[TFW] Chapter 378 - Chekhov's First Round

Note :

I'm a bit worried about doing too much too quickly, but I need to get things rolling or that damned summit will finish at the end of the next book.

And I'm sure the chapter title is going to give many of you guys a heart attack, but no, it's not Cassisa.

Yet.

You'll see. It's at the end of the chapter. Something I set into motion alllll the way back in book 1 and is finally coming full circle.

Chapter 378

Red Sands Desert, Archduchy of Rebirth

City of Rebirth

"Anders is right." Said Allya to her assembled council, Pyn and Alexandra flanking her. It was weird to have...only the various people that ran Rebirth here, and not the duke of Sarth, their majesties or even just the count of Darthar. "The Sapphire Kingdom is the most likely culprit. Which is why we will say nothing."

Several of the councilors glanced at each other.

"Why?" Asked Willard. The nephew of the duke of Sarth still found the irony of having his original role of liaison between overlord and vassal reversed absolutely hilarious, but he had also been involving himself more and more in some of the more logistical aspects of running the archduchy, notably trying to figure out what it actually meant to have Sarth under Rebirth.

"First and foremost, because it won't give any information to the enemy for follow up strikes." Said Alexandra. They'd agreed to have her deliver this part. It was kind of ironic, having the dungeon core deliver Allya's words, and not the opposite. "But also because it may have been designed specifically so we would blame the Sapphire Kingdom and take rash action."

Or, you know, give them the needed support to prosecute a war, just like they had with the senate.

Man figuring that one out had taken a bite out of their certainty. They'd never even realized that's what was happening on the other side. They knew so much, and yet so little...

"Our first priority is securing the summit." Said Allya. "And then getting some idea of what is happening in Sapphire. They have every reason to want to disrupt this event, and we need to know what they are planning. They are, in effect, the last remaining hostile nation on the entire continent." Even Gorromar, mighty Gorromar, was remarkably friendly with them, even though they knew they were about to be grabbed by the economic nethers. She was baiting them with a big carrot called 'upgrading Rebirth and rebuilding the Asarian Kingdom with your tech and industry'. "That means that you're going to be doing overtime Trira."

Her former assassin sect leader grimaced.

"Not that I'm complaining about the challenge, but this stuff is tricky. Not to mention, this isn't really what I specialize in."

"I know. But your previous precautions have already paid off. Without your training, the guards intercepted the assassin before they could penetrate through the perimeter, and then managed to stop them." A little exageration, but not by that much. The golems had born the brunt of the assault, but without the living guards adding their weight in, Anders would be dead. "But you're right. We're going to need backup." She gestured at a golem, that stepped forward, a hologram flickering to life around it, forming into the avatar of a young woman. "This is Glitch. From this day forward, she'll be Trira's right hand, and a member of this council."

There was a short silence, then Ellyana laughed.

"It's about time we stopped pretending." She said, as everyone looked at her.

No on answered anything to that. Not even Allya.

After all, she was right.

This was the first 'official' seat dedicated to the dungeon core's people, and not just standing in for Alexandra.

In a single sentence, she'd overturned...Gods, she didn't even know how many centuries of precedent.

She'd just proclaimed that Alexandra wasn't just here as a courtesy as an ally.

Alexandra was now part of her government.

*****

Alexandra sighed as she set down her prototype. Well, for some definition of 'prototype', it was just a steel spike.

Kaliver was as comfortable as possible, and thoroughly distracted. She'd been cooped up in Laria's dungeon for a long time, and while she, like Emilia, had brought her own collection of books, she'd eventually run out.

So her niece was now showing her the library the university of New Raleigh was busy building.

Of course, they were doing so under heavy guard.

The other advisors should trickle in over the course of the next few days. Couple of weeks, if there were delays. The last few ones would probably arrive as the summit got underway. Most of the delegates hadn't arrived yet, but the Kingdom's was due within the day, and the Hegemony's and Far Reach were supposed to arrive almost simultaneously. Which was a statement of its own.

Both were remarkably close, though whether that would remain once the senate was gone was an open question. That wouldn't matter for the summit however. Whichever way one jumped, the other would follow, even if more cautiously.

Furthermore, they could negotiate as a semi-unified block, and demand more concessions. Which might be...complicated. Especially if they tried to ask concessions of the New Republic. That wouldn't go over well.

Coledar's order to abandon the fortresses and allow the Far Reach's troops in would buy some goodwill on that front, but if they took it as a license to continue raiding or demand the entire area as part of their domain, it was going to go wrong very quickly.

Though, the mountain clans were the least likely to do that. They had zero ambition for territorial expansion, and besides which, they weren't exactly keen on living in the 'lowlands'.

The Hegemony was the one that worried her. So far the Hegemon had held back from things going into a full scale war, but there had been an attempt to kill her seemingly tailored to provoke a territorial expansion, which would drag both the New Republic and Rebirth into the fight.

Swearing loyalty to Allya would already be a huge blow to Amelia's prestige and legitimacy. Giving territory to what most saw as an enemy nation would be catastrophic.

