Sacrifice Mage

I couldn’t believe the source of the complaint. Brasvay. Those bastards still hadn’t learned their lesson. In fact, I was pretty sure they’d been waiting for an opportunity like this since the trial months ago.

“This is a setup,” I said.

Revayne agreed with a nod. “Of course, it is. Brasvay has been licking their wounds and keeping an eye on you all this time.”

“It’s flimsy, though,” Aqrea said. “What proof do they have that Cultist Ross would ever do such a thing?”

We—that was Revayne, Hamsik, and I—all looked at her like she really believed I was blameless.

“What?” she said. “A meritless claim won’t stand up anywhere, right?”

“You aren’t incorrect,” Revayne said. “But in cases such as these, it’s often less about the legality of the matter and more about the amount of support one can garner. Ross is lucky in that many of the Councillors see him in a very favourable light, so any case that Brasvay would bring forward would need to be extremely stringent and damning in its details.”

“But it’s not…?”

“It is not, from my understanding.”

I looked through the charges once more. They were so pathetic. Complaints about disorderly business management, intimidation of various suppliers and merchants and middle-men, and even taking advantage of violent conduct to the point that suspicion squarely lay on me as the source of said conduct.

And a lot of it was actually backed up. Testimonies from the merchants and suppliers I had bought out. Public records of the bonds I had purchased, and how much I had paid to own them. Brasvay had done most of their homework.

There was even a testimony of my “violent tendencies” from Casvat of all people. The only thing that prick of a middle-man was staying in the middle of was this stupidity with the Great Houses.

But in the end, it was pathetic because it held no illegality, as Aqrea had pointed out.

Brasvay was just trying to insinuate that the timing of my economic movement coincided way too closely with the more violent troubles that House Uralivanth was experiencing. If it had just been the insinuation that I was behind it all, I’d have been fine with it. I wouldn’t have minded one bit.

The problem was that Brasvay was taking it a step further. They weren’t just satisfied by saying I had broken the law and been a vagrant and what not. Oh no.

They had gone on and officially requested a review of the Council’s ruling that our temple should belong to Sun Cult.

“What a shameless bastard,” I muttered.

“That’s what isn’t meritless,” Revayne said. “They have enough working logic to support their argument. After all, they were ousted from ownership because of illicit activities. If it is irrevocably proven that you were involved in the same sort of illegality, if not worse, then your ownership would now be in grave danger.”

Aqrea cursed.

“And to enforce that,” Hamsik said. “They sent you, Captain.”

“Well, I offered to bring the notice,” Revayne said. “Commander Trikurag initially wanted to send an unrelated detachment, but I was able to get a hold of it first. Mostly, I’m here to warn you that if it escalates, then just as with the original transfer of the temple before the Blight Swarm, the guards will be forced to cooperate with whoever is judged to be right.”

I plopped back down on my seat behind my desk. Some of Escinca’s possessions still covered it. The Pipe Missive’s big canister, some of the old, slightly-less-dusty books, a hand-drawn picture from Sreketh well before she had properly started painting.

“Looks like it’s time to take the fight to Brasvay too,” I said.

They all looked at me sharply. Hmm, there was good reason for the looks. After what I had done to Uralivanth…

“Careful, Ross,” Revayne said, echoing the others’ unsaid sentiment. She had closed her book to look at me very seriously. “You don’t want to make enemies of the entirety of Ring Two all at once. For all that you’ve grown, you still aren’t ready to destabilize Zairgon.”

“I don’t want to destabilize Zairgon. I’m just taking care of my enemies. Every time something happens, I’m always the one who’s reacting. I’m always the one fixing the mess of those who want to destroy me and everyone and everything else I care about.” I shook my head. “Not this time. We’re not allowing Brasvay to cause us more pain down the line.”

Revayne looked like she wanted to argue, but she remained silent.

“I support your endeavour, Ross,” Hamsik said. “But even your closest allies will feel wary when the balance of things shifts too drastically in too short a time. You won’t be able to rely on everyone all the time.”

Hamsik wasn’t wrong either. There was only so much the Councillors could do, only so much they could happily avert their eyes to, before I stepped on toes I really shouldn’t have.

“I know,” I said. “But my decision is made. If dealing an underhanded blow to Uralivanth isn’t enough to ward off all malicious intentions, then we’ll need to be a bit more overt about it.”

They all looked at each other, unsure of what was about to transpire. In all honesty, while I had plans, I had no idea how everything was going to shape up in the end either. But I was done being on the back foot. The Great Houses refused to learn their lesson. As such, I’d need to keep piling on the pressure.

