grandgame
patreon
Grand Game 587: Questioning
🕑 Added 2025-02-27 21:00:12 +0000 UTCBreaking off from my musings, I raised my head to scan the sands ahead. Kartara and her subordinates were approaching. My deliberations about the new House would have to wait until later. Now, it was time to deal with the brotherhood.
Sitting down on my haunches, I observed the six advancing brotherhood members. Kartara was in the middle. The other five players—Cait, Senzo, Duskar, Fiona, and a dwarf named Heglin—formed a tight circle around her, almost as if they were seeking to protect the huntmistress from the big bad harbinger.
I snorted. As if Kartara needs protection.
Lidding my eyes, I focused on the only brotherhood player I’d not yet met—Heglin. Given the dwarf’s steel-clad form and the bits of conversation I’d overheard through the farspeaker link earlier, I assumed Heglin to be the brotherhood’s infantry commander.
The dwarf’s gray eyes were stony, and he walked almost in Kartara’s shadow, shielding her back. More than anything else, it signaled his loyalty to the huntmistress.
“Ghost, it's time you got going,” I ordered as the brotherhood officers drew closer.
The pyre wolf, seated on her haunches beside me, turned her head my way. “Why? They’ve seen me already.”
“That may be,” I allowed, “but I rather they don’t get a close look at you.” My eyes alighted on the diviner, Fiona. “Especially that one. She is far too astute for my liking.”
Ghost tracked the direction of my gaze. “Oh, alright.” Her head turned left and right, examining the multitude of corpses scattered across the dunes. “It was a good hunt,” she pronounced.
“It was,” I agreed.
“They will make for good Pack.”
My lips twitched. Was Ghost subtly prompting me to recruit the brotherhood? It seemed so. “You think I should invite them to join the Forerunners?”
“I do,” she replied immediately. “Are you going to?”
“I’m not sure yet,” I admitted. The brotherhood had not survived as long as it had by being incautious. There would be questions aplenty—and lots of suspicion.
And I was not certain yet how far I was willing to go to allay their concerns.
Banding together with Brotherhood for a single mission was one thing, tying the Forerunners permanently to them, and them to us was another thing entirely. Especially since the Brotherhood was a dominant and widespread presence in the Kingdom. If we joined forces, word would get out about the Forerunners, and I was not sure I was ready for that yet.
“Well, do what you think best,” Ghost said, sensing my ambivalence.
Still preoccupied by the question she’d posed, I only nodded vaguely in response.
My gaze drifted back to the huntmistress. I would have to share some truths with Kartara, I knew. Common courtesy demanded at least that much. And it was more than common courtesy that I owed the brotherhood.
But how much truth is enough truth? I wondered.
✵ ✵ ✵
Ghost has unmanifested.
The pyre wolf vanished before brotherhood officers closed to within fifty yards. Her disappearance gave them pause, but only momentarily, and when they resumed walking again, it was with stiffer strides and tighter expressions.
I nearly rolled my eyes. Right, they think I am up to something.
“Where’d it go?” Duskar demanded as they six came to a stop twenty yards from me.
I ignored the orc. “Should I be flattered or insulted?” I asked Kartara, measuring the distance between me and the brotherhood officers.
The huntmistress shrugged. “Both if you wish.” Angling herself to the left, she walked a slow measured circle around me with Heglin her silent shadow.
Duskar’s lower jaw jutted out. “How is he speaking?”
“He’s using ventro,” Fiona said faintly.
The orc scratched his head. “Ventro? Never heard of it.”
“It’s a deception ability,” Senzo answered. Following on the huntmistress’ heels, he too, began circling me. “I’ve never witnessed a doppelganger’s transformation before. The change is… remarkable.”
“Thank you,” I said with quiet amusement.
Scowling, Duskar spun to face the huntmistress. “Are we sure this is him? The one called Havick?”
“Havick doesn’t exist,” Fiona muttered before Kartara could respond. “He was a persona, no more.” She waved her hand disparagingly in my direction. “As is this.”
Cait advanced forward. “What I’d like to know,” she said, coming straight at me, “is how he grew so big. The doppelganger spell does not add mass.” The elf came to a halt beside me, her hand raised and poised to touch, but stopping just short of doing so. “May I?” she asked, her eyes shining brightly.
I thought of refusing, but the truth was that, of all Kartara’s subordinates, I liked the nether witch best. Her curiosity was undisguised and unabashed, and her requests, when she made them, were always direct and to the point. And besides, I needed to allay their fears.
And I had no doubt the brotherhood was scared.
I’d just killed a young void tree after all, something their entire organization had failed to do in centuries. All their talk and all their questions—even Duskar’s—was just a mask, one that poorly concealed their uncertainty.
