Nero Walker, Book 4 Ch.77 (308)

Standing at the table, Cathleen pointed to the memory being shown. “At this point, I’d estimate around 30% of our forces were out of the battle. Between the shield mages being overstressed, and our healers running out of center, the reappearance of Lord Walker and the arrival of the dwarves was well-timed. Now, I think I’ll turn the floor over to Knight Angelton for his analysis of the Kobalds who came through the portal, and how they’re different from the ones we’ve been fighting,” she finished tersely before retaking her seat.

Feeling the control of the display hologram transferring to Knight Angelton, Cathleen internally sighed in relief.

She’d never been much of a fan of debriefings like these. While she understood their importance, and could even accept the need for them, she still didn’t enjoy participating in them.

In the North, debriefings were done in a much less formal setting. Usually around a campfire or a hearth. And when about a battle, they were done in the field, with superiors given the opportunity to demonstrate their points with weapons in their hands. It was both more effective and logical than the way they did things here in the South.

Bringing forward Lady Verena’s active ping to the front of her mind, she said, “Alright, now what was it you were saying?”

Sounding somewhat impatient and annoyed, Vera Salvatore-Verena replied, “How can you, as an accomplished warrior and battle leader, not have the ability to maintain multiple conversations in tandem? How is that possible?”

Internally rolling her eyes, Cathleen replied, “I’m perfectly capable of managing multiple communication lines at once. What I’m not exceedingly skilled at is discussing multiple subjects while dealing with something else.”

Feeling Vera’s confusion over the link, Cathleen explained, “It’s an entirely different skill set. While you, as an administrator, may excel at having multiple conversations about multiple subjects, a warrior like me focuses on a singular subject. When I need to, I can coordinate multiple teams all working toward one goal… victory. As long as it’s about what I’m doing, my mind is perfectly capable of handling as many streams of thought as I need it to. But when you interrupt me in a debriefing to talk about politics, it disrupts my equilibrium and everything grinds to a halt.”

By the time she was done talking, Cathleen had felt herself becoming adversarial. She was sure she was projecting her anger over the link, and took a moment to recollect herself before asking, “Now, again, what was it you were trying to tell me?”

Feeling amused, Vera replied, “It’s about what you should expect when you leave the undercity.”

Replying quickly, Cathleen recalled, “Yes, you mentioned something about a demonstration or something?”

Vera replied, “Not so much a demonstration as a full-blown crowd event. As I’m sure you understand, when word was spread about the portal, people were eager to discover what happened. And as a result, when the memory engrams and posts Ms. Keening uploaded to the Thought Hub they spread through the city like a brushfire. And that was before the religious district and the hunters got involved.”

Cathleen asked, “Hunters? What are you talking about? And what about the religious district? I don’t understand. What do they have to do with anything?”

Vera replied, “Apparently, a respected scholar from the religious district’s Center made the connection between Lord Walker’s ‘self-actualization’ and the historical accounts of planar appearances by the gods of Acturous.”

It took a moment for Cathleen to recall the reference.

“Wait, you mean those planar lords that failed to preemptively attain godhood and started those cults in Acturous? That was like… over thousands of years ago, wasn’t it?” Cathleen asked in confusion.

Vera replied, “Yes, and those events are still responsible for almost all of our knowledge concerning the higher planes. Without those ‘gods’, we wouldn’t have been able to physically visit the higher planes. Or at least I don’t think we could. Who knows what some of the more advanced cities have gotten up to.”

Suddenly, Cathleen understood the problem. Records for the religious district were typically limited to historical accounts and descriptions. There are a lot of references to be found without the corresponding scientific knowledge which is restricted in the archives. It’s not uncommon to find references to advancements in the religious district that spark questions among the scientific community.

“Alright, but what are they thinking then? Are they interested in formally starting a religion for Lord Walker or something? Is that even legal? The cults broke apart on their own if I remember correctly. Or am I missing something?” Cathleen asked in confusion.

Vera replied, “No, not as such. Truthfully, at this point, I don’t think anyone knows what they want. They’re all just happy to be alive and out of danger. The coincidence merely helped spread the word about House Walker’s accomplishment. And as a result, half the hells be damned city is waiting for Lord Walker to make an appearance.”

