Chapter 342 - Secret Service

Chapter 342

Red Sands Desert, Archduchy of Rebirth

City of Rebirth

"Your grace, how-" Trira laughed as she dodged under the folder as it went flying out the door.

"Oh fuck no! Not you too!" Snarled Allya, before calling out into the hallway. Well, antichamber.

Now that she was an archduchess her previous setup just wouldn't do. She'd eventually caved in, especially when even Alexandra had started pushing for it. So now instead of a hallway leading to her office, now it was more like a fortified gauntlet of death with multiple antechambers, waiting rooms, and the reception with Camille.

The same was also happening with her manor, that was now well on its way to becoming an actual palace. They were even ditching some of the more prominent fortress elements since she controlled Erakis and Darthar. Besides which, it's not like she could compete with Alexandra's mesa fortress or remotely pretend she wouldn't go there if the town was under attack again.

That didn't mean internal security was any less tight however.

"Can you fetch that for me?" Said the archduchess, before smiling as Éclair picked up the folder and handed it in. "Thank you!"

She shooed the guard away, and sat back down, trying to ignore Trira laughing her ass off in the office, before her face smoothed out into seriousness as the door closed and the privacy enchantments triggered.

"Alright, you rang?" Said the assassin, and Allya nodded.

"Yeah. I've had an...interesting meeting with Alexandra."

Trira smiled knowingly, waggling her eyebrows, and Allya sputtered.

"Not that- she was wearing a military uniform! Sweet Gods, get your mind out of the gutter."

"Just saying, you two plot against your girlfriends a lot."

"It's called an equivalent response!"

"Uh huh. So, what happened?"

"She met me in a...military uniform."

Trira's eyebrow rose.

"Like Ghost?"

"No, actually. It was kind of like an admiral's uniform patterned after CQ's own. Like, if she was a ship captain, then Alexandra was a flag officer." Allya titled her head. "I looked almost...Erisian, actually." She shook her head. "Anyway, we met at my behest. We needed to lay the groundwork for something, which I'm now handing to you."

"And that thing is...?"

"We need a secret service. At the very least, we need some kind of counterintelligence arm. We just cannot afford a debacle like that trick Sunrise pulled again."

"I mean, my assassins having been acting as counter intelligence for a while, we're still keeping an eye on the guild for you for example. Even if we're having...trouble."

Allya grimaced. They knew, thanks to Orromar's warning, that the guild was up to something, but even with Alexandra's surveillance systems, finding out what was proving damned near impossible. Thanks to the centaur they knew to look out for it and had found a lot of evidence that something was brewing, but whoever was organizing it on the other side knew what they were doing, and her own side...did not.

"Which only reinforces the fact that we need a proper intelligence service. The kind that can expand beyond the sect."

"Ah. Want me to create a proper network?"

"Yes."

"Extending it to the army ain't gonna be easy."

"I know. But we need to start working on it in earnest. Build a true...agency, or whatever. Something solid that we can then expand."

"I'll admit I'd been looking at some options. But what do I get? I mean, funding, people, tech, authorizations?"

Allya leaned forward, resting her head on her intertwinned hands.

"Obviously, we can't use Alex's supertech. That means, ten percent of budget, whoever you can trust and steal from other organizations or, hell, our own people, everything Alex can officially make plus whatever you can buy, and carte blanche."

"Carte blanche? Just....a blank cheque? You know how dangerous that is."

Allya grimaced.

"Yeah, well we don't have a choice. We're already very lucky the UDC's little civil war is on pause for now." So much so that she was wondering if it had actually been started by the Order. It seemed...not ready to fully explode, like every other conflict they'd seemingly started had. In turn, it was starting to make some hope that cooler heads could prevail. Besides which, some on both sides appeared to be dragging their feet, as their gazes were set on Alexandra and how the army fared, waiting to see how her fight with the isolationists and their allies would go. "But we've already been caught unawares. We need a proper intelligence agency, and we needed it yesterday."

Trira nodded.

"Won't disagree with that. But you ain't getting it quickly."

"I know. Given the level of secrecy we're fighting against...better slow and careful, at least for the people we trust to give instructions to. But sources..."

"Money opens many doors. As do favors, but you've already exploited that." Trira tapped the desk with her index. "I think I have some ideas."

"Good."

"It's going to involve people in Sunrise."

"Well, they are corrupt."

"Money won't make them flip." Trira met Allya's gaze. "But one thing will make them sell their souls to us without blinking." Allya tensed up, and Trira smiled sadly. "Amnesty."

The archduchess let out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding.

"Of course." She said bitterly. "Because now they'll be desperate to get their heads out of the tiger's jaws."

"So that's a yes?"

"It's a 'fuck no'. We aren't going to...what did Alexandra say? 'Pull off a Paperclip or Clipboard'."

"What?"

"They're the names of operations that happened on Earth to recover scientists from it's two last world spanning wars. The former apparently enabled some kind of pioneering space agency, among many other things, the latter helped cure the bioweapons they made and build the orbital elevators that propelled the Terrans towards the stars." Allya shrugged at Trira's confused gaze. "We were talking about solving the slave brand issue by just grabbing the people who had made them. And possibly grabbing Sunrise's more magically gifted prisonners of war and handing them over to her to extract more...arcane oriented information from."

She very carefully didn't note that Alexandra was almost certainly already doing that...somehow. Because her arcane knowledge was increasing extremely quickly. Unless she was inventing it on her own, which was a terrifying possibility.

"Ah. So a 'no' then?"

"We're not going to give blanket pardons. Not the least because the people who would want them are probably those we want to nail to the board the most." The archduchess sighed. "I may...may, be amenable to some lesser degrees of forgiveness for some."

"Like?"

"Like swapping a death sentence for life in prison. Or maybe make some stays in cells more comfortable. We don't have to toss everyone in a dark, gloomy dungeon after all." Allya smiled. "Or feed them to Alexandra."

Trira shivered. Even actually knowing what had happened to the Void Blades -and Alexandra had not been kind to them- didn't immunize her from the rumors.

They ranged from the mercenaries having been executed to them being used to test all of the dungeon's weapons, being blown apart, dissected (or vivissected) and then resurrected to go again.

"Might be effective. But for many that won't be much of an incentive."

"Well it's what I'm willing to give them."

"You know, I always thought you were more..."

"Heartless?"

"I was going to say pragmatic." Trira shrugged under Allya's inquisitive gaze. "You were, after all, part of my sect."

"I did what I had to." Said the archduchess firmly. "And forgiving this kind of scum isn't strictly necessary. Besides which...if we start handing out amnesties like that, everything we've built will fall apart. People will question us, and our reputation of being some kind of avenging angel come to bring the Pyre to evildoes will crumble." Allya shook her head. "No, this simply isn't worth it."

"And if it was?"

Allya looked at the ceiling.

"...I don't know. I think I would. I think I might. But sometimes, ideals have to count for something. I'm done being an outlaw just trying to do whatever I need to to get by. I don't need anymore power." For that matter, her previous worries were simply...ridiculous, compared to what she was busy contemplating as Alexandra marched forward. What was the anger of an Erisian archduke compared to fighting the Custodians of the Flame? "What about you?"

Trira smiled.

"It would be a nice change of pace."

"Let's set our own tempo then." Allya brought her gaze back down. "Let's start by at least knowing what the enemy's beat is, alright?"

Trira nodded.

"I'll get started immediately."

"Good. And in the meantime, I'll be talking to our allies and vassals, see if I can convince them to share some of what they know to you." Allya shrugged. "I know, they already give us the summaries, but I want the base data. I want the pieces, not the whole picture."

"So we can build our own. Clever."

"Thanks, I do try."

"Do you think you'll convince Alexandra of doing that?"

The archduchess laughed.

"No way in hell!" There was trust and then there was trust. She knew Alexandra hid many things from her, but she also trusted the dungeon core because she was extremely upfrotn about that. Besides which, it's not like they could interpret a lot of the base data, and anyone seeing high tech recon reports would ask...questions. "But it's worth a shot for all the others. I'll keep you informed."

Trira nodded as she left the room, and Allya went back to her -thankfully vastly reduced now, thanks to Camille- paperwork.

The joys of being the second most powerful person in the Kingdom...

*****

"What is taking them so long? We should have been in pursuit already!" Spat out the Duchess as she paced in the command tent.

Mahikam, Marquis of Caliban, sighed.

"My aunt, please, there are...many considerations and logistical problems for such an endeavor."

He shivered as she rounded on him. He knew, beyond any reasonable doubt, that his aunt wouldn't harm him, and still her expression and gaze filled him with dread.

He, after all, had seen what was left of one of her maids after she was done with them.

"Considerations? Logistical problems? Or barebone cowardice?"

The Marquis winced.

"And managing that is part of my role. Believe it or not, my aunt, most of our nobles and soldiers do have a functionning self preservation instinct. Furthermore, none of them which to be caught unprepared when we catch up with that army once more."

The Duchess stared at him for a heart stopping few seconds, before finally looking away.

"And you believe the delay is worth it?"

"In terms of morale and readiness? Yes." He sighed. "In any case, any delays will be more than made up for by the fact that we will make better time in the scrublands...and they are a better terrain for our next engagement anyway."

"Yes, better terrain...I'm sure the UDC thought so too."

"A good point...if we not only had the UDC with us, nor were fighting a considerably weakened enemy, one whose golem army is...a third, a quarter of the size of what it was then? At best. And we have a considerable numerical advantage we were not yet able to bring to bear."

The Duchess relaxed a bit, mollified even a fraction.

"Those are good points nephew. Still, it depends on our allies being reliable! Had they not stabbed us in the back and run like whipped dogs, we would have won!"

The Marquis nodded. It wasn't...completely true, but to be fair it was mostly correct. It wouldn't have necessarily won them the battle but the center would not have broken so quickly and would have held on a little longer. And if the UDC had continued with their original plan...

Of course, that meant sacrificing, or at least risking, a dungeon core, however secondary. And the UDC would not be willing to do that, even to save their allies' skin. That went double for a rushed, half botched operation, especially when better, less costly opportunities would surely be available later.

"Perhaps, yes, but they did make that call, and they are...unreliable. We need to deal with it, and plan accordingly."

"You're right, of course. I just...fear what may be brought from the South."

The Marquis shifted as his eyebrow rose.

"Are you..." Falling prey to the rumors wasn't exactly tactful or safe to say, nephew or no. "Concerned about reinforcements?"

"I would be a madwoman if I didn't. This dungeon core, this...Crystal, has defied every expectation anyone has set for her. I would not put it past her to be preparing something. That is why time is of the essence. I thought that with every step south our people would take heart, and that would be to our advantage, as they were already half defeated in their own minds, thanks to the reputation."

"But the exact opposite is happening."

"Precisely. Every step south fills them with dread." The Duchess faced her nephew once more. "Get us moving. As quickly as you think is viable. We must catch this army."

"Yes, your Grace. It shall be done."