“Go ahead,” I said, inclining my head in permission.
The elf needed no further encouragement. Lowering her hand, she ran impersonal fingers through my splotchy dog coat. “It feels real,” she stated.
I laughed. “Of course it’s real. That’s my—” I broke off at a sharp tug. “Ow! That hurt.”
“Huh,” the elf remarked, dispassionately studying the bits of fur in her hand. “Interesting.” Stepping back, she looked over her shoulder at the huntmistress who had completed her circle and was watching Cait’s inspection with an inscrutable expression.
“He’s no stygian,” the nether witch pronounced.
“You’re sure?” the huntmistress asked.
Cait nodded. “I am. It’s a disguise. Has to be.”
Fiona stepped forward eagerly. “Let me inspect him. I’ll be able to—”
“No,” the huntmistress and I shot back simultaneously.
Kartara turned to me, one eyebrow raised. “I know why I said no. Why did you?”
I scowled—although in my present form, they likely took it for a snarl, which I was fine with. “I still remember her last inspection even if you don’t. Your diviner will not be inspecting me again,” I said firmly. “Not now. Not ever.”
Kartara nodded equably, not contesting the point, and Fiona stepped back, her shoulders sagging. “Have it your way,” the huntmistress said. “But you didn’t answer Cait’s earlier question.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Oh?”
“What are you beneath that skin?” Kartara asked. “Not human, obviously. No human doppelganger has the mass to impersonate a harbinger. So, what are you?”
“That’s a good question.”
She waited for me to go on, but when I didn’t, she pressed further, “An answer would be even better.”
I sighed. “I’m human.”
“Really?” Cait asked, stepping farther back and eyeing my large and visibly inhuman frame.
“Really,” I repeated, ignoring her obvious skepticism. “But I won’t tell you how I managed to transform into a harbinger.”
Duskar growled. “How can we trust him if he insists on leaving us in the dark?” he demanded, directing the question at the huntmistress not me.
I turned the orc’s way. “I made no bones of the fact that I keep secrets. You knew before we began all this that I would not share my identity, nor the location of the sector on the other side of the rift. Nothing has changed since.”
Senzo chuckled. “Come, ‘Havick.’ Do not take us for fools. You just killed a void tree, the first in millennia! At the very least, that makes you a Powerful Initiate—or an envoy. That changes everything. Tell us why we shouldn’t believe this some twisted ploy to win our favor?”
“An envoy?” I mused, glancing at Kartara. “You think I am an envoy?”
She shrugged. “I don’t, but Senzo thinks it a possibility.”
I turned back to the spymaster. “Interesting. I get why you think I’m at least tier six. But why are you so sure I am just that? What’s to say I am not higher leveled and a full Power already?”
He snorted. “No one becomes a Power by taking the risks we’ve seen you take. The rise to the top is long and hard. The foolhardy do not often survive.”
I ignored the implied insult. “What risks?”
He ticked off points on his fingers. “You walked willfully into our castle, the heart of our domain, alone and unaccompanied. The brotherhood may want for any Powers of its own, but that doesn’t mean we lack teeth. It would've cost us dearly, but even if you were Tartar himself, we could have slain you then and there.”
I chose not to dispute the point. “Go on.”
“Then you gave us your netherstone. I don’t care who or what you are, or how powerful you think you may be, but that was a damn fool thing to do. We could have stranded you here for eternity.”
I nodded. “And is that all?”
“Of course not,” he rejoined. “Then there is the tree. Who in his right mind tackles a young void tree—alone and without any guarantees of help? Not a Power who has had to fight every step of the way to get where he is certainly.”
“As interesting as everything you said is, it’s only conjecture,” I pointed out. “Hardly what I’d call conclusive proof.”
“That’s true enough,” Kartara agreed. “But there is something else Senzo hasn’t mentioned yet.”
I swung her way. “And that is?”
“Technically, Cait just attacked you,” she replied.
I stared at her blankly for a moment. “By attack I suppose you mean her tugging free a clump of my fur?”
The huntmistress nodded. “If you truly were a Power, you would’ve realized the significance of her doing that.” She paused. “And the significance of Cait not receiving a warning from the Adjudicator when she did.”
Realization dawned. “The Game warns players when they are about to earn the wrath of a Power,” I guessed. The nether witch had attacked me and had not received any such warning—leading her and the huntmistress to conclude I was not a full Power.
Kartara nodded solemnly. “Correct.”
I sighed. Once again, I’d run afoul of one of the huntmistress’ tests, only seeing the trap after it had been sprung. “Alright, I guess you worked all that out neatly enough.” My gaze found the spymaster again. “But what leads you to suspect me of being an envoy?”
