II-15 Deception

Rejoice when you are faced with a target that is arrogant or spends far too much time in their own mind. These are easy prey, for if you occupy their attention with something obvious, they will become utterly consumed by what is before them and miss your machinations entirely.

But the bait you prepare is essential in these situations. Hastily prepared lies can backfire on you when dealing with an obsessive thinking, as they will examine things from every angle—and notice inconsistencies or points of illogic.

Hence, give them a good story. Refine it. Give them tangible, hard evidence that will occupy their attention. And then, when their focus is drawn, shape the conditions for the next phase of the operation.

Success builds on success, after all.

-Manipulation and Other Weapons (Essential Reading for Agents of Aviary)

II-15

Deception

Name: Tanner “Shiv” Lowe

Age: 18

Race: Human

Path: 

Deathless

Feats [1/1]:

He Who Rises From Ash Eternal (Unique) - Allows the Pathbearer to quickly learn new Skills and advance existing Skills through repeated deaths.

Reserve

Master of Rage (Master) - Allows the Pathbearer to infuse a skill with rage to increase its effectiveness. Consumes the Pathbearer’s anger.

Skills:

Knife Proficiency 38 (Common) 

Grappling Proficiency 50 (Common)

Stealth 32 (Common)

Marksmanship 11 (Common)

Baking 9 (Common)

Striking Proficiency 28 (Common)

Barter 10 (Common)

Alchemy 2 (Common)

Engineering 1 (Common)
Lance Proficiency 1 (Common)

Acting 11 (Common)

Pyromancy 9 (Advanced)

Spear Proficiency 10 (Advanced)

Parry 41 (Advanced)

Disease Resistance 8 (Advanced)
Awareness 10 (Advanced)

Practical Metabiology 13 (Advanced)

Psychomancy 8 (Advanced) 

Silver Tongue 5 (Adept)
Evolution: 94 Might of Mass (Adept)
Foreshadowing 23 (Adept)

Dread Aura 61 (Adept)

Momentum Core 74 (Master)

Adamantine Adaption 106 (Master)

Woundeater 52 (Master)

The Chef Unwavering 51 (Master)

Vitality Drain 18 (Legendary)

Revenant 10 (Unique)

Blessings: 

Song of the Vigilant - Allows the Pathbearer to maintain absolute focus while the song is active. The song will expand out from the Pathbearer as a web and form a Resonant Perimeter.

Curses:

Favored Archenemy - An orc will always be able to sense your presence, regardless of guise or appearance. An orc will always have a sense for where you are. Regardless of dimension, world, distance, or time, you are marked for an eternal war.

Shiv finished re-examining his own status as he waited for the Gate Lord to arrive. Oldsmith’s somewhat repaired office was quiet at that moment, aside from the ticking of a clock and the presence of four Pathbearers standing around a corpse. One of Shiv’s corpses. 

Then, Shiv let out an exaggerated breath and loudly proclaimed the pride he had for his own growth. “Yeah, you know what, Heather? I don’t think I’ve done too badly for myself. I mean, I might not have gone to a nice academy or even had any actual parents, but achieving four Master-Tier Skills in around two or so weeks is respectable growth, right?”

“Stop, please,” Heather moaned. She was finally wearing the Shroud of Unyielding Jade at Shiv’s insistence, and her face was turning as green as the armor. And also because she needed a change of appearance after her poorly-thought out escape. “Shiv, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for abandoning you—after you saved us. I’m sorry we tried to escape without you. I’m sorry I was such a bitch to you for all those years. I’m sorry about my existence. Stop telling me about your skills. I’m—I want to throw up.”

Shiv nodded, and his Perfect Semblance gave off a series of mechanical noises. That was the annoying thing about pretending to be a bot. Even a humanoid bot. Most organics moved differently from machines, and the way Shiv moved meant his illusory joints and limbs whined every few seconds. Most automata were capable of holding perfectly still. Perfectly. Shiv didn’t have that kind of stillness, mainly because he still needed to breathe every now and again.

