LIGHTNOVELONLINE DF123 - Reactionary Tango
“Wrong?” Seraphina said with a smile. “How so?”
“It says you’re loyal to the King,” Suliel pointed out. Nobility’s Privilege wasn’t a complete accounting of a person’s loyalties. It only showed your primary loyalty. In Suliel’s case, it showed that she was loyal to Anton. As long as he was loyal to the King, or to someone else that was loyal, the King wouldn’t take it amiss. A lady was expected to be loyal to her husband.
“If you’re part of the Rose Circle,” Suliel asked. “How can you be loyal to his royal majesty? At best it should say that you’re loyal to the kingdom.”
Seraphina tittered. “You can’t always trust what Nobility’s Privilege shows you,” she said. “Try again.”
Frowning, Suliel did as she said.
Seraphina Levinscant, Level 18, Unmarried, Parents alive, 2 brothers, Loyal to: Roselie Kalond, Human, Traitorous Courtier
Suliel gave a little gasp. It was only two changes but it was shocking nonetheless. “That class is real?”
“I don’t know what you could possibly mean,” Seraphina said. “But our entire group is based on the notion that a Status does not show the full story. It shouldn’t surprise you that we make use of the same fact.”
“I see,” Suliel said, deeply troubled. The story of the Rose Circle was, indeed, that the King was actually False, with the ability to hide his status. That had been a shocking scandal. The idea that there were more in the capital that could do it was troubling. “That… doesn’t make it any easier for me to trust you.”
“I suppose not,” Seraphina agreed. “Trust is a hard-won commodity in the circles you now find yourself in.”
“I’d thought…” Suliel murmured, “That if I could meet with R—your backer— that I’d be able to tell. If my father was right or if he was—”
She kept cutting herself off before she could say anything incriminating. Private Assignation might prevent eavesdropping, but only as long as some spy didn’t have a better Trait. Seraphina nodded in approval at her efforts.
I couldn’t tell that you were a Traitorous Courtier, Suliel thought. That was too dangerous to say aloud. Only Kelsey heard it, but she didn’t reply.
“Instead you find that your childish notions of right and wrong are inadequate for the world of adults,” Seraphina said gently. “Don’t take that the wrong way, we all start there. I have confidence that you’ll manage the transition marvellously.”
Suliel blushed at the kind words.
The words sent a cold needle through the warmth that Suliel was feeling.
“And how does an adult see the world?” she asked.
“Through a prism of history and need,” Seraphina said. “We are strangers, we don’t have a shared history. But your father earned a great deal of trust with us, and you stand to inherit his legacy. Conversely, his trust of us is something you should consider as you look for a way forward.”
“That’s a weak connection,” Suliel said. “In both directions.”
“It is,” Seraphina said. “We can hope to build on it, because our needs are clear. You need our support in court.”
“And you need—” Suliel cut herself short.
“We do. So we understand each other. If we can both avoid betrayal, perhaps trust can grow.”
Suliel took a sip of tea, to give herself time to think.
“If we are to talk about Kirido supplying… glassware,” Suliel said, hoping that she wasn’t sounding like a fool. “We would need more than just support. We’d need coin as well.”
“Of course, glassware of this quality is worth the price,” Seraphina said, smiling.
Suliel knew that by bringing up pricing she was dropping her moral requirement. Was that a mistake? She really wanted to know if she was a traitor or a patriot. Kelsey must have felt her emotions because she sent a wordless feeling of support.
“You understand, your… competitor will want me to sell to them as well,” Suliel said. “I can’t afford to ignore them.”
“We understand the position you are in,” Seraphina said reassuringly. “Obviously we’ll be keeping our purchase quiet, and as long as you can sell us more items than them, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“I see. But we don’t know how many items they will be demanding.”
“At this point, no one knows how much… glassware you can produce,” Seraphina explained. “If you can limit expectations, then we’ll do our best to reduce their demands.”
Suliel nodded. The guns were a new weapon, untested in a real combat. A few words from trusted Courtiers could greatly reduce the interest shown by the Crown. She would have to remember to seem more upset or His Majesty might suspect her of having another buyer.
She felt another pang of self-doubt and reached for Kelsey again.
Suliel felt warmth flow through her. She didn’t know if Kelsey was telling the truth, if she’d even asked Anton. But hearing the words, she knew it was what Anton would say.
“Two hundred… glass lanterns in two weeks,” she said. “Five gold each, to be picked up from Kirido.”
That was a ridiculous price for lanterns, but Suliel felt she had to keep the pretence going. The number of guns to make available was something that she and Kelsey had worked out beforehand.
“I’ll try and limit… your competitor to fifty,” she continued. “If I can’t, then we can revisit that number.”
Seraphina nodded slowly. “That seems acceptable,” she said. “How soon can you have another shipment ready?”
“Another two weeks, assuming nothing has gone wrong with my—my husband’s—investiture,” Suliel said. “And we haven’t discussed the… candles.”
Seraphina frowned for a second before decoding her statement. “Ah. We had hoped to manufacture the candles ourselves.”