Senzo glanced at Kartara, who nodded almost imperceptibly, before continuing, “The brotherhood is the single most powerful non-Power group in the Game. The factions have been trying for centuries to recruit us—and many are not opposed to using force or guile to do it.”
I swished my tail idly. “I see. Then the theory is what…? I went through the trouble of all of this—putting my own life and those of your own people in very real danger, I may add—for what? To simply win your trust?”
Senzo nodded. “The notion is not as far-fetched as you make out.”
If I had hands, I would have thrown them up in irritation. “How does appearing to you as a harbinger help me win your trust? And if your ‘trust’ was all I was truly interested in, why did I insist your people fight the stygians here and not on the other side of the rift?”
Duskar snickered. “Who knows? No one said you weren’t a stupid envoy.”
Before I could retort, Kartara held up a hand. “It’s unlikely you’re an envoy. Senzo knows that, as does Dusk.” Her lips quirked. “No matter how much he might want to pretend otherwise. Too many things don’t add up for that to be a real possibility.” Her look grew serious again. “However the idea that this is all the machinations of a Power is not as absurd as you think. I’ve witnessed firsthand the lengths some Powers will go to co-opt the brotherhood to their cause. We need assurances that whatever you are, and whoever you say you are, that you not trying to manipulate us.”
“Was keeping my word not enough?” I asked softly.
“Your word?” Duskar laughed. “What does your word matter when—”
“He didn’t have to come through,” Heglin said suddenly.
Breaking off, Duskar turned to face him. “What does that mean?”
Shrugging, the dwarf pointed to the spot so recently occupied by the rift. “There was no reason for Havick—or whatever his name is—to come through the rift. He could have stayed safely on the other side and still gotten everything he wanted—a sector scoured clean of stygians. The fact that he is here must count for something.”
“It does.” Kantara turned to face me again. “So, why did you come through? Why did you abandon your allies on the other side and come here to face a stygian Power?”
“If those allies even exist,” Duskar muttered.
Ignoring him, the huntmistress leaned forward. “Be honest, Havick. Give us a reason to believe.”
“I came because I made a promise,” I said quietly. “A promise that you and your people would not have to face the void tree.” I held her gaze. “And my promises are never made lightly.”
The huntmistress studied me measuringly for a moment, weighing my answer. “You kept your word,” she said finally. “And more importantly, you did what you said you could. And for that I’m more grateful than you can imagine.”
She inhaled deeply. “But it is not enough.”
Comments
David Brewer
She did get a touch squirrelly when he confronted her about "ancient history" being related to their knowledge of the void tree life cycle. From chapter 559: An education. '“No brotherhood member has ever set eyes on anything greater than an old tree.” I frowned. “Then how do you know they exist?” “From folklore and other bits of ancient histories we’ve managed to scavenge over the years.” I threw her an incredulous look. “You trust such information?” Kartara folded her arms behind her back—to hide the sudden nervous tic of her fingers, I thought. It was the first sign of discomfort I’d yet seen from the huntmistress, and I didn’t fail to mark it.'
obiwann
Technically this is the second rift dive 😂
mark janson
It seems a bit premature to attempt to recruit the Stygian brotherhood.
Harley Dalton Jr.
I sure hope the tree's body will be useful.
Harley Dalton Jr.
Them being nervous or a little scared or just cautious seems fine, but they are also being a little too suspicious and in some cases disrespectful or even downright rude in Duskar's case. Katara needs to make a reasonable argument in the next chapter and at least acknowledge they don't have a right to his personal info since he hasn't asked anything more from them.
Harley Dalton Jr.
It doesn't feel quite time for them to be demanding personal info. They only recently met. It's not like he's asked anything else from them (yet). What info does Michael owe them? Perhaps only how he can help them with their agreed on future forays into the nether. That agreement has nothing to do with his secrets. He needs allies, but they haven't earned trust yet.
obiwann
Wait what?!! Did she????
obiwann
God I hope so. In fact I’m hoping that they were bound to an ancient in the past and that’s why they have not aligned with any power in the past. They see the new powers as selfish because they ignore the true threat to the kingdom.
Majestic Bacon
Also, Kartara wouldn't let Fiona have his fur. Maybe she suspects him of being an Elder Wolf, which he is. I also believe when she and Michael were at the brotherhood sector, she said "Ancient history", or something like that, with emphasis on 'Ancient'.
David Brewer
Oh agreed... it's just like if you had finished book 1 before Tom started book 2 (or really most any of them). It's not a true cliffhanger because it's merely Michael exiting the dungeon... but when you can't start the next chapter it feels like one. Because while most of the book ends aren't Michael diving into obvious danger... it is always him transitioning from a known situation to an unknown one.
