146 (II)

Compromised

Valor gave Shiv a slight smile. "If you are ashamed, that is good. It means you have some morals that you can build on. Continuing off my previous point, your problem isn't even bribery. It's the fact that you are too simple."

Shiv pressed his lips together. "Look, I'm trying to squeeze out more time for my studies..."

"No, I don't mean simple in the mental fashion, Shiv. I have never meant that in the mental fashion. I mean that you have not gone into depth about who you are or who you want to be. If you have, it was only brief. You are effectively malleable. Malleable to the shaping influences of those around you. I am one such influence, but so are Adam, Uva, Can Hu, but also the orcs, especially the orcs. They likely know they cannot make you a wholesale murderer of innocents, so they won't try to push you to the degree that you will casually allow them to slaughter children with impunity."

But that reminded Shiv of someone else.

"I'm going to kill Male Pregnancy," Shiv snarled suddenly.

"What?" Valor replied with stupefied confusion, his train of thought broken. "Male… Pregnancy? What—is this a new skill you gained?"

"No. There was an orc called Male Pregnancy. You talking about them slaughtering children reminds me of what Male Pregnancy did in the middle of the fight. I think he made someone give birth, and then he ate the baby."

Valor's jaw opened and closed several times, and then the Legendary Pathbearer let out a shuddering breath. "I must confess to despising orcs, Shiv."

"Yeah, I can understand that. You know what the messed-up thing is? They promised that they got rid of him."

"Your mistake was revealing how much he annoyed you. The orcs will now do everything they can to keep Male Pregnancy just out of your sight, away from your notice. Their ability to offend your sensibilities feeds them as well."

"Great, so I better build up my Social Skills real fast too. How the hell am I going to do that, though?" Shiv glared down at the ground. It wasn't like he could just... "It's not like I can just kill myself after failing to convince someone of something. Can I? Will that work?"

"I doubt it," Valor said. "I suspect you won't get any skills from that at all, due to your death being self-inflicted, rather than a deficiency of capability. So, for now, you need a counterbalancing force. I will accompany you more. As long as you are within the Tutorial, I will be there with you. And I recommend you take Adam and Uva across as well, if possible."

"No," Shiv said reflexively. "Absolutely not. The orcs..."

"The orcs will target them regardless. Know that the moment you summoned the orcs, they were at risk. You cannot protect everyone. You cannot hide everyone from the orcs." Valor let out a slight scoff. "And here's another problem with you. We are Pathbearers. Our lives are brutal and dangerous. And worse yet, you are System-favored. You fear losing them. You fear watching people die. But people will die. You will lose people. You have avoided this lesson very well thus far. You have fought harder than most, have suffered extremes of torment, both physical and spiritual, to guard the ones you deem dear. And someday it will fall flat. It will. Someday it will not be enough."

"Yeah, we'll see about that," Shiv said. A great growl of defiance trailed at the end of his words, and Valor held up a calming hand.

"I know you will fight it. I expect you to be no other way. It is who you are, and that is a virtue. But we are only capable of so much, and those around you must be prepared as well. You wish to protect Adam? You wish to protect people inside this gate? Then they must be strong too. You and Adam are strongest together. Uva as well—but especially you and Adam. You make up for each other's deficiencies. He needs to be hardened more. And you, you require someone to watch over you, to notice what you cannot, to observe you from another perspective. You are insulated even from your own deaths. And this insensitivity has come as both a blessing and a cost to your development."

Shiv really, really didn't want to bring Adam over to the Tutorial for longer periods. Just thinking about exposing Adam or Uva—or anyone—to the orcs made him anxious, made his blood run cold with terror. But the more he thought about Valor's words, the truer they seemed. There was no turning away from the problem. The grayskins were here to stay. And if they were going to serve as Shiv's army, or at least a horde he could direct, then he needed to face the risks. Not just him. Adam, Uva, everyone. Everyone needed to face the risks of the blood rites.

Valor held out a single finger and lightly prodded Shiv on the forehead. The Deathless blinked. "What was that for?"

"That was me flicking you for being a stupid child."

"Oh, now I'm stupid."

"Yes, now you are stupid. Stupid in the way only a child can be. Because," Valor let out a disgusted snort, "Town Lord Roland Arrow has thought it best to cripple you, even non-martially. I suspect this was another means of keeping you contained in case you gained substantial powers in terms of combat."

