The Tickle Dungeons Pt. 03

He laughed at that.

"Well, that's my point," he said. "Think on it."

"Speaking of being a highly skilled lifter," Yais said, "What about that convincing stone?"

"They don't make those anymore--not for at least a couple of centuries. Wherever it came from has to be unique. They were used in the first century to overthrow the Crown and Throne by the Intelligensia."

"The who?" Yais asked.

"A secret group of advisors, scholars, and academics. They were a secret society inside a less secret society of the Quill and Tome--a secret fraternity of the Throne's University. Anyway, they believed that they could manipulate the union to march on the desert lands and expand along the southern island chains and up north to conquer the known world. They had mapped out little pushes and pulls here and there to do it. It's taught in the great houses--it was, really, a masterful plan."

"I've never heard of it," Yais said.

"You wouldn't. It's taught as important, required history--but not commonly. They'd perfected a science of convincing and compromise--of subtle manipulation of individuals and larger events. Things like this stone were part of that--I mean, a powerful, small part of it--but still."

"What happened to them?" She asked.

"They needed the great houses--immediately after the union, the great houses controlled the armies and the fields."

"And?"

"And they made a fatal mistake. They compromised the men--the heads of the households. They used blackmail and persuasion to have the men make subtle changes in things--which were all supposed to come together in an overthrow of the Crown and Throne. Multiple forces all pushing in seemingly random directions that would come together in a single master-stroke."

"But they more or less ignored the wives... and the wives talked. They saw a pattern and alerted the White Guard--which alerted the Throne--which alerted the order."

"Huh. Undone by women?"

"It was a big deal. Apparently, their science held that such a failure was literally impossible."

"Were they... what do you do with forces like that--put to death? They couldn't."

"No--the world was under Sattvan edict. They were punished pretty extensively and then remanded to Sattva--which I imagine was worse."

"What? How?"

He shrugged. Things were a bit different then. It was close to the mythological age. I guess they had a way to do it.

She considered. "So wherever that Rinebach got it from?"

"Well, he was the one who summoned a Mythological Goddess of Misbehavior in Kellum Square," Cais said. "I guess we can be pretty sure that wasn't the big mistake it looked to be."

"It did look like an accident," Yais said. They hadn't been there--but Cais had read the reports.

"Right--the Indexium had looked over his find and allowed it. Should have been fine."

"So it's like the Intelligensia, then," Yais said.

"What do you mean?"

"Subtle persuasion, a bunch of small effects becoming one larger one. Things lining up?"

He considered.

"And maybe this time they aren't ignoring the women of House Verah," Yais said.

TO BE CONTINUED...