I might be able to hold my breath for a long time, though, with my current Physicality. But I’ll probably just forget and start breathing again. I’ll just pretend I got badly damaged. Because I technically did. Secretary Mira will attest to that. She doesn’t actually know about what’s going on either, so it’ll add to the lie.

“Still, Shiv. Two feats. Four Master Skills.” Tran shook his head in utter disbelief. “This is beyond monstrous. Even a genius takes… years? Decades to get to Master. Most people get stuck at Adept. I’ve been an Adept for ten years.”

“Ten?” Shiv breathed, blinking. “Really? You have?”

Tran looked borderline offended. Then, the lingering terror imprinted upon by Shiv’s violence, rage, and power over the past two days reasserted itself. “What you’re doing isn’t really normal. And I mean that about more than the part where you can come back from the dead. Your skill growth is terrifying. And the way you casually mutilate your own body for parts is… Shiv, are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah. Like I said, Tran, the Orcish Skill has been fused. I don’t feel the rage anymore.”

Tran winced. “No, not that. Are you traumatized at all? Does dying and getting hurt not bother you?”

Shiv was very tired of having this same conversation with a bunch of different people. “Tran. If getting killed and hurt spiked your skills really fast, would you do it?”

“I… maybe?” Tran said, sounding genuinely uncertain. “That’s just the thing, Shiv. Even if I did have your ability to resurrect, I don’t think I would come out of dying just fine. I don’t think I would casually open my own throat or… or use my bones for armor.” The Slayer looked at the corpse and the back at the actual Shiv—still alive and in disguise. “This doesn’t bother you at all? Just using your bodies?”

“No,” Shiv said, flatly and certainly. “I get stuff from the bodies. They’re pretty useful for a variety of things, and I didn’t grow up being wasteful. A wasteful street rat was a dead one. But you know that about me. Better than most.”

Tran bit his lip. The Slayer felt bad about trying to flee and leaving Shiv in that penthouse to work out his issues alone. On a logical level, Shiv could kind of get it. He was rapidly devolving into a violent rage monster that neither of the Slayers could stop. His last interaction with Tran before he exiled himself to the kitchen danced on the borders of violence. Pair that with all of them being petrified by his very presence, and yeah, he could see why they took that chance to run.

Not so rationally, they were all cowardly rat bastards, and he would never let them forget that. Shiv eyed the sword that was currently hanging from Tran’s hip. “Hey, Tran?”

“Yeah,” Tran said, nervously.

“Tell me again why you left the sword and why Heather left the armor when you guys tried to run earlier. I want to laugh again.”

Tran looked like he wanted to run himself through with the sword. Heather looked like she wanted to wrestle the sword away from him and do herself in first. “Shiv, come on, man,” Tran said.

“Tran. I want to laugh.” Shiv’s declaration was final.

The Slayer gave a miserable sigh. “We were afraid that since you thought those items were valuable, there might’ve been a chance of you coming after us at some point if we took them with us. Out of revenge.”

“We… also felt bad,” Heather added, trying to make them more sympathetic.

Shiv laughed. It was the fakest laugh in the world. It was so fake that Shiv was briefly worried the system might take away one of his Acting levels in retribution for the anti-skill he just performed. “Ah. Classic. Another great bit in our relationship. Right next to you spying on me for Roland Arrow. And right after I rescued you two from torture and healed all your wounds!” Shiv laughed harder.

Siggy, who was assigned to guard the door, started laughing with him out of raw sycophancy. Poor idiot didn’t know he was doing this sarcastically.

“I’m sorry,” Tran croaked. The man’s expression was one of pure self-loathing and regret. And being able to do that to him and Heather brought Shiv no small amount of joy.

“But that’s okay, Tran,” Shiv sighed. “I forgive you. You more than Heather because it was her idea. But I forgive you both because I am so strong. Because that’s just what Master Pathbearers do. Real Masters. The ones with four Master-Tier Skills and two Feats.” As Shiv watched both Heather, Tran, and even Siggy shudder in absolute disgust over his progress and might, he chuckled genuinely this time.

Ah. I’m still pissed at them, but this feels pretty fun.

