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192: The Truth Will Set Us Free! And Maybe Cause a Collapse of the Social Order—But Hey, That’s Freedom
🕑 Added 2026-01-07 20:17:42 +0000 UTC“Mass access to Orchard?” Frost asked once Ashtoreth had finished explaining. “Let everyone farm up in the zones?”
“Yup!” she said. “It doesn’t work the way that the Monarchy does—I don’t get to set as many restrictions. I can choose whether it’s open to humans, everyone, or no-one… and that’s it.”
“That’s all you have control over?” Kylie asked dubiously.
“That’s it!”
“And you want to open it up to humans, then make the rune sequence publicly available?”
“Yup!”
The way Frost was looking at her, she might as well have suggested they play Russian roulette. “How does this plan not just make us—and Earth—more vulnerable to every single one of our enemies? Dazel will be able to get into Orchard, or at least send his agents in. Your father, same thing. High command, same thing. Though honestly, I’m mostly worried about the cat.”
“Me too,” said Ashtoreth.
“Look: we’ve got a path forward that doesn’t involve the rest of humanity at all,” said Frost. “Get Hunter to 650, then try for Pinnacle by way of Diadem. It won’t take long, not with you diverting the cores you’re earning in the field.”
“Nope!”
“So why add even the slightest risk?” he asked, perplexed. “What’s the point? Mass access to Orchard is a card you can play—but right now, it’s not the right play. When we learn what there is to learn in Diadem, then we can reconsider.”
“Frost is right,” said Kylie. “Really, really right. I’m just sort of scratching my head wondering why you don’t see it, but he hasn’t even laid out just how bad the card you think you’re holding really is.”
Ashtoreth frowned. “Wow, Kylie. Can you even see the fence from where you’re standing with that particular take?”
“No,” she said. “Look: on one hand, I like the idea of undermining the EDA—and telling everyone that we’ve got access to this place is going to involve humanity at large learning that their governments have been keeping hush about four other worlds and their highly advanced precursors.”
Ashtoreth nodded. “But on the other hand, maybe you still like the idea of undermining the EDA? Messing with high command can be a two handed thing, yeah? Two fistfuls of sticking it to the man!”
But Kylie was shaking her head. “We’ve got beef with the EDA, sure. But the EDA essentially a coalition of Earth’s old governments trying to maintain stability, and for the most part, they’re successful. It’s hard to summarize weeks of reading the news, and of course just using Earth’s current internet to stay in touch isn’t going to give me the whole story… but from the looks of things, most people are all right with giving up some of their rights in order to stay safe and maintain social order.”
“Hold up,” Ashtoreth said. “I thought you said that there were two camps—and that one of them is so distrustful of the government that they think Hell won the invasion.”
“I did,” said Kylie. “And that’s still true. But as far as the news is telling me, that camp hasn’t caused any of the world’s nations to descend into lawless chaos. There’s too many people who are desperate to trust an authority.”
Ashtoreth cocked her head, puzzled. “And you think that if I tell everyone that Orchard is open for business, it’ll strengthen the ‘we hate Ashtoreth,’ camp?”
“That is exactly what I think,” Kylie said. “Now, I’m not sure, but if you put out a fireside chat, it could devastate overall trust in governments. What happens after that?”
Nearby, Hunter made a sound of frustration. “I hate this. You’re saying they get to hostage the wellbeing of humanity? They hide the existence of this place from humanity, and we have to go along with it just to avoid the consequences of telling the truth?”
“That’s what we’re deciding now,” said Kylie. “But if it’s up to me? Yeah, that’s about how it works. They’re not holding anything hostage, though—not really. This is just the situation we landed in.”
“We don’t even know if it will work out the way you say it will,” Hunter said.
“I think we can be pretty close to sure, though,” said Kylie. “If Ashtoreth opens this place up, then humanity’s going to have questions—questions about who built this place, how we found it, what it’s for… we can’t just tell them all to shut up and farm.”
Ashtoreth held up a finger. “Well, actually…”
“Not now,” said Kylie. “It’ll be a disaster for all sides if you just throw open the gates with no comment. But if you explain things, then the Monarch is going to be telling people that their governments lied, then validating that claim when she starts passing out warp sequences and system notifications. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect that the next thing that happens won’t be a surge of support for Ashtoreth. People will lose faith in their governments, potentially turning to the conspiracy theories surrounding Ashtoreth as a result—a net loss all around.”
“It might not happen that way,” said Hunter. “People could rally to her. She’s the one who gave us all the means to fight back—and that’s what we’d be doing now.”
Kylie sighed. “I want to believe that… but I don’t think people will see it that way. Not if we pull the rug out from under them. Sorry, guys—I know where my vote goes, and I don’t think it’s likely to change. Keep them out.”