Thankfully, Allya had the big carrot of being able to absorb and finance the Hegemony's ruinously expansive military buildup.

The newly born Empire would need an army after all.

Gods this was going to be a mess. It could go so right and yet so wrong.

She leaned back, and looked at the spike on the table, before pulling out the schematics, and testing the point.

She hissed and drew her hand back. Ow, okay, sharp enough. She went into the schematics and cancelled the even sharper versions, and approved the current one for more thorough testing.

Damn. It felt weird doing something as simple as designing a spike trap. Doubly so when it was to replace her old one.

With the fabricators starting to crank out most of the dungeon's day to day items, she'd asked Seraph to rationalize everything they could. If something was already in place, could it be done more cheaply? More efficiently? One of the first items had been the stone spike traps, the ones she'd had since forever. They required her powers to make. She was basically handling it subconsciously at this point, having a subroutine just sweep and repair all the traps every three hours. But they could be made of metal, and not only would it free up some fraction of her processing power, it would also be cheaper. With her foundries and forges, she could make, and repair, metal spikes with extreme ease.

That was just one of the many items. Most of the workarounds she'd used early on weren't necessary anymore. They were historical curiosities at best, small but cumulative inefficiencies at worst. Like those light sconces she used, with the silicon dust within to shred the lungs of anyone trying to steal them. She didn't need them anymore, she could just wire some energy and have a basic illumination bauble, not worth stealing in the slightest.

It was...sad, in a way. The passing of an age. The replacement of the old with the new. Both on her side and the others. The old Republic was about to die, the Senate on its last legs, the summit would most likely be the final blow to that crumbling edifice. Sunrise was gone, reduced to ashes.

Most of her old enemies were gone. New terrors rose from the deep now. The UDC, the Eris Empire...

The Church.

How many has she already killed? She'd lost count.

How many more would she slay?

Did she even care?

Should she?

She realized her hands were shaking, and she took in a deep breath, steadying them.

Thankfully, she didn't have to ask these questions alone anymore.

She closed the schematics in her interface, and checked Emilia's location.

It was a time for a break.

*****

"Thank you for receiving me, your grace." Said the royal magistrate, softly, as Allya shook his hand.

"It's the least I can do." She gestured at the city arrayed below the docking tower. "Welcome to Rebirth."

The magistrate nodded, and stepped to the edge of the platform. It had railings, and more esotheric safety systems besides, but one of his bodyguards -Allya idly noted that it was a former guard of Darthar, and not a royal knight- stepped besides him anyway, just in case.

"Thank you. It..." He chuckled. "Is it odd, that I feel a strange sense of pride and paternality finally seeing it with my own eyes, and gazing at how far it has come?"

"Not at all. You helped bring it into being. You and Elkaryos."

"Well, I suppose that's fair. Though I think I might have contributed a bit more."

Allya jumped at the new voice, and whirled around to watch as Elkaryos Rapier stepped out of the ship and onto the docks.

The golems reacted immediately to her distress, and the dark elf suddenly had two dozen weapons pointed on him.

"My apologies." Said the master merchant, as he raised his hands. "I probably should have called ahead, but I wanted to see your face."

Allya stared at the man who had enabled Rebirth to come into being, thanks to his financing and connections. She gestured, and the golems lowered their weapons.

She noted that the more biological guards hadn't imitated the golems, and instead formed an outer perimeter, looking out for other possible threats while the golems handled the immediate one.

"Hello Elkaryos. It's been a while." She extended her hand, and the dark elf walked forward to take it, only hesitating slightly as the golems' heads tracked him with unnatural smoothness.

Actually, not just him. His butler -Jeremy, if she remembered correctly- stepped out behind his master, and if there was any doubt as to his quality as a bodyguard, he almost immediately angled himself to be able to tackle Elkaryos off of the platform.

Bold. But then again, Alexandra had done a similar thing once. Her ribs ached at the memory.

"It has."

"Why have you come?" She flicked a glance at the royal magistrate, but he was leaning against the railing, giving them space, and elevating his bodyguard's blood pressure. "I assume to attend the summit?"

It wasn't a question if he knew about it. He was wired six ways to sunday into Rebirth's economy and security apparatus. Plus the magistrate was clearly in the know of the why, since they'd travelled on the same vessel, which was highly unlikely to be a coincidence.

"Well, partially to visit. See how Melia's doing. The summit is also a big reason, don't get me wrong. But no." He put a hand under his waistcoat, and pulled out a set of letters. "I came as a messenger, for something I set into motion a while ago."

Allya's eyebrow rose.

"Truly? That is somewhat overkill. This could have been..." Don't say an email. They wouldn't understand that. She barely did understand it, but Alexandra's idioms were infectious, damn her. "A call over your magic mirror."

"Perhaps. But then again, perhaps not." He extended the letters, and cleared his throat. "Archduchess Allya Nouvelle-Aurore, suzerain of the archduchy of Rebirth. You, as well as your spouse and consort, Pyn Nouvelle-Aurore, have been extended an invitation to join the Merchants' Guild by the Grand Merchant, Sseth Tzeench of the house of Tach. Do you accept?"