Her face paling, Cathleen immediately began planning how to handle the complications they’d face upon their return to the city.

—--

After Archmage Jennings left the room, Nero had thought that the people on the other side of the table would have seized the opportunity to push whatever secret agendas they might have had.

He had been ready for it. In fact, he’d been just waiting for the opportunity to abuse his newfound mental prowess to dismantle their questions and expose their intentions while humiliating them.

Unfortunately, he never got the chance.

Instead of receiving cleverly worded implications couched in politeness, all he saw was them focusing on how the dwarves had fought and what it had been like to meet the Populators. If it hadn’t been for their serious expressions and controlled tones, he’d have thought they were fangirling.

But that hadn’t even been the weirdest thing about their questions. It had caught him completely off guard when they’d chosen to completely skip over the fact that he’d basically brought himself back from death by sheer willpower and awesomeness alone. Instead of making a big deal out of it, or even questioning it, they merely noted it in their files before quickly moving on. Even the mages that were present in the room hadn’t tried to push for an explanation.

Luckily, Nero’s increased ability to interpret events due to his new ‘big brain’ power had allowed him to speculate a few reasons for what was happening.

It wasn’t that they weren’t interested, or wanted to know how he did it. It was that none of the people present had any basis for understanding anything at all about what happened, or even exactly ‘what’ it was that he did. So, they had universally decided to take Archmage Jennings’ report at face value and move on. His resurrection was so outside of their experience that they felt decidedly uncomfortable even discussing it. They simply had no frame of reference from which to expand on.

Then, as if it had been some sort of retaliation over how preposterous what he’d done was, they’d begun focusing their questions intensely on the decisions Angelton and Cathleen had made after Nero had been ‘removed’ from the chain of command by the archmage… via what everyone agreed was a perfectly justifiable kidnapping.

“Why didn’t you return immediately?”

“How long did it take for your healers to see to the injured?”

“At this point, how were your supplies? And did that have any bearing on your decisions?”

After that, Nero had quickly lost interest in their discussions. It was like each of them was more interested in convincing everyone else in the room that they knew what they were doing than finding anything specific out. Even Cathleen and Angelton had gotten rather into the debate, seemingly treating the debrief as a roundtable discussion on the optimal use of resources after a difficult mission. It had been as if any hostility on the other side of the table had been completely forgotten, and everyone had instead begun to sound more like professors at a conference discussing resource allocations than a military tribunal.

Regardless, looking back on it, as far as Nero was concerned, nothing all that interesting happened after Jennings left. And the whole thing wrapped up with them dismissing House Walker with the ‘thanks of the Dorchester military’ for all that they had done for their great city.

On the way out of the room, Nero even overheard some quiet discussions on how they might be able to finagle the laws to allow for some military honors to be publicly handed out. They weren’t even hiding the fact that they were trying to make it clear to the public that the military had been deeply involved in the operation and had furthermore been instrumental in every aspect of House Walker’s success.

However, on the plus side, over the course of the debrief, Nero had been able to make more than a few trips to the buffett table to acquire more food for his personal space.

‘It’s astonishing what people will put up with for free food,’ Nero thought to himself.

But, now the pain was finally over, and they were finally free to return to the city.

Walking quickly to keep pace with Angelton, Nero asked, “Hey why were you two trying to ping me during the debrief? And then why did you both stop? For the record, I wasn’t ignoring you… I was just busy.”

As Nero asked his question, they were currently heading out of the front of the command building (which Nero still mentally refused to call the ‘command tent’). Meanwhile, Cathleen and a few of the team leaders had already gone off to collect the Wackos who’d been spreading out over the encampment, mingling with the soldiers. And while she was busy doing that, Angelton had not-so-subtly been put in charge of Nero wrangling. And although it would have been in character for Nero to have been pissed off by that, for some reason he instead just found it funny.

Sounding somewhat tired, Angelton replied, “While I can’t speak for Battle Leader Averett, I was trying to contact you in order to be able to warn you of any dangers.”

Mildly interested, Nero replied, “What dangers?”

As they both came to a stop in front of the tunnel they’d be using to reach the undercity’s main entrance, Angelton glanced down at Nero and replied, “Nothing specific.”

