Soul Bound

1        Soul Bound

1.3      Making a Splash

1.3.1    An Obligated Noble

1.3.1.21 Plumbers, and how to not to pick them

9:45 am, Saturday June 10th, 2045

5 bells of the dog watch

Zerday full, 14th day of the month of KrevinBelember, A2F1600

Kafana: {Guys, I’m about to have my chat with Claudio. Will you be able to keep an ear out for my questions and advise me, so I can at least sound like I’m well informed and know what I’m doing?}

Alderney: {Kafana, you’ll do great. Have more confidence in yourself. And of course we’ll help you. All I’m doing at the moment is helping Tori and Virgil carry out an epic prank on Herberto.}

Bungo: {He will lose dignity, he will lose sanity, and then he shall laugh.}

What had those two come up with? No, better if she didn’t ask and could deny all knowledge.

Tomsk: {I’m being introduced to some dances by Lady Sienna, but it feels like I’m being examined with a microscope by a gunnery sergeant. I may not be able to spare much attention, but I’ll help if I can.}

Bulgaria: {She’s deciding if you fit her vision of nobility, or if you’re a vain and greedy person who should only be entrusted with the role of a follower. Treat it like a job interview.}

Wellington: {I’m heading back to the library with Camillo, to look at books and ladders. Don’t forget your expert systems - they each have areas of knowledge they’re expert in, and they can use their initiative on when to prompt you, if you grant them permission.}

Oops, had she been preventing her systems using their full abilities? In addition to Minion, Balthazar, Melchior and Dinah, she also had Ketah (who used a very human looking artificial body to help out in arlife), Terah (who looked after her arlife safety), Rizah (who briefed her on global arlife stuff like political schemes or online trends) and Bilah (who protected her privacy and reputation). Minion was able to message her, and she’d given Balthazar permission when she’d told him, as an ongoing project, to warn her if he noticed her about to fall into a plot trap inside Soul Bound. That project (which she’d named “sense danger”) had been passed over to Dinah, but besides that her family of expert systems had respected her attempt to get immersed in her character when playing, and hadn’t interrupted.

She thought about it. Hmm. Yes, Wellington was right, as usual. Dinah might be her expert on Soul Bound, but if Terah knew more about combat tactics in general, or Rizah knew more about politics, they might have ideas that Dinah wouldn’t. If she told them to help Dinah, would that make them stop everything else, or did they all have the equivalent of the “Multitasking” skill she’d just gained?

Kafana: {Minion, please pass on a message to my family of expert systems. Everyone, you all have responsibilities so don’t interrupt anything vital, but if you have attention to spare, can you lend Dinah a hand in providing me with in-game advice, if you know something relevant? Or, well, word it better than that? Put something in about going with Dinah’s judgement on when not to interrupt?}

Minion: {You are as clear as always, my Queen. I shall word it appropriately for you, based upon how other wombles work together and my best guess at your intentions.}

When she’d first received her tiara she had, in a moment of whimsy, addressed its expert system as “Minion” and referred to herself as the “Queen of Song” - an epithet it still used and which had shaped its snarky personality and the way they interacted together. She’d come to accept that, but it was yet another reminder of the way in which small actions could have unexpected long term consequences.

Bulgaria: {Kafana, I’m still with Lady Pia, and we’re discussing Lelio and Pantalone. I’ve told her I’m able to talk with you, and she doesn’t mind if I pause to answer. In fact she said to tell you “Good luck, check your clothing, and don’t fall asleep on him”. We’re both available for any questions you have.}

Oh no, would she ever live that down? She looked down at the fine clothes she’d started the day wearing, and realised they were now stained with garden soil. Obviously not ones that had been enhanced with self-cleaning runes. She’d used her magic to clean things before, but that wasn’t permanent and didn’t use runes except as an aid to visualise what type of mana she wanted. Come to think of it, the spell wasn’t really a “buff” either. Her buff skill was at level 23, nearly the maximum for a journeyman, but “clean” was listed separately, at level 4 (effectively 12, after adding the +8 from the broach she used). Was it partially reality magic, in the same way ingredient improvement was? Or was it all just “magic”, and the categories approximate things added by System, and prone to change as her understanding increased? She thought about it, as she looked at her broach.

Empress Wei's Broach of Virtuosity (EPIC)(UNIQUE)

+8 to skills

Bad luck will fall upon people who spread harmful rumours about you that are untrue, equal to the malice of the spreader.

???

"Empress Wei was virtuous and seen to be virtuous, and so confounded her accusers."

