Val grimaced. “In truth, it was a close thing. If Timothy had not spoken to me...”
Jade blanched.
Val raised a placating hand. “Believe it or not, I would not have killed them. Or tried not to. But I certainly would have moved my piece in a way that made it clear they had been… compromised.”
As much as he already felt a close connection to Jade and Agda, he elected not to tell them about his Greater Oathbinding gift, having no idea how it would be received. With the Justiciar’s declaration, Val knew it was only a matter of time before everyone on Jordia knew a Terran was making a play for the throne. But his ability to bind his foes with oaths so awful that they could literally tear an oath-breaker’s flesh from his bones was one card he wanted to keep very close to his chest. After all, the more people who knew, the more likely some master player might sense his pawns binding and use their own arts to free them, somehow, even if Val’s victims were bound never to even speak of the curse upon them. Come to think about it, he’d have to remind the few friends who knew to guard their thoughts well.
Jade breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you for that, nephew. My mate would have been forced to fight you, which would have resulted in bitterest tragedy on so many levels.” She flashed a bemused smile at those words. “And now I feel the fool. I should have recognized straight off my sister’s stamp upon your features. For all that your eyes are free of an exotic’s grace, your smile is a mirror of her own, and if you were to say you were Mother’s son or grandson, not a soul would doubt it.”
Val locked gazes with his grandmother. “I know that the High Council is led by a Highlord named Craven, whose eyes burn through shadow. He made it clear that all battle-mech shipments and purchases were to be seized, cutting off the supply for all the players on the board, save the one they had already hand-picked to become the new Overlord. I know the High Council’s inquisitors will be used as spies to keep tabs on the movements of the reds on the board and make sure they are denied all access to heavy artillery as well. All so the chosen one may more easily cut his opponents down at the time and place of his choosing.”
Agda grimaced. “True, grandson. Pretexts aside, the Rite of Ascension has been compromised by the High Council. Now it is just a way to weed out those players least likely to bow their heads and kneel before a chosen power that will squeeze them like no Overlord ever has before. An Overlord that will give the council unprecedented power, and Caligula unprecedented influence, in return.”
Jade shook her head. “Most of Jordia will suffer from the iron-fisted rule to come, even as a select few profit from squeezing our planet dry of wealth, freedom, and joy. Like a ripe fruit they would crush in their hands, Highlord Craven positioned to profit perhaps most of all.”
Val flashed a cold smile. "Unless, of course, another who walks the King's Path claims the crown. A wildcard they did not expect. A wildcard who somehow gains access to a score of mechs his foes thought safely in hand. Perhaps gains access to other toys as well as the High Council goes into a froth, trying to figure out why their best-laid plans go up in smoke."
Jade's eyes widened as her lips flowed into a bemused smile. "The accords make it exquisitely clear we are to harm not a hair on their bodies, they beholden to the same. But just as their moles seek to learn our moves and counter them for their own ends..." She glanced at the diner gazing intently at his satchel, unable to hide his frustration with the faulty-seeming equipment even as he devoured the food before him, his roving gaze and frown making it clear he couldn't even see who he had been sent to spy on. "So by reciprocity, we have every right to do the same."
“But we must be cautious, daughter!” hissed Agda. “As fearsome as our skills may be, our enemies deduced this base far too quickly for my taste. And Craven is one Highlord we dare not cross, no matter how the tides turn.”
Jade frowned. “It took them five years to find our most public point of contact, Mother, and only with the Rite of Ascension in play have they even dared to spy upon us. Now you and I only come here for appearance’s sake, monthly at best. It is only for the sake of a lost one that we’re even here tonight.”
Agda frowned. “True, my daughter. True.”
Val smiled. “Craven’s hot gaze found no hold upon Shadow when I was in the room.”
