Chương 315: Glitching

The lights all fractured as if through prisms, I could see double-images of everything in off-color. The air shrieked with ozone charge like lightning would strike any moment. My body was filled with a hollow pain, as if making room for an agony I could not actually feel. And then it snapped, back to normal. The queen at her husband's side. My mana-warriors were pushed way over to the back of the delegation, Nathan was moved to the side of the conflict rather than sitting inside the Freckentop ranks.

Muranda Nhullit was in a row with the other rebel house supporters. Nearly everyone's expressions were shifted somewhat, the king's anger was now tempered with arrogant amusement, the queen's eyes no longer held that fill of fear that I worked so hard to put there. But I was not in control of my body. Sounds felt oddly muted, but my mouth was moving, and I could feel my own posture and skin from within.

The tickle of loose hairs against the back of my neck, slipped loose of my silver combs and not secured with magic. I could feel the knotted tension in my own shoulders as my face and throat shaped words.

".. I speak on behalf of a coalition of Houses, vassals and lands. Effective immediately: Anquarry, Bismoque, Dimnitas, Fidiange, Hartrend, Meadowtam, Pierazard, Tumnassed and Woadrun are all operating in state of rebellion." A sensation like numbness was in my body, not the dull lack of sensation just the heavy feeling of unresponsive tissues. And that feeling was fading, bit by bit. I wiggled my toes, and then my fingers. It lifted faster as I spoke, listing off all the different provinces.

My legs and arms became my own, and then my hips and shoulders. The last of it was my mouth, my words, and my facial expression. I was compelled to finish the sentence with the same show of proud anger I had started with, And then the room was full of noise and shouting, as every single person who was not part of the scheme all reacted at the same time, horror and rage and rejoicing and blank stunned questioning confusion, the kind of surprise that can't form a question but cannot stay silent.

The uproar swelled over the confrontation, buffeting us from without, but we held our tableau. Okay, absolutely nobody is reacting. I mean, they're reacting the hell out of my announcement, but nobody is reacting to the fact that reality started to fracture for a minute. There's a big difference between 'I can't believe that she just said that' outrage and 'I think I just felt an earthquake' outrage. Nobody is reacting like the air just tried to break itself or like they were being pulled slowly in half.

They're reacting to the speech. So, that has to mean that I'm the only one that felt it? Maybe. I'll ask some... careful questions later. Right now, I've got to finish what I started. One catastrophe at a time.

"Well then," the king said, uncharacteristically thoughtful. For once, he was not letting his childish pique or inflated arrogance get in the way of his political cunning. His eyes were bright and deep, staring straight at me while the mask of civility covered the obvious hatred.

"That certainly makes your position clear. Would you be so kind as to allow us the room to discuss your terms?" The queen lifted an eyebrow.

"We'll be ever so pleased to discuss further after some deliberation. This is rather too significant for us to speak off-the-cuff, you understand." Okay. We're still on script. We've gotten past the cutscene and we're back to regular dialogue, and he's on his regular lines. I think that everything just got... smoothed over? Reset? At least I know my lines. I've played as Nathan, standing over there to the side, watching this play out.

Whichever of the various unsavory backstabbers had won the gauntlet to become the Revolt's spokesperson would always play this part through. I think I should play my part unless I want whatever that was to happen again.

"Of course, your majesty," I said, with a curtsy.

"We shall see ourselves out. So much to do." I turned, and with the procession of high-power nobles leading the way, nine of the thirteen Greater Houses joined a procession to leave the room entirely, and behind us the fifteen Lesser Houses that owe fealty, leaving them behind. After all, they wanted to plot against us in peace. I'll let them have it, because I'll hear all about it later anyway. I've got enough agents and informants among the Duskare and Brunbling houses, even without my other resources.

[Mission Checkpoint: Head of the Houses. 20 XP] Kimothy folded in on one side of me, taking my arm as we funneled through the exit. He looked nervous being so near all the attention that was on me, and he looked even more scared to be in this place on his own. Trazom and Kurumi joined me on the other side, but Rabert and Tiviti still kept their distance. Freckentop has to have spies among our number as well, after all.

Revealing that those two are close to me will open the door for someone to find out what we did to Nathan. We marched silently through the foyer, past servers and staff members that gaped at us from wide eyes. They had certainly not expected an uprising against the crown when they came to work. I concentrated on keeping my steps measured and playing my part until we were out of the room. Out of the scene, more like. That's the hardest that the game has ever pushed back against me.

