There are two sets of rules in the world of politics—and both of them have been codified by New Albion. You might have heard them before, but today, I'm going to explain them to you in detail because you've been trying too hard. You've been doing too much. You've been sticking out, like a tall poppy.

  I like you, girl. You do good work, and you actually care about this nation. It's more than I can say for most people. As such, I don't want to see you pointlessly dead. Or worse, disgraced.

  Now, you might be confused as to why you're so unpopular while elevating the lives of the people. That's what should be done, isn't it? That should be our primary goal. Except it's not. You are doing the objectively right thing, and that goes against Albion Rules, for the prime tenet of Albion Rules is: Cover Your Ass. Right now, you are not covering your ass. Right now, you are holding your head high and tempting people to make a play for your neck.

  To make things plain, you're embarrassing too many other people. You're making them seem incompetent. And that's the worst part. It's not that you're actively being useful; it's that you're making other people seem useless. You have to understand your position and privileges here. You are the beloved grandchild of an Ascendant; that makes you special, more so than all the others. They, however, are here to garner what power and influence they can. They represent Great Houses and influential families that have been with the Republic since the start. And you have to understand that there is no Republic without them. They have control over most of the critical industries. They have Pathbearers that decide and move major portions of our economy in production. Manufacturing is determined by three major households. If you offend them, just think about the things they can do.

  And as for the people... Well, the people are not a real concept, my dear. People hate each other. They don't even need to be given a reason. They are tribalistic and ballistic in temperament. They'll be happy if you bribe them, and frankly, we should try to make their lives better, but they are ultimately unreliable, reactive, and blind to their own needs. They will betray themselves. They have betrayed themselves many times. They will continue to betray themselves because they are owned by masters and benefactors. And they will turn on each other—and you—in an instant if it means the people they consider their 'kin' are rewarded.

  Remember: It’s my nation and I against the foreigner, my house and I against our rivals, my family and I against our neighbor, and ultimately, I against my family.

  This does not mean you should give up, but it does mean you have to be a player to make the proper changes. You have to avoid inspiring ire and deceive the greedy and foolish into playing along with you. You have to cultivate relationships to trick the self-interested and stupidly emotional into doing the right thing.

  This notion of national unity, of a unified people, is a higher ideal. One that you can grasp—but one that only stays alive because of our Faith, culture, and the Ascendants.

  It is also why we will begin another war with the Jotun in about a year’s time. A war I want you to spur the public to support.

  And now we move on to Ruslev Rules: Watch Your Back. As in, watch yourself and keep yourself alive. We are no longer playing for influence and avoiding responsibility. When faced with existential foes, we play to win, and we cull the non-performers. Like certain branches of the nobility, who have been protected by shared interests for far too long.

  Yes. That’s the look. You understand. It is immoral. But so is letting the fucking bastards drain our coffers and feed the cancer of national corruption. Every now and again, we have to engage in a bit of autophagy to cleanse the worst elements. So. Be subtle right now so that you can gain a chance to be cruel and effective later.

  The right thing to do as a leader of a nation is often at odds with the moral thing to do as a person. So, Veronica Chandler, can you kill your heart to preserve the Republic? Or will you be slain first and achieve little more than the enactment of a tragedy? It’s up to you.

  -Legend-Councilman Anthony de Diego to Master-Assemblywoman Veronica Chandler

  290 (I)

  Downtime [II]

  Faced with the terrifying presence of the Deathless, Null Mont responded like a willow caught in the grasp of a passing hurricane rather than a sentient being. Her entire body trembled. Her words came out in broken fragments of animalistic noise, as if her mind couldn't process whether to lie outright, to say nothing and hope silence would spare her if a most inglorious end, or to find a proper justification for her continued incompetence.

  The others in the room looked on. The Culturist's eyes gleamed as if he were expecting a butchery to unfold. Hymn yawned, but this time it was for show; he was watching carefully as well. Roland seemed uneasy, as if waiting for Shiv to do something violent; Rose, by contrast, stood with a wide grin on her face, yearning to see some blood.

