Chapter 712: Spanked
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“Gormanston Bynes,” Allayeth explained, “is one of the most prominent members of a powerful political faction here in Yaresh. It was his son, Calcifer, that you sent running off in a panic, but the father is the true threat.”
She was still walking from Emir’s cloud palace towards Jason’s with Jason himself and Arabelle Remore. They were keeping a leisurely pace while others hustled around them under magic umbrellas, regular umbrellas or a pointed longing for umbrellas. Jason’s aura was pushing aside any rain before it reached him or his companions.
“I first came across Bynes when I was working with the original refugee camp,” Arabelle said. “This was before the attack when we were scrambling to get any survivors out of the towns and into the city while keeping any world-taker worms out of the city. You remember the scramble to get supplies coming in and the logistics in place to do that efficiently.”
“I do,” Jason said. His cloud building had been the original screening centre before it was eventually moved to Emir’s.
“Bynes was pushing to get the funding for that cut. He was riling people up about the messenger threat, saying that funding should go to fighting the messengers.”
“Bynes and his faction are extremely focused on consolidating and expanding aristocratic power,” Allayeth explained. “They are also aggressively lacking in scruples regarding how their agenda is met.”
“Which usually means they’d be happy to feed puppies into a wood chipper,” Jason said.
“Can I assume that a wood chipper is a device for turning large pieces of wood into very small pieces of wood?” Allayeth asked.
“You can.”
“And I assume that placing small, adorable animals into such a device would remove a considerable amount of their innocent charm.”
“I would characterise that as accurate, yes,” Jason said.
“The main point,” Arabelle said, “being that they are willing to stoop to significant lows.”
“Like taking money from the refugee efforts,” Jason said. “Why would he make a move like that? It can’t make him popular.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised,” Allayeth said. “There are two things you need to know to understand Bynes. One is his political faction, and the other is that political faction’s agenda. The short version is that they are a cabal of merchant barons and old-money aristocrats. What they want is the ever-original money and power.”
“What makes them interesting,” Arabelle said, “is that while they do have combat-oriented people, they largely eschew the traditional power structure of personal power. Look at Ikola, a trained ex-adventurer, taking orders from Calcifer Bynes, a core user who’s never faced a monster in his life. The one he’s really serving is the father, not the son.”
“For the long version, let me start with context,” Allayeth said. “In any major population centre, political power is balanced between three forces. One power is the civilian government, be that a royal court or, in the case of most city-states, a ducal administration. It also frequently includes guilds and associations outside of the Adventure and Magic Societies, along with the noble houses and any other families of influence. Arabelle’s Remore family is a good example.”
“Strictly speaking, I married into it,” Arabelle said. “It’s how I manage to go five minutes without telling people my family runs a school.”
Jason snorted a laugh.
“The two societies, adventure and magic, make up another of the three major pillars of any city or country,” Allayeth continued. “The third force is the collective churches.”
“I’m going to go with the much lengthier explanation of the first force,” Jason said, “and guess that local government is the problem here.”
“Yes,” Allayeth said. “The problem is one of balance. When the three forces are in balance, things work more or less as they should. Corruption disturbs that balance, having various knock-on effects.”
“I’ve seen that before,” Jason said. The politics of Greenstone had a lot of rot, and Jason had seen dire consequences before that rot started being excised. From the exploitation of Sophie to Jason’s kidnapping to the disastrous expedition during which Farrah and many other adventurers died.
“In Yaresh,” Allayeth continued, “the civic administration is considerably weaker than the other two. This is almost entirely due to internal strife. Every one of the three groups has internal conflicts as they jostle for power, but a particular group amongst the city authorities has become a problem.”
“A bunch of rich pricks making trouble,” Jason said.
“Yes,” Allayeth said. “In this particular case, it is a collection of mostly aristocrats with exceptional wealth, along with a few merchant barons. They are known as the Aristocratic Faction. They own most of the land in the region and provide most of the jobs. They use that power and influence to co-opt their tenants and workers into certain ideologies. They take ideas that are easy to sell to large groups that the aristocrats themselves make sure are poorly educated. I’m talking about the usual tribalist and exclusionary ideologies, which they weld to other ideologies that help the aristocrats. Playing on simplistic ideals and commonly held prejudices, they’ve built a power base of loud and angry people who rabidly support their policies. The very policies that keep them poor and ignorant.”