But, it's also the first time that I've made major changes to a scripted cutscene in person. There seemed to be compromises. The game let me stay in charge of our side, it's still making room for my presence. It just doesn't seem to like changes I make to other people's trajectories. The queen needed to be unintimidated so she could deliver her lines, so I think my bathroom ambush got retconned out. Nathan is not committed to their side yet, it seems, so he can have his progression from this point.

I'm going to have to spend some time asking a lot of quiet, careful questions to see what else might have gotten shifted. Am I still the Crown Princess? Is Wendy alive? Are the trains running on time? My sincere hope is that the only things that got undone was whatever needed to be done to keep the plot points where they needed to be. Reducing my threat level so it makes sense for the monarchs to hold their ground and ask us to leave, fairly innocuous. Harigold Glitter was not going down without a fight.

Kimothy leaned in just a bit closer, and I formed a flexible bubble of still silent air for privacy. He glanced over his shoulder towards the Dominionists, and whispered, "So, are we going to fight them now?"

"Not yet," I murmured back.

"For one thing, we need to go through the motions of addressing grievances. Declaring ourselves to be in rebellion is part of a chain of steps that ends with swords. Right now it mostly means that several specific procedures are going before the courts and the high council, various emergency committees are being assembled, and contingency provisions of the budget office and tax assessor are going into effect.

Right now, we're still at the stage of sending out fast messengers and getting people out of bed to consult their procedures manual."

"No fighting?"

"Plenty of fighting. Consider: the royals control the city guard, the cavalry guard, and the kingdom army, all of which are clustered around and within this city. As the rebellion, we are in occupied territory. Under siege, but politely. Our troops will be on the way. The fighting starts out on the roads, as their people try to block our people from reaching Hearstcliff. Flanking maneuvers, logistics trains, you'd find it tiresome. But the fighting will move, it will contract, advancing towards the city.

People will start suffering for this war almost right away. But the fighting does not come home, come here, for a few more months. And until it does, we all pretend that everything is normal."

"Really? That's pretty understated for a rebellion," he said.

"It will seem that way," I said, keeping my steps in time.

"But messages and messengers take time. And if we declared rebellion and then immediately launched our offensive in this city, that would not be a meaningful declaration at all, it would be a sneak attack. The military has very strong opinions about sneak attacks, and if we try to win this without the support of the military, we will lose."

"So instead?"

"So instead we issue the challenge, we pitch our case before the courts, they reject our demands, we appeal the decision, they reject the appeal. The royals order the council to dismiss its declaration, they refuse the demands, and there's appeals and rejections et cetera. Meanwhile reserve groups are being pulled up from light duty, supplies are moved into place, emergency hospitals are built. The war starts at the borders and starts heading our way.

And here in the middle, we secure alliances, and a lot of counterintelligence work gets done."

"This whole thing seems very counter to intelligence," he observed, and just then we stepped out the front doors and into the open air, where our orderly parade-like procession spilled into a churning and disorganized crowd. This part was not planned as thoroughly. But that's what leaders, even figurehead leaders, are for. I released Kimothy's arm, and rose up into the air, taking some elevation to address the milling masses.

"Thank you all for your cooperation and participation," I said, giving my best impression of the fashion-show presenter from where I stood on my own invisible stage.

"We could hardly have asked for a better showing tonight," I said, as if reality had not glitched away some of my finest moments of the evening, "and I am honored to have played the role you have elected me to, and I will continue to make you proud. Communications going forward will be through the usual channels while this matter is processed through the courts, and we will do what we can to ensure an orderly transition going forward.

Your questions may be directed to your liege leaders for now, and I look forward to speaking with all of you in coming weeks." Muranda Nhullit started a smattering of applause, and the crowd picked it up for just a minute or so. I think it's the 'presenter' voice, it invites applause.

"That said, I don't trust that Vobel won't try something impulsive and drastic, so we should likely get off the streets. I'm going to begin my own preparations for coming events. For those so inclined, I believe that Baroness Grancine Tarratan knows where the best after-party is at this time. Thank you all again, and have a wonderful night." This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I sank back towards the ground, my feet tap-tapped down.

And the crowd dispersed, moving off in groups, the largest one following Baroness Grancine. The least I could do for her after she supported my songwriting for three years. I'll be doing a lot more for her later on. Kurumi was staring as the wealthy and powerful moved towards carriage stands and slipped into shadows, leaving the scene by their own means. Her face was a picture of disbelief.

"It can't just be that easy," she said, staring around.

"You just declared a war, and everyone just goes home?" Kimothy was nodding, he seemed to have the same sentiment but was a little too befuddled to verbalize his confusion. Still about the war. That's the only thing they have to discuss. Nobody seems aware of the breakdown in fundamental reality. They're not showing existential fear. Seems like I'm the only one allowed to observe and remember that. So I need to address what they did see.

