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371. It'll Be A While
🕑 Added 2025-04-23 14:00:12 +0000 UTCScar let out a breath. “Phew. So that’s why you’re here.”
“Yeah.”
“We were worried about Rosamund and the prince, too—and yes, you’re right, he is seeking a political marriage, half through charming the king, half through pressuring him with the threat of a puppet army—but we were merely afraid of him conquering this region and leaving nowhere safe. You’re telling me this might actually be the final step in his grand plan to resurrect the greater being?”
Ike nodded. “Yep.”
Scar rubbed her face, then stood and moved toward a door in the wall—not the one that had led here, but another one. “Hold on. I have to talk to someone for a second. This… it needs to be shared immediately.”
“Sure, go on,” Ike said, gesturing. It didn’t really matter to him who knew. The more the merrier, honestly. He’d be spreading it on the streets if he thought it would make a difference. He wasn’t even sure they had an advantage by keeping Brightbriar’s plans secret. Sure, Brightbriar didn’t know that Ike suspected his plan wasn’t merely conquest but also bringing back the greater being via a radical new plan to have a fragment carry and birth another fragment, but if he did know that Ike new, what would he change? He might hide Rosamund, but that was it. And Ike was willing to tear the city apart to find her.
I guess it’s more convenient if he doesn’t know what I suspect, Ike thought, then realized the real implication: it meant he, Ike, knew about the greater being, and would make him far more valuable in Brightbriar’s eyes. He was more powerful than he’d ever been, but he still wasn’t fully confident in being able to defeat Brightbriar right now at this moment. If Brightbriar came after him seriously, instead of letting him run around, he wasn’t sure he could fend the guy off. Better that he got a free shot at absorbing Rosamund and/or killing her, rather than having to fight the big boss to prevent his crazy plan.
Yeah, alright. It’s best if we keep this quiet, he decided.
“Don’t worry. He can be trusted,” Scar assured Ike, and walked into the next room. The door shut behind her.
“Don’t worry, he can be trusted,” Wisp instantly mocked Scar in a high-pitched voice. She looked at Ike. “These people are kinda stupid, aren’t they? Don’t even know as much as we do. Aren’t they supposed to be the experts on this stuff?”
“Yeah, but they know the city, and they know what Brightbriar’s been up to while we’ve been fucking around in the backcountry. They have knowledge we don’t have, and potentially manpower we don’t. It’s not worthless to get their perspective first,” Ike argued.
“Sure. But we’re not gonna become their subordinates, are we?”
Ike wrinkled his nose. “Fuck no.”
Wisp nodded, her eyes brightening. “So we’re just here to steal their knowledge and then do our own thing.”
“What? No. Wisp, don’t be ridiculous. We’re here to earnestly help out these people,” Ike said, but while he said it, he nodded a lot.
She nodded back, understanding. It was possible the people were listening to them in here, after all. As far as they were concerned, Ike wanted to appear committed to the cause. They could find out on their own that the only cause he was committed to was his own. After all, it wasn’t like these people had ever gone out of their way to help him. They wanted to take on Brightbriar, and so did he, and he was willing to cooperate as a result. But aside from that, his life, and his choices, were his own. He wasn’t going to bow his head to them for no reason. Brightbriar was his problem, and he was going to take him on himself. Anyone who wanted to help could help, but he wasn’t going to be beholden to some group just because they were working on the same problem as him.
It was the first lesson he’d learned. Grouping up didn’t necessarily help anything. Unless he trusted those people, and they were committed to his cause, he wasn’t going to go out of his way to assist them in their goals. More people didn’t necessarily mean more benefit to him. Just because they were ‘on his team,’ it didn’t mean he could trust them.
Wisp and Mag were one thing. Wisp was coming along for her own benefit, and had been from the start. He knew where she stood, and she knew where he stood. When they worked together, they split the profits, and both of them expected that. She’d had plenty of chances to betray him, and had chosen his side every time. Maybe it was only for profits and to enjoy the ride at first, but by now, the two of them were actual friends, bound by a long journey and a long history of watching one another’s backs. He trusted her as he did few, if any, others, and she felt the same toward him.
Mag was a silly birdbrain, someone he could defeat if he needed to, and generally a good person. He put on an air like he was trouble, and acted like a bigshot whenever he got the chance, but honestly? He was probably the most upright and decent person on Ike’s team, Ike included. Aside from his preference for collecting shiny things that didn’t necessarily belong to him, he was generally not a problematic person. He wasn’t really bloodthirsty, and he definitely didn’t hunger for manflesh in the voracious and noisy way Wisp did, nor was he a feral savage like Ike who’d never really understood humanity. Somehow, Mag was better socialized as a birdboy who’d grown up on a pile of skulls than Ike was, in Ike’s opinion, at least. Of the three of them, he’d probably have the easiest time integrating into normal human-slash-mage society.
And then there’s Shawn, he added belatedly, glancing at the small figure on his shoulder. Shawn mostly slept, but he’d never hesitated to lend Ike his weight in battle, and that was all Ike could ask of him. On the few times he woke up, he always contributed his wisdom and long-ranging knowledge to the cause, and Ike respected him immensely for that.
All of them were people he knew well, people who’d traveled with him, who he’d tested and learned more about. On the other hand, he’d fought one battle alongside Scar, which gave her a little of his trust, and hadn’t even met anyone else on her team, which gave them none of his trust. He wouldn’t betray anyone on his team, but Scar and the others weren’t on his team. They were on their own team, and he’d do best to keep his eyes open and assure their goals aligned rather than trusting them blindly.
At last, Scar returned. She rubbed her forehead, then nodded at them. “Is there a way you could confirm whether this is happening to Rosamund?”
“If I got close? Maybe,” Ike allowed.
“There’s a royal ball tomorrow evening. Brightbriar, Rosamund, the king, and the prince will all be there. If you can determine whether this is happening, then we can get you in.”
Ike glanced around at his party. Mag perched on the arm of a chair, staring up at a crystal chandelier on the ceiling. Wisp sat up in her chair, and nodded aggressively at him. Shawn slept, as usual.
He nodded slowly, a smile spreading over his lips. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I can… probably.”
“Excellent. Then come with me. We have a lot of work to do to get you three ready,” Scar said, suddenly all business.
“What? Don’t we just have to dress fancy and eat with those metal thingies?” Wisp asked.
Scar chuckled darkly. “Oh no. No, no, no. There’s much, much more to balls than that. Come. We have little time.” She opened the door again. Ike had gotten a glimpse of the inside the first time, and it had been a narrow storeroom, but now, it opened to a long, lush hallway. His stomach twisted a little. What have I gotten us into?
On the other hand, it was his best chance to encounter Brightbriar and Rosamund (the current model, not the head in his inventory) and discover whether Brightbriar’s plan was what he’d guessed, or not. Ike steeled himself and stood. It was time… to encounter high society.
