Chapter 609 - Overthrowing the Tyrants II (Patreon)

I gracefully sat down with Arachne. She was here as Arachne, not as Susan, and keeping the right name for the right situation was one of the ways I was getting back into the right mindset. Her spider, Clotho the black widow, was dancing on her subtly multi-colored hair, and waved at me with one leg.

I’d been in a peacetime mentality for ages. Over a decade without needing to slip into the cold, calculating mindset, balancing healing with fighting for my life. The occasional raid helped keep the instincts alive, but it wasn’t like I was in the appropriate Sentinel Dawn mindset quite yet. Even though I knew this was coming, there was a difference between preparing for an event, and living it. 

Arachne’s presence was helping accelerate that. Clotho started rapidly spinning threads on Arachne’s head, letting them float down for the vampire to manipulate. She rapidly weaved them all over the room, activating a number of privacy enchantments emphasizing the situation. I helped out by placing us in a sphere of [Mantle] in the dusk mode, with allowances for Arachne’s threads. It was simply another layer, and I cast a quick spell without mentioning it to the vampire. She saw, she knew, she smiled.

“Tea? Cookies?” She asked.

“Of course I’d love some cookies and tea!” I shifted slightly in the comfortable chair, all too aware that my outfit was great for traveling and possibly getting into trouble, and utterly inappropriate for the fancy teatime I’d found myself in.

Damn the vanity aspect from the companion bond, it got worse the more I leveled up.

Threads moved, and Arachne smoothly served both of us without lifting a finger. There were only two places at the table, and I figured I’d get us started with some of the obvious questions, the light chit-chat.

“Night’s not going to be joining us?” I asked, knowing the answer and more than a little disappointed. Arachne shook her head.

“No. In the broadest sense, the Immortal War is over and done. The great battles have ended, the devastation has occurred, the Lifebringers have attempted to bring back nature and balance, and communities are rebuilding as they can. Your work in Orthus is admirable, the town is one of the best from nothing I’ve seen this cycle.”

Arachne lifted her teacup to me in a small salute before closing her eyes and taking a sip, savoring the brew. I mirrored her, enjoying the perfection. The vampire had taken tea-making to an art, just one of her many talents honed over an Immortal lifespan. Part of me wanted to be offended that we were only one of the best this cycle from nothing… but the rest of me was more rational. There was only so much we could do. There were only so many Classers we had, and none of them had gone through this before. It wasn’t like we were Ithil, which was rumored to have phased out of existence entirely, or a small town with a number of experienced Immortals who’d done this cycle a dozen times before, or even a large town that got skipped over entirely and was thriving. 

“Thank you.” I graciously accepted the compliment. “I’d like to say I had a hand in it, but mostly we just handed everything to Skye and let her figure things out.”

Arachne waved down my protests.

“Nonsense, dear. The simple task of when and who to delegate to and cede both power and authority is a difficult one, and you chose admirably. I digress. You have always placed an unusually high value on honesty, and as such, I will not lie to you. I will not tell you that Night has decided to sit out this Immortal cycle and take a much-needed vacation, no matter how much his WIFE kept ASKING HIM TO.”

The way some of those words were pointed and said over Susan’s shoulder made me wonder if Night could somehow listen in on the conversation, nevermind the triple layer of privacy wards we had up. Or maybe Susan was recording the whole thing, and was going to replay it for Night. Yeah, I was going to stay way out of that one, no matter how much I wanted to add in a comment or three.

If Night wanted to sit out an Immortal war, heck, even a few hundred to a thousand years of an Immortal cycle? More power to him. Everyone needed a vacation, and it felt to me like Night might need one more than most people. Even if it was his wife asking him to, as opposed to being entirely self motivated.

I sipped my tea and nibbled on a biscuit, hoping desperately that it would signal my not-saying-a-word-ness. 

“Night is occupied, fighting the war on a level that does not end with burning fields and razed cities, but arguably contributes more to the shape of the coming world than a full army marching over a field would.”

Arachne’s eyes sharpened. Clotho looked like he 

“This is war, and the soldiers are words spoken in rooms like this, the generals knowledge and information passed on. Unfortunately, I am unable to speak a single word more on the subject of what Night is doing, for if the situation should turn, my counterparts around the world could glean quite a lot of information from anything I say combined with your formidable intelligence and knowledge of the man in question.”

The entire room took on a different perspective. As cool and casual as Arachne was, it was clear now that her every word was measured and calculated ahead of time. That she knew me so well as to know exactly how good my senses were, exactly the words needed to pique my curiosity and to get me traveling, and even more than that - she’d known, almost to the second, when I was going to leave on my trip. She’d know that I was going to leave last, she’d perfectly timed her triggered enchantment to call out in that one vanishing moment before I took off and left.

I split my mind into as many parts as I could, each one thinking furiously. I needed to bring my absolute best when chatting with Arachne, especially as I wasn’t entirely sure we were on the same side still. I thought we were, I was just… uncertain. I liked her, I mostly trusted her, but the entire landscape had been literally changed. Repeatedly. 

Eh… she was fine. I figured I’d trust her, and go from there. I’d drive myself nuts being paranoid about my friends now, and Susan was a friend.

More than that, she’d also calculated how long the sound would take to travel to the forest to find me. My search patterns and the range of [The World Around Me].

I shivered.

Arachne was a [Thinker], and it was terrifying what they could do. [Librarian of the Lost] had offered me a path like that, and I was quite glad in the moment that I hadn't taken it.

The layers probably went even deeper. The tea was brewed to call to me in a particular way, and I bet even the cookies had been carefully arranged.

That, or I was so distractible that the arrangement didn’t matter. 

It was a good reminder of exactly the type of person I was dealing with. Arachne knew me well. Anything she wanted me to do, she could probably talk me into, and I’d go happily. At the same time, it wasn’t like she did it in a manipulative way, nor was she holding a wand to my loved one’s head. She simply knew who had a particular set of skills for a particular job, and who would want to do that job. Then pointed the person at the task. 

One of my [Luminary Minds] thought processes came up with a question.

“What was the repeated call for?” I asked her, remembering the runes I’d puzzled my way through. Arachne lifted an eyebrow at me.

“There was a significant chance that your wife would delay your departure, and I could not be entirely sure of when you were going to leave.” Arachne said with a knowing twitch of her lips.

Oh yeah, that was a pretty reasonable consideration. 

But yikes, Arachne knew us well enough to guess how long it’d all take, down to roughly the second!?

Ciriel, remind me to never piss off a high level [Thinker]. I told the goddess.

It took a moment for a laugh to reach me.

Oooh, do I have stories about making that mistake. They won’t kill you, they’ll just destroy every relationship you have and tarnish your reputation, and worst of all, every word will be the truth. Stay friends or far away from them!

“Moving onto the crux of the conversation, and please dear, forgive me for carrying along so briskly. The mention of my dear husband cut through most of the niceties I had been planning on. I believe it is safe to say that none of us are a fan of this New Remus Empire that is attempting - and I say this without a trace of irony - to rule the world.”

Arachne rolled her eyes, showing what she thought of the subject.

“It ends in tears every time, and worse, it ends in far more tears and bloodshed than Night or I deem acceptable.”

The colorful-haired Sentinel caught the look of confusion that flashed over my face.

“Allow me to elaborate. Night and I both take a relatively hands-off approach to how people choose to organize and govern themselves. When the opportunity is afforded to us, we enjoy funding novel ideas, pushing the limits of knowledge further and further. We allow mortals to make mistakes, even repeat them, should the cost not be too catastrophic. Even Immortals we will shed a single tear for as they throw themselves off the lip of a volcano, but stand aside with merely a word of warning. The scale of what the New Remus Empire is attempting, the natural consequences, are best cut off now, root and stem, before they are allowed to follow the usual course, as water flows through a river.”

I lifted an eyebrow. I’d been somewhat convinced by the other members of the Eventide Eclipse to fight the elves, but it sounded like Arachne had far more knowledge and experience than I did.

“Tell me more about the usual path. I do find myself occasionally questioning the course of action. If they’re a stabilizing force now, isn’t that a good thing? I don’t have the same wealth of experience you do.”

One nice thing about Arachne - I could trust her to be completely honest with me. She knew how my trust would simply die if she lied to me, and at the levels we operated at, we didn’t need each other. She wouldn’t be like Nina or the fae either - she’d tell me the truth, without clever omissions or misleading statements.

“The New Remus Empire needs an enemy to bind together. Right now it is the demons, who are barely worth mentioning. They are already unstable, and a stiff breeze will blow them over.” Arachne was unusually dismissive of them. “Once they are defeated, there will be celebrating and debauchery, luxury built on a grand scale. It is sorely tempting to allow this phase to occur, but it sets grooves and expectations that become difficult to undo. Following this, the members of the 512 will begin sniping at each other and jockeying for position. This phase could be quick and harmless, or dragged out nearly to the point of warfare. For example, the last time this phase of civilization occurred, rival factions were rounding up the entire population of towns and setting them at each other, total warfare among untrained members, just to settle a bet. It’s usually not that bad, but the point remains, cruelty is turned within. From there, there is a small chance of everything collapsing into hundreds of tiny warring kingdoms, each led by an Immortal, but given the current political climate, the rulership of the 512 will turn inwards. It is too expensive, too difficult, to attempt to declare war upon the Northern Continent. The Wardens, dragons, phoenixes, kirin, and all other manner of creatures that live up there would simply sweep through the fragile nations that have attempted to rebuild. Nobody has successfully advocated for that over the years, however, and that is speculation. Instead, they will declare various minority groups to be the source of all the problems, and if people simply ‘banded together’ to ‘purge the undesirables’, everything will be fixed.”

Arachne’s eyes went cold.

“I will be entirely truthful with you. Our motives are driven in large part by self-preservation. Vampires tend to be on the top of the list of ‘undesirables’, right behind the Ekada Ruh and the necrotic armies of Penujuman. ‘The bloodsuckers live among you!’ Stories and tales will be spread, and the energies of the Empire will be turned one by one on different groups. They will try to eradicate the group, and when targets are found to be lacking, as the snake devours its own tail, they will designate a new group. Again, and again, and again, until it inevitably collapses in a cataclysm of blood. By that stage, hatred of the other, distrust of the neighbor, is rooted throughout the entire world, as that is their reach. Barriers must be broken down again, and it is a distasteful mess.” Arachne was practically spitting by the end, and a shiver went down my spine. Clotho’s fangs were clacking together.

I had my own memorial, my own wall of memories. 

How many times had Arachne and Night been hunted like monsters simply for their species before deciding that this particular permutation wasn’t worth it? Before deciding that they needed to stifle a particular type of organization?

I hoped it was only one. I knew that was unlikely.

At the same time, I could respect the line Night was trying to walk even more. He didn’t want to be in control. He didn’t want to be the ruler. At the same time, it’d be so easy to step in and say ‘all of these things don’t work, these do work, do them’, and suddenly find himself in the position where he was dictating to everyone… exactly in the way he knew didn’t work.

Where would our lines in the sand be?

“Which brings me to you. Dawn, you are uniquely positioned at this time for a role of information gathering, and should you desire to take an active role off the battlefield, I’d be more than happy to teach you the fundamental basics of such a position. No life will be taken, indeed, the position you could find yourself in would allow you to modify paperwork in such a way that lives would be saved.”

Arachne took a small sip, and my mind raced to leap to conclusions.

No. I mentally scolded myself. Bad.

This was one of the unique situations where I’d fill in the blanks in the way I liked best, then agree with the rosy situation I was painting myself. It was a dangerous method of self-delusion, and if Arachne was asking me to spy and sabotage for her, step one was to not delude myself.

“I believe it is safe to say the New Remus Empire will not fall on the battlefield. They have successfully learned the lessons of arrogance, and have made it a point of pride to work together. Rarely have we seen such a coalition of powerful Immortals working in concert like this together, and barring them aggravating a, shall we say, higher power.”

Arachne winked at me. Hooooly Ciriel, were they going to try and frame the New Remus Empire to one of the ancient dragons? Man… we’d just finished cleaning up the last big Immortal throwdown. The sight of an unknown dragon effectively erasing Nippon-Koku off the map was seared into my memory. 

“They will fall apart from infighting. From inefficiencies. From thousands of Classers nibbling at their edges. Once their unity is broken, it becomes a simple matter to clean up the mess. For each war is won through preparation, before the first shot is fired. Each battle is determined by logistics. If they’re not at the battlefield, it’s over. There is no sense at striking at their strong point, when we can strike at their weak point. [Warriors] were recruited, [Mages] by the dozen. They were not quite foolish enough to obtain no administrators, but their numbers are limited, and they can not be everywhere. I know them well, I know their weaknesses, and you, my dear, are one of the better agents I can request. I’m not going to ask you to stick your neck out particularly far, or do much besides read, learn, and occasionally relay knowledge. I will teach you how to modify paperwork, what can go missing and when, and you’ll never directly see the fruits of your labor. But you will save lives, both directly and indirectly. It’ll put you in the metropolitan heart of the New Remus Empire, your healing bathing over 30,000 souls daily and rapidly rising. I won’t pretend that it isn’t dangerous, I won’t pretend there are no risks. Spies are executed by custom, generally in a gruesome manner. Are you interested?”

I was, and by broken gemstones, Arachne had to know I was. A way to help that didn’t involve fighting and killing? A way to save lives? A way to be present?

In a more minor way, I wanted to try out all the jobs. To taste everything Immortality had waiting for me. I didn’t have [Spy] on my bingo card for this Immortal cycle, but [Scribe] wasn’t that far off.

Plus, like… reading all day? Sure! Although, that might be an assumption. Time to check!

“How could I save lives?” I asked. “And how much paperwork is there to read?”

Arachne laughed at the second question.

“Saving lives is fairly simple. You see a report that a town failed to meet its tax obligation by a small amount? Simply edit or replace the paperwork to say it had met its tax obligation. The reaper’s scythe is turned and lives are spared, although I will confess that wholesale modification in that manner might be beyond your skills. Another method could be simply losing a report. Say, scouts mention that a powerful wyvern was spotted to the south. If that report is lost, no agents are dispatched to try and hunt it down. There are a million ways to save lives, and I would be delighted to teach them all to you. As for the paperwork, near-endless. I daresay you’ll get tired of reading by the time you are done.”

Challenge fucking accepted.

“There is one last thing you can do right now to help out.” Arachne said with a sparkle. “You are one of the last survivors of the true, original Remus. As we wished for you to join the Sentinels to help preserve the weight. Actively denying the imposters, even in the privacy of your thoughts, in your heart, will be enough to deny them weight and classes. A statement does it more, and the louder and more public it is, the stronger the counterweight. I don’t recommend the last one, it’s hazardous to your health.” Arachne was clearly amused at the end.

Ooooh, that I could absolutely do. I smiled at Arachne and finished my tea.

“When do we start?”