DURABILITY 100000/100000

She still hadn’t discovered all its properties, but it didn’t seem to be cursed so that was fine. Either she’d find out or she wouldn’t. But she could find out about her cleaning spell. She deliberately took a speck of dirt from her clothing and set gestalts defining how she wanted to appear and things that needed to be repaired, moved or removed. Then she sang, pouring mana into her visualisations, and threw the speck away with enough force to chuck a snowball.

[Skill “clean” merged into “Reality Magic”.]

[Skill “Reality Magic” has reached level 15.]

Not only were her clothes clean, they felt as fresh as if they’d just been taken from a dryer. Her hair was back to being beautifully arranged, and even her teeth gleamed. Well, that answered that one. She was a little surprised at how well it had worked, given she was no longer working with Wellington. She cast a suspicious glance at the slight bump under her clothing where the body harness devised by Alderney kept her emerald in contact with her skin:

Emerald of Harmony (ARTIFACT)

Your luck depends upon the purity of your intentions

+100% bonus to spell durations cast via group performance

+30% to Earth attunement

Durability: 100000/100000

It might be the boost to her Earth attunement which did it, or it might be that she was casting the spell jointly with another entity, and just not aware of it. To be safe, she touched the wood of the study door and sent a silent prayer to Dro:

Kafana: =Thanks=

She received back an emotion, and a brief image of being smiled at by the pregnant statue that she’d seen standing by the tree in the courtyard.

Dinah: {Nadine, Bilah has offered me a routine that will help me spot when the appearance you present could benefit from a touch of magic. Would you like me to keep an eye on that for you? By the way, it is likely Lord Landi will think you are dithering, if you wait much longer before knocking - he knows you are out here.}

Dithering? That wouldn’t do. She straightened up and knocked confidently upon the door.

It was a small room on the third layer of the Palazzo, looking out over the courtyard of the deities from high up in a corner and, beyond, out onto the Grand Market. The room contained a low lacquered table by the window, and a pair of leather upholstered chairs facing it that matched the warm tone of the walls and carpet. It felt cozy and welcoming, though somewhat impersonal - there was no clutter, no paintings or mementos to hint at the character of the owner.

Claudio: “Suor Kafana. You have asked for some of my time in private, and I grant it. This room is warded from all scrying and spying. What is on your mind? Speak, and I shall listen.”

Kafana: “I’m worried about the safety of Torello. We spoke earlier about the Red Death being the sort of magically enhanced disease that is Mualeleth’s hallmark, but I think it’s just part of a larger plan. I’d like to sketch out for you the pattern I’ve seen, and suggest a couple of actions that might be taken to investigate further.”

He didn’t speak, but motioned with a hand for her to continue, his attention fully upon her.

Kafana: “The minor threat, which I’ve already spoken to Lady Pia about, is that someone seems to be deliberately stirring up tension between Basso, the district with the largest population and least wealth, and Alto, the district where most of the nobles live.”

“The major threat is the pirates. Someone is leaking information to them, that lets them ambush just the ships heading towards Torello that are carrying large cargoes of metal. But not if the ship carrying it belongs to one of the shipping lines that have recently been taken over by Bianco Holdings, who are owned by the White Lily. If that were all, it would be serious but not critical.”

She paused, waiting for him to think it through before continuing.

“However there are indications that the Count of the Arsenal District, Lord Ruffo, might also be involved. If he is willing to betray Torello to the pirates, or even just stand aside as a neutral party while Bianco Holdings takes a portion of Torello’s merchant fleet over to the pirates too, timing their move to coincide with all the guards in Torello being distracted by putting down a riot triggered in Basso, that could be deadly. Torello could fall.”

Claudio: “How certain are you?”

Kafana: “Not certain at all. That’s a worst case scenario, and all the evidence is circumstantial.”

She spent the next ten minutes, aided by the others over chat, laying out their investigation so far, and the plan Wellington had come up with to trap the leaker. When she’d finished, he summarised.

Claudio: “You want to lay a trap. You want to have Verrocchio, one of the highest ranked captains in the Saints, make a change in the copy of the schedule they send to Lord Ruffo, and do it without any of the other Saints knowing. You want him to add in a last minute request for the Saints to escort a ship heading towards Torello and attach a fake cargo manifest that’s so full of rare metals it will be too tempting a target for the pirates to pass up.”

Kafana: “That’s right. If the pirates single it out, they way they did the Speranza, then that’s evidence the leak isn’t coming from the Saints or from admiral Fiore.”

Claudio: “It wouldn’t prove the information is being deliberately leaked by Lord Fabrizio Ruffo himself. It could be someone he trusts enough to remove his mind protections for, or a member of his staff.”

Kafana: “Do you ever remove yours?”