“I’ve seen that before,” Jason said. “A lot of countries in my world have suffered through that. My own included.”
“What I just described is unpleasant,” Allayeth said, “but not, in and of itself, crippling. The problem is that the aristocratic faction has done something extremely unusual in that they have focused on power structures completely divorced from personal power. No adventurers, no magical researchers. Just money and political influence.”
“But political influence in Pallimustus is always tied to personal power,” Jason pointed out. “Royal families get stuffed full of monster cores so they can ostensibly stand at the top of society.”
“But that is not hard and fast,” Arabelle said. “Look at the Sapphire Crown Guild in Rimaros. They have more personal power than the royal family, but they’ve been instilled with an idea of duty.”
“Yeah,” Jason said, “but Rimaros is an exception. They put their people through the hard yards. You think Zara is some monster-core-eating waif?”
“Not the best example,” Arabelle acknowledged. “I already mentioned Ikola and how he was subordinate to Calcifer Bynes, despite being more personally powerful.”
“It’s part of an attitude the Aristocratic Faction promotes,” Allayeth said. “They are trying to normalise their strengths of money and influence as being more important than personal power. The problem is, they’re willing to undermine the structure they belong to. They undercut the city authorities, flatly lie about how and why they did it and use popular support to prevent any backlash. They blame everyone else while positioning themselves as the only solutions to the problems they themselves caused.”
“Why?” Jason asked. “What’s their end game?”
“The bureaucracy,” Allayeth said. “Each of the three groups brings their own strengths to the table, be it magic and monster hunting or communion with the gods. For civic administrations, it is the ability to run cities and countries. The day-to-day logistics of managing tens or hundreds of thousands, even millions, is breathtakingly complex. Once that complexity reaches a point where very few people understand it but a city or kingdom absolutely relies on it, you’ve created nexus points of extreme power. Power that most don’t even see until it gets exercised in ways they don’t like.”
“I see,” Jason said. “They’re riling up the population, using that to enact policies and force through appointments to put their own people in the nodes of bureaucratic power.”
“Yes,” Allayeth confirmed. “Everything from department heads like Bynes through to magistrates. Now, with the city fallen, you would expect them to back off. To let things rebuild before they resume their ambitions for control. Instead, they are using it as leverage. Their merchant barons are taking control of the private elements of the reconstruction; building firms, supply importers and the like. Their bureaucrats are taking control of the public elements. Regulations, seizures of private goods and resources in the name of the public good. And, of course, their people end up in charge of those resources.”
“They are setting themselves up so that, when Yaresh is rebuilt,” Arabelle explained, “they are in control of it.”
“And that’s why Bynes worked his way into that meeting?” Jason asked. “Because knowing, maybe even influencing whether Yaresh is rebuilt here or elsewhere is critical to their plans.”
“More than that,” Arabelle said. “If Yaresh gets saved from a fresh new disaster, the people behind that will have influence.”
“You already do, Jason,” Allayeth explained. “Your actions during the Battle of Yaresh, along with your conflicts with myself and Charist, have made your name known. The mysteries surrounding you only make you more interesting. I’m now convinced that Charist was manipulated into pushing you so that you would be undermined. The Aristocratic faction is a strong supporter of Charist, despite his ideologies being entirely centred around personal power hierarchies.”
“How does that work?” Arabelle asked.
“Charist dislikes many of the responsibilities that come with his level of power,” Allayeth explained. “When diamond rankers like myself or your father-in-law, Arabelle, settle permanently in a city, we take on certain responsibilities. The simple presence of our power has a ripple effect that goes unnoticed by the general population, but those in power are very aware of it. I suspect that you have some experience with this yourself, Jason.”
“Unfortunately,” Jason said.
“The Aristocratic Faction do a good job of relieving Charist of annoying tasks that he would otherwise have to deal with. People seeking him out for favours or knowledge. He lets the Aristocratic faction insulate him from that.”
“Will Charist act on their behalf?” Jason asked.
