Chapter 239: Keeping the Dance Going

Travis rose the illusionary wind, arriving just behind Zodiac. He couldn’t see the old man’s expression, but from the color of his neck and ears, he expected it was pretty furious.

“I’ll save every one of you from him!” Travis picked up the necromancer’s words.

Vincent was pointing at Zodiac with a recently healed infected sobbing in relief beside him, and a norworm crushed under his foot. There was a circle of civilians around him, their attention directed towards Zodiac.

He looks kind of…heroic right now? Oh…son of a bitch, Travis thought, echoing Zodiac’s earlier shout as the details lined up.

The chaotic scene around them quieted at the necromancer’s words, every nerve focused on watching Zodiac’s reaction.

“So…” Zodiac said, his gnarled fist clenched into an iron knot.

“Someone finally figured it out!”

Confusion flashed across Vincent’s face for an instant, but no one except Travis was watching him. They were watching Lord Zodiac.

“Now that it’s come to this, I suppose the only thing left to do is to make sure there are no surviving hosts who know the truth!”

“What!?” Travis squawked as Zodiac flew up into the air, unleashing his telekinetic threads and tearing apart the nearby crystal buildings before flinging them at Vincent and the surrounding Climbers.

The seven flaming undead flashed into existence and batted the building-sized chunks of crystal aside, shielding the crowd from Zodiac’s sudden betrayal.

Some of the building chunks simply detonated as they got close to Vincent and the civilians he was protecting.

He’s…protecting them? What-

Explosions and flaming crystal filled Travis’s eyes and ears as the scene devolved into chaos.

What…what the Abyss is going on!? Travis thought a moment before he felt a gnarled hand grab him by the collar.

“Erk!” Travis grunted as his collar tightened on his neck and the two of them began to fly away at outrageous speeds.

Reminds me of getting dragged along by Will. Just another thing that reminds me of how I don’t have what it takes to be a Lord.

“C’mon kid, we’re getting the fuck outta here!” Zodiac shouted as they flew.

Travis managed to get his bearings just as a telekinetic thread wrapped around his torso and the speed increased further.

They sped away from Zodiac’s stronghold until it was a pinprick of light in the distance.

They dodged behind a distant island, Zodiac tore apart a monster, covered them with black constellation blood and then the two took a wildly different route, finally stopping for rest several hours later.

Zodiac collapsed against a crystal wall beside Travis, the two of them sharing a moment of silence as they caught their breath and organized their thoughts.

“What was that!?” Travis demanded once he caught his breath, pointing back at the distant pinprick of light with a shaking finger.

“Every dance requires two partners. Every play needs a villain.” Zodiac said with a shrug. “If he stole the role of hero, I have to be the bad guy for the audience, or else everything breaks down.”

Travis blinked. He didn’t get it. At all.

“The-what? Are you sick, old man? Did your brain just shit itself? This is bad, this is so godsdamned bad!” Travis said, his voice rising in pitch without his permission.

“True.” Zodiac mused, reaching into his vest coat pocket and pulling out some chew, offering a bit to Travis, which Travis firmly turned down.

“Then why the Abyss did you do that!?” Travis demanded before pulling himself slightly away from Zodiac. “Unless…Are you actually…”

“I’m not a norworm. Don’t be an idiot, boy. Despite your cleverness with illusions, you’re still inexperienced with politics. It’s true that it’s very, very bad,” Zodiac said, glancing up at Travis. “But it’s not as bad as it could’ve been. What would have been even worse is if I had accused Vincent of being the norworm.”

Travis blinked.

“Huh?”

“The Tower doesn’t care about the reasons why a murder might take place. It doesn’t have the capacity to understand context. That’s why it only takes action when the violations are egregious.”

“If I had denied Vincent’s claims and accused him of being the norworm, the Stronghold would split into those who believed me and those who didn’t. I may have had to kill dozens of my own settlers. That would’ve been plenty for the Tower to revoke my status as a Lord.”

“Because I took the role of the villain in the worm’s little act, there is no chance of a fracture between the Stronghold’s citizens. Every single soul is united with a single common purpose…”

Zodiac grinned at him.

“To find and kill the norworm.” He finished.

“Yeah, but…they got the wrong guy.”

“Sure, they have the wrong guy now, but the worm has to maintain his charade, because the moment he slips up, he’ll have the entire, undamaged stronghold aligned against him. He’s riding a tiger, looking for a way off.”

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“What if he infests all of their brains with worms!?” Travis demanded.

“They’ll betray him.” Zodiac said. “These worms are cold-blooded and logical. If he did that, they would scatter in every direction at the very least, if not try and kill him.

Zodiac tapped his skull.

“The Climbers whose skulls they’ll be stowing away in will know enough for them to understand that they’re on a time-limit until the other Lords arrive. They will also understand that if they diligently work to make Influence for him, he will spend it on a Door for himself and leave them to die. His children would have no choice but to betray him, while a human will continue working along in ignorance of the situation, believing that I’m the bad guy.”

“So by…pretending to be the bad guy…you saved a huge amount of people and locked the worm into playing the hero and protecting everyone, while you get to go off and do whatever you want?”

“Pretty much.” Zodiac said.

“That’s freakin’ brilliant!” Travis said.

“Yeah, it’s brilliant alright. Right up until he gets enough Influence to accomplish his goal, then goes ahead and kills everyone to act as a smokescreen for his escape. Like you said earlier. Not good. This was a desperate measure to keep the music playing a little longer. He thought he had checkmate, but it was just check.”

“You’re mixing your metaphors,” Travis said.

“Shaddap. I’m tired.” Zodiac muttered, glancing around the island they were taking shelter on. “Your illusions can keep watch, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

The ancient Lord grabbed a nearby slab of crystal, fluffed it a bit then put it under his head, closing his eyes.

That’s gotta be supremely uncomfortable.

“I never would’ve thought of you as someone who could sleep rough.” Travis said.

“Even I was a Climber once. I’ve slept rough plenty of times in my day. Best to get sleep now while we can.” Zodiac grumbled, turning away from Travis.

Yeah, he’s not wrong. Will took years to sort out the stronghold he took from Caddock. Vincent wouldn’t be able to organize the Climbers instantly. They had a bit of time. At least enough to catch a nap and refresh their minds.

Might as sleep while I can.

Mirage

70 Charges remaining.

Travis summoned an enormous down mattress and jumped into it with an audible ‘FOOF’.

“What the-“ Zodiac sat up and turned to look at Travis snuggling his way under the covers.

The old man’s eyes were wide and bloodshot as he stared at Travis from where he lay on the solid crystal.

“Oh, I’m sorry, you probably wanted some privacy.” Travis said, putting up a gaudy folding screen between the two of them by extending the bed illusion across a hair-thin thread.

“Kid.” Zodiac’s voice called from the other side of the thin paneling.