“But… you can’t slot the second Feat yet, right?” Siggy said.

“Oh, right,” Shiv said, remembering that he wanted to ask someone that question earlier. “How the hells does someone get another Feat Slot?”

“Five,” Heather breathed. It sounded like every breath she took caused her pain. “Five Master-Tier Skills. Or two Heroic.”

“One Legendary-Tier can work too,” Tran added.

“Oh,” Shiv said, developing a beaming smile as he looked at his Might of Mass. “Well. Ask me again in about a week or less, Siggy. If you’re still alive by then, I might just have two functional Feats.”

“Absolute monster,” Heather choked.

“Right. And never forget it, Heather.” Shiv grinned. Then, the smile vanished from his face as he felt a powerful presence enter the building. A second Biomancy field crashed against his own mana. It was larger than his by a bit, and the nature of the other field felt a little different—like it was more layered than his was, but also weaker on some level. And then Shiv sensed an armored presence entering his Biomancy field. Shiv recognized it as the Gate Lord in an instant. 

No one else was that impermeable.

I wonder how long it would take me to crack his Magical Resistance with my Woundeaters. Guess I’ll have a chance to find out soon, if all goes well. He looked at the others in the office and rolled his shoulders. “Alright, Inquisitors. Gate Lord is on the way up. And he’s got… maybe eight other people with him. One Master Biomancer as well. I expect they’ll have a Psychomancer too, but I’ll keep an eye on them. It won’t be wise for them to try to scan the mind of an Inquisitor regardless. That’ll bring trouble.”

Neither Heather nor Tran looked overly pleased to play the part of the ones who were torturing them earlier, but they put up with it. Especially since their failed attempt at an escape got them demoted from co-conspirators to minions. Now, the only person beneath them on the totem pole was Siggy, who assumed the vaunted position of expendable henchmen.

Speaking of which… “Siggy,” Shiv said. The goblin Pathbearer nearly leaped out of her skin. “Go tell Mira to get ready. And make sure she doesn’t snort anymore of that stuff. It’s bad for her. I felt it in her blood when I came in. We can’t be greeting the Gate Lord with a drugged out secretary.”

Siggy nodded vigorously. “Yeah, sure, boss. She’s just stressed out because… you know.”

“Because she was one of the many people I threatened with violence during my orc-tainted rampage?”

“Yeah.”

“I still kind of feel bad about that,” Shiv said. “I’ll leave her some money or something, I guess. Explain things to her if this whole thing works out. Just tell her to get ready and pretend she isn’t scared.” He grunted. “I still can’t believe there aren’t any other employees. I thought the reason why there weren't any people here was because of the lockdown I caused keeping them somewhere else. No, I guess this consulate is just running a skeleton crew.”

So much of a skeleton crew that Shiv found Mira still trapped in the same rebar binds he left her in after two whole days. Thankfully, even someone with Advanced Physicality could go a few days to a week without water. That didn’t mean it was healthy for her.

“Shiv,” Heather said. She looked a bit apprehensive, like she wasn’t sure about the question she was going to ask.

“Just spit it out,” Shiv replied.

Heather eyed Tran before she asked her question. “So. Well. I’m not saying it’ll go bad, but what if this thing goes bad? What if they actually have a Psychomancer, and they do try reaching into one of our minds? Or one of them has Foreshadowing too.”

Shiv had not considered that part. He probably should have, considering his experiences. The automaton assassin pretending to be a member of the Arachnae Order had the Foreshadowing Skill as well. From what Shiv understood, it wasn’t a very common skill for non-diviners to have, but Confriga probably had a Diviner with him. And probably a small army of other specialized Pathbearers to support him.

