JACKAL AMONG SNAKES-Novel

“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?”

“No. But I am certain that I will have them, when the time comes.” Anneliese looked deep in concentration. In times like these, alone with her, he was reminded why he fell in love with this woman.

#####

Argrave and Anneliese entered the dwarven nation midway through the next day. While en route, he had to veritably tear Anneliese away from the machines operating the magma moat. Even then, her curiosity had been lit, and she bombarded Argrave with half a thousand questions on the walk to join up with Melanie and the Alchemist. They were promptly shadowed by dwarven guards, who had been awaiting their return.

When they did arrive, Melanie was waiting out front to receive them. She’d just returned from a meal with a senator, and when she heard the magma moat operating, elected to wait for them out front of Therapont’s estate.

“Got a little bit of good 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 spirits on their lonesome.” She hefted her black blade. “They’re fresh out of weapons like these, and I’m told their magma weapons only really function down here, in the bowels of the earth. In other words… we’ve a very unwilling trade partner.”

“That is 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 use to create the faction of youths.”

Argrave tried not to slip into joy as he asked, “But the bad news?”

“It’s half bad, half good. Just like you asked—didn’t get caught,” Melanie said subtly. “Went into Julius’ home—he was the one protecting 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 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 Argrave.

Argrave took the paper, unfolding it. On it… something was drawn. It was an orb, and had some strange attempts to replicate markings. Or were they pipes? Argrave couldn’t tell.

“That was by the smithy in the basement,” Melanie said direly. “I’m sure you know… this is bad, right?”

“I don’t know what this is,” Argrave confessed plainly. “A circle? It has lines, too. Am I supposed to make sense of this?”

She snatched the 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 without flags being raised.”

“Hold on,” cut in Argrave as the gravity started to weigh on him. “Golem cores? You’re certain that’s what you saw down there?”

“I saw diagrams for them,” Melanie shook her head. “Believe me—I saw 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 disassembled the things. As it turns out, Dario did take something from those ruins. Namely… the knowledge of how these cores work.” She looked down guiltily. “If I’d known…”

“You did nothing wrong,” Anneliese told her at once. “You followed your instructions to the letter. But Argrave—if Dario did have some of these cores made, does that mean he intends to make golems?”

Argrave took the shabby drawing from Melanie’s hand. Now that he knew 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 how Dario, alone, could rebuild the Iron Giants fast enough to matter. Durran’s keeping his eyes on Dario’s kin. And if the man managed to make them, I can almost guarantee Gerechtigkeit would commandeer them. Automatons and necromantic magics are his favorite treat.”

“Dario has 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. “Do these cores have other uses?”

“Bombs. But Dario didn’t seem a terrorist to me.” Argrave paced around in worry, then remembered himself. “Good work, Melanie, finding this stuff.”

“Good work indeed,” Anneliese echoed his sentiment, handing back the drawing. “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 man is planning.”

#####

Argrave 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 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 them absent for some further days. Fortunately, that lent well into their other goal.

“I was thinking on bring my pet Raven around the city, finally begin the process of finding out where Gerechtigkeit has maligned the magma.” Argrave held out his hands amicably. “So, there’s some questions I had about the city.”

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

“Don’t need guiding,” Argrave assured him. “Just a few questions.”

“Are there any areas we ought to avoid?” Anneliese asked. “Areas that are host to criminal activity? Though we can handle ourselves, we’d like to avoid incident wherever possible.”

Therapont stroked his large beard. “Crime is an extremely rare thing in Mundi. We are one people, one race, with a unified philosophy toward life and most other things. A sole identity creates unbreakable cohesion.”

“Of course,” Argrave agreed. “I don’t doubt that. Still, like I said… we’d just like no trouble at all.”

Therapont sighed. “Well… the only thing I can warn is that you should stay away from the southern tip. It’s near fully-constructed, but the project was called off. Might be unstable in places. It’s one of the few sites that our people ended up abandoning. The construction there has fallen into disarray, and… animals have taken residence. Rather unsavory animals,” Therapont added with some disdain. “If you need go through there, hug the inner wall. That place is safe.”

“Unsavory animals?” Argrave pressed.

“The worst kind of animal. Populists,” the senator said with a slight sneer. “They think the senate is run by some sort of shadowy organization. In truth, many of these squatters are original residents of that region before it was abandoned, and some others are young punks disillusioned by supposed mistreatment. Does this species of animal exist in Vasquer?”

“Given time, I’m sure it will.” Argrave smiled. He didn’t add that there might be some basis to populist theories in Vasquer, given Elenore’s network of information and business. “Thanks for the warning.”

“Of course,” Therapont nodded. “I hope you can find this malignance quickly, however that might be. I’m off.”

Once Therapont had left, Anneliese asked, “Pet Raven?”

“Just a joke,” Argrave assured. “Now… are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“If you’re thinking about heading south,” Anneliese looked at him.

“It’s nice to agree on things.”