Jackal Among Snakes

The following days were an incredibly complex dance of interwoven plots. They prepared for Sophia’s business in the background as their machinations over the Great Chu began to take effect. Elenore decided to be bold with her isolation of the information leaks, and Argrave was more than willing to help her. Her boldness rested in the fact that she intended to both probe for leaks and carry out their plans simultaneously.

Elenore’s probes were quite sophisticated, yet they had the execution necessary to carry them out. She used Argrave as an instrument to subtly convey different courses of actions to each and all divine ally at their back. Each was different enough to be easily identifiable, yet not enough to arouse suspicion if shared among the others.

Argrave stood on the coast of the south Great Chu, another towering figure with him for a private meeting. “The bottom line is this—before we can assault the sky tower, we need to take the Palace of Heaven,” Argrave said, staring up at one of Law’s Justiciar’s. “And you… I want you to be prepared for a direct assault. It’s central.”

A robust agreement, a few more exchanged words… then the next god, Rook.

“The bottom line is this…” Argrave began identically as he spoke to Rook, who wore wholly black. “We need to take the Palace of Heaven. And you… I’ll need your subterfuge capability for that. It’s central.”

“The bottom line is this,” Argrave spoke next to Almazora, defending Vasquer from continental siege in Dirracha at the perfect center of the kingdom. “We’ll need your magic to take the Palace of Heaven.”

Next, he looked to the wizened Lira. “The bottom line, Lira, is that we’ll need your connections to take the Palace of Heaven.”

He came to the young blond boy that was Anneliese’s patron, speaking all too-familiar tones. “Bottom line, Yinther, we need to know the Palace of Heaven completely to take it.”

“Bottom line,” he began time and time again, for each and all god involved in his plans—even Hause, though her conversation was far removed from the others in light of her stay-at-home role.

after telling each and every deity of the Blackgard Union the ‘bottom line,’ Argrave told each god that they were central to his plans. Each and all conveyed the same message—that the Palace of Heaven was their goal—but each was simultaneously different enough that they

to make a habit of letting them

The remaining commanders that they had under sway were instructed to emerge from lockdown and take the armies on strike. It put them in an incredibly treacherous position, but nonetheless each and all obeyed without question. From there, Governor Zen

to enact a fabricated order from the imperial court. That order was simple; suspend pay for the rebelling soldiers, and refuse to transact gold or silver notes for them and all their family members. Debanking entire armies was an incredibly alarming and overt move for all soldiers in the army nationwide, and news spread

pay to the soldiers, claiming it came from their personal vaults. That was a suspicious move, granted, but in time Argrave

Grand Eunuch Hao dragging this regency on for extended periods of time. This brought no suspicion—his nephew, Ji Meng’s son, was ostensibly in line for

obtained; should you discover it on

first thing done was a thorough audit of the Grand Imperial Bank. To their credit, they did isolate Zen Ming as one of the troublemakers. Anticipating this, Governor

been hoping for

that the precious metal reserves of the Grand Imperial Bank had been discreetly recalled since the regency began, and that several branches of the banks in prominent cities didn’t even have half of the money necessary to cover withdrawals. The second was somewhat true—banks, by nature, seldom

went to the bank in a rush to withdraw what they had, or exchange notes for precious metal. The action of these few caught the attention of many, and paranoia bred like disease as people contemplated the possibility of the bank genuinely losing all of their money. If there was ever a line at the bank, after all, the prudent thing

receive more withdrawal requests than they had money on hand, and banks across the nation would become insolvent. To counter this, they decreed a nationwide freeze on non-government bank accounts within days. Despite the fact soldiers, as government accounts, could still withdraw money, the already-sown animosity between the army and the Grand Imperial Bank ignited fiery support for the army’s strike against

metal in reserve, and several prominent figures announced they’d be adding to the precious metal reserve from their own stores. But most prominently of all, they announced a successor: Ji Bu. His coronation was intended for a week later, whereupon the imperial court would step

Anneliese once again sat with Emperor Ji Meng for talk. They delivered to him the news of the past few days, alongside his

emperor repeated his son’s name, almost as though it sounded unfamiliar on his tongue. “He was always martially gifted. But emperor? I don’t think he’ll be any legitimate threat. It’s still the court behind him.

quell this madness that’s arisen in his absence. Recovering from a wound, and so relying