Hm. Shit. Such were Shiv’s sage thoughts after considering the problem. Maybe there were some larger holes in my plan than I thought. But that’s a risk anyway. I don’t think I can avoid a Diviner for very long—I just need a good opening. Maybe something to get this place’s exit gates back open and deal with the Animancy Core first. After that, I’ll focus on killing Confriga and his elites. That’ll be a larger issue. The Gate Lord is pretty damn tough, and Necromancy seems to set me off like a bomb and leave lingering wounds. And he hasn’t even used that sword of his. He already hits like a heavy-handed bastard without it, too…

What Shiv required was more information. Or a chance to catch the Gate Lord off guard. Maybe if he could hit the bastard when he was resting or without his armor, there was a better chance. Frankly, Shiv was even considering figuring out how to use the Animancy Core on the Gate Lord—but he didn’t have the first clue on how to do that either. No clue about Animancy, no clue about how this place worked, no clue about much at all, actually.

Confriga was now exiting the elevator. And there were about eight others with him. Shiv coughed. “Tran. Heather. You know I’m mostly making shit up as I go along, right?”

“I kind of got the feeling,” Heather replied, sounding more than a little worried. “I still think we should focus on escaping rather than fighting this Gate Lord. There are only three of us against…”

“Siggy, how many people does Confriga have?” Shiv asked.

The goblin blinked twice. “I—I don’t know, I was just a merc, man. They don’t tell me this.”

Shiv looked at Heather and nodded. “We don’t know. We’ll find out. One way, or another. And really, ‘we’ should focus on escaping? There’s a ‘we,’ now? And how’d it work out for you last time?”

“Last time, I was—I understand the mechanics of this dimension now. I can probably open it this time. I had to jump us out because the guards came for us. We weren’t strong enough to fight them. But you—”

“Will probably end up dead after running into a few groups of magi or a trained Master. I don’t have any magical resistance, guys. Physical damage I can probably soak all day. With the mask, I can probably ignore most mind mages beneath Master. But I’m sure Confriga has more than a few Biomancers under him. Enough to strain my field and pull me apart if some other Master doesn’t find a way to kill me once. When I die, I’ll lose my mask’s protection, and they’ll smash through my meager Psychomancy and make a vegetable of me.”

Shiv’s summation of events left Heather and Tran silent. “I might be making this stuff up and planning by instinct, but I’m stupid. Or delusional. Or desperate. I think you and Tran are the latter, Heather. I think you guys want out of here and take the chance to run the first opportunity you get. I want you to understand that I don’t think that’s possible until we deal with the Gate Lord somehow. This is the best play I can think of, and I don’t trust either of you anymore after what you did. Just stating this openly before whatever’s about to happen so you can get your head’s on straight.”

Shiv rolled his neck. Confriga was in the consulate, striding past Mira. At the speed the Gate Lord was going, he didn’t even stop to check in with the secretary. Or greet her.

What a dick, Shiv thought.

“But if things go wrong, just run,” Shiv said as a final statement. Heather and Tran looked at him. “You’re two traumatized Adepts who don’t want to be here, and my Momentum Core really doesn’t care about collateral damage.” Tran swallowed. Heather paled. “Yeah. That’s probably appropriate. Now, put on those helmets and try to be imposing. Who knows. This might just turn out and I hope.

A few seconds after Shiv finished saying those words, Lesser Marshal Confriga practically smashed through the front door with a small entourage in tow. Shiv found himself suppressing a smile. Eight other people with Confriga exactly—plus an automaton. Shiv’s Woundeater field covered practically the entire building and didn’t lack for detail when he focused. A pretty cool Master-Tier Evolution. Pretty good indeed.

“Where is he?” Confriga snarled. “Where is that vermin spy!”

“Gate Lord!” Shiv said, doing his best imitation of Oldsmith. The automaton was such a pompous prick in life that it wasn’t hard to get some of the traits down. “I am so very, very glad that you came!” He rose awkwardly from behind his chair and temporary desk, trying to sell the appearance of internal damage. “Can you imagine? After he dared to attack you, he stole a new identity and came after me! Why, if it weren’t for Pathbearer Siggy finally managing to escape from the assassin’s foul clutches and warn my personal bodyguards…” Shiv gestured to the disguised Tran and Heather. “I shudder to imagine the, uh, the—the disaster.”

Shit, I need to learn more words or something, Shiv thought internally. My rich jackass vocabulary isn’t large enough.