“And I think we should let them in,” said Hunter. “First of all, the so-called social order deserves whatever happens to it if it’s happening because people learned the truth. Truth is something they have a right to—and the nature of rights is that you can’t make utilitarian arguments for ignoring them.”
Kylie practically winced.
“Second,” Hunter said, gesturing at the nexus around them. “They’ve a right to this place, too. All of it. The Five Realms are here for all humanity, not just the people in this room.”
“You know,” Kylie said, “For the party’s dimensional shadow assassin, you’re very idealistic.”
“Think of it this way, then,” said Hunter. “There’s a cost to telling the truth now because of the lies we’ve already committed to. So we’re committing to keep lying as a result? Does that actually make sense?”
But Kylie was shaking her head. “See, that sounds good when you say it—just like the other thing did, too. But if you actually deal with the situation in all its ugly details, we should take the best of the bad options. At the very least, Frost is still right about letting our enemies in.”
Frost seemed to suppress a smile as he said, “I agree. And Kylie has a point in that a lot of people will just see this as Hell trying to turn humanity into part of its army, and using a whole lot of tricks to do it.”
“Huh,” said Kylie. “Yeah… that’s probably the narrative they’d go with, actually.”
“All right,” Ashtoreth said. “Well, this conversation hasn’t gone the way I expected—but that’s what meetings are for, am I right? Anyway, I think I’ve got a solution that addresses everyone’s criticisms while allowing us to move forward with the plan,” she said.
“That could mean a lot of things,” Kylie said flatly.
“Uh, excuse me? This is a great idea. I have great ideas.”
“Uh-huh. And this particular great idea is…?”
Ashtoreth smiled. “Well—it just so happens that I’m possessed of an ancient, potent art so simple and powerful that even a child understands its usefulness. It’s called—”
“—Lying,” Kylie said. “You’re talking about lying.”
“Hey! You stole my punchline.”
“Okay, sure, my bad,” Kylie said. “But maybe—and hear me out here—maybe if you deliver your plan as a punchline, it’s not a very good plan.”
“Hey, maybe,” Ashtoreth said, giving an exaggerated shrug. “Or maybe that just means I have a high charisma score.”
“Charisma’s not even a stat.”
“It’s a soft stat,” she said.
“Meaning that it’s not a stat.”
“Actually, it’s a lot like some of the harder stats, in that mine is high. Now—on to the lying.”
Kylie sighed. “Let’s hear it.”
“I’ll put out a message now, but we’ll pretend everything’s copacetic with high command. And—since you guys raised some pretty good points—we won’t let people in until after we get into Diadem, and I’ll be completely honest about why.”
This was met with a few moments of silent consideration.
“What if high command calls you out on your deception?” Frost said at last. “Makes it clear that you’re acting on your own, that you cut them out?”
“Eh—I’ll just fess up. Say they broke our alliance and that I’ve secured these Five Realms on my own after they shut me out. ” She shrugged. “Not the best option, but it’ll still work.”
“It’ll make people choose sides,” said Frost.
“All the more reason that high command won’t want things to go down that way,” said Ashtoreth. “And I feel the need to point out that we don’t even need the majority of humanity to like me—just a small enough fraction to form our army. That’s threat enough.”
“More deterrants.”
“Hey, they wanted it this way, not me. But if we bring one of the bossmen into the armory and show him the gear we’ve got stashed for five million people—and then we say, ‘gee, wouldn’t it really suck if this were under the complete control of someone who can use infernal contracts to literally guarantee loyalty—and who doesn’t like you?”
“I get it, Ashtoreth. But if we do things this way for long enough, someone’s going to make the wrong decision and everything’ll blow up.”
“High command will swerve pretty hard to avoid unknown consequences.” She grinned. “And that can be how we build a better working relationship!”
“I think I can live with this,” said Kylie. “As long as we’re waiting until after you make your move on Diadem, that is. But I also want to point out that putting our cards on the table to coax high command back into a functional alliance is a completely different plan than what you came in with.” She paused, peering at Ashtoreth with suspicion.
“What?”
“Nevermind,” said Kylie, looking away for a second.
“Is this the plan, then?” Ashtoreth asked. “Do you guys want to do a vote?”
“I’d still rather we just tell people the truth,” said Hunter. “But this works too.”
“That leaves me outnumbered even if I disagree,” said Frost. “Which I don’t. Let’s consider it for another day, just in case we think of anything else—and if Ashtoreth is sending out a message, we should probably all vet the script.”
“Seconded,” said Kylie.
“I’ll pass, you guys have got it,” said Hunter. “I’m not good at public speaking. Anyway, back to the farm?”
Ashtoreth laughed. “You guys can get back to farming,” she said. “No way I can focus on fighting right now.” She grinned. “I’ve got to get ready for my debut!”