I had more than a few ways of twisting the knife I had stabbed into Uralivanth’s back. Of course, they weren’t my primary target. Brasvay hadn’t learned not to mess with me after that trial, and while I had suspected as much all this while, I was only acting now after they had proved my suspicion to be true.

Though, taking them on through non-violent means wasn’t going to be easy. Through various information sources such as Revayne, Hamsik, Aqrea, and even Ascelkos, I was able to gather that House Brasvay had a very different business model compared to House Uralivanth.

Where Uralivanth had basically created their own business line that interconnected with other businesses, Brasvay had no such thing. Instead, they acted purely as investors.

Worse, they didn’t stick to any singular kind of investment either. Scouring public records revealed that they had invested in Zairgon’s infrastructure, in commercial housebuilding projects on both Rings Two and Three, in actual businesses ranging from tanneries of monster leather to small-time suppliers for the Preserves.

Even more curious was the fact that House Brasvay basically did the same thing with its members. The main family invested in branch families, who then went on to invest in the actual external areas like infrastructure and businesses and so on. A portion of all the return from the various investments made it back to the main family, thus sustaining House Brasvay in perpetuity.

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“Pretty smart,” Linak said when we were discussing business details a day later. “No point in storing all your money in the same spot.”

I nodded. “This way, they’re never going to have to worry financially. Even if one or more investments fall through, there are others that are paying dividends, likely more than making up for the failures.”

“Yes. I wonder why others haven’t adopted the practice.”

“No idea, but it’s not uncommon. At least, not where I’m from. There’s multiple industries and financial sectors where this sort of principle is in full swing. Like, take publishing for instance. A publisher might take on dozens of books, not all of which will sell well, but the ones that do hit the market just right more than make up for all the duds.”

Linak was staring at me. Apparently, I had gotten a little too invested in nerding out about business practices. I reined it in and focused on the important matter at hand.

“So… there’s no easy way you can get back at them,” Linak said, reeling the conversation back on topic.

I smiled. “You’d think they’d be more secure now, but it’s not necessarily true. All we need to do is find the biggest revenue streams and then we can act accordingly.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“I guess it is a bit easier when you’ve got some experience in the matter like I do.”

I waved goodbye to him and took the nearest train. Claderov had finally finished establishing the rail lines, and the first train route was fully operational between one end of Ring Three to the other. One of the stops along the way would take me to my destination, so I hopped in along with all the other passengers before we were on our way.

It was nice that it wasn’t too crowded just then. Not everyone had taken to the trains, despite Claderov officials doing their best to hype it up and advertise. Even Zairgon Council was trying to encourage people to get aboard.

Still, it was going to take a little while before everyone warmed to the trains. Big, clunky, boisterous contraptions didn’t necessarily look safe. In fact, I wasn’t even sure what the safety features were.

At least if there was a crash, I wouldn’t be dying too easily nowadays.

When I got off, I found my way—without losing myself—to the nearby tailor’s. They were one of Uralivanth’s chief suppliers for tailoring materials.

“I’m willing to budge on the repayment for the loan,” I said after we had exchanged very formal pleasantries. “But on one condition.”

“What is the condition, Cultist?” the Scalekin tailor asked.

“It’s simple. I need you to lodge an official complaint about House Uralivanth to all the relevant authorities. I want you to highlight the poor pay they offer you, the way they make sure you never have any chance of advancement and that you’re always in danger of defaulting on your debt because of the stranglehold they have on you.”

The tailor’s eyes had widened. He was now shaking his head. “What will this ever accomplish, Cultist?”

“Oh, it will just bury Uralivanth in all the things they’ll need to address.”

The tailor readily agreed to my proposal. It wasn’t hard convincing him, or most of the other suppliers either. The toolmakers, the fabric-suppliers, and even the workers who transported goods for Uralivanth’s subsidiary furniture company, they were all willing to harass House Uralivanth through official means, especially if I was kind of remunerating them for it.

Nobody wanted huge debt and insurance rates. It was nice I had a lever I could pull to further my own goals.

What was also nice was the fallout. Revayne was once again there to tell me all about it. She was on her way to pay her respects to the comrades she had lost on the first Nether Vein trip, and I had met her for a short chat about both our goings-on.

I did my best to explain everything I had done. She already suspected that the sudden deluge of official complaints that House Uralivanth was having to deal with had something to do with me. Importantly, every single complaint was based on the truth. The suppliers and merchants had been silent so as not to burn bridges, but my offer of lower rates had really spurred them on.