  Finally, there was Adam, who looked impassive on the surface, but his gaze was intense enough to tell Shiv just how much anger there was underneath. The Gate Lord was furious. Shiv knew his friend well enough to practically smell the rage bubbling under his facade of pleasantness. It wasn't just the fact that Null Mont had remodeled Adam's tower without his permission. It was also the unnecessary deaths, the scouts who were cut down outside in the Abyss, the guards who suffered at the hands of vampiric infiltrators—a situation only halted from further deterioration by Angelo’s timely intervention. And then there were other questionable choices, such as her intentions regarding the mana core and her unwillingness to order a retreat.

  A Court Leviathan was hard to miss, considering its gargantuan size. For several to be just outside the Abyssal gateway meant that Null Mont had allowed the situation to fester, and fester quite severely.

  And so it was with the gentlest of touches that Shiv laid his hand upon Null Mont's shoulder. He could feel the spider-wasp trembling, not only physically, but also because of the concentrated deception flowing through her very soul. She was hiding something. More than that, she was prepared to lie about something, and that, more than anything else, teased his Gardener of Doubt.

  "Don't worry, Null Mont. We're not here to interrogate you. So long as I'm here, no one else will harm you." He let out a pretend laugh and shook her gently. His strength was so great, however, that she couldn't help but rattle and rock back and forth violently with his motion. "Actually, I'll make this easy for you. Start with the mana core. Did you want to collapse the mana core? What was the point of destroying everything? Losing a Gate is pretty brutal. They don’t just grow on trees, so I’m sure you have a great explanation for your actions. Right? Right?”

  "Of course she does," Adam said, playing along with Shiv's building pressure. "But I'd like to know as well. None of us is truly enraged at you." And as soon as Adam finished his bald-faced lie, his soul shook violently, feeding Shiv's Gardener of Doubt as well. "Just be honest. Tell us why you did what you did. I'm sure we all might learn something useful from your wisdom."

  "I—eh," Null Mont whimpered. Her emotional core was shaking violently, its insides filling with what looked like a tumbling storm. Shiv guessed that was a representation of anxiety. "The… the situation was dire! I was trying to come up with a strategy to potentially defeat and deny the First Blood any advantage they could gain from… Ah… To lose a Gate to the parasites is worse than losing a Gate permanently by choice."

  Adam's left eye twitched. His response was so minute that Null Mont missed it. But Shiv saw, noticed it plain as day, and so did the others in the room. Shiv wondered how close his friend was to exploding in a burst of violence. So he extended a tendril of telepathy to make sure Adam wasn't going to end this spot of entertainment prematurely.

  “I'm going to felling kill her,” Adam whispered over their connection. His words were calm, but his rage was true, boiling like a cauldron, so hard it could peel the skin from a tongue.

  “You might have to fight me for the right,” Shiv replied with a humorless chuckle. “At least she's not outright traitorous, or so it seems. I wouldn't put it beyond her to see her mind compromised by a vampire somehow.”

  “I hope that's the case,” Adam snarled. “I hope her mind was infiltrated and twisted by a First Blood saboteur. I hope she has dementia or suffered a stroke. Otherwise, I will have to confront the fact that she is this stupid naturally, and that might make me lose hope in the world.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Shiv cringed internally as he regarded Null Mont. She was gesticulating at them animatedly. Her words were broken stutters and incomplete thoughts, and her anxiety was further betrayed by the sparking bursts of electricity that jumped across the metallic quills protruding from her person.

  "You have to understand, Cherished Guests, I would not see you return to a Gate usurped, a Gate taken by the bloodsuckers, but rather that you find this place utterly lost instead of turned against you. This was all, it was all—"

  "For our benefit," Shiv finished on her behalf.

  "Yes!" Null Mont cried aloud, driven by sheer audacity and a desperate urge to avoid blame. "It was all to make sure that you and Cherished Guest Adam were to avoid the adversary. If you lost the Gate, then you'd know something terrible had happened. And once you got over the shock of our collective sacrifice, you would have returned to avenge us.”

  Adam and Shiv shared a look.

  “Adam,” Shiv said. “She’s really shit at this lying thing.”

  “I believe she might have contracted the First Blood’s contagion Uva told us about back in Weave,” Adam said, seething with every telepathic syllable. “You remember that Weaveresses lose their mind and collapse into dementia instead of going feral when the disease takes them, yes? We might be enjoying front-row seats to this one’s active degeneration.”

