Chapter 235: Useful Idiots

***Vincent Duncan***

Vincent was sitting in his ‘Stronghold’…such as it was. An ashen wasteland on the back of a snake the size of a continent, whose gravity was minsicule. The ash of his ‘settlers’ lay scattered around him, constellations infected with his offspring who had been forced into the minds of monsters.

They hadn’t survived long, but long enough to bypass the system’s sapience check on the qualifications to be a ‘settler’.

Vincent wasn’t concerned with them, however. He could always make more. He was more concerned with the disappointing ending of the previous engagement. He was replaying the short battle and the events leading up to it, carefully dissecting each action, each decision that had occurred.

“Aria.”

“Yes, master?” She asked.

“What did you say to me just before I decided to attack the Stronghold?” Vincent asked.

“Master, it appears that Zodiac is fleeing with his Stronghold.” Aria said, her hands shaking.

“It…appears.” Vincent said slowly, rolling the words around on his tongue. “It sure did appear that way, didn’t it?”

“Yes, master.” Aria said, her shoulders tense, face downcast.

Perhaps I’m reading too much into a single word, Vincent thought. But on the other hand…

“Aria, I know fae can’t lie, but can you? Given that you’re technically undead and all.”

“I cannot.” She replied.

Which would be a meaningless response if she could lie.

“Then, when you said that it ‘appears’ that Zodiac was fleeing with his stronghold…did you truly believe that collection of islands in the distance to be Zodiac’s stronghold, or were you merely stating the fact that it appeared to be?”

“The possibility of it being a decoy had occurred to me, but I did not think the odds were significant.”

‘the possibility had occurred’ is far too open to manipulation. If the possibility had occurred to her, and then she went and visually confirmed it, then even if she knew for certain one way or the other, she could still say the possibility had occurred to her without lying.

Out of the mouth of a fae, it meant she was lying without lying. And that meant she had allowed him to fall in the trap in the hopes of finding better employment in the hands of some other Climber.

“I see.” Vincent said, but didn’t press her any further. A cornered rat would bite, after all.

It seems as though I will have to find this set’s true desire in order to fully align its goals with my own.

Another interesting piece of information…Zodiac’s citizens don’t actually know why they’re hunting me. They don’t know what I am.

The reason he knew this: The bounty’s public announcement had made no mention of him hosting a Norworm. It had instead claimed he’d killed others and disrupted the wedding. While ‘Vincent’ had done this, ‘Void’ had not.

Zodiac deliberately withheld that information to prevent a panic.

And Zodiac knew Vincent couldn’t possibly be a Lord.

That opened up an avenue of attack that he’d be completely unprepared for.

When I was Mark, I did spend quite a bit of time getting to know the seedier elements living in the stronghold’s underworld. Vincent made a point of ingratiating himself with the underworld in every new location he lived.

He might one day need to have some illegal service done, or be smuggled out, or hop to a body that no one would question if they disappeared. It was always good to cultivate a relationship with the underworld.

In this case, that prudence was about to pay off.

“Do you know where the real Stronghold is?” Vincent asked.

“I do not.” Aria replied.

It could take years searching the endless void. Three-dimensional space was no joke when it came to the amount of places someone could hide.

He wouldn’t be able to find Zodiac’s stronghold without a little help. Thankfully, Vincent knew a handful of people who would do stupid shit for a bit of cash, whose critical thinking skills weren’t…that great.

***Larnell Smith***

NEW QUEST!

Signal reinforcements for Lord Zodiac. Light the port lighthouse and signal Steve the constellation snake.

REWARD: 50000 XP, 100 Ivory Ten-pieces

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Larnell froze in place, mid-roll. The dice slipped out of his hands, rolling a loss, but none of his companions were looking at the game anymore, either.

“You seeing what I’m seeing?” Larnell asked.

“We got…a quest?” Gibor mused.

Osten simply looked up at the port lighthouse looming above them only a block or so away.

The three men spent most of their afternoons when they weren’t working playing dice in the alleyways of the port, but they always kept their eyes open for an opportunity to lift some product from a merchant who wasn’t keeping his eyes open.

‘Dock tax’, they called it.

“Huh, I guess Zodiac called in some extra muscle to deal with…whatever’s gong on.” Larnell surmised, taking a puff of his pipe and pocketing the dice before the guys could see his roll.

Larnell and the boys just must be the closest ones to the dock lighthouse.

“You’d think Zodiac would know the Lighthouse is facing away from Steve right now.” Osten said, pointing under their feet.

With the way the islands were nested together, Steve was directly under their feet, and the port lighthouse couldn’t hope to signal anyone using him as a landmark.

“Hah, guess he’s not actually that smart.” Gibor said, amusement twinkling in his beady eyes.

“What a fuckin’ moron,” Larnell said.

The three men chuckled with malicious delight at their lord being proven less capable than his own dockworkers, who could easily see the flaw in the old man’s quest.

“Well, he’s gonna figure it out soon and send a different Quest to some people living on the bottom of Residential three, so I guess we’re shit outta luck.” Osten said, squatting back down to resume the game.

“Look, a hundred ten-pieces is a month’s pay for an island-hopper without having to do much. What if we took the lens and lamp out in a boat and signalled Steve from there?” Larnell asked.

Gibor and Osten glanced at each other.

“I…guess that might work. And it’s not like anyone’s at the lighthouse right now anyway.” Gibor said.