“Not directly,” Allayeth said with absolute assurance. “Charist is extremely enamoured of personal power hierarchies. He sees what they do for him as natural deference to his rank and would never grant them a favour for it, if only to avoid setting a precedent. But through their services to him, they’re able to filter the information he gets. I’ve been trying to get Charist more personally engaged in events, but to little success.”
“So that the way this faction painted me, Charist saw me as a threat to the city.”
“Yes,” Allayeth said. “Only when Charist’s approach was rebuffed effectively did he leave handling you to me. The Aristocratic Faction, however, did not give up so easily.”
“Bynes tried to paint me as a traitor and it backfired,” Arabelle said. “Bynes’ lackey, Ikola, tried the same thing on you, Jason. They were there specifically to sow doubt and diminish our influence.”
“What we did to Bynes will make him a laughing stock,” Allayeth said, “but it’s only one hit in a long and complex fight against the Aristocratic Faction. A good hit, but far from a finishing blow. We need to curtail their power and then do something about the Magic Society’s corruption. If we can manage both of those, Yaresh has a good chance of coming through this with a functioning political system that will actually help rebuild it. But, as the Magic Society and Bynes are demonstrating, times of crisis are strong opportunities for those willing to exploit them at the cost of everyone else.”
“You keep saying ‘we,’” Jason said. “I hope you don’t mean we three.”
“No, I mean those of us that fight for the soul of Yaresh,” Allayeth said, then sighed. “It is a challenge that seems increasingly insurmountable.”
Jason let out a sigh of his own.
“I’m not great at intervening in political situations, as it turns out,” he said. “I’m pretty good at reading them, though. And what I’m getting from this is that it’s an internecine rat’s nest that I can only make worse by sticking my big dumb head into the middle of. But you two just went and stuck it in for me.”
“You didn’t have to let him into that portal,” Allayeth said.
“Don’t give me that,” Jason said. “Arabelle knew I’d do that the moment she suggested it. And you knew it too.”
Allayeth glanced at Arabelle.
“What makes you think she was so confident?”
“Because she knows me,” he said, then also turned his gaze on Arabelle. “Don’t you, Mrs Remore? Why don’t you tell her why I did it?”
“Because I wanted you to,” Arabelle said. “I shouldn’t have done that. You’re right; involving you in the ground-level politics was a mistake. Given who and what you are, the circles you travel in, we should be treating you more like a diamond-ranker. Unless you know the local situation as well as Allayeth, here, you shouldn’t be involved.”
“Honestly,” Jason said, “it’s actually kind of great to see you make a mistake. You’ve always been this sage-like figure, talking me through every dumb thing I’ve ever done. It’s nice to see that you can stuff up, too.”
“I guess I shouldn’t apologise, then,” Arabelle said.
“No, you should definitely apologise. I’m caught up in this Bynes nonsense, now. His people will probably come after me.”
“I think they may not,” Allayeth said. “The Bynes family is not a loyal breed. Depending on how much his humiliation hits the father’s reputation, he may cut the son out and move on. Not from the family, but you can expect Calcifer to become society wallpaper, seen and not heard. I think it’s more likely that the Aristocratic Faction leave you be. They know you’re not a soft target, now, and you have too many mysteries. One of them just bit back, and smart political players don’t pit themselves against the unknown if it poses any real threat. Not unless they have to. They probed and got bitten for their trouble. They’re more likely to leave you be than risk making you an enemy.”
“Well, that sounds nice,” Jason said. “I just don’t know if I have the kind of luck where the bad guys have a go, get spanked and then cut their losses.”
Announcement:
Today and tomorrow mark the final chapters before the series goes on break until February.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
“Gormanston Bynes,” Allayeth explained, “is one of the most prominent members of a powerful political faction here in Yaresh. It was his son, Calcifer, that you sent running off in a panic, but the father is the true threat.”
She was still walking from Emir’s cloud palace towards Jason’s with Jason himself and Arabelle Remore. They were keeping a leisurely pace while others hustled around them under magic umbrellas, regular umbrellas or a pointed longing for umbrellas. Jason’s aura was pushing aside any rain before it reached him or his companions.
