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?”

time comes.” Anneliese looked deep in concentration. In times like these, alone with her,

#####

Even then, her curiosity had been lit, and she bombarded Argrave with half a thousand questions on the walk

receive them. She’d just returned from a meal with a senator, and

news for you, and some that might be disastrous,” Melanie said after they exchanged greetings. They hung within the roofed alcove just out front Therapont’s estate, warded to prevent sound from leaking. “The good news is this—the dwarven senate seems to be having difficulty procuring one of the main ingredients of dwarven metal. 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

a rush of good fortune,” Anneliese nodded, then looked at Argrave pointedly. “And it might give us a point of attack upon which we can

to slip into joy as he asked, “But

Dario. From all I could learn, Dario quite literally brought the 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

orb, and had some strange attempts to replicate

Melanie said direly. “I’m sure you know… this is bad,

plainly. “A circle? It has lines, too.

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

gravity started to weigh on

enough of these I could recognize them. And back when we dealt with the Iron Giants, I made absolutely certain that every single one of these was destroyed utterly after we’d

your instructions to the letter. But

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 how Dario, alone, could rebuild the

has the cores,” Anneliese pointed out. Argrave was silenced by that, and Anneliese

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

information on to Elenore.

#####

introduced Anneliese to Therapont. Not much time remained until he returned to the senate to deliberate with the gathering about the alliance, and the dwarven senator took a vested interest in learning about her and his character that he might bring her ideas and character before the senate. It

finally begin the process of finding out where Gerechtigkeit has maligned the magma.” Argrave

away,” Therapont directed. “I will be your guide, though I must