  Shiv hid his scoff with a cough. “Let’s see what other dumb lies we can get her to spew.”

  "Alright, that makes sense so far, but can you explain something else to me, Null Mont?" Shiv asked as he pulled his hand away. Her worry spiked to new heights. Every action on his part fanned the flames of her fear. His Shape of Monstrosity was being filled with a steady trickle of power—and he gave it an extra dose by using Dread-Tainted in tandem with his Rhetoric. "Can you please explain to me the reasons why you didn't order a generalized retreat? You didn't let the mercenaries arm themselves and sell their lives to buy you time? Or why you didn't just let the refugees who don't suffer from the Light-Curse flee through the surface gateway? It seems like it was an obvious choice to make if this place was certain to fall. It would be useful for someone to make an escape and try to reach Weave, wouldn't it?"

  “I—I—I—I…” Null Mont started choking on her own breath. Her body and soul were practically a unified blur from how fast she was vibrating. She was on the verge of some kind of collapse; whether it was heart failure or the shattering of her deceit remained to be seen, so Shiv pushed on, desperate to reach the point of her unraveling.

  He gave her a moment to compose herself. Speech came hard when one was reliving moments of the Deathless's horror, experiencing what it felt like to be a being of divine power, yet still helpless to stop an enemy from mutilating one’s flesh and soul.

  “You sound like you’re in pain, Cherished Mother,” Adam said, forcing a grin into place. “Would you like some water? Oh, right, the hydro-processing facilities were sabotaged. No matter. Here.” Adam held out a palm and concentrated a condensed sphere of liquid that pulsed and shrank before Null Mont.

  Shiv was the only one who knew how much willpower it took on Adam’s part to hold himself back from accelerating a hydro-arrow through the idiot Weaveress’s chittering skull.

  “N-n-nuh—No! No! No! I can’t do this! I cannot do this anymore!” Null Mont clutched her head and sounded like she was on the verge of sobbing. Shiv directed a shit-eating grin at Adam, whose fingers were shaking as he continued manipulating his sphere of water. “I must… I must be honest. I must confess. I cannot do this anymore, Cherished Guests. I cannot. Forgive me… Forgive me…”

  “Aw, Null Mont, what’s the matter?” Shiv cooed, trying to sound more like a comforting parent and less like a condescending asshole. He failed immediately; Null Mont was also too deep in her nervous breakdown to notice.

  "The truth," Null Mont gasped, clawing at her chest as if trying to stave off a heart attack. "The truth is that it's all too much for me. It's too much. Do you not understand? It's too much. I shouldn't be here. I was a fool to see myself assigned here. I thought myself wise and brilliant, even trying to reach beyond my station, leveraging favors to get myself this assignment. I thought it would be an easy path to gain higher favor from the Composer, to be held in higher esteem. But it’s too much. Too much…"

  Gardener of Doubt 67 > 69

  Rhetoric 7 > 10

  "What's too much?" Shiv asked. This time, his hand came to rest on Null Mont’s back, and he patted her gently, trying to get her to calm enough for her to explain the actual truth.

  "My responsibilities. The tasks. The duties. The lives I was in charge of. The number of things that one has to do to make sure the Gate runs. To keep all these refugees alive. All of it was too much. I wasn't prepared for this. I thought it would be a simple thing. Oh, I was a fool. A greedy, greedy fool! So short-sighted, so certain of myself. I was a fool and a fraud. This was practically my fate. My mother, she was a fool and a fraud. I was damned by birth. Damned!"

  "Null Mont," Shiv said sweetly. "Help me understand. Just help me understand. No one's angry at you yet." This time, his own body trembled, but Null Mont didn't have Gardener of Doubt, so she couldn't perceive how deep his lie went.

  He gave the Weaveress a few seconds to gather herself, and when she finally calmed enough, she began recounting her many, many failures. "It all got worse the moment you left. Our scouts were attacked, and I left them to their own devices. It's not uncommon for the First Blood to go for our forces when they encounter one another in the Abyss. Instead, I focused on the infrastructure and the refugees. I tried to negotiate their return to the surface. In exchange for mithril or other things that might be regarded as valuable back at Weave, it was all to gain myself some influence, some prestige, and position. I didn't intend to steal this Gate from you. I only intended for my stay to be temporary, long enough to cover myself in glory. You have to believe me. You have to."

