118 Chapter One Hundred and Eighteen – Mercy of the Brotherhood (1/2)
I could kind of feel them squinting at me through the Markdoors, and the silence grew long.
-Huh. I must have discovered some terrible untold secret of the Brotherhood. It's a shame that a woman who can watch dozens of battles; feel her Marked's pain as they get wounded and killed; is running an intelligence operation of kill teams across the continent; manipulating gods, rulers, armies, and merchant lords, while forming a broad multi-racial coalition of Good against external threats to the planet; all the while making magic items for some ungrateful sots who never had them, in between engaging in the slaughter of demons able to butcher armies... somehow can't handle a little few facts.
-Truly, such a woman is pathetic.-
I could distinctly /feel their faces and ears all going bright red. They didn't think I could handle some information? My default state of thinking was the metagame, not this one-to-one shit, that was for my social half! If they wanted cold, emotionless killing machine, they had nothing on me, and they knew it!
It was Brother Shadowknife who finally /replied. -This has to do with the South.-
-Overtones of dread from the Shadow and the Knife. However, that tells me goddamn nothing, because all I know about the South is what's on The Map.- I looked down at the old, old Empires there, and the psychic wafting of indolence and decay rising off them.
He sighed. -There are no hynfolk in the South.-
Well, that earned a blink or two. -Ah, shit.-
No hyn meant no Shadowknives. No Shadowknives... meant things Outside Creation had a much easier time mucking around.
The scale of 'much easier time' could get Really Bad.
-So, the South is moving against Rosencrux? Or just something coming from the South?- I /asked coolly.
-Elements from the South, building for a long time.- the Firesword /broke in grimly.
-Uh, huh. And when are the stars wrong?- That is, wrong for us, right for the shit that was going down.
-One hundred and thirteen days from now,- the Shadowknife /stated precisely.
My Navigation/Astronomy Ranks swirled up. I tracked orbits on the MetaMap, beyond the world, looking at the stars with them, coming into alignment...
I threw up in my mind, and hastily moved the representation away. It was lucky the three weren't fighting, as all three of them retched. Not quite the 40 Con scores I had.
-Very accurate representation,- the Windarrow /complimented me faintly. I /laughed ruefully despite myself.
-You knuckleheads don't metagame enough,- I /snarled at them. -There are no hyn in the South means that one of the things they are coming to do here is get rid of the hyn. They'll exterminate every clan in the area affected. I know you're a cold-blooded little shit, Shadowknife, but really?-
-I cannot alert them to the fact I know, or the implications could be Quite Bad.-
I took that at face value. Knowing that he knew gave them an avenue to find out how he knew, which could lead to him not knowing in the future. That would indeed be bad...
-Ah, fuck them! Ecto!-
The hyn hunter I'd saved from Leng popped into the chatbox abruptly, startled to be personally singled out.
---
”Sage Sama?” he asked, startled. He held up his hand for a break, looking at the Mark on his hand meaningfully. The line of hyn around him quickly gathered around, eyes wide.
-How'd you like to become a Messenger of the Gods, and a Very Important Person, and save a whole bunch of your kin, however much you might hate it?-
Ecto took a deep breath, looking around at the wide, intense eyes of his people. That time of nightmare in Leng had never gone away. The way he had seen those people fight, that terrible focus and power in his mind, and the way Sage Sama had fought, a demon to the demons...
”What do I need to do?” he asked shortly.
-You got a divine Caster there who can speak directly to your gods?-
He blinked, looked over at Matron Bellaya. ”Can you speak directly to Mother Shiera?” he asked directly.
Bellaya opened her mouth, paused, and closed it. Slowly, she nodded.
”Yes, we do, Sage Sama.”
-----
I smiled thinly to myself. -She needs to ask some very direct questions of her Patron. They are as follows...
-Do you know that the Things of the South are coming to Rosencrux within four months?