"I did not declare war, I declared rebellion, the war gets declared after everyone has found their armies," I said blithely, hands folded behind me.

"This is nothing," Trazom said, still holding Kurumi's hand against the crook of his elbow.

"I'll tell you about the politest stabbing I've ever witnessed."

"You're joking?"

"It was very polite," he assured her. I cleared my throat.

"We won't be welcome back here again until tomorrow, so we probably ought to head back. Anyone who is interested in traveling with me, I will hand out protective masks before I open the portal." Tiviti signaled for a time-out.

"You're not really coming back tomorrow are you?"

"Yes?" I said.

"It's Fashion Week. I'm already going to be missing five days as it is, I can't very well skip tomorrow as well." She looked unamused.

"Well, apparently I don't actually know what a rebellion is."

"I'll draw you a roadmap," I said.

"For the next several weeks, the two sides of this situation will get steadily less and less civil to each other. Neither one wants to be responsible for aggressions so nobody will escalate faster than they believe they can get away with. But nobody wants to seem weak, so they will not de-escalate at all.

This will set a pace for increased aggressions at a fairly steady pace that culminates in violence here in Hearstcliff, which will be timed to seem like a coincidence that this is when their various troops and resources are most prepared. But to escalate from here to there, the beginning needs to be barely elevated above normal tensions. Therefore, the curiously, suspiciously subdued atmosphere in the first few days.

Everyone will pretend that this is just a procedural effort, paperwork filed and court processes scheduled. They'll ignore the fighting that is growing ever closer. The building hostilities will not approach what you would call real anger for some months yet."

"Oh," Kimothy said, mollified.

"When you explain that, it actually makes sense. Nobody wants to be the bad guy and get too violent too fast, but nobody wants to be the weakling and go to violence too slowly. I thought this would just be some stupid etiquette thing where nobody does anything that makes sense." His words ended in a particular, biting sarcasm.

"It still is that," I said.

"But just not as superficially as it seems at first glance. It's all still bullshit, but you have to dig a little to really see the scope and shape of it." I created eight masks, and passed them out to all six of my allies that I could see. I did not react too much when all seven were taken and left me with one, the last one going to the ally I cannot see. I opened the portal, took two people's hands, and stepped inside.

When the portal was uncomfortably full I shut it quickly and reopened at the school, sighing in relief when everyone got out. Out on the quad now, all eight of us glanced around. Belisa, Enefiat, Kimothy, Kurumi, Quarl, Rabert, Tiviti and myself. Rabert and Tiviti were both standing next to Belisa, who was crouching down and massaging her calves.

"Are you all right, Belisa?"

"I've been constantly moving for hours," she pointed out.

"Could not stop walking at all for the whole time. Next time someone else gets to do all the invisible stuff."

"So, tomorrow you all just go back to the same place, and see each other again, and pretend nothing happened?" Tiviti was asking.

"Apparently," Kimothy said, shrugging. Rabert scoffed.

"Hah! Not nearly. No, now we all start fighting. It starts socially. Recruiting all possible allies: third-parties, divided-loyalties, fence-sitters, minor houses. Trying to get spies into each other's factions, swaying loyalties. Moving money, arranging deals, setting strategy.

These are people who scheme and plot against each other over all sorts of issues, over budget items in a financial report or first-bid consideration or even over very minor things that could potentially somewhat influence some other matter altogether. Now there's a big issue, big enough to unite behind, big enough to fracture in front of it," he sounded strangely fervent, his eyes bright, his smile irrepressible. [The Ruthless] has finally seen his time come.

"In a few months there will be open fighting in this city," I said to cut him off before he could get weird about this.

"This is the last battlefield, not the first. And right up until that very day, there's going to be a question of who is fighting whom, and why. And for that, we need to communicate, we need to meet and speak and maneuver. So, yes, we are going back. Because if we do not, we lose opportunities."

"That very day..." Belisa repeated my words with a curious tone, then standing straight and stretching her arms.

"Natalie, do you know what day it will be?"

"With utter precision and certainty," I said, too calmly and too clearly.

"And if you think it is important, now, to know that exact date, I can answer that. But from experience, I can tell you that certainty and precision do not make you feel better about these things. I encourage you not to ask, and not for my sake." A silence dropped there, everyone considered the real issues we are discussing. A war will happen. Predestined, predetermined. Terrible outcomes, unavoidable. Bit by bit, they absorbed part of the truth that I have been steeping in since the day I was reborn.

I let them have their silence for it.