Seeing that Nero wasn’t willing to accept his vague response, Angelton continued, “Debriefings are common. Their format is universal. Whenever a troop returns from battle, a science team finishes a project, or even when a trade caravan returns, there are debriefings. From the bottom to the top of the chain of command, each level discusses their experiences with their superiors. It’s a universally recognized aid to leveling and an accepted way to increase performance over time.”

Nero was a little annoyed at the detailed but thoroughly uninteresting reply. “Uh-huh. So… dangers?”

Ignoring Nero’s tone, Angelton continued as if Nero hadn’t said anything. “Typically, people outside your direct chain of command are rarely included in these debriefings.”

Pausing, he turned to look down at Nero and asked, “Do you remember the debriefings you participated in after the battle for the tunnel on the mountain?”

Nero took a moment to think before replying, “Not really. I’m sure I talked to a few people about it, but I don’t remember who. And I don’t think it was very formal or anything like what we just went through.”

Nodding, Angelton said, “That’s understandable. A good debriefing feels more like a conversation. It’s important for a person to be able to objectively analyze their actions and understand how they could do better in similar situations in the future. The role superiors play in these debriefings is that of a mentor, or a guide.”

Looking over his shoulder at the command building, Angelton lowered his voice unconsciously, as if he didn’t want to be overheard. “What we just went through wasn’t a common debriefing. Right from the start, it was clear that the military was treating us as outsiders. Many people in the room shouldn’t have been there, and were clearly only interested in being on record as having been involved in our mission to close the portal.”

Nero shrugged, not nearly as surprised as Angelton likely expected him to be.

Slightly frowning at Nero’s attitude, Angelton continued, “My point is, right from the start, Battle Leader Averett and I knew something was wrong. We just didn’t know what. So, understandably, we were worried about what they might trick you into saying.”

Nero noted, “Aside from that one group of mages that tried to get me into a lab to study my portal manipulation, I didn’t see anyone being all that confrontational.”

Angelton instantly replied, “That was due to the archmage. His presence and quickly filed report made it clear he was backing you. Or rather, House Walker.”

Nero guessed, “So if it weren’t for him being there, that could have gone a lot differently?”

Angelton shrugged, “I have no idea. I can only speculate. Maybe they were just interested in making it look like the military was more involved than they were, or maybe they were looking for evidence of misappropriation of military resources, or instances of illegal noble involvement in the chain of command. Or maybe they really were just interested in debriefing us.”

Suddenly, Nero had a thought.

From what he knew, there were plenty of laws that ensured that the nobles couldn’t control the military directly. Sure, it would have been on a technicality, but it was entirely possible that House Walker could have been accused of ordering the encampment commanders around.

Seeing Nero’s expression, Angelton said, “You don’t have to worry. Overall, they treated the debrief as a standard interaction as if we were members of the military. There is no reason to suspect they have any intention of filing charges.”

Nero couldn’t help but be impressed by how easygoing Angelton seemed.

“You don’t feel annoyed at having to justify your decisions to those people? Not at all?” Nero asked.

Angelton replied with some confusion in his tone, “No… why? Should I? They are all commanders with decades of experience behind them. Any insight they chose to share would be for my benefit, not theirs. While the debrief could have gone another way, I’m actually glad to have had the opportunity to hear their opinions.”

Nero narrowed his eyes, “Yeah… that’s freakin’ weird.”

Turning his head to look down at Nero in confusion, Angelton replied, “Weird?”

Scoffing Nero replied, “Well, yeah. I mean it’s weird that you don’t care. Have some pride man! They were second-guessing every damned decision you made. How can that not piss you off?”

From behind him, Nero heard Blackwood speak up, “My lord, I think you might be misunderstanding something.”

Glancing over his shoulder at Blackwood, Nero raised his eyebrows in surprise. “When did you get here?” he asked, before looking around at the group of Wackos who’d been standing behind him.

Angelton turned around, raising his voice so that everyone could hear him. “Having your actions questioned isn’t a bad thing. A core principle of growth is reflection. When you are in a position of authority, it is your responsibility to help guide those below you into refining their thought processes so that they can achieve the maximum benefits of their experiences.”

