1.17 In Which the Dark Lord Plays with Fire

1.17 In Which the Dark Lord Plays with Fire

It took us most of a days hike to get into position along the main trade road where it led to Gwyllthean from the surviving northern landbridge. The khora forest encroached onto civilized territory in the northern reaches of the island, not quite pressing against the central highway but with an arm coming close and islands of it on the eastern side, which I was told only happened up north. The eastern half of Dount was all agricultural land, of which there was a little west of the road but mostly khora plantations and then the forest itself. I also learned, in our trek across the wild north of Dount, that it wasnt all farms and khora; this place had other biomes that didnt appear on Earth.

We passed an area where the ground had been carved into numerous shallow canyons by a combination of erosion and burrowing animals, which now had a ceiling of matted vines forming a porous carpet over the tops and had soil built up in places from which more plants sprouted, their roots hanging into the shadowed channels below along with intermittent shafts of sunlight. From what I could see into the tunnels as we passed by, it was quite pretty, but my followers warned me to stay out of there. Such areas were apparently inhabited by dangerous predators, goblins, and bandit gangs.

There were also the bladegrass groves we passed. They reminded me of bamboo forests, except instead of round shafts, the narrow, vertically-growing leaves, two or three stories tall on average, had serrated edges sharp enough to cut flesh. I needed no warning to refrain from getting too close to that. Apparently they spread annoyingly fast and cutting them back when they got too near inhabited land was a nightmare which always necessitated adventurers or other Blessed.

We got there, though, reaching an arm of the khora forest positioned on an overlook not too distant from the main highway; I suspected the only reason this didnt see more frequent use by bandits was it was within view (with my spyglass, anyway) of the Fflyr border fortress positioned near the northern edge of the island. Well-repaired, fully garrisoned and flying colorful banners, it was a glimpse at what North Watch must have looked like in its heyday.

Wed pushed it to get here, and were in time to observe the Crown Rose Company caravan wending its way past the border fort toward the heart of the island; it wouldnt be long before they had to stop for the night. I was all set to follow them from a distance, waiting for an opportunity when other nearby traffic was light to unleash fire slimes and wipe out their precious cargo, when Sakin just had to open his mouth. It was worse than when Donon opened his mouth, because Sakin was correct.

So, were going to perform a surgical strike on this caravan whose failure only benefits exactly one person? I guess if we leave no traces nobody can prove the Auldmaer Company is behind this, but lets face it, proof doesnt matter all that much. Of course, a big mercantile outfit like Crown Rose doesnt even need to bribe magistrates to retaliate against a little player like Auldmaer. I thought your plan was to make use of this guy in the longer term, Lord Seiji. For that, wouldnt he need to still be alive a month from now?

That was not what I wanted to hear, mostly because it was accurate. In order to pull this off, I realized it couldnt look like an attack with a specific, motivated target. That meant I had to include a lot of the one thing I most wanted to avoid: collateral damage.

So we shifted position, following the caravan toward the rest area where they would stop for the night now that they were safely in Fflyr territory, and I stewed in my ever-increasing, impotent fury the entire way.

While the Crown Rose wagon train got themselves settled in for the night at the highway waystation surrounding a crossroads, we positioned ourselves at the nearest point to it which was sheltered by a patch of wild khora forest. Since the waystation was surrounded by a well-maintained empty field on all sides specifically to discourage what wed come here to dobandit attacksthat put us at enough of a distance that wed have no hope of crossing the grounds unseen on foot even in the dead of night, and no conventional weapon would reach the waystation accurately, if at all.

Fortunately, these defenses hadnt been made with me in mind. All I needed was a view of my target, and thanks to the ever-valuable spyglass, I could hit the Crown Rose wagons directly from our chosen vantage.