The Gate Lord ignored Shiv altogether and glared down at the corpse. A few seconds passed as Confriga just glared at the body with his single, black eye. Shiv noted that the Gate Lord had ivory-bright skulls planted against his radiant chestplate where three children once were once impaled. Thing is, these skulls were pretty small too…

Absolute disgust rushed through Shiv, and he fought to hide it. What is with this psycho and child-murder? Is killing kids part of his path? He studied the Gate Lord more carefully, and to his pleasure, noticed parts of the Heroic Pathbearer’s flesh were still burned as well. Looks like I wasn’t the only one that got a good licking.

The other eight flanking Confriga were of the same race as him as well—all single-eyed, vertical-mouthed, head-tentacled humanoids with varying tones to their… Shiv didn’t know if he would call it skin. It looked more like a shell in some ways. Most of them wore armor that were similar in design to Confriga’s, but theirs glowed far dimmer, being more like a sunset than a solar flare.

Shiv took in the entourage as well. Most of them seemed to have a uniform degree of Magical Resistance—which made Shiv realize they probably had enchantments on their armor instead of the actual skill. There were two Psychomancers, dedicated Pyro, a Biomancer who had a far wider and layered mana field compared to Shiv, two massive 811-sized bodyguards who each had two thick, corded whips hanging off their hips, a tentacle-headed demon with a prosthetic focus crystal lodged in place of their original eye, a six-armed automaton who was entirely torso aside from the limbs, and someone Shiv had seen before.

The last person was someone Shiv had encountered alongside Siggy when he escaped from the long-term storage building two days ago. He escaped in the guise of a mercenary Pathbearer fire mage, while she went down the way he came alongside a dedicated team of Pyromancer automatons. More than just that, he got a bit of Foreshadowing about her, showing that she had a personal vendetta against Confriga.

Considering she was brought along by the Gate Lord, Shiv suspected Confriga didn’t know anything about that.

Her armor was the dimmest of all the others, and Shiv noticed how she didn’t seem to carry any weapons. Still, something told him she was armed and more than ready for a fight.

As he studied her, she was glaring back at him. Her bright red eye gleamed ominously in contrast to her dark-pink skin. Something hardened inside Shiv as her gaze lingered. He could practically feel her gaze burning through him. A second later, her eye flashed once with a spark of mana. He knew she used her Analyze Skill.

Shit. She’s definitely suspicious already. Also, I need that Skill at some point.

After regarding him a moment longer, one of her head-tentacles twitched, and she began observing the corpse on the ground.

At the center of the room, Confriga stood over Shiv’s body. Shiv couldn’t read the expression of the Gate Lord very well, but the asshole’s body language came a rage-tremble people did when they were trying to keep themselves in check. Slowly, Confriga reached down and picked the body up by the face. Shiv applied a series of horrific wounds to the corpse—but mostly left the face spared. That way—

Confriga roared and tightened his hand. After a moment of struggle, Shiv saw channels of force surge through the Gate Lord’s clenching arm, and with a sickening noise, the corpse’s Diamond Shelled hardness succumbed. The head came apart. The skull lifted off like a lid from the pressure as everything inside came spraying out. A viscera jet hit Heather’s ankle.

And this was when the first major cracks in Shiv’s great deception began to show.

The disguised Jump Mage stared at the gore coating her leg, convulsed for a second, and then began a desperate struggle not to heave. Several of Confriga’s entourage eyed her with vague interest, and Shiv wanted to leap over the table to strangle. If he still had that Orcish Skill, he probably would have.

Godsdammit, Heather, Shiv thought. He needed to lure their attention away from the elite bodyguard who was bothered by a little gore.

“Yes, truly,” Shiv began, talking to Confriga even as the Gate Lord was focused on squeezing every bit of red out from inside the headless corpse like it was a length of toothpaste. “I felt like doing that as well, Great Hero Confriga. You truly have avenged us—”

The Gate Lord snarled and launched the ruined corpse at Shiv. The sudden explosion of violence took even Shiv by surprise as his old body crashed and folded against him. Diamond was hard, but adaptive adamantine was practically unbreakable in comparison. The already ruined corpse burst against Shiv, but he didn’t even stagger.

More accurately, he forgot to stagger. Oldsmith should have staggered—the poor bastard was only an Adept in terms of Physicality, and not even that when it came to Toughness. The difference in his true skills and the one’s used by his Perfect Semblance were so absurd that Confriga stopped mid-step to do a double-take, and several of the other demonic tentacle-headed bastards were staring as well. Especially the suspicious one that analyzed him earlier.

Shit, Shiv thought. His mind raced. A second crack had formed in his great deception. A suppressed groan sounded from the side, and Shiv saw Tran sliding down to clutch his right knee. A single step away, a large fragment of the corpse’s pelvis lay in a small puddle of blood. Shit, godsdammit, Tran! Tran got hit by a piece of shrapnel. From when the corpse broke against Shiv’s body. Using his Biomancy, Shiv sensed that Tran’s inner leg band-things were pretty sprained from the impact and starting to swell. Why didn’t you level your natural Toughness? Dammit!

Now, both his “bodyguards” looked like they were on the verge of collapse, “Oldsmith” looked like he was made out of adamantine while resembling an aluminum can, and the Gate Lord was swinging his one-eye between all three of them.

Shitshitshit!

“Ah, uh, yes! Good throw, Gate Lord! Truly, your strength is magnificent. You have completely dismantled the miserable cur! So much that even a-a-a… even a bot of my… bod… y model could withstand the impact.”

Confriga went back to staring at Shiv. His pitch-black eye narrowed slightly. “Did I give you permission to talk to me, Master-Advisor?”

“I—no?” Shiv said, not understanding what the Gate Lord was implying.

“Then why are you talking?” The Gate Lord growled.

Shiv didn’t understand what was happening. “To… offer you details? One must speak to do that, yes?”

The Gate Lord fell silent, but never stopped glaring. “Did you find a spine with this body, machine? This—this fake body you brought me.” And that was the third crack in Shiv’s plan. “I faced the assassin. I struck him twice, and it only moved him. He has Master-Tier Toughness. Not Adept. He also threw a fake body at me during our encounter! One like this! One that was easy to break and shatter!”

Confriga stormed forth with fists balled. Shiv choked back a sigh but rolled his arms as he felt a surge of an adrenaline rush through him. Well, I wasn’t good at this stealth and spy Aviary shit anyway. Alright, asshole, let’s pick up where we stopped last time. Best to see if I can kill most of your guys first, though…

Just as Shiv was preparing to kick the table into the Gate Lord to start the fight off, a voice came from the back of the room. “Lesser Marshal. Wait. Something is wrong!”

Gate Lord stopped just a step away from Shiv before both of them turned to face the speaker. It was, to Shiv’s immediate dissatisfaction, the damned pink-skinned, Foreshadowed one. Because of course it would be.

“There is no need, Guardshead Lue,” Confriga said, his tone sharp and sibilant. “I noticed the problems as well. I noticed that this machine is lying to us. Everything in this room is a lie! These are not bodyguards.” Confriga sneered at Heather and Tran. “No bodyguards worthy of you, Master-Advisor. But what was that you said to me before? That you were just a thinker? That your Physicality and Toughness have always been lacking due to your peaceful and diplomatic nature?”

The Gate Lord let out a vicious breath. “And yet, you remain unbroken. Unscathed. Even after I flung an Adept-Tier body at you. How curious. Is this not curious, Guardshead?

The female demon bowed slightly. “Indeed, Lesser Marshal. But I fear the situation may be even worse than we feared. For how would they have access to the spy’s body?”

“Unless he is right in front of me,” Confriga said.

The second time, Shiv prepared to hit the bastard first.

“That cannot be,” Guardshead Lue said.

The second time, Shiv stopped. Just what the hells is her game?

“Just what are you implying, Guardshead?” Confriga said, impatience seeping into his voice.

“I suspect the Republic is lying to us. But in a different way. This is not the Master-Advisor. That much is obvious. But he is no spy.” She added a scornful laugh to her remark. “Just look upon this scene. Think on it, Lesser Marshal. Would a trained agent of Aviary do any of this? This… this poorly thought out ruse? These bodyguards who are Adepts and no more. This singular body that is in such ruined condition, but whose wounds do not match what could be delivered by a Stellarite blade. And this imposter, who’s acting is so poor even a tadpole could see it.”

Shiv felt both offended and embarrassed by this point. This was his first and only time doing a spy thing, and it turned out a lot harder and more complicated than he expected. Worse, he didn’t even have reliable support. Now, he was getting mocked by some squid-head to serve system knows what end she was trying to achieve. 

But then he remembered she wanted to kill Confriga. And where inexperience failed him, his intuition picked up.

Okay. We’re not good at the whole planning thing yet. Time to go back to what works for me: Instinct and making more shit up as I do it.

“Godsdammit,” Shiv said, holding up his hands. He didn’t exactly know where he was going with this, but anything to confuse the squids more was a win in his book. “You got me. Fine. I’m not Master-Advisor Oldsmith.”

Confriga went still before turning to glare at him. “Then, who are you?”

“I… a body-double, dumbass.”

The insult made Confriga stomp forward. Shiv smashed his own table in half before the bastard could toss his out of the way. Splinters shattered and bounced off both of them. The Gate Lord towered over Shiv, but the Deathless just sneered. Compared to 811, this bastard was tiny.

“Insult me again,” Confriga growled.

“If you insist, asshole. But the Republic doesn’t pay me to talk shop to felling squids, so let’s start dealing in the truth, yeah?”

Silver Tongue > 6

“The truth?” Confriga said, his voice high with outraged disbelief. “That you are the spy?”

“He is not,” Guardshead Lue said. Confriga turned on her and she continued. “No spy of Aviary would allow this to happen. This one is…”

“I’m here to make sure the Master-Advisor stays alive, the Inquisition stays happy, and you stay ignorant. Well. So much for the last part.” Shiv was just going with what Lue was doing. She seemed to be making a way out for him, and right now he would take it. Not that he still didn’t have half-a-heart that wanted to finish his fight with Confriga right here, right now. But if a fight did start, he didn’t think he could keep Tran or Heather alive. Definitely not Siggy. Confriga was Heroic Pathbearer. Shiv guessed the others were all Masters.

This was going to end with more than a few deaths. A good portion of them are probably Shiv’s own.

“What is your game?” Confriga hissed at Shiv. “What is the point of this deception?”

Shiv thought about it for a moment. And decided to go for a modified version of the truth. “Because he was going for the core, you dipshit. He was trying to steal our core.”

And suddenly, something in Confriga’s posture changed. He took a step back, the air of hostility replaced by confusion, and… was that tension? “What? And how does he know?”

“Do you think I would know that? Why do you think the Inquisition had Master-Advisor pompous prick moved out and me put in? Because some Aviary face-taker was in the area and they needed a harder target. Someone that could actually put the bastard down.” Confriga wanted to keep talk, but Shiv spiked his Dread Aura. Cracking his aura against Confriga felt like running into a steel wall as a mortal, but even if Confriga wasn’t scared, he was briefly stunned. “And before you flap that ugly head of yours, no. We weren’t going to tell you. Because this is your fault.”

“My fault? My fault!” The Gate Lord snarled.

“Yeah. You let him in. You were supposed to keep this place secure. “But hey, considering how fast your security responded to his little brawl, I don’t know what I expected.”

“Silence!” The Gate Lord roared. “You will not demean me.”

“And you will stay out of the Republic’s way while we finish this thing out. You’ll take the body, tell the gate lockdown’s over, and you’ll give the core to me.”

“Impossible,” Confriga let out a laugh. “You… You have already greeted me with one flimsy deception? And you expect me to simply offer you my trust? My submission?” 

Shiv got the sense that he might end up in a fight with this guy anyway, no matter what he said.

And then, once again, Lue stepped in. “I have a solution, Lesser Marshal. The Republic has breached our trust and broken the contract. We are longer dealing with the Master-Advisor, but forces from the Inquisition itself. As such, this one is not protected. But we can still make use of him.”

