don’t get a close look at you.” My eyes alighted on the diviner, Fiona. “Especially that one. She is far too astute for my liking.”

Ghost tracked the direction of my gaze. “Oh, alright.” Her head turned left and right, examining the multitude of corpses scattered across the dunes. “It was a good hunt,” she pronounced.

“It was,” I agreed.

“They will make for good Pack.”

My lips twitched. Was Ghost subtly prompting me to recruit the brotherhood? It seemed so. “You think I should invite them to join the Forerunners?”

“I do,” she replied immediately. “Are you going to?”

“I’m not sure yet,” I admitted. The brotherhood had not survived as long as it had by being incautious. There would be questions aplenty—and lots of suspicion.

And I was not certain yet how far I was willing to go to allay their concerns.

Banding together with Brotherhood for a single mission was one thing, tying the Forerunners permanently to them, and them to us was another thing entirely. Especially since the Brotherhood was a dominant and widespread presence in the Kingdom. If we joined forces, word would get out about the Forerunners, and I was not sure I was ready for that yet.

“Well, do what you think best,” Ghost said, sensing my ambivalence.

Still preoccupied by the question she’d posed, I only nodded vaguely in response. 

My gaze drifted back to the huntmistress. I would have to share some truths with Kartara, I knew. Common courtesy demanded at least that much. And it was more than common courtesy that I owed the brotherhood.

But how much truth is enough truth? I wondered.

✵ ✵ ✵

Ghost has unmanifested. 

The pyre wolf vanished before brotherhood officers closed to within fifty yards. Her disappearance gave them pause, but only momentarily, and when they resumed walking again, it was with stiffer strides and tighter expressions.

I nearly rolled my eyes. Right, they think I am up to something.

“Where’d it go?” Duskar demanded as they six came to a stop twenty yards from me. 

I ignored the orc.  “Should I be flattered or insulted?” I asked Kartara, measuring the distance between me and the brotherhood officers.

The huntmistress shrugged. “Both if you wish.” Angling herself to the left, she walked a slow measured circle around me with Heglin her silent shadow. 

Duskar’s lower jaw jutted out. “How is he speaking?”

“He’s using ventro,” Fiona said faintly.

The orc scratched his head. “Ventro? Never heard of it.”

“It’s a deception ability,” Senzo answered. Following on the huntmistress’ heels, he too, began circling me. “I’ve never witnessed a doppelganger’s transformation before. The change is… remarkable.”

“Thank you,” I said with quiet amusement.

Scowling, Duskar spun to face the huntmistress. “Are we sure this is him? The one called Havick?”

“Havick doesn’t exist,” Fiona muttered before Kartara could respond. “He was a persona, no more.” She waved her hand disparagingly in my direction. “As is this.”

Cait advanced forward. “What I’d like to know,” she said, coming straight at me, “is how he grew so big. The doppelganger spell does not add mass.” The elf came to a halt beside me, her hand raised and poised to touch, but stopping just short of doing so. “May I?” she asked, her eyes shining brightly.

I thought of refusing, but the truth was that, of all Kartara’s subordinates, I liked the nether witch best. Her curiosity was undisguised and unabashed, and her requests, when she made them, were always direct and to the point. And besides, I needed to allay their fears.

And I had no doubt the brotherhood was scared. 

I’d just killed a young void tree after all, something their entire organization had failed to do in centuries. All their talk and all their questions—even Duskar’s—was just a mask, one that poorly concealed their uncertainty.

“Go ahead,” I said, inclining my head in permission.

The elf needed no further encouragement. Lowering her hand, she ran impersonal fingers through my splotchy dog coat. “It feels real,” she stated.

I laughed. “Of course it’s real. That’s my—” I broke off at a sharp tug. “Ow! That hurt.”

“Huh,” the elf remarked, dispassionately studying the bits of fur in her hand. “Interesting.” Stepping back, she looked over her shoulder at the huntmistress who had completed her circle and was watching Cait’s inspection with an inscrutable expression. 

“He’s no stygian,” the nether witch pronounced.

“You’re sure?” the huntmistress asked.

Cait nodded. “I am. It’s a disguise. Has to be.”

Fiona stepped forward eagerly. “Let me inspect him. I’ll be able to—” 

“No,” the huntmistress and I shot back simultaneously.

Kartara turned to me, one eyebrow raised. “I know why I said no. Why did you?”

I scowled—although in my present form, they likely took it for a snarl, which I was fine with. “I still remember her last inspection even if you don’t. Your diviner will not be inspecting me again,” I said firmly. “Not now. Not ever.”

Kartara nodded equably, not contesting the point, and Fiona stepped back, her shoulders sagging. “Have it your way,” the huntmistress said. “But you didn’t answer Cait’s earlier question.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Oh?”

“What are you beneath that skin?” Kartara asked. “Not human, obviously. No human doppelganger has the mass to impersonate a harbinger. So, what are you?”

“That’s a good question.”

She waited for me to go on, but when I didn’t, she pressed further, “An answer would be even better.”

I sighed. “I’m human.”

“Really?” Cait asked, stepping farther back and eyeing my large and visibly inhuman frame.

“Really,” I repeated, ignoring her obvious skepticism. “But I won’t tell you how I managed to transform into a harbinger.”