While I was still pondering on how best I could extrapolate this chaos to House Brasvay, I decided to focus on getting some training done. When I sparred with the Scarthralls, I focused almost entirely on defending myself, asking my partners to attack me from every direction.

It was hard work, but I was getting there. I just needed to keep at it. Though, my training was soon disturbed by another visit, again by Revayne. This time, she had very curious news.

“My husband is desperate to meet you, Ross.”

A meeting with one of the young scions of House Uralivanth hadn’t been on my personal forecast. It wasn’t that surprising, though. He was married to Revayne, after all, so it was likely he had learned at least some bits and pieces of what I had done. I had always known of that risk. Revayne couldn’t keep literally everything hidden from her husband of all people.

But instead of using that information against me directly, one way or another, the younger Uralivanth had decided to meet me instead.

We met at one of Ring Three’s unassuming little restaurants. The kind that people visited in between work to get lunch at. Though, we made sure not to go to one of the rattier, cheaper ones that were frequented by workers from Ring Four. We’d stand out, otherwise. Here, with Gushal cloaked up, we weren’t dragging in much attention from the other patrons.

“Won’t your family be mad that you’re visiting me, their sworn enemy, and behind their backs too?” I asked. The low murmur of the rest of the restaurant serenaded my words, but not so much as to obscure their clarity.

Gushal Uralivanth shook his head. Compared to his fabulous, bejewelled getup with the fancy makeup at his wedding, now he looked like any old Rakshasa. He grew more and more anxious the longer he spent time with me. I felt weird about it, like I should have comforted him or something. “It won’t matter. That is, if I can stop things from escalating any further.”

“What have you got in mind?” I asked.

Gushal waited for a bit as the server arrived, smiling and giving us all roasted bugs on sticks and drinks that looked like steamed soap suds. I took a surreptitious glance around. With the right opening, I could Sacrifice it all without drawing in too many eyes.

“It’s nothing huge,” the Uralivanth heir said when we had privacy again. “Just a mutual understanding of each of our wants and working towards those.”

I glanced at Revayne. Her face was buried in her book, and though it had probably stated that I was staring in her direction, she refused to look back up. Gushal hadn’t looked at her once. I was suddenly desperate to hear what kind of guidance she had given her husband about interacting with me.

“You want something that incriminates House Brasvay, don’t you?” Gushal said. “I can give it to you, if you so desire.”

That… was big. I had to admit that to myself, at the very least, because my breathing had actually stopped for a moment there. This was pretty much what I needed to get back at Brasvay in a way they’d have a hard time recovering from.

“And what about you?” I asked. “What is it that you really want?”

“It’s my goal too.” He crunched down on his bugs a little fiercely. “The fall of House Brasvay. I had always known that working with them would only cause my family misery in the long run, and this is pretty much it. They’ve been doing all this Pits-cursed crap because of Brasvay’s request, and now, they’re suffering for it.”

Now that was interesting. It was one thing to suspect that Brasvay had some sort of hand in the matter. It was wholly another to hear someone from House Uralivanth directly confirming the connection. After all, what other reason could Uralivanth have for coming after me?

“So you’re willing to work against your own family?” I asked.

He frowned. “I came here to ask you to relieve the pressure you’ve applied on House Uralivanth from multiple fronts in return for information about House Brasvay.”

“Yes, but working against Brasvay’s interests is working against Uralivanth’s interests, if they’re as linked as I suspect they are. You’ve already said that much of their actions against me came because of Brasvay’s request.”

“Right, but I think I can extricate my House from this matter. You’ve… very cleverly set up a scapegoat. With that, and with the assurance of you dropping your stranglehold on our subcontractors and the complaints you’ve lodged, I think we can achieve a stable footing together.”

“Depending,” Revayne reminded. “On your ability to drag House Uralivanth out of its mire, husband.” She dipped her bugs into the frothy drink before eating them. Then she glanced at me with a spark in her strange eyes. “And on your ability to not let the complaints get out of hand, Ross.”

“Yes, quite.” Gushal Uralivanth was now scowling at me a little. “Really? Involving the Mage Guild by suggesting the stolen monsters were potential familiars for mages?”

I shrugged, trying not to laugh. “Hey, if I’m taking down an enemy, I’m not particularly inclined to show mercy.” My voice darkened. “Especially after the shit they pulled.”

Gushal observed me critically for a few moments before sighing. “I suppose I can’t complain.”

“Now,” I said. “What’s the key bit of intel you’ve got on House Brasvay?”

Revayne’s husband took a few moments to determine how exactly he’d go about phrasing his next statement. Then he spoke, and I blinked.