Confriga’s rageful stare never left Shiv, but he replied to Lue all the same. “What do you have in mind, Guardshead?”

“Leave me with them. I will discuss the price of their infraction. They must pay twice for offending your honor. Yours. The Compact. And Lord Scorn. But now we also know what the agent wants: The core.”

The Gate Lord let out a growl. “Indeed. Wise, Guardshead. Who knows what we might obtain through interrogation.”

“Interrogation best handled by a colder, lesser heart,” Lue said. “You are righteous and offended, Lesser Marshal. You would be right to strike these deceivers dead, but I beg of you to grant me the pleasure of extracting results and delivering pain. They know more than they reveal—and I suspect since they have the agent’s body, they experienced an encounter but failed to slay or seize the true agent. And we all know how desperate Vicar Sullain is to finish his retributive war. Thus, this one must have come up with the plan to use a decoy they obtained from the assassin—like in similar circumstances to the one the assassin used on you, Lesser Marshal—to deceive us and bid us to open the path and hand off the core.”

She turned her glowing red eye on Shiv. “Tell me, double, do I speak true?”

Shiv regarded her for a moment. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to kill her first if a fight broke out or hug her for giving him a ladder out of this spy mess. He held up his hands. “You got me. Was it that obvious?”

Acting > 12

“The deception? Yes. But the other details are mostly guesswork.” Lue said. “I suspect you will have a good deal more to tell. Cooperate, and the penalty will only be financial.”

“Fine. The core’s the thing that matters. No expense spared.” Shiv chuckled bitterly, trying to sound like some of the veteran soldiers that ate at the Swan-Eating Toad. “What the top says, goes, right?”

Confriga considered the situation for a moment. “I will not forget what the Republic has done to me today. When the true Master-Advisor returns, tell him this consulate will be demolished. Your people may infest another gate than mine.”

“Yeah, looking forward to forgetting you soon too,” Shiv said.

“You—” Confriga whirled. But Lue was already head for Shiv, both arms clasped behind her back. The Gate Lord let out a vicious snort. “Make them understand their folly, Guardshead. That is an order.”

“It will be done, Lesser Marshal,” she said.

Confriga shot a final look at Shiv before twisting on his heels and commanding the rest of the group to follow. The Psychomancer stared at Siggy and called out to Lue. “Guardshead, should we—”

“I will see them delivered to you soon after, Truthseer Huvew. I wish to undercover what I can through gentler means first so that you can conduct your work with higher efficiency.”

The Psychomancer’s head-tentacles curled and he bowed. He left the door alongside Confriga and the rest of the entourage. Now. The only one of their number left was Lue, and Shiv wasn’t sure if he was out of the frying pan or into the fire. He kept an eye on the others in the meantime, using his Biomancy to track their progress. If Confriga wanted, he could probably tear through most of the building in an instant and get back to Shiv. The bastard had the temper for it, too.

Need to watch that one. Don’t want to get ambushed by someone that hits that hard. But first… what’s her deal.

Shiv folded his arms and regarded Lue. “So. How do you intend to extract results and deliver pain?”

She just stared at him. “I have a question first: Are you genuinely stupid or just incompetent?”

“What?”

“Because only a fool would believe the second story you made up on the spot. A fool like Confriga. Truly. A body-double. A conspiracy to combat a conspiracy?”

Shiv stared at her. “It… how do you know that’s not true?”

“Because the Inquisition would still make sure a proper body double is supplied by adequate guards.” She eyed Heather and Tran. “There are still many, many parts that don’t fit. And you are fortunate that I was here.”

“Right,” Shiv nodded, becoming annoyed with his condescension. “Listen, I’ll be honest with you if you’ll be honest with me.”

She laughed. “You assume you hold any position of power here. Why should I give you anything?”

“Just to satisfy my curiosity,” Shiv said. “I want to know: What does it feel like to work for someone who killed your brother in front of you?

Every last bit of confidence vanished from Lue. She staggered as if struck, and her eye widened. “I… you… how…”

“So. Can we be honest? Because I’m actually curious.”

Silver Tongue > 7