One of the biggest problems I have right now is that I'm a little... directionless. I have many disparate goals, and nothing stringing them together; that ans I'm just leaping for the first opportunity to complete whatever goal seems within my reach.
I need to save Rotar. To do that, I've decided I'll try to save Guard as well, a process which involves in Isthanok's politics and necessitates that I work on a counter to She-Who-Whispers's main skill — her Whisper. That's where my work with imbuent cos in. It's the whole reason I studied with Virin, and my growth in that departnt has helped in other areas, too.
Directly countering She-Who-Whispers by physically grabbing her Whisper, for example.
I might not need the Firmant sink anymore with this new application of Phaseslip, but it's clear from our last encounter that it won't be enough. It's not hard to avoid when she does it right in front of , but the strength of the skill is that she can do it from absurd distances, and she clearly has counterasures against people that can interact with her skill the way I did.
That and creating a better Firmant sink will help Miktik and the others. If I want them to help , I'm going to have to do that anyway.
"You sound like you have a plan," Bimar says. Her tone is still tinged with suspicion, but I just grin.
"Maybe."
Telling Whisper I was going to go to the Arena was a little less well thought out than it should have been — more of an impulsive plan with a half-finished end goal. It's the seeds of what I'll need, but I'm not being focused enough.
At the ti I was thinking I'd lead Whisper on sothing of a wild goose chase — to tell her I was there for the Arena, work on the Firmant sink with Thys and Thaht, and then show up at the Arena when I was good and ready — and use that mont to imply I was after a different target. One of those underground groups Rotar had ntioned that studied the Interface, for example.
That way, I can keep her off-balance. I can make sure she's looking for in the wrong places, trying to counter the wrong plans. If I play it right, she'll be trying to deal with a version of that doesn't even exist, not knowing that I know she can pass information back to herself.
The question I need to ask, though, is this: Is that good enough?
And the answer to that question is a resounding no. Not if I want to do everything I ca here to do. Fighting the Integrators, fighting Hestia's Trialgoers, learning more about the Interface and doing everything the Heart of Hestia asked to do — I have a laundry list of tasks, and that's not even touching on the Interface chat that's still been locked since the last ti I managed to speak to other humans.
Co to think of it, I wonder if my brief glimpse of what was going on with the rest of Earth's Trialgoers had anything to do with Gheraa. He seems plenty willing to manipulate details of the Trial to my advantage, even if it gets him into trouble.
...Which also makes it more of a priority that I extract him from the Integrators as soon as I can, because I doubt his deception is going to last much longer.
"I need to make Whisper work for ," I say out loud.
There's a long silence. Bimar is the first to speak. "What," she says, her voice deadpan. "You better not be thinking of working with he—"
"No," I say, shaking my head. "First of all, if I were, it'd be stupid to say it out loud here."
Bimar glares, evidently unconvinced.
"Second, it'd be hard to work with soone I don't trust," I say dryly. I give Bimar a pointed look — it's obviously how she feels about working with — and she has the grace to look a little bit embarrassed. I'm going to have to ask her what her deal is eventually, but given the way she keeps glancing at Tarin, I'm wondering if they have history.
Except Tarin doesn't seem to recognize her, so that can't be right.
"So what's your plan?" Bimar asks.
"If I'm going to have her chasing after , we need to work it into our plans," I say. "Both yours and mine, ideally. Is there anything we can make her go after that would help you guys out?"
That makes Bimar fall into a contemplative silence. Thys and Thaht look at each other, He-Who-Wanders whispers sothing to Vahrkos, and Miktik suddenly scampers off to her workbench to grab... sothing. It's clear they'll be thinking about this for a while, so I turn my attention to Tarin.
Rebels aside, there's one way I can play this in my favor and against the Integrators: I need to make sure the Hestian Trialgoers can't work together. As I understand it, any alliance they have is tenuous at best; a little bit of strain on that relationship can only benefit .
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Tarin's in a unique position here. He's the father of one of the Trialgoers, Naru; if Whisper knows this, and finds him fighting in the tournant that the new Trialgoer has expressed interest in...
Well, I have no doubt that it'll at least serve as the seed of so very tense conversations later on.
Naru's proven that he's going to be a problem if he shows up, and while he hasn't shown up in a while, Tarin and Mari's wayward son is still beyond as far as his physical prowess goes. I've got my own tricks up my sleeve at this point, but Whisper's skills are an almost perfect counter to Naru's — far more than my own.