There was a Kingsguard post, though it was tiny and according to my crew the soldiers there were only interested in collecting the Kings tariffs and the Kings tariffs (bribes), not enforcing the peace. The inn had its own bouncers and bigger caravans would always travel with dedicated guards, so that was it for defenses. Disorganized and likely to scatter to their own interests in a crisis, but still not something I wanted to take on with my pitiful handful of social rejects, so we needed to avoid being noticed. The inn was a sizable structure made of two huge pieces of curved purple khora shell arranged to form a sort of half-dome with bricks and planks making up the remaining wall, while the Kingsguard barracks, little more than a rickety-looking watchtower with a modest office attached, was built of the same blue-gray-green akorthist blocks as North Watch. Aside from that the grounds where wagons were to park were nothing but a wide area around the crossroads trampled permanently flat by use, with no discrete boundary between it and the surrounding field of grass. There was a natural spring on the grounds, now with a structure built over it positioned against the side of the inn which provided water to outdoor ducts and the buildings kitchen. From that, a stream (muddy from the waystations refuse) trickled away through the field.

At least I had the benefit of expert advice: Sakin, as it turned out, had experience as an arsonist. None of the other bandits had known this, but absolutely no one was surprised.

The rule of thumb for a discreet job, he lectured quietly as we all peered across the meadow in the falling darkness, is to make it look natural. That means the fire has to start not only at a place where fire can, but where it most likely would in an accident. You also want to only use materials already found on the site; anything you bring in to enhance the fire is a clue to its cause. Now, were a little handicapped in that regard due to the means at your disposal of fire starting, but well still want to focus on a plausible target to begin with.

Amazingly detailed, I said. Actually, Im really surprised to learn the Kingsguard investigate fires that diligently. From what everybodys told me, it sounds like the difference between them and the likes of us is we dont have fancy uniforms.

Oh, not in the least. The Kingsguard wont even bother asking questions unless theres a whole series of fires that are incredibly obviously arson, and that only if the assets of someone important are affected. Even then, they most likely solve the crime by arresting whatever random known criminal they get their hands on first. I dont think Fflyr Dlemathlys even employs any alchemists equipped for that kind of investigation.

I lowered the spyglass, staring vacantly at the sky above the distant horizon. Rationally, I knew it didnt matter and would be a waste of time, butfuck it, I had to ask.

Why, then, do you go to so much effort to make yours untraceable?

Lord Seiji! Sakin turned to me, putting on a wounded expression in the dimness. A man has to take pride in his work. Wheres the satisfaction in standing over the ash and ruin of your enemys hopes and dreams if you know, in your heart of hearts, that you half-assed it?

Slowly, I shifted my head to meet his eyes.

You will either be the first to betray me, or my last loyal servant by my side as we charge into the jaws of Hell.

Right?! He grinned in sheer delight. I dont know about you, my lord, but Im excited to find out which! Were going places, you and I.

First things first. Biribo, whats the situation with Blessed down there?

I count thirteen, boss, he reported, among about two hundred fifty people around the buildings and encampments. I can get a more accurate headcount, but Id have to get closer.

Shouldnt matter. Anything we should watch for from the Blessed?

Seven Blessed with Magic, six with Might. I cant actually see what spells a sorcerer has unless they use em in front of me, but none of the artifacts Ive glimpsed from back here look like they have any application in fire suppression. Spells for that do exist, and some of those sorcerers are caravan guards which is a job where that can be relevant, somaybe? There are also combat spells using water, ice, and wind that can be applied to firefighting.

Oh, we can only hope some idiot tries to fight fire with a combat wind spell, Sakin chortled. Thats likely to get everything short of the surrounding khora burned to ash. Now thats a show!

Heads shifted in the dark as everyone turned to stare at him. He didnt seem to notice.

All right, for our opening move. Lord Seiji, see that little annex sticking out from the back of the inn? Look for marks painted on it in yellow.

I trained the spyglass where he indicated, squinting. Its dark down there, man, I dont know howoh, wait, yeah. Theres something painted on the outside wall. A cross in a triangle.

And thats why theyre painted in bright yellow, so its visible in low light. Thats their asauthec storage.

Aha.

Asauthec, or three oils, was one of the more interesting things Id discovered about life on Ephemera. Lacking wood to burn, and with no fossil fuels because they refused to dig, Ephemerans had devised another means of controlling fire: three blends of oils, made by alchemists from (of course) khora byproducts. The three were asaulend (slow oil), asausee (hot oil), and asaukhad (bright oil). As the names suggested, asaulend would burn for far longer than should be possible, and so would anything soaked in it; asausee produced a dimmer flame with incredible heat; and asaukhad did the opposite, burning at low temperature but putting off intense light. All of the asauthec oils could be blended together in different proportions; by mixing and matching, the Ephemerans couldusing only bundled reed torches and fern fronds piled in fireplacescontrol the duration, temperature, and luminosity of fire with a degree of precision wildly beyond Earth societies at a comparable state of development. All of what passed for their technology was based on this.

Which meant, of course, that every dwelling and structure on this planet contained a hearty stockpile of highly combustible fluids. If they werent building from non-flammable khora, every city in the world would be razed to the ground every two weeks. As it was, fires tended not to spread between buildings, but would turn a house into a blast furnace once its stocks of asauthec caught flame.

So, I said aloud, a fire slime by the storage

You really have a speech about how people suck for every situation, dont you. Does it make this feel better?

That isntI mean, yes, I do, but this isnt that. I dont think I want it to feel better. What I meant is, Im not sure I believe in the idea of evil. If you really dig into peoples motivations when they talk about evil, theyre basically always referring to whatever isnt comfortable for them to think about. Something they instinctively dont like but cant be arsed to try to understand. If you look at what someones thinking when they do something that is clearly wrong, they always have an explanation. A whole story, in fact; some way theyve worked it around in their heads so that whatever shitty thing theyve decided to do is actually right and justified. So, yeah. Selfish, deludedlazy, both intellectually and morally. But evil, I can only comprehend that as a thing that someone fully knows is wrong, wont excuse even to themselves, and then decides to do anyway. I thinkpeople will usually try to do the right thing. They rarely succeed, because people are selfish and very good at rationalizing why the right thing is to chase whatever animal impulse is flitting across their brain at a given moment. Its not common that people will just deliberately and purposely do wrong, without offering a pretext that it isnt.

Her head shifted in the darkness as she half-turned to look at my face.

I only just realized Ive never done anything I have to categorize as evil before this morning, I murmured. Im not a very nice person, Aster. Shut up, I dont need any of the obvious comebacks right now. I mean, Ill acknowledge being something of an asshole. But this This feels different. Categorically different. I dontparticularly like how it feels.

She turned back to gaze out over the teeming waystation. You must come from a very nice place, Lord Seiji. To me it seems like your definition of evil is a lot more common than you seem to think. Its weird how you can be so generally down on people but at the same time apparently have more faith in their basic decency than even I do.

Dont get me wrong, I think people are more or less garbage. Justself-centered, stupid garbage, not deliberately malicious. Usually.

Cant say I agree, she mused, shaking her head, but maybe thats for the best. What experience has taught me is that life is hard and to get by you have to do a lot of things youre ashamed of. Its just I think the difference is Ive never really had any power over anyone. Not like you do, now. Maybe you havent, either, if you were just a musician in your own country? Having to make bad choices in order to live another day must be very different when your choices only affect yourself. When you have to create consequences for a lot of people like thisthats got to be hard. I dont think I can judge you, except to say Im glad its not me.

Hm. Maybe you have a point, there.

Im no philosopher, she said quietly, or even a priestess. Im just someone whos survived this long and had to accept the necessity of doing some things that still cost me sleep, occasionally. I dont know the answers, but Ive figured out the only way to make peace with it in my own mind that makes any sense to me. Ifyoure interested.

I watched one of the figures by the remains of the Crown Rose caravan get up and trudge toward the inn. Seconds later, another whod been poking around the shell of one of the wagons just sat down in the mud.

I think Id like to hear it.

Aster nodded. You do whatever you have to do, Lord Seiji, and never make excuses or justifications, never pretend you havent done what youre ashamed of. And, every time you have the opportunity, be kind. Take any chance to put some good into the world, in payment of the bad.

Do you think that actually balances out?

Im not sure I believe balance isa thing. How would you even begin calculating the weight of good and evil? Maybe the goddesssorry, goddesses can do it, but I dunno. I just live with the fact that theres no real certainty about anything and all I can control is how much of an effort I make. So I try to do good. To be kind.

To be kind, I whispered. Huh. You know, Imnot sure Id know where to begin attempting that. I mostly just try not to deal with people or even think about them if I can avoid it.

That astonishes me to hear, Lord Seiji.

Up yours. I hesitated, then went on more quietly. Can I rely on you tohelp? Its not that I mean ill toward most people, Aster, I just sort ofdont think about ways or reasons to do nice things.

Well, its like any habit. Takes some practice to instill it. It was hard to read her expression in the dimness, especially with her dark complexion, but I distinctly saw the flash of teeth as she smiled. But, sure. I can help you get started.

I nodded, then cleared my throat. That was about my tolerance of squishy feely stuff for one day. Biribo, can you do a quick sweep of our perimeter without getting too far? As much as weve stirred up that outpost, I want to make sure were not going to blunder into an unexpected group of bystanders when we try to leave.

Good idea, boss, he said. Gimme just a minute!

I could barely see the black lizard in the dark at all, but the buzzing rapidly diminished as he shot away among the khora.

This is never to be repeated in front of the lizard, I said very quietly, taking a step closer to Aster. He was assigned to me by Virya and Im pretty sure his only real loyalty is to her. Im not doing this shit because I like it, Aster, Im here because of what she threatened me with if I dont play along. Virya is the real enemy. I have absolutely no idea how, or even where to start, but my end goal is to stick it to her. Ive got no quarrel with the Hero or the other goddess and no interest in world domination. We play along until I can figure out a way to turn on her without being summarily destroyed. Can I count on you?

She nodded once, her eyes gleaming in the faint light. Im in, Lord Seiji. Ive got your back.

I nodded back, and stepped away toward the rest of my crew without another word, Aster keeping pace alongside me. Id just reached them and not had time to say anything when the buzzing of oversized wasp wings heralded the return of my familiar.

Good thing you thought to check, boss, we got movement out there, he reported. Not from the waystation, thoughlooks like a bandit gang. They must be based somewhere close enough tove caught wind of the fuss. About twice our numbers from what I saw, but no Blessed among em.

Hm, I muttered. This close to a Kingsguard outpost? Well, I can see it being a good spot for opportunity, if theyre willing to risk it.

The Kingsguard doesnt patrol in the khora forest, Lord Seiji, said Goose. They wouldnt step foot in here unless a beast tribe tried to move in this close to the waystation. Which one wouldnt, if theres a gang camped nearby.

All right, change of plans, I said. I was going to send you lot back to North Watch while Aster and I make for Gwyllthean, but I dont want to risk it until were out of range of these guys. Itll be useful to know where they are, but Im not interested in mixing it up with another gang just yet.

Oooh, I like the yet in that sentence, Sakin chirped.

Biribo, lead us on a course that avoids contact with anybody, I ordered. When were at a good distance, well split up. I dont want to risk you lot getting outnumbered unless youve got two Blessed here to even the odds.

Thanks, Lord Seiji, Harold piped up.

I turned toward him, raising an eyebrow. For what?

Rocco wouldve just left us all to fend for ourselves, Kasser answered. In fact, he did that. Multiple times.

Next time it occurs to you to compare me to Rocco, you might want to consider that his first encounter with me ended with his head rolling across the floor. I look after my people, among the multiple things I do that arent pants-on-head idiotic. Biribo, lead on. Lets move out, people. The night is young, and theres no rest for the wicked.