Shiv sneered to himself. "I'm gonna kick that guy's ass so hard when I finally get my hands on him. I just need to get really close first and avoid all his felling arrows."

"Whatever the case," Valor poked Shiv in the head once more, "understand that you are not alone. If you are out of your depth, request advice. Do not simply throw yourselves at the orcs, or any problem, blindly. You may not have experience, but the rest of us do, and the rest of us will provide willingly."

"Alright," Shiv muttered. He felt a little bit like a chided child. This brought him back to Georges chewing him out for screwing up in the kitchen as a kid. It wasn't a feeling Shiv particularly liked. "I'm, uh, you know, sorry."

"Improve," Valor replied. "That is all you can do. Apologies mean some things to some people. But right now, you functionally remain at the social mercy of the orcs, and they are merciless creatures. So, do the mature thing. Do the wise thing. Get help."

"Yeah, yeah, okay. I was gonna have Uva guard my mind anyway."

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"Get more help than just one person. More than just Psychomantic defense. You have a team. You have more than a team. Use them. Use the ones you can trust, that you have chosen to trust."

"Alright. Thanks, Valor."

"Good. That is all I have to say for now. I will continue observing. I may still be but a shadow of myself, but even a shadow has memories. Long, distant, but useful. Now, let's go to the Oubliette. I suspect the others have already begun the interviewing of Master-Inquisitor Sijik. Hopefully, they aren't already done."

***

Shiv found Adam standing before a cell, staring through a translucent screen of Dimensionality. As he staggered closer, he saw that Uva, clad in her full arcanite armor, was seated at a table directly across from Sijik. Adam watched the interrogation unfold intently. His face was tight with focus, and his brow glistened with a sheen of perspiration. Nearby, Can Hu stood on watch as well. It noted Shiv and Valor first, offering them a slight incline of the body. Shiv gave a nod before he arrived beside Adam.

The Gate Lord didn't bother to look at him. His gaze was locked on the Master-Inquisitor—like he was the only person in the world worth looking at.

"How did it go?" Adam asked absentmindedly. "Did you manage to get the orcs to listen to you?"

"Something like that." Shiv coughed. "Listen, I probably need to tell you something about that in a bit. Once we're done with, well, whatever's happening here."

Within the cell, neither Uva nor Sijik spoke. Her mana strands were digging into his mind, and the Master-Inquisitor's face was a wall of stone. His forehead was furrowed with deeply etched wrinkles, and his nose looked like it had been broken one too many times ages ago and never properly set.

His eyes were dark onyx pits, and he studied his faceless interrogator. His lips almost curled in a sneer. Uva, comparatively, was like a statue, but one of her strands was still connected to Adam. Thus far, she hadn't noticed Shiv, and didn't connect her mind to his.

"Do you know who I am?" Sijik asked. His voice was hoarse, likely made that way by shouting orders during the ambush. Uva didn't respond. She continued working on his mind. "You will not find anything that way. My memories are shrouded from you, shrouded by the divine, by the finest Psychomancers who serve the Republic's glory."

Still, she said nothing, pulling at his thoughts. Sijik revealed a slight frown of discomfort, but he shook his head. "Fine then, waste your efforts. Debase yourself with this vile defilement. Know that you have marked yourself with death. Know that you will be punished for this. Punished for what you have done to my inquisitors, to my expeditionary force, to these loyal servants of the Ascendants."

Uva kept trying to crack his mind, but as the time dragged on, Shiv guessed that Sijik might be right, that she might actually be having difficulty.

"What's happening?" Shiv asked Adam.

"I'm not sure," Adam said. "It's a lot of complicated Psychomancy. I'm not exactly clear on what she's doing. She hasn't said anything mentally either for quite some time. She's entirely focused."

"I did not know that Compact hired orcs, that they had vile dealings with the accursed grayskins." Sijik spat on the table. His mouth was still wet with blood. Uva regarded the globule for only a moment, but kept to her silence. "Did that venomous cur Oldsmith warn you? Did that rusted thing of twisted machinery tell you of my coming? Was that it? Was all this its doing?"