David Brewer
I've speculated the same in the past... but presently we don't have enough knowledge of what Kintara and the Brotherhood actually know to properly conclude if she could reasonably draw a conclusion like that. I like the theory personally... but it's really easy for us to draw connections based on what Michael has revealed and our existing knowledge of Michael (which she doesn't have) to form guesses for her. It's quite possible tomorrow she'll reveal something that makes it more apparent (perhaps even outright saying it). But I'm pleased not to be the only one with this idea.
John
Not sure if this is what I think is true or what I want to be true but I’m guessing Kartara suspects Micheal’s an Ancient. They have a few clues if they know what to look for at this point. The Brotherhood clearly has beef with the New Powers, makes sense since they’re self centered tinpot dictators, but there could be more to it. They have the single biggest library of knowledge pertaining to Stygians, whose ancient enemies were the Primes. We’ve already seen other non force sworn who are aware of the past, those gnomes or something in the shops at Nexus. It’s easy to imagine a Prime in hiding being cagey about his identity, they don’t want to outright confront him about it so they’re begging him to drag it out.
John
When you’re reading the story as it’s meant to be, one continuous unbroken book, would you still identify these moments as bad cliffhangers? At that point I feel like they’d just be conversational high points that are good to put a bookend on, raise the tension.
John
“Was Ghost subtly prompting me to recruit the Brotherhood?” YESSSS shouts the Patreon!! Ghost a real one
CipherFTW
The entire beginning of this book is going to be a tease. Isn't it... ;-;
David Brewer
Heh, aside from the Dresden Files... I don't really recall a series that has managed to go beyond 10 books that doesn't struggle to maintain my interest. I'm hoping that Tom will manage if he tries, but it's a challenge to keep a story interesting and believable for that long. Edit: actually that's not fair. Wheel of Time also managed... but I also think something like half of the books in the middle could have been better and lost nothing important even trimmed by a half... which makes books 6-11 a horrible slog.
Michael Rabbitt
But what if he could keep it going forever 😂 I’d read
obiwann
Tom is on book 9…. Like… can’t keep GG going forever 😂 convenient may be required… like that tier 7 artifact so this thing can attack the tree next time it tries to subvert him. I think it’s that attempt by the tree that made this a reward option.
Harley Dalton Jr.
Thanks for the chapter.
David Brewer
They do want to believe Michael, but it's equally obvious that the Brotherhood has been seriously ill-used by the Powers. They see only a collection of players that could be useful pawns in their games... and likely have done a great many terrible things attempting to secure the loyalty of the Brotherhood. Michael definitely needs to surrender some truths to them. The tenet thing definitely does link him to them... but it's possible he may wish to keep his wolfiness under wraps. Thus, talking about forming tenets for his new House might be something he won't do. I mean... forcesworn don't get to pick their tenets I suspect because they are determined by the force you choose akin to how house Wolf had its own tenets. Michael is being permitted to establish new tenets but that is rare. But he definitely should be offering his faction ability "Rift Sense"... as I noted he might be able to leverage that by itself to start building trust and thus fold the Brotherhood into the Forerunners. It is possible they have a new powerful Initiate. Heh, that would be super convenient so it's a bit less likely... I mean get that Initiate an epic class... bam task completed.
Alejandro
🫶
obiwann
Shit… a house aligned with forsworn power… brotherhood power…. Mc at the head… add a power from the bounty hunter guild … (or that could be the persona Mc Takes on publicly) … that could be fcking epic!!!
obiwann
They want to believe in this new ally too. “Make us believe”. And the fact that he is head of a house that now has a core tenant of killing stygians perfectly aligns the brotherhood to him in perpetuity… or at least until the brotherhood or his house is no more. Whether or not they become allies… they are closely bonded now… and the rift sense alone for joining the forerunners would be something worth them joining for. We don’t know who killed the harbinger on this side of the rift… the brotherhood could have a newly minted powerful initiate of their own right now… only time and Tom will tell 😎
David Brewer
It's only because Michael has spent 8 chapters on the edge of a cliff.
obiwann
Tom this is absolutely awesome 👏.
David Brewer
Oh agreed. But this might be Michael's first time understanding that the Brotherhood has as much reason for paranoia. So hopefully it will coax some honesty. Hell, even just a tacit admission of his ability (his faction ability at that) to find a rift simply by entering a sector and a Pact with Kartara to not attempt to suborn her Brotherhood might be enough for a start though.
Alexander C Hyde
Great chapter. But they always seem to end in cliffhangers.
Seraquel
I hope so, I get why he's paranoid but hes gotta start building some alliances sometime!
David Brewer
Now the final test... is Michael willing to abandon his paranoia enough to win their trust?... stay tuned!
obiwann
❤️
Suraj Rodrigo
Tftc