Duskar growled. “How can we trust him if he insists on leaving us in the dark?” he demanded, directing the question at the huntmistress not me.

I turned the orc’s way. “I made no bones of the fact that I keep secrets. You knew before we began all this that I would not share my identity, nor the location of the sector on the other side of the rift. Nothing has changed since.”

Senzo chuckled. “Come, ‘Havick.’ Do not take us for fools. You just killed a void tree, the first in millennia! At the very least, that makes you a Powerful Initiate—or an envoy. That changes everything. Tell us why we shouldn’t believe this some twisted ploy to win our favor?”

“An envoy?” I mused, glancing at Kartara. “You think I am an envoy?”

She shrugged. “I don’t, but Senzo thinks it a possibility.”

I turned back to the spymaster. “Interesting. I get why you think I’m at least tier six. But why are you so sure I am just that? What’s to say I am not higher leveled and a full Power already?”

He snorted. “No one becomes a Power by taking the risks we’ve seen you take. The rise to the top is long and hard. The foolhardy do not often survive.”

I ignored the implied insult. “What risks?”

He ticked off points on his fingers. “You walked willfully into our castle, the heart of our domain, alone and unaccompanied. The brotherhood may want for any Powers of its own, but that doesn’t mean we lack teeth. It would've cost us dearly, but even if you were Tartar himself, we could have slain you then and there.”

I chose not to dispute the point. “Go on.”

“Then you gave us your netherstone. I don’t care who or what you are, or how powerful you think you may be, but that was a damn fool thing to do. We could have stranded you here for eternity.”

I nodded. “And is that all?”

“Of course not,” he rejoined. “Then there is the tree. Who in his right mind tackles a young void tree—alone and without any guarantees of help? Not a Power who has had to fight every step of the way to get where he is certainly.”

“As interesting as everything you said is, it’s only conjecture,” I pointed out. “Hardly what I’d call conclusive proof.”

“That’s true enough,” Kartara agreed. “But there is something else Senzo hasn’t mentioned yet.”

I swung her way. “And that is?”

“Technically, Cait just attacked you,” she replied.

I stared at her blankly for a moment. “By attack I suppose you mean her tugging free a clump of my fur?”

The huntmistress nodded. “If you truly were a Power, you would’ve realized the significance of her doing that.” She paused. “And the significance of Cait not receiving a warning from the Adjudicator when she did.”

Realization dawned. “The Game warns players when they are about to earn the wrath of a Power,” I guessed. The nether witch had attacked me and had not received any such warning—leading her and the huntmistress to conclude I was not a full Power.

Kartara nodded solemnly. “Correct.”

I sighed. Once again, I’d run afoul of one of the huntmistress’ tests, only seeing the trap after it had been sprung. “Alright, I guess you worked all that out neatly enough.” My gaze found the spymaster again. “But what leads you to suspect me of being an envoy?”

Senzo glanced at Kartara, who nodded almost imperceptibly, before continuing, “The brotherhood is the single most powerful non-Power group in the Game. The factions have been trying for centuries to recruit us—and many are not opposed to using force or guile to do it.”

I swished my tail idly. “I see. Then the theory is what…? I went through the trouble of all of this—putting my own life and those of your own people in very real danger, I may add—for what? To simply win your trust?”

Senzo nodded. “The notion is not as far-fetched as you make out.”

If I had hands, I would have thrown them up in irritation. “How does appearing to you as a harbinger help me win your trust? And if your ‘trust’ was all I was truly interested in, why did I insist your people fight the stygians here and not on the other side of the rift?”

Duskar snickered. “Who knows? No one said you weren’t a stupid envoy.”

Before I could retort, Kartara held up a hand. “It’s unlikely you’re an envoy. Senzo knows that, as does Dusk.” Her lips quirked. “No matter how much he might want to pretend otherwise. Too many things don’t add up for that to be a real possibility.” Her look grew serious again. “However the idea that this is all the machinations of a Power is not as absurd as you think. I’ve witnessed firsthand the lengths some Powers will go to co-opt the brotherhood to their cause. We need assurances that whatever you are, and whoever you say you are, that you not trying to manipulate us.”

“Was keeping my word not enough?” I asked softly.

“Your word?” Duskar laughed. “What does your word matter when—” 

“He didn’t have to come through,” Heglin said suddenly.

Breaking off, Duskar turned to face him. “What does that mean?”

Shrugging, the dwarf pointed to the spot so recently occupied by the rift. “There was no reason for Havick—or whatever his name is—to come through the rift. He could have stayed safely on the other side and still gotten everything he wanted—a sector scoured clean of stygians. The fact that he is here must count for something.”

“It does.” Kantara turned to face me again. “So, why did you come through? Why did you abandon your allies on the other side and come here to face a stygian Power?” 

“If those allies even exist,” Duskar muttered.

Ignoring him, the huntmistress leaned forward. “Be honest, Havick. Give us a reason to believe.” 

“I came because I made a promise,” I said quietly. “A promise that you and your people would not have to face the void tree.” I held her gaze. “And my promises are never made lightly.”

The huntmistress studied me measuringly for a moment, weighing my answer. “You kept your word,” she said finally. “And more importantly, you did what you said you could. And for that I’m more grateful than you can imagine.” 

She inhaled deeply. “But it is not enough.”