“You might be able to,” Suliel admitted. “I can’t give you the recipe for the powder, but I’m told it doesn’t involve any alchemy. The…” Suliel struggled to find the right word, before giving up.
“This,” she said, taking out a round lead ball and handing it to the lady in front of her. “This might prove difficult for you to manufacture.”
“It’s so round,” Seraphina said.
“The size needs to be exact too,” Suliel said, parroting the words that Kelsey had told her. “Neither too big, nor too small.”
“Hmm. It might be difficult. But I’m sure the blacksmiths have ways of making round things.”
“I’ve been told that the easiest way is to build a tower and drip molten lead down a central shaft,” Suliel said. “If the tower is high enough for the lead to solidify on the way down, you end up with lots of balls like this.”
“The easiest?” Seraphina said, eyebrows raised. “It doesn’t sound easy at all. And I don’t recall a tall tower being reported as one of Kirido’s new buildings.”
Suliel shrugged, trying to cover her twitch at the news that Seraphina—that the Rose Circle—was getting reports about Kirido’s construction efforts. “A long shaft works just as well,” she said.
“Our current price is one silver for one hundred… candles,” Suliel said aloud. “If you prefer, we can sell the materials for a slight discount. It makes them easier to transport, but I suspect the costs of putting them together won’t make it worth it for you.”
Seraphina nodded. “You may well be right, but we will see for ourselves,” she said. “For now, shall we add… twenty thousand candles to the first order? And perhaps we can set up a weekly shipment without going through you each time.”
“That should be possible,” Suliel agreed. “I’ll give you a letter of introduction to my people.”
“Then we have a deal.” Seraphina raised her cup as if she was giving a toast.
“Wait—” Suliel protested, “What can you tell me about the support I’ll be getting.”
“Very little, I’m afraid. I can’t give away who our members are.”
“I suppose not,” Suliel acknowledged. “But I can hardly supply your goods if I’m locked in a dungeon.”
“That isn’t going to happen,” Seraphina assured her. “We can’t show ourselves, but we can be very influential behind the scenes. You’ll have your confirmation before the two weeks is up, I’m sure of it.”
Suliel looked at her new partner doubtfully. “If you say so,” she finally said. “Then, there’s one thing I should mention, in light of our new relationship. Princess Elara invited herself to dinner with me tonight.”
“Did she.” Seraphina’s face assumed a very complex expression that Suliel had trouble reading.
“Will that be troublesome?” Suliel asked. “It’s not like I could have said no, but she didn’t specify that it should be private. I could invite you if you wished.”
“No…” Seraphina said slowly. “She no doubt wants a private meeting, so if you don’t give her one, she’ll just bully you for another dinner invite.”
“Where does she stand on… this issue?”
“It’s not really known,” Seraphina said. “She is her father’s daughter, but she was on quite close terms with her aunt, before. Since her marriage, she’s been… unpredictable.”
“I see. So you don’t know what she wants, then.”
“I do not. Do let me know if you find out, won’t you?”
Suliel laughed ruefully. That was the end of their negotiations for the day. There were a few small details to be ironed out, like where the coin was to be delivered, but that was all handled with a minimum of fuss. It wasn’t long before Suliel was once again at the mercy of the gossiping ladies, but soon after that, she found herself in her carriage, headed home.
< There's the price it costs to make it and the price people are willing to pay for it,> Kelsey sent back.
Suliel scowled.
The first sign that something was wrong was one of the horses screaming. Suliel had heard that sound once before and she never wanted to hear it again. Almost in the moment she recognised the sound, there was a massive crash from outside of the carriage.
Then the crashing was coming from inside, and all about as one side of the carriage dropped to the ground, slewing to the side and throwing her all about. Suliel slammed into the seat opposite her and collapsed in a heap.
Kelsey’s voice was just a random noise in her head. Suliel didn’t understand it, she didn’t understand what was happening. She groaned.
Suliel looked around, but nothing made sense. The cabin was all smashed up and lying on its side. From outside came a voice that she didn’t recognise.
“Just go through the roof, then.”
There was another crash, this time from the roof of the carriage. Suliel stared, wide-eyed as an axe smashed a hole in what had been the roof. An unfamiliar face looked in.
“I told you she’d be fine,” he said.
Suliel screamed, but it didn’t drown out the voice in her head.
Kelsey said.
The man had pulled back from the hole, but only to make it bigger. The axe cut into the wood again, quickly enlarging the hole.
Suliel did remember. She reached into her sleeve and grasped the handle.
Suliel wondered what happened to her guards. They were out there, somewhere. Knocked out by the crash? Killed by whomever these men were?
The man returned. He didn’t look like a rescuer or a guardsman. He looked like a thug. Suliel used Nobility’s Privilege.
Bram Bjornson, Level 16, Unmarried, Parents dead, 3 brothers, Loyal to: Aran Myaren, Human, Street Enforcer
He looked back at Suliel and sneered. “Don’t try anything now, little lady. One piece don’t mean no damage.”
He casually ripped off some more of the carriage roof and stepped carefully inside.
In one smooth motion, just as she had practised, Suliel whipped out her pistol and shot the thug in the face.