Finally, Uva's mana strands broke free from Sijik's mind. The Inquisitor released a satisfied sneer. "I told you, your efforts are wasted. You cannot break a servant of the Ascendants, a servant of those truly divine, who earned their divinity by trial and triumph. Move on to the physical torments if you like. Move on to anything, no matter how depraved. I have endured it all. I have faced it all. There is nothing you can do to me. Nothing!"

Uva stared at the Master-Inquisitor briefly before she finally spoke. "It was the Educator, actually."

Adam leaned in, squinting his eyes.

Shiv frowned. "What's she doing? Why's she telling him about the Educator?"

"I'm not exactly sure," Adam replied.

"The what?" Master-Inquisitor Sijik's face turned. He paled slightly, and his previous expression of defiance collapsed into a wide-eyed look of surprise.

"The Educator," Uva continued. "She is the reason we were prepared for you."

"You... no." The Master-Inquisitor shook his head. "No, that's impossible. You couldn't have possibly..."

"We were contacted by an Aviary liaison. Apparently, more than one group has an interest in securing Starhawk's Perch."

Shiv could see Sijik start to shake with anger. "Lies. Such naked and ridiculous lies."

Uva turned her head and stared straight at where Adam stood. "Bring the Owl."

Adam took a moment to respond, and then he shot off across the prison. He walked out of the current hall and went up a flight of stairs. A few minutes later, he returned with the Aviary Owl in chains. And for a brief moment, the former spy looked at Shiv, and a chain of fear surged into his body.

The Owl looked down, and his heart began to quicken. Shiv glared. Yeah, that's right. Stay scared.

He liked it when people were afraid of him. He liked it when he could bend people's will using fear. That might be something the orcs could exploit in me as well. Shit. Previously, I thought these were just personality traits or something. Now I gotta worry about this stuff too. Fucking orcs.

Psychology 32 > 33

Adam pushed the Owl through the dimensional veil, and he stumbled into the cell. Uva's mana strings speared straight into the Owl's mind. He recoiled for a moment, but then he bowed his head. And after, Sijik's jaws clenched tighter and tighter. Nothing was said, but Shiv realized she was transferring information across, information from the owl into the Master Inquisitor.

"Lies, lies, all of it. You... you have a gift for constructing personas. I see your—"

"But it is not a lie," Uva said coolly, calmly, without any defensiveness. The Master-Inquisitor bit his lip. He even flinched back as Uva leaned across the table. "Now, we want to talk. We want to discuss terms regarding Starhawk's Perch."

"The Perch is not yours to take," the Master-Inquisitor spat. "It is something that belongs to the Ascendants. To the Republic!"

"And what about Roland Arrow's life?" Uva asked. "What is worth more to you, the death of Roland Arrow or the Perch?" Adam's breath got caught in his throat, but Shiv was listening intently now.

"Both belong to the Ascendants!" Sijik said, slamming his fist down on the table. The steel desk dented inward. Uva simply leaned back, not bothered at all.

"So you say. Clearly not. Clearly, someone in your Inquisition has decided to strike a bargain to dispatch the Educator so that she could make a deal with New Albion. The Perch was an offering, but I want to know why." She briefly reached forward and tapped a single finger on the Master Inquisitor's wrist. "We wish to know, for our gate was attacked. Attacked by your rogue Educator, supported by Aviary with an army of vampires.

"You are being held here, Master-Inquisitor, not because Master-Advisor Oldsmith betrayed you. Though that is a factor. Though we do need to discuss the Animancy Core. No. You are here because one of yours has colluded with the First Blood to strike at Compact territory, to conquer this gate in the name of the Republic, the Ascendants, and the First Blood. All. We barely survived, and along the way, we received a warning that you were coming. Coming with a force too small to take our gate, yet just enough to serve as an occupying faction."

Sijik was dead silent, and so Uva continued. "So you must answer. Clean your voice of righteous indignation. We will return you to your Republic, but we have to wonder: if we deliver you directly back to the capital… Will they embrace you as a self-ransomed prisoner of war, or will they regard you as a traitor? You're compromised, Master-Inquisitor Sijik. You are not here in an official capacity, are you? Tell me, why have you betrayed your Republic? Why have you and the Educator allied with Aviary and the First Blood to steal a Sacred Phylacery?"

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