Chương 178: Chapter 199: Gatekeeping

On good days Nathan makes himself easy to keep track of when he's causing trouble. Early in the year he was always sneaking off to do something underhanded, but after that every time he's done something underhanded it was right in front of me so I started to get a false sense of security. And then the thing with the invitations. Now I can't even trust when I can't see him. At least today he should be in the open where I can watch him. From a distance, preferably.

I don't consider "him leaving me alone and staying out of my business" to be an attainable scenario. I can tell the difference between fanciful optimism and feasible outcomes. When I walk into the vestibule I can see Nathan's back as he carries Curigi to the service doors, where the caterers come and go. If you're trying to stave off hypothermia, a kitchen is a good place to do it. That should monopolize his time long enough for me to take my place and set the tempo for the night.

Last week our territorial claim had been set right at the door, everything ahead of the placed seating arrangements and the stage, so we had turned the gala space into a wishbone with us at the center, drawing a line so that everyone had to choose whether to stand with the Freckentops or stand against them. This time we've got a different layout. Bruce and Petty have set everything up for me ahead of my arrival, bless them.

Same wishbone, but the Freckentops are again huddled into one of the far corners but this time Harigold is at the far end, directly opposite them. And that redefined the room. Instead of "with us or against us" binaries, this turns the general arrangement into a spectrum.

"On a scale of us vs them, how us are you, how them are you?" Suitably, the Pinkings and Greifirs were bracketed on that end, just off-center, so that anyone moving from the door to the Harigold bastion would have to weave between them. Skyback was next in line, all but pledged to the cause already. In character and temperament, that House is the non-Development house most like our own. After that was a salting of lesser Houses, if I had to guess I'd say opportunists looking for the safest harbor to shelter in.

Tarratan, Snairlin, Pailser, Braige, Goodskill, Jamiris, Skerlat, Vuryta, a constellation of small clusters that hovered in the gaps. I noticed that Kadot was attached to the side of Greifir like a mushroom on a tree trunk, but also I recognized a lot of faces here and realized that my support from the Lesser Houses might be stronger and more genuine than from the Greater Houses. Potentially a source of strength that I've been overlooking.

Some of the Lesser Houses are only slightly less powerful and influential than the Great Houses. I was surprised to see that Grennick is the next nearest, even if they were acting like this was just simply a place to stand and not a declaration of loyalty. They knew better, there was not a single one of them that was not better-versed in this game of smoke signals and mirror mazes than I am. Also, they were positioned rather close to Goodskill, their cadet house.

Normally those two get along like cats and baths, I would say that no House has a worse relationship with its cadet if it weren't for the recent events with the Meadwhites. And, if I didn't know what the Uncin were planning. Arrayed nearby, the Nhullit and Kinghand Houses were almost parallel, bracketing the walkway. Not strong allies, but they had agreed to my terms more readily than most. And the way they had positioned themselves indicated that they considered themselves the gatekeepers of my allies.

I had mixed feelings on that, I would prefer to claim a bigger tent than this, but they were making a statement about who they considered to be on my side, and I could not really argue with their estimates. Ebonder was not far from that position, just right of center. The Aumerje were positioned at the crest of the wishbone, the half-way point, right where Harigold had posted our position last time. For them, not a statement of "us vs them", just a statement of neutrality, of waiting and seeing.

They were making a position out of refusing to take a position. It did not look good for them, but they probably thought they were being so damn clever by refusing to commit to anything until after all the risks have been taken. And then arrayed on the left, the Dominionist faction. Freckentop way in the corner, Eyellon very cozy and close by, and the Duskare and Brunbling were spread out and making good use of the space.

If you took for granted that Aumerje was staying out of this, my allies and associates outnumbered the Dominionists by two-to-one. A comfortable margin; I like to have a significant-to-overwhelming advantage when I'm coming into a conflict. Fighting fair is just an easy way to find out what cheats your opponent is using. Two-to-one is my kind of odds. So when I walked in, my first move was to sneer over at my left, pinning my vision all the way to the Freckentops at the end.

The few faces down there that caught my glare all turned away quick. The Eyellon families were almost kissing-close to the Freckentops, the Duskare were "yeah we're in the same faction and we're going to support them but that doesn't mean we're best buddies" close, and the Brunblings were "please don't associate us with them, this is just business" close. Even the core Houses of Dominion were more fractured than ours were.

My first actual stop was the Aumerje cluster, of which maybe half were actually authentic hereditary Aumerje and the rest were high-ranking dignitaries from the magisters. They bowed, I curtsied. The Aumerje duke and duchess both casually gravitated themselves to the far side of their throng, leaving their underlings to interact with me. I lobbed out a few "how do you do"s and "what do you make of that"s to take the temperature, and found it to be cold.