Naru's a brawler. Whisper is a controller. Her skills render physical strength useless, unless you have the ntal fortitude to withstand the sensation of your own Firmant being torn apart and your skin being burnt to a crisp. Naru does not strike as an individual with that level of ntal fortitude.
"What do you think, Tarin?" I ask. The plan's contingent on his agreent. Whisper might not know that Tarin is Naru's father, but she will if we go ahead with this plan.
"It good plan," Tarin says approvingly. "Naru learn lesson."
That's... not the intent of the plan, exactly, but I suppose he's not wrong.
"We need a way to make Whisper suspicious of you," I say. "I'm thinking—"
"You not worry." Tarin gives a reassuring nod that sohow does nothing to reassure . He taps his beak with a wing. "I plan. You need Whisper think Naru sent , yes?"
"Well... yes."
"Okay. You watch. I make happen." Tarin taps his beak again. And then refuses to elaborate, no matter how much I try to get him to.
I sigh. Whatever his plan is, it can't be that bad.
A few hours later, I find myself — for once — seated among the audience in the Craven Arena.
It's only after a lot of discussion that we collectively decide it's best to do things this way. Hestia has enough species that co and go from the planet that a human won't be imdiately identified as the Trialgoer. Hestia may have been a hub planet even before the Integrators, but the Trial has made it that much more of one. Sothing about the Integration process apparently allows a much faster form of interplanetary travel.
Apparently, sothing about passing your Integration connects your planet more deeply to the Interface and allows a form of interplanetary travel. The crows and a few other species here are native to Hestia, but many others I've seen are not — Thys and Thaht, for example, are from a planet called Urukanis.
Which has dragons. The part of that's still a child almost wishes my Trial had taken place there instead.
Thys and Thaht are both seated next to , flanking in the spectator's stand. Miktik isn't here, because Whisper already knows she's associated with the Trialgoer, and we can't risk her becoming a target. Bimar, Vahrkos, and Wanders are all off making preparations of their own. Sothing about the plan they've co up with.
As far as I understand it, that plan is to instill distrust in Whisper's so-called inner council. Whisper doesn't really listen to others when it cos to the way she rules over Isthanok, but she does have individuals that she trusts enough to delegate tasks to. Her assassins, for example, are headed by a morphling nad Th'kar; comrce and trade are handled by a salamander-like creature nad Ueuiel; and scientific research on both the Interface and otherwise are led by a crow by the na of Kera.
The way Bimar ntions Kera's na tells there's sothing personal there. I wonder if that's the reason for her hostility, the reason she keeps looking at Tarin.
The nature of the loops, they tell , allow them to conduct riskier operations than they otherwise could. As long as any information they discover cos back to before the loop ends, it can be preserved into the next loop. We can make it look like her trusted advisors-slash-minions are leaking information, even if they're not.
They're putting a lot of trust in , in other words. Even Bimar, who's begrudgingly admitted that this is the best shot they've had against Whisper in years.
"You look nervous," Thys says, giving a friendly nudge. "Your first ti at the Arena?"
"Yeah," I say, giving him a weak smile. I can see through to what he's really asking — it's not like we can talk freely with Whisper listening in to everything. "Just worried I'm going to see soone get really hurt."
"Good that you care," Thaht grunts. "A lot of people don't. But for what it's worth, kid, everyone's already getting hurt. All the ti. It's just how things are under Whisper. You just don't usually see it."
"Kid? We're the sa age. And you're half my height."
"Don't mind him," his brother says. "He's just always wanted to use that line."
I smirk a bit at this, then turn my gaze back toward the Arena grounds.
The tournant is starting. Might as well get settled in.
According to Tarin, watching him is going to be good training. He's the first one coming out, and he's up against a silverwisp. The announcer blares out their nas, making wince a little, even as Thys cheers.
"First up: The Crack of Thunder versus the Scion of Combustion!"
In retrospect, I probably should've stopped Thys from pulling him aside and whispering to him. Now he might insist on calling him The Crack of Thunder even outside the Arena.
Then again... he fits right in with his opponent, doesn't he? I lean forward with sudden interest. Lightning courses along Tarin's feathers. Across him, on the other side of the Arena, a silverwisp stands tall.
And then, like a switch being flipped, the silverwisp blazes red, then orange, then white.
Fire.
It's not the physicality of the fight that interests , though.
It's the Firmant.
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