Nero watched as everyone nodded in agreement, no one apparently disagreeing with what Angelton said.

Whether it was due to Nero’s newly empowered mental processing power, or just a result of his slowly advancing maturity, but Nero’s mind was chewing through the concept at a startling pace.

The very idea that people in positions of power were interested in ‘teaching’ their subordinates how to do their job better rather than discussing what they’d done wrong was difficult for him to process. Sure, he understood the ‘idea’, but he’d never actually considered it being put into practice. That simply wasn’t how the boss/subordinate dynamic worked… at least not in his experience.

Helpful conversations like what they were describing were supposed to happen behind closed doors, between a mentor and mentee, hidden from everyone so no one would get jealous. They were not supposed to happen in formal settings in front of people.

And when formalities are involved, and records are taken, someone is supposed to be getting fired.

Yet, when his mind was analyzing the concept, he found it completely logical.

Their entire society was based on leveling, and anything that benefited that goal would be given priority. It was counter to the ‘responsibility’ mindset that he was used to.

Back on Earth, success was rewarded with more work. The point of any job being to advance in the hierarchy until you screwed up enough that you weren’t able to go any higher. There was never any focus on ‘refining’ one's abilities or skills. That simply wasn’t worth the time it would take from an efficiency standpoint.

For a meeting to be called, there needed to be a reason. Someone screwed up, or there was a problem and they needed to get to the bottom of it so it wouldn’t happen again. Meetings like debriefings were originally created to streamline efficiency and assign responsibility. Over time, they were perverted into what he’d become used to.

They were now vehicles to assign blame and tear down competitors in the corporate advancement race. Whether it was in a board room or a donut shop, everyone wanted a promotion.

But here, in this society, there was another factor that influenced the social perception of meetings and advancement. Namely, levels.

Sure, it would be nice to move up the corporate ladder, but that wasn’t the driving force behind their employees. Primarily, employees wanted to advance ‘themselves’. They wanted to level.

Instead of being promoted to the level where you began to suck at your job and therefore could no longer BE promoted, people here stayed in their jobs until they mastered them. Their yearning for experience and growth demanded it. And while being promoted was great, there was a subtle expectation that newly promoted people would not be very good at their jobs.

Nero’s mind pieced all this together from context clues that he’d been ignoring since he’d arrived, his memory working overtime to provide him examples.

His mind was blown by the idea that their entire foundation and understanding of the workplace dynamic was completely opposite to what he was used to.

Being assigned blame for something here was… a good thing? An opportunity to learn something new and expand a person’s skillset?

With that in mind, he was looking over his recent experiences in the command building with seemingly new eyes. So many of the unspoken motivations were the same, but with this new information the entire dynamic had changed.

Muttering to himself, Nero said, “That’s so… logical. It’s obvious in a way that kinda pisses me off if I’m gonna be honest.”

Leaning forward, Blackwood asked, “I’m sorry, my lord. What did you say?”

Pulled out of his thoughts by Blackwood’s question, Nero looked up at him in surprise. “Huh? Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about how crazy you all are and got distracted.”

Confused, Blackwood nodded with an uncomfortable look on his face.

Angelton changed the subject by saying, “We’ll be moving out soon.” Raising his voice and taking on the tone of a commander, he added, “And when we get to the city, be sure to stay in the ranks. I don’t want to see anyone pulled into the crowd. Also, remember, no interviews or uploads to the Thought Hub without first running it by Ms. Keening. House Walker’s matters are not to be disseminated to the public without authorization.”

Seeing everyone nodding in agreement while promising their understanding, Nero frowned in confusion before asking, “What crowd?”

*Chapter 108 - 90% the same, 10% entirely different.

*Spoiler - You ever have that feeling where you receive one small piece of information and then understanding hits you in the face with a metaphorical brick?  Yeah, I'm sure you have.  It's crazy.  I love that feeling.  As a gift, I'll treat to you a little known fact that will blow your mind.  A well known historical figure (whom you can look up on your own if your interested) invented the electric chair for the express purpose of demonstrating how dangerous alternating current was.  He'd invested heavily in direct current, and didn't want to go bankrupt.