“I first came across Bynes when I was working with the original refugee camp,” Arabelle said. “This was before the attack when we were scrambling to get any survivors out of the towns and into the city while keeping any world-taker worms out of the city. You remember the scramble to get supplies coming in and the logistics in place to do that efficiently.”
“I do,” Jason said. His cloud building had been the original screening centre before it was eventually moved to Emir’s.
“Bynes was pushing to get the funding for that cut. He was riling people up about the messenger threat, saying that funding should go to fighting the messengers.”
“Bynes and his faction are extremely focused on consolidating and expanding aristocratic power,” Allayeth explained. “They are also aggressively lacking in scruples regarding how their agenda is met.”
“Which usually means they’d be happy to feed puppies into a wood chipper,” Jason said.
“Can I assume that a wood chipper is a device for turning large pieces of wood into very small pieces of wood?” Allayeth asked.
“You can.”
“And I assume that placing small, adorable animals into such a device would remove a considerable amount of their innocent charm.”
“I would characterise that as accurate, yes,” Jason said.
“The main point,” Arabelle said, “being that they are willing to stoop to significant lows.”
“Like taking money from the refugee efforts,” Jason said. “Why would he make a move like that? It can’t make him popular.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised,” Allayeth said. “There are two things you need to know to understand Bynes. One is his political faction, and the other is that political faction’s agenda. The short version is that they are a cabal of merchant barons and old-money aristocrats. What they want is the ever-original money and power.”
“What makes them interesting,” Arabelle said, “is that while they do have combat-oriented people, they largely eschew the traditional power structure of personal power. Look at Ikola, a trained ex-adventurer, taking orders from Calcifer Bynes, a core user who’s never faced a monster in his life. The one he’s really serving is the father, not the son.”
“For the long version, let me start with context,” Allayeth said. “In any major population centre, political power is balanced between three forces. One power is the civilian government, be that a royal court or, in the case of most city-states, a ducal administration. It also frequently includes guilds and associations outside of the Adventure and Magic Societies, along with the noble houses and any other families of influence. Arabelle’s Remore family is a good example.”
“Strictly speaking, I married into it,” Arabelle said. “It’s how I manage to go five minutes without telling people my family runs a school.”
Jason snorted a laugh.
“The two societies, adventure and magic, make up another of the three major pillars of any city or country,” Allayeth continued. “The third force is the collective churches.”
“I’m going to go with the much lengthier explanation of the first force,” Jason said, “and guess that local government is the problem here.”
“Yes,” Allayeth said. “The problem is one of balance. When the three forces are in balance, things work more or less as they should. Corruption disturbs that balance, having various knock-on effects.”
“I’ve seen that before,” Jason said. The politics of Greenstone had a lot of rot, and Jason had seen dire consequences before that rot started being excised. From the exploitation of Sophie to Jason’s kidnapping to the disastrous expedition during which Farrah and many other adventurers died.
“In Yaresh,” Allayeth continued, “the civic administration is considerably weaker than the other two. This is almost entirely due to internal strife. Every one of the three groups has internal conflicts as they jostle for power, but a particular group amongst the city authorities has become a problem.”
“A bunch of rich pricks making trouble,” Jason said.
“Yes,” Allayeth said. “In this particular case, it is a collection of mostly aristocrats with exceptional wealth, along with a few merchant barons. They are known as the Aristocratic Faction. They own most of the land in the region and provide most of the jobs. They use that power and influence to co-opt their tenants and workers into certain ideologies. They take ideas that are easy to sell to large groups that the aristocrats themselves make sure are poorly educated. I’m talking about the usual tribalist and exclusionary ideologies, which they weld to other ideologies that help the aristocrats. Playing on simplistic ideals and commonly held prejudices, they’ve built a power base of loud and angry people who rabidly support their policies. The very policies that keep them poor and ignorant.”
“I’ve seen that before,” Jason said. “A lot of countries in my world have suffered through that. My own included.”
“What I just described is unpleasant,” Allayeth said, “but not, in and of itself, crippling. The problem is that the aristocratic faction has done something extremely unusual in that they have focused on power structures completely divorced from personal power. No adventurers, no magical researchers. Just money and political influence.”
“But political influence in Pallimustus is always tied to personal power,” Jason pointed out. “Royal families get stuffed full of monster cores so they can ostