(Vol 2) Chapter 56: Comprehending Realities

Zadkiel laughed into her mind. “I’m extremely pleased with myself, yes! We’re drinking ridiculous amounts of the finest rum because we crushed the last big potential drainer of my resources thanks to the well-earned betrayal of quite mercenary mercenaries doing what they do best — living on and making money! Duke Kenstrom is such a putz.”

Sammy sighed inwardly. As Greenleaf, she sent, “Fabulous for you, I’m sure. You’ll execute him, then?”

“Oh, I have big, big plans for the duke, rest assured! Hahaha!”

Sammy rolled her eyes. She didn’t want to experience any more of his teasing, grating nature, so she quickly began delivering her news point by point, including descriptions and referential location points. Unsurprisingly, Jeeves was extremely thorough. Zadkiel did seem to pay close attention, apparently squirreling himself away somewhere private temporarily to avoid distraction.

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The hidden quest “As the Giant Awakes” (Specifications: Provide intel on the beginning stages of Dominion military response to Zadkiel's invasion) is complete. 44 FE gained. 2 exp gained in [Goddess]. 2 exp gained in [Wizard], [Bard], and [Rogue].

New Quest unlocked: “Eyes That Mark” — Find Kerakora, clarify involvement, and report to Zadkiel.

● Rewards: +40 FE, 2 exp in [Goddess], 2 exp gained in [Wizard], [Bard], and [Rogue].

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Hmmph. Didn’t want to tempt me, eh, Sys? I wasn’t sure I wanted to legit help him. Guess the cat is out of the bag on that — out and feeling rather dirty for these gains. Lower risks, at least. My first exp in Rogue, though… figures. I’m quite the budding ne’er-do-well.

Zadkiel was appreciative. “Good intelligence. I need to share this immediately with Servitors and leaders. You know, you should consider us trying to integrate and cooperate more directly via our agents, now that things are heating up. The specific points can be acted upon more quickly and efficiently. Think about it, hmm?”

“I'll consider it. But kindly don’t badger me about it in the future. I’m not going to jump right in heedlessly.”

“Of course. Merely an option for mutual success. I’ll utilize these far-ranging capabilities regardless. Thanks again, Puck. Until next time…”

Sammy shook her head as Greenleaf, seated on her throne of plants. Integrate — yeah right! Keep on dreaming, buddy.

Information in Geirkos was not greatly forthcoming on Mr. Smile, who did not even seem to venture out in the night. Various faces and sometimes names were noted departing or entering what was known as the Redwood Estate. Apparently, it was one of the few buildings the Dominion didn’t raze to the ground in Geirkos during the old conquest, according to the breakdown Azure had provided to her Servitors.

Of the token forces they’d left, the Redwood Estate had been where their general operated. It was (according to legend) briefly taken and occupied by fae who killed them all, then eventually bored of it and moved on, leaving it in a dilapidated state until mortals finally began rebuilding Geirkos. It was owned next by the trade pioneer and dynamo Betrus Ogius, who became known as the ‘Dye King’ and effectively the highest of the gentry in Geirkos.

He’d been dead for over half a century, but his family still had their hands firmly gripping the dye trade and half of literally everything happening in Geirkos. But they were hardly monolithic… Lord Ogius was known for raising up his many bastard children based on his judgment of their merits, and they certainly didn’t all like each other. Multiple families lived in that massive estate, with rumors about their schemes a common pastime to chatter about among the people of the port city.

Great. A bickering family empire and we don’t know what mini-faction Mr. Smile is tied to. Yet.

It was definitely true that they had ties to the Bank of Geirkos, as one of the most prominent independent bastards had started it and created his own dynasty of sorts — the Linateri’s. As pretty much the entire family utilized the bank, it wasn’t clear who the staunchest allies were yet. Rumors were mixed about how the blood family regarded them.

One thing was clear between them: they hated spirits, shamanism, fae, and Redberry. They’d come close to illegalizing it in Geirkos officially, narrowly out-voted in a Council bid on the matter. Their biggest opposition was, unsurprisingly, known members of the Traveler’s Club. Ironically, one of them was also a bastard of Ogius.

“Likely clandestine funders of the Shiners, Madam,” Aramis related to Samantha, rubbing his chin down at the foot of her throne. “Dominion sympathizers. If it could be proven, it would likely be ruinous for them. Mobs could be incited and such.”

Samantha nodded slowly, chewing her lip. “It’s worrisome. If they have this going on, they’re hardly purist Geirkosi loyalists, right? Since Dominion sympathies put them in alliance more with the rival port Zek Sephel.”

“Rival is a strong word… philosophically, sure, but they are nowhere near each other. It’s not one or the other, yes? They have to cooperate as part of a key route. There are strong incentives to play nicer for trade. To have more ties. Many could benefit from it.”

“Right… and turn Geirkos into another orderless den of miscreants where unsavory agencies can work with impunity and keep everyone in fear. Any spirit haters are our natural enemy. But this family isn’t monolithic. Ideally, we can get the minority that isn’t like that in power and carve the assholes out.”

“If these hypothetical, capable non-sympathizers exist.”

“If not, the first thing we do is weaken the totality of their influence. I don’t know about complete ruin, out of concern for Geirkos’s stability. They’re heavily entrenched. That’s why I’m hoping for a revolution from within. A change in leadership.”

“We can only try to learn more and hope for the best, Your Majesty. We need eyes and ears inside, ideally. But I’m sure they are exceptionally cautious within. True infiltration would require a specialist.”

“I wish I could send Constance… but those wards are too much for her at the moment.”

Aramis regarded her with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, you have the right agent already. Someone born for this, someone who gave us most of this information to begin with. Someone flesh and blood enough to get inside.”