  "Alright, alright," Shiv said. "We believe you. But that doesn't explain how everything else got so bad."

  "I didn't see it coming either. Everything just kept going wrong! One small problem there, one large problem here. The hydro-processing plant was sabotaged. I thought it was some kind of mana failure at first, but my specialty is physics. Physics! I forced myself into this position so that I can climb the ranks faster. Previously, I was a theoretical physicist for Weave's Experimental Artillery Division. I studied military tactics and strategy as well, of course. But my experiences in that were mostly, well, theoretical. So, you see, I found myself focusing more on fixing specific problems, like the hydro plant. It confounded me. It offended me. I kept trying to assign more people to resolve that while also negotiating with the mercenary leaders that I might have neglected establishing a proper outpost on the outside."

  Adam pressed a palm against his forehead and muttered something under his breath. His facade shattered entirely. He couldn't hide how much Null Mont’s incompetence made him suffer anymore.

  "And then, well, some of our scouts were compromised. The vampires, they had Psychomancers. They managed to turn some of our forward forces. The information we received was falsified. It wasn't until Still Water and her team went out that we realized just how bad things were."

  With that admission, Shiv grimaced as well. Here was a lesson: an army that lacked specific Pathbearers, who possessed specific skills, was no army at all. Stripped of Uva, the Weaveresses and Umbrals of the Gate were vulnerable to hostile Psychomancers. Without certain specialists or Pathbearers of a sufficient Tier, an army was like a set of armor with plates removed, deliberately exposing points of weakness to a potential enemy.

  "Why didn't you try to sound a retreat, or to call for more assistance from Weave?" Adam asked, hissing his words even as he hid his face behind his palm.

  "Because it was too late, and the refugees... I couldn't just leave them here, but I also didn't want to just let them all out onto the surface. So I just didn't know what to do. I was trying to solve so many things, and then the vampire infiltrators got in, and I had to deal with those issues. For days, we hunted them; they were the priority, and I thought it wouldn't be so bad once we managed to get that under control. But during the chaos they caused... the chaos... the vampire forces outside began to mass and build, and by the time we dealt with the infiltrators, it was already too late."

  Null Mont's excuses were a jumbled mess, but Shiv still managed to piece the general details together. She had focused on things that didn't matter as much, leaving her forces in the field on their own until they were subverted, fed the Gate false information, allowed infiltrators to break into the Gate, and that subsequent crisis caused them to be unprepared for the actual invasion. It was practically a mirror of what Shiv and Adam did against Gate Theborn before its collapse. However, the big difference between Theborn and Piety was the lack of a proper army without Shiv and his orcs. That, and somehow, Null Mont proved significantly more incompetent than even Confriga.

  Adam drew his palm away from his face and released a long-suffering sigh as he stared up at the ceiling. He didn't seem to have much anger left inside him anymore. It was all just disappointment now, and disbelief.

  "Well…" Shiv chuckled. There wasn't much amusement there, but it was still kind of funny in a sad way. He patted Null Mont on the back as she started hyperventilating again. "At least she's not a traitor. She's just really, really, really, really, really incompetent."

  "Forgive me…" Null Mont whimpered.

  "A word of advice to you young Pathbearers," the Culturist said, eyeing Null Mont with a disdainful expression. "Always have a proper chain of command established, or at least make sure the people below you are competent enough to retain a measure of stability. Otherwise, events like these transpire. They are always bitter lessons."

  "In our defense, we weren't expecting to be kidnapped by the Ascendants and then locked down in the capital," Shiv grunted.

  The Culturist huffed. "What we expect matters little. We must be prepared for almost anything."

  Shiv wanted to argue and disagree, but frankly, the orc was right. The System was unreasonable, and bullshit waited around every turn. Them not dealing with Null Mont permanently in some fashion was a mistake on their part. But Shiv had thought he could use her.

  Wait, he suddenly realized. I can still use her. But I don't need her to stay here. I just need to give her what she wants. We can get rid of her for good after that.