Jackal Among Snakes

“Here’s my plan, Anneliese.” He sat on their bed, while she laid down with her head atop his legs, watching the ceiling. They were growing numb, but the moment was too serene for him to mind. “I think the youth are the future.”

“That tends to be the way of things,” she answered back tiredly.

“I’m serious. The youth of Mundi going to be the key that we need to convince the senators to lend us aid in extracting the magma from Vysenn.”

Anneliese looked intrigued, and Argrave took that as his signal to continue.

“Where dwarves are shorter, their lives are a little longer. Living to one hundred isn’t uncommon, even without the aid of magic talent. Dwarven society greatly values philosophy, intelligence, experience, and wisdom. Having someone like Alexius, the current Head of Senate, be someone so young is quite the unusual circumstance. And by ‘so young,’ the guy is fifty years old.”

“Then it sounds like youth is quite the opposite of what we need to focus on,” Anneliese noted.

“I think you’ll change your mind soon enough.” Argrave ran his hand through her hair. “I’ll give you that the senate is mostly wizened elders. Most dwarves work until they die. But there’s a large consequence to their aged workforce. Namely, younger people have some difficulty in earning their place in this society. Anestis left Mundi searching for dwarven metal. I imagine if he had a steady job, none of this would’ve happened… but alas, he didn’t. And he’s not a lone wolf.”

Anneliese was starting to put the pieces together, he could tell, but Argrave kept going nonetheless.

“There’s a huge bulk of young dwarves who work at the very bottom rung of craftsman and artificer guilds in apprenticeships, earning the wisdom that their people value very slowly. And an even huger bulk have no work to do at all. The city of Mundi was meant to be populated over a long period of time. There are stretches of the city that are partially built and unclaimed, yet with things as they are the senate finds no need to expand when there’s no demand for land or food. There’s a lot of discontentment that we can use to get our way.”

Anneliese nodded, impressed. “So you intend to call upon this class of people to pressure the senate?”

“Just so,” Argrave nodded. “We have all of the variables for rapid political unity. We have a common enemy—Gerechtigkeit. We have a demographic that wants change—the youth of their society. And we have a foreign element bringing new ideas—us. With it, we can form a faction within their nation that can push for their help in Vysenn.” He tapped her nose. “The unfortunate tragedy of the scenario is that democracy is slow-moving. Say what you will about monarchies, but decisions can be made rapidly and enacted much the same. If you ignore all the bad stuff about dictatorships, they’re not bad.”

“In times like these, I am reminded of where you are from,” Anneliese mused. “But there is one key part of this that you neglect. You need another group that might operate in your stead. Even if by some miracle you manage to convince the dwarven youth that you are one of them, to the rest of the populace, you will be seen as what you are—a busybody, sticking your nose in politics where it does not belong. And this faction of yours would die.”

“There’s always a fly in the ointment.” Argrave peered into her eyes. “Got ideas?”

I will have them, when the time comes.” Anneliese looked deep in concentration. In

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been lit, and she bombarded Argrave with half a thousand questions on the walk to join up with Melanie and the Alchemist.

a senator, and when she heard the magma moat operating, elected to wait for them out front

Namely, spirits. That run I did, scrounging their contraptions that harvested them, turned out to be very beneficial indeed. I don’t think there’s any way they can make enough dwarven metal without relying on us, or fighting a god and extracting it of spirits on their lonesome.” She hefted her black blade. “They’re fresh

Argrave pointedly. “And it might give us a point of attack upon which we can

tried not to slip into joy as he asked, “But

little fellow back from the brink. Solved so many of his problems it’d take a scroll to write it out. Julius is the type that likes to return favors, much to Dario’s fortune. And to our misfortune, I think he’s done something that could be a problem.” She reached into her gauntlet, retrieved a slightly bent paper, and held it out to

On it… something was drawn. It was an orb, and had some strange attempts to replicate

in the basement,” Melanie said direly. “I’m sure you know… this

what this is,” Argrave confessed plainly. “A circle? It has lines, too. Am I supposed to

paper back. “Don’t joke with me. It’s obviously a golem’s core.” When Argrave exchanged a glance with Anneliese, Melanie defended, “Fine. Maybe it’s not the best. I was wearing gauntlets, damn it, and I couldn’t well steal the original

gravity started to weigh on him.

absolutely certain that every single one of these was destroyed utterly after we’d disassembled the things. As it turns out, Dario did take something from those ruins. Namely…

at once. “You followed your instructions to the letter. But

what it was, he could make some sense of it. He rambled idly, “Even if he’s crafted them, they would have to be powered. In the game, Gerechtigkeit’s essence was their power source. In lore, they were powered by lightning. Once powered… they could make golems, yeah. But I can’t see

been down here only recently. He might’ve built them earlier, and only now has the cores,” Anneliese pointed out. Argrave was silenced by that, and Anneliese slowly pulled the drawing from his hands.

terrorist to me.” Argrave paced around in worry, then remembered himself. “Good work, Melanie, finding

“With Dario absent, all we can do is send this information on to Elenore. Let us speak to Therapont, and see what autonomy we might have. We have to keep moving, no matter what this strange

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interest in learning about her and his character that he might bring her ideas and character before the senate. It would be some time until the grace period that Argrave had asked for would end, and it seemed the senate wanted to have conversations with the two

of finding out where Gerechtigkeit

directed. “I will be your guide, though I must