The native-born Aumerje nobility seemed skittish about me, which I understood and respected, the magister membership seemed standoffish and superior, which I hated. It meant they were still planning on pursuing their best case in court to prosecute Nathan's contract and take ownership of me entirely. The latter I had rather expected, but I'm not sure why the hereditary Aumerje are so wary. Odd. I left them behind and grazed past the Ebonder gathering.

They were pleasant and noncommittal, arrayed toward me but I would not expect them to take any risks or efforts for me. After all, I had offered them very little. The main reason they knew of to back me was that I'm popular with the other houses, so sitting with me is sitting with the majority.

And I don't want to push much past that, if I made a serious bid for them I might slip up and reveal that I know about Ebonder necromancy and if I do that, the odds of them having me killed go sharply up and the odds of any good outcome go sharply down. There was something about the way they approached me, someone stepping out from the main group to speak with me as if preempting me to keep me at a distance. Odd. After that, I navigated between Nhullit and Kinghand.

They both had surprisingly amiable relations with Meadowtam. Long before Harigold took the dukedom from Meadwhite, Dimnitas and Hartrend had been parts of Meadowtam, and when they were carved off as protectorates they maintained good relations with the original.

Neither Kinghand nor Nhullit was the original house to rule over their protectorates but even though the leadership and aristocracy of all three lands had changed hands multiple times, the citizenry of all three lands were still well-disposed to each other and that goodwill flowed uphill. Last week I was surprised by how much they favored us, but I'm willing to accept a helping hand. I looked over my shoulder, and saw Nathan moving past the Aumerje at a decent rate of "how do you do" per minute.

I used a glance to draw in one of the outskirt Nhullit and Kinghand viscounts.

"I am, again, so grateful to have both of your houses among those I call friends," I said with a winning smile.

"But we're all already so well acquainted. I'll bet you've both got hours of questions for my brother, if he happens this way." It was a safe gambit and it worked. The two of them shared a look, and an understanding, and a nod. Their aides faded back to the main body of the families, already setting up my suggestion. Should you find yourself in my position, learn this: a high-ranking noble giving a low-ranking noble a license to annoy another high-ranking noble is going to be met with great enthusiasm.

With the trap laid in, I moved through their waters and found the Grennicks. In particular, a snakeskin-jacketed earl with a jaunty hat who waited for me with a walking stick and a variety of ribbons laced around his arms.

"Good day, Lady Harigold," he said, and I was impressed by how sincerely respectful he sounded.

"Pleasant to see you. The Marquis commends his regards."

"And I in turn," I said, curtsying to his bow.

"I do remain honored by the full-throated support of your house." I am used to Grennicks being the schemingest schemers, the lyingest liars. But last week and this, they've backed me in actions as well as words, and I have no indication that this could be a ploy. Which generally just means I haven't figured out the ploy yet. But this representative was just smiling.

"The Marquis is astute. And when the Pinkings move impulsively, and the Skybacks join after doing research, the smart money backs that move." He cleared his throat with his eyebrows raised, a sort of 'if you see what I'm getting at' sort of cough.

"Lessons learned from generations of observation."

"Is that so?" I said pleasantly. And I made a note to find out a lot more about that. There was a lot of stuff about this world that was not in the game, was not in my childhood lessons, and does not get spoken out loud. Most people don't know, and those that do are either keeping the wall of silence or assume that the rest of us know. But again, they sent someone out to meet me instead of letting me pick out someone to chat with. Odd. Then the weave through the lesser houses.

Most of them had gathered on this side. Even Pailser, the Eyellon's sidekicks, were over here, but they looked like maybe they were keeping their ears open to relay everything back to the home office. Both of Aumerje's cadets were here, Snairlin and Braige, but Aumerje often had trouble exacting loyalty from its cadets, after having overextended itself by lobbying for a third one.

I was not entirely sure what to infer from the presence of certain specific Lesser Houses in our coalition, but I would ask about that later. The Lesser Houses have less of a presence in this room than the Great Houses, but they're not nothing. Most of them are headed by an earl or count, and most of those are in attendance today. That's enough to warrant me stopping to exchange a greeting, pleasantries.

I'm seeing a lot of that from the Lesser Houses- Ebonder, Grennick, Nhullit, they all had plenty of earls and counts present but few of them felt the need to belly up and share a few words. But pretty much anyone of real rank in the Lessers is needing a brief moment of my time. Just my theory, but I suspect the difference is that Nhullit and Grennick don't feel like they need my coattails, they've got enough power of their own.