Jade blinked. “You didn’t just hide behind his seat? It is the perfect cover and part of the cat and mouse game he forces Timothy to play with him. If my mate weren’t among the strongest...” She swallowed, shaking her head. “Truly, these are dangerous times we live in.” She chuckled softly. “It was much easier under Tytus. For all his power, he had little ability to pierce Shadow. And the fear he felt after his falling out with Hanna worked in our favor tremendously. Of course we never dared to strike at him. Why would we? He made it very clear we had free rein, so long as we never struck at or spied upon him, and we gave him no cause to lash out and destroy Newford entirely in his utter paranoia. No. We avoided him entirely, no Dauda even meeting with agents pleading for one of us to enter the Overlord’s service. The power his fear gave us was priceless.”
Jade chuckled softly. “Unfortunately, Lord Craven is a different matter entirely. He made it quite clear he could spot our lessers with ease, savoring their sudden terror, having the grace simply to ask for our best to honor dusty contracts we had adhered to for centuries before Tytus.” Her mouth twisted into a grimace. “And only under his reins have the council members ever been so bold as to condescend to us like… servants! Even if they never dare mock us in public, Timothy is all too aware of the contempt and fear they have for us.”
Val locked gazes with his aunt. “You know damned well why that agent is here. They no longer fear you as they once did, and the more information they have on your movements, your strengths and weaknesses, the better they can strike. A day of blood, perhaps system-wide, a dark alliance of multiple Overlords and councils, when they judge the time is right.”
Jade blanched at Val's cold words, sharing a haunted glance with her mother. "Little more than a boy and he already reads the board so well, forcing us to gaze upon our own worst fears."
Agda swallowed. “We have already taken steps, grandson.”
Val flashed a jaded smile, knowing more about reconnaissance than most in Jordia, the advantage of Earth-style surveillance and a thousand electronic eyes… bits of information instantly uploaded and processed by various agencies such that once someone had just a single player identified, it was only a matter of time before an entire organization could be brought down. Perhaps Agda picked up something from his gaze, her pallor only growing.
“What do you know, grandson?” she whispered.
“I know that tremendous resources can be brought to bear, when hunting down a chosen target and all their allies. Graphics processing might be orders of magnitude more difficult here than it is upon Earth, but your people have designed computers that are otherwise frightfully powerful, have mastered the physics of faster-than-light travel, and can rule the skies of a thousand worlds. Jordia, and the Dominion at large, is not run by fools. If your foes have taken any lessons from Earth, and have the means and processing capacity to install multiple video cameras near your bases of operations, especially if Shadowmind doesn’t work on digitalized recordings? Your days are suddenly numbered. Even if your enemies must rent entire floors of nearby buildings to process and record the data, even if they must patiently wait years, setting up new cameras in new locations as they slowly learn your routes, they will eventually map out your entire network of safe houses and homes.”
Val flashed a cold smile at his aunt and grandmother’s haunted looks. “Then, when the time is right, on the cusp of securing Jordia for themselves and wanting to be done with the threat of your existence... Scores of cleverly placed bombs and claims of gas explosions is how we would take care of it on Earth.” Val frowned. “Though exothermics are illegal here, there would be no one willing to prosecute, the High Council being the masterminds behind
it. I have no doubt that mixtures of Silbion and Elementium would be brought to bear. They might be near worthless for munitions or grenades, being too unstable and damned expensive, but they are easy enough for someone with very deep pockets to use for ambushes when they already know your routes and places of business. Simply place those toxic mixtures in large quantities outside your homes or where you are most likely to congregate, carefully leave the area, and when the time is right, when a signal is given, every agent strikes those deadly bombs with lasers or slingshots and poof. No more Dauda on Jordia.” Val held their gaze. “Perhaps no more Dauda anywhere, if this council is working in concert with others.”
He smirked at their stares of horror. “By your own admission, Tytus’s agents had been seeking your locations for years. Perhaps he was playing you. Maybe it wasn’t that Craven had only recently determined your hideout. Maybe Tytus had known for years, his agents religiously mapping out your comings and goings all this time. And it wasn’t simply to reach out and make peace. Perhaps fury as well as fear ruled him, and Craven is just carrying out plans for your annihilation dreamed up by bitter Overlords long ago. For all you know, Craven was Tytus’s secret weapon, and had been working for him to ferret you all out since the day Hanna left that Overlord’s service! It would explain his sudden rise to power, if he had been Tytus’s secret trump card.” Val smirked. “Too bad he wasn’t on the bridge when Tytus needed him the most.”
Val grimaced at the strange looks this earned him, quickly picking up where he left off. “And exothermics are just one option. Perhaps they will simply give the coordinates to Caligula’s dreadnought and allow his pulse cannons to blast carefully selected chunks of New Haven, and whatever other cities your clan calls home, to oblivion. Wiping you all out in one fell swoop.”
Val felt a sudden twisting in his gut, seeing genuine horror in his grandmother’s gaze, the way she traded desperate glances with her daughter, how the agent in back they had so condescendingly ignored had taken on added sinister context.
“Mother…”
“Madness even to think it, but what if he’s right?”
Jade nodded, turning back to Val. “Your words are terrifying. And we would be fools if we did not act on them immediately. If you’re wrong? We waste a few days darting about like ferrets. If you’re right...”
“You will have saved our clan,” Agda whispered, gazing at him with a grandmother’s love, for all that she looked so young herself. “Now we must go, grandson. I don’t know when next we meet but when we do, we will call you kin.”
Val blinked. This was not going according to plan! “Agda, Jade, please wait. I… I wanted you to join my cause! Imagine if one of our number actually claimed the throne!” He swallowed at their suddenly unreadable expressions. “I’m not asking you to swear yourselves to me or anything like that. I guess I’m just saying that you would be welcome to shelter in safety within any territory I hold, so long as an oath was taken not to strike at me or otherwise betray me. Other than that? Your aid could give my cause an incredible advantage! If you were willing to help me, that is.”
Jade flashed Val an almost pitying smile. “My dear nephew. If only you realized just how perilous a game you are playing. It is one thing for us to take the occasional mission, sanctioned with coin and a mercenary’s oath. But to actually pledge alliance to any cause save coin would jeopardize our entire clan!”
Agda nodded. "If your words are right, we already face the direst of threats. To openly vouch for your claim to the throne would crystallize burgeoning resentments towards our clan into undeniable hate and fear." She gazed intently at Val, as if praying he’d understand. “As your kin, I am beyond grateful for your warning. As a Dauda, I can only accept missions on the same basis as I would any other party. With no favoritism, swearing myself to no banner. Do you understand, Valor?”
Insight gained! If your family allows itself to be seduced into fighting under your banner, all of your kin will be put to death should you lose, and there is nothing the Highlords would love more than that! To say nothing of an unsettling precedent that could increase reaction penalties for the Dauda Clan throughout the Dominion, should they ever act as other than the most impartial of agents.
If they can’t fight under your banner as allies and kin, the next move should be obvious, even to you, Val.
Sometimes Val hated the ever-mocking voice echoing inside his head, but he couldn’t deny how right it was.
Val locked gazes with his grandmother. “I would like to hire the Dauda clan for reconnaissance. Two nights from now, a trader will be hitting the New Haven port with 20 battle-mechs. Blackbliss and Vicebloom will be planted on the man to assure his execution and allow the perpetrators to claim the battle-mechs for themselves.”
Jade tilted her head. “An interesting development. What would you hire us to do, supplicant?”
Val took a quick look around, relieved that nothing seemed off, that he sensed no impending peril from the animated diners or the frustrated-looking spy now ordering what seemed to be drinks from the waitress. He turned back to Jade. “I need a distraction so I can enter the ship cargo hold and have some quality time with those battle-mechs.
Agda’s eyes widened. “There is no way we can arrange their theft, supplicant.”
Val grinned. “You don’t have to. In a very short period of time, they will be no better than scrap. From there, I’m not sure how corporate entities work here, but if we could arrange for a third party to offer to purchase those wrecks...”
Jade frowned as Val continued laying out his plan. “It has definite possibilities, nephew, but we will be lucky if the High Council doesn’t deny third parties even the scrap. No doubt they will have it picked up and transported by allies loyal to their chosen successor.”
Val smirked. “In that case, here’s our next step...” From there, in quiet hushed tones, all of them half immersed in shadow, Val laid out his plan, happy to adjust it with feedback from both of the Dauda until at last his grandmother gave a satisfied nod. “That just might work, Valor. It has risks, definite risks, but so long as you can provide the funds we need to initiate it… your plan just might be doable.”
Jade grinned. “Necessary expenses plus our fee, of course.”
Agda’s return grin was almost apologetic. “You do understand why it has to be this way, don’t you, Val?”
Val nodded solemnly. “Fair coin for a mercenary’s oath, sacrosanct the Dominion over, and you can swear to any psionic oathbinder that you followed the accords and swore yourself to no cause save the oaths that have always bound Dauda.”
“Correct. But if your other fears should also prove correct… that changes everything.”
Jade nodded. “There are things we need to do immediately. But fear not. For your sake, we will take your contract and honor it even as we fade from all sight for however long is needed to assure that death does not gaze upon us from afar.”
Val nodded in solemn accord with that sentiment.
Jade flashed an impish grin. “And now the coin, nephew!”
Agda chuckled softly. “We quoted the cost and you didn’t bat an eye. I’m glad to know Blackenthorp is not being stingy with his new master’s coin, at least when you need access to it. Let me simply caution you against draining your new territory’s coffers too greatly, lest you destroy the morale and long-term profitability of your domain. That being said, give the word, and we can have an associate take you to the galactic exchange near the spaceport favored by most traders and major players. They will have no problem covering the costs as you convert Blackenthorp assets to one of our own accounts."
His grandmother’s gaze turned apologetic. “Of course there will then be no question that you are a player, Val, with all of Blackenthorp’s considerable assets at your disposal, verified with a single vid-call to the man who will then be forced to declare you his master, no matter how he would otherwise seek to hide it. You will then find yourself in the sights of all the inquisitors
here in the city, though no one at the bank would dream of interfering with one who dares to walk the Path of Kings. But we will have to work with all haste to escape inquisitorial intrigue, and I pray you are as gifted at fading into the background as Timothy implied.”
Val couldn’t hold back an impish grin. “Or, I can just give you the credits right now. I hope you don’t mind if it’s in the form of Elementium?” Both his relatives were dumbstruck as he pulled multiple vials filled with that precious, sparkling powder, though not so stunned as to fail to make them disappear in the blink of an eye. “Let’s round up our worst-case cost projections and your fee to the nearest million. If anything’s left over? We’ll call it a retainer. Fair enough?”
His grandmother solemnly bowed her head, her hand suddenly holding his with a frightfully strong grip. “The Dauda clan accept your coin, supplicant, and swear to abide by the terms of our contract.” She winked. “I pray it goes well, Valor. And with you being this resourceful, my hopes are far higher than they were just half an hour ago.” Her intent gaze locked upon his own and it was like Val could suddenly feel the pressure clamped tightly upon her, the terrible tension and fear that ruled her beneath her smile.
“And now you dare not waste another moment on your grandson’s mad venture,” Val said. “You have an entire clan to keep safe from what could be genocidal peril.”
Agda nodded. “You understand perfectly, grandson. A whole clan will owe you thanks, should your dark suspicions become the terrible reality I fear to face. And if not? Your words of caution are worth their own weight in gold. It is high time we shattered all our expected patterns and danced our blades no longer to a tune our foes already know all too well."
His strikingly beautiful aunt flashed a winsome smile. “Be well, nephew. I will be sure to tell your cousins they have kin they can be proud of.”
Val blinked at this before dipping his head. Jade looked so young, so vibrant, it was hard to imagine her a mother with children, but she was likely around Hanna’s age or older, and could well have even grandchildren for all he knew, rare as that was for Jordians, especially Psionicists, their fertility rates being so low.
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