Sammy regarded him sourly. Drummed her fingers. “She shouldn’t even be in Geirkos at all right now.”

“Under a disguise, what’s the danger to one named Azure? Wouldn’t she be, simply, your Chameleon?”

“I can think of a metric assload of dangers.”

He laughed. “Yes, but of the same form as what might have troubled Estara when you agreed to send her down into a dungeon. Not dangers particular to identity and Geirkos.”

“A cave.” The correction was petulant and irrelevant, of course. She took a deep, deep breath. In truth, she was more worried about putting Azure in danger than she’d ever been for Estara. She wasn’t sure she could consciously do it…

Because I’m in love with her?

The thought was a shocking betrayal from some subconscious netherworld of her brain. She admonished it and punted it into orbit immediately.

You shut the fuck up! That’s ridiculous. Love, sure, I love all my Followers! In Love? Pff. Besides, I had boyfriends. Okay, a boyfriend. We kissed a lot! Okay, several times. And the real makeout was once and I couldn’t get into it. But that was stress! Or he was just a bad- No, I had to break up with him due to all the stress! I was a terrible girlfriend, anyway…

Aramis was clearly sensing part of her distress, though naturally, he did not get the full picture. He shrugged with his hands out. “You can simply go with her. You’re plenty capable if you stay invoking Bard through the process. Or perhaps Goddess if you pretend to be some foreign high royalty. Regardless, we can come up with something feasible. And by this, you can protect her in the unlikely event she gets into trouble.”

Sammy grimaced. He was getting way too reasonable for her tastes, even if what he suggested was incredibly dangerous. “I’ll consider it. Hatch a plot for a potential future infiltration. But our first leg remains shadowing Mr. Smile. That will give us vital information. And if we know his haunts, we can go after him if we have to.”

Aramis bowed and began to fade away. “As you say, Your Majesty.”

The battery of little tasks continued intermittently into the morning, and Sammy continued filling the gaps in with study and homework. She largely finished it all, in truth, feeling like a train that had gained all of its steam.

Stragglers in prayer began filtering in, along with the early morning devotions of the Devout.

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3 FE (Mirrors, Illusion, Fate, Light) obtained from Devout worship. Converted to Light FE.

1 FE (Mirrors, Fate, Light) obtained from Devout worship. Converted to Light FE.

6 FE (Mirrors, Fate, Light) obtained from worship. Converted to Light FE.

4 FE (Illusion, Fate, Light) obtained from worship. Converted to Light FE.

2 FE (Fate, Light) obtained from worship. Converted to Light FE.

2 FE (Illusion) obtained from worship. Converted to Illusion FE.

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Okay, let’s see… 145 Light FE?! Fuck yeah, we can do this today! Just gotta get on some Devout asses when more people are awake. Pew pew!

She fought down her excitement and got back to magical teaching because a full head of steam was good to take advantage of, after all. Checking with Marjorie, her teacher was entirely approving of another session, so Sammy popped over and effectively did a full class, listening to lectures and committing to practice… finally, there was a test going over everything learned up to that point. Marjorie tried to act like it was not a big deal, but it clearly was.

And she passed!

The [Wizard] Special Skill Comprehension has been added and a class skill slot [1/2] filled. Note that additional Special Skills can still be learned beyond this, at a much slower rate, and are not guaranteed to be absorbed.

It was a subtler kind of mystical understanding, cementing the rest of her knowledge into a new foundation, much like the actual studied knowledge she’d absorbed had. There was something of an immediate feel of retroactive inspiration from all the spellcraft she’d already developed, creating new ideas for her worked-on spell… and she suddenly felt the urge to go re-review it all for even more absorption.

Sammy blinked a few times as her brain flashed with the new avenues, and then she dropped her pencil down on the table and jumped for joy, beaming over at Marjorie. “I got it! Woooo!”

Marjorie grinned, tossing the papers she’d been grading up in the air with a laugh. “Yes! Congratulations!”

They cheered, and Sammy ran over to hug her as well. “Thank you so much for your help!”

“It’s my pleasure, dear- er — my pupil, pardon. Your Majesty.”

Sammy pulled away from the hug still grinning and shook her head. “Dear is alright… really. Pretty sure you were my mom in a past life.”

It just sort of blurted out, but Marjorie took it well in stride, nodding with a little grin. “So it feels at times. Were you and your mother close?”

Sammy winced slightly and shrugged. “Once upon a time. But she separated from my dad when I was pretty young. Then divorced. Readily agreed for him to have custody.” She exhaled through her nose at that. “Eventually she found someone very well off and moved really far away to be with him. She kept in contact at least. Visited.”

“I see. I’m sorry you had to deal with such a painful separation in the vulnerability of youth. It is tragic. In my culture, it’s common for the rich to leave the most tedious things of childhood to servants. Nannies. That is proper. I found I could not be so proper. I wanted to be close to them always… At times it was impossible and it pained me immensely.”

“I can tell you were a good mom, Marjorie. Are.”

1 FE (Mirrors, Illusion, Fate, Light) obtained from Devout worship. Converted to Light FE.

To 'are,' Marjorie was clearly thinking about her ‘actually dead’ status from the slight strain of her smile. “I’m sure you will be one day, too.”

Sammy scoffed with deliberate loudness. “Ffft… Ohhhh no, not me, Teach. Nope nope nope. Maybe I’ll revisit that idea in a few centuries or something. Plenty of time!”

“Ah, but if you make it there, you’ll have long been a mother to many, as the caring goddess that you are.”

“Heh… maybe. On that note, though, I’ve got to get on some butts to get praying. I just need 4 more FE for the Light domain! It’s fu- flippin' imminent!”

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