But Braige and Goodskill feel like I've got something they want, and so they're coming out to meet me. And actually I'm starting to get bogged down here, with nobles that are ranked enough individually that I can't turn my back and get gone, but collectively are weak enough that they will keep pestering me until I promise them concessions. Much more than usual- what was usually a passing footnote was about to consume my night.

A Skyback earl came to my rescue, with a well-executed, "pardon me, I simply must intrude, I'll bring her right back to you." Maybe I could not brush off the remoras without breaching protocol, but an earl-in-truth escorting an earl-by-courtesy to a meeting with a duke is not something that any earl or count could interject without themselves breaching the rules. I am going to make time for all of them, but that's what the regular season is for! I'm at the galas every weekend, I'm very accessible!

I don't need to lose Fashion Week for conversations that can take place any time. I glanced over my shoulder, and saw that Nathan was being held back by a wall of Nhullit and Kinghand well-wishers and professional conversationalists who were more motivated than these coattail-riders, and he did not have anyone coming to open the way for him. It wasn't just me, people were reacting oddly all around the room. Something is up. I feel like the only person who didn't get the group chat.

The Skyback earl patted my hand, she was not that old but her clothes were thirty years out of date and it was a bold choice that I appreciated.

"I'm sure you've got questions," she said, smiling.

"Rather a lot," I said frankly.

"Good," she said, "that's how we like it." And with a wink she moved back amongst her own people, leaving me with my core allies, Greifir and Pinking. Apparently everyone's in a goddamned mood tonight, I mused sourly. And that made me wonder. I spotted a couple of figures I know well enough to call over, and I waved them over to me while I promenaded the floor. The two countesses arrived at my elbows, bracketing me neatly.

"What have I missed?" I hissed, darting eyes around.

"There's a tension here I didn't expect, and people's reactions have been off. Did something happen over the past few days?" Left unsaid by general understanding: I do not catch the normal flow of events from Sevenday through Fiveday because of my school schedule, church attendance, combat training, business marketing, charitable works, field maneuvers and other refinements. So if something is not made public knowledge or brought to me specifically I don't know.

"Not much," the Greifir on my left said. She was wearing blood-red and steel-gray, still with last season's lacy fluff around her collar and wrists.

"There have been an unusual number of deaths," the Pinking on my right said, from underneath her impressive Marie Antoinette powdered beehive hairdo.

"Well yes," from my left.

"But, you know..."

"Asphyxiation by food allergies," the tiny woman with the enormous beehive said.

"Low-speed carriage accident that had no injuries except one body bludgeoned almost unrecognizable. Fall off of a roof. Mugging gone wrong. Burglary gone wrong. Extortion gone wrong. Killed by a jealous ex-lover. Suicide by axe. And then there were also some assassinations."

"Heck damn," I said.

"All of that in just this last week?" From my left: "Well, these things do spike over Fashion Week-""-as you learned last season-""-and this is not much over last season-""-which was already rather high-""-but it is enough to get people rather nervous."

"-and is probably related to other heightened tensions," the Pinking countess finished. She looked like she might have already said too much. A little bit of ' you know what I mean'. I turned them loose and stepped into my own fold, red-and-white livery gathering me to the center. It sounds like the recent tensions have a high degree of attrition among the aristocracy. I glanced backwards, and found Nathan still unable to pass by the Nhullit and Kinghand clusters, the Scylla and Charybdis.

Bound by convention he was held back at a safe distance. He was more than able to mingle in with the Dominionists, even the Aumerje. But he was being shown that he is not one of ours, whether he wants it or not. If he gets much more frustrated he might start knocking over rows of the event seating to get around these obstacles. It was doable. They're just chairs, arranged in rows, close together, and whoever knocks them out of position is an oafish bumbler who can't fit in.

Here's the trick about working against a spy: while nobody's watching they can do anything. While there's plenty of attention they need to blend into the social order. If Nathan just moves some chairs, that's going to be the whisper campaign for the next year. He loses a lot of his clout if he steps out of line, and he needs that clout as much as I need mine.

So he and Curigi are sitting behind a polite wall that keeps coalescing in front of him with some forms of etiquette to observe that keeps him from stepping past, and he's not even supposed to show how annoyed he is by this. This is not just petty. This is necessary. I know that he cannot support me. He's only got two options coming up: to support the establishment that I'm opposing, or to stay neutral to the conflict.

It's a hero thing, he can't join a movement that is endorsed by this many traitors, murderers and embezzlers. The original game that he's beholden to was written that way; even after he discovers that the Freckentop royal family is responsible for the Berry Blight, he's still so beholden to social order and stability that he cannot endorse any rebellion. Me? I'm beholden to a lot of things, and the status quo is none of them.