Claudio: “Outside wards? Not even to bathe.”

Kafana: “How hard would someone find it to suborn the staff members who have access to where you’d store that sort of document?”

Claudio: “Dispatches arriving by bird or courier arrive at the cabinet of the count, the cabinet of the seneschal, the cabinet of the marshal, the cabinet of this estate’s steward, or over at the Titulous. Once there, the magic seals are checked for tampering and authenticity then opened in a warded room by that cabinet’s secretary, or the marshal’s provost. Confidential documents will be carried by a page or squire, resealed in a numbered document box, over to the cabinet of seals - that’s the fief of Baronet Pace, my personal secretary, who guards with his life the magic items used to seal the documents I send. His document storage area falls under the same wards as the House Vault, and he rules his staff with exemplary strictness. Even I can gain entrance only on his sufferance, and after an elaborate checking procedure. So elaborate that I find it easier to request documents rather than get them myself.”

He smiled ruefully.

Claudio: “If I didn’t know the man, I’d suspect it was deliberate. He shudders at even the thought of something being out of place, and my strolling around his sparkling clean shelves, touching things, is, to him, nearly as bad as seeing a rat perched on an open book. Still, one must allow people their foibles.”

Rats sitting on books not eating them? What did that remind her of?

Kafana: “So you trust him enough to let him work unsupervised?”

Claudio: “Secretary is an advanced class, requiring more than just ability as a scribe. Master secretaries in good standing with their Guild are dedicated to the preservation of privacy. They have skills that counter those of forgers, frauds and other thieves, and an understanding of security protocols that matches those of high level guards. Those who are not themselves mages must demonstrate knowledge of what mages can do, and the means to protect against it. And they are as bound by oaths and regular inspections as any advocate or accountant. Baronet Pace is a high master secretary and has served me flawlessly for 22 years. I’d sooner distrust myself.”

Kafana nodded.

Kafana: “And you have good judgement. But what about other Counts? What are the chances of Ruffo being betrayed by his secretary?”

Claudio: “He has the Ruler profession just as I have, and has had it for long enough that his eye for talent, and for matching people to roles that suit them, will be quite high level. His private secretary is from a family that has served House Ruffo for generations. I’ve met him at council meetings, and while he’s not in the same league as Baronet Pace, he’s always struck me as reasonably competent and loyal to Fabrizio.”

Kafana: “So he’s unlikely to have been suborned, or careless enough to not prevent or detect others reading convoy schedules being sent to Ruffo?”

Claudio: “Very unlikely. If someone took his family hostage or placed a curse upon him, it might happen once. But the protocols secretaries follow would soon reveal it, and you’ve shown me evidence that this pirate collaboration has been going on months. I think we can narrow it down to Fabrizio or someone very close to him, like a mistress or personal ally. Either way though, you are correct that it is a large enough risk to Torello as a whole, to justify risking a ship in order to find out.”

Kafana: “That’s what I’d like your help with. I don’t want to sacrifice an innocent ship to be sunk by pirates. Do you have any ships heading towards Torello at the moment? I can use the communication between adventurers to send a message from you to the captain, and I can find volunteers among the adventurers to rendezvous with it, so it will be packed to the gunnels with artifact wielding mages and archers, that the pirates won’t expect to be there.”

Claudio was surprised into a burst of laughter, by the blood-thirsty enthusiasm in her voice as she relayed the suggestion from Alderney.

Claudio: “Well, well. You are full of surprises. Mor was right about you. Yes, I think I have a captain bold enough for the task. Suonacorno has a steady crew who have done well against pirates in the past. He’ll shortly be heading south from Pentapolis and he’s ambitious enough to relish the chance to prove himself. Your adventurers can rendezvous with him in secret when he stops over in Spoleto. That’s part of Jacopo Pazzi’s holdings and his guards are notoriously bribable. If you can carry a return message back from him, to confirm he’s happy with the adventurers who’ve arrived, we can brief Verrocchio after it is too late for anyone to tell the pirates it’s a trap, and he can send a second force with orders to catch The Scourge in a pincer. Since it isn’t factional fighting, or war against another region, we might even manage to persuade a few high level mages to get involved.”

He rubbed his hands, looking extremely satisfied.

Kafana felt pleased and relieved. Until her brain caught up with the words he’d said earlier. As lightly as she could, trying not to sound suspicious, she asked a question.

Kafana: “Oh, by the way, what did you mean about Mor being right?”

Claudio looked a little like a boy who’s been caught with his hand inside a jar full of sweeties he wasn’t meant to be eating.

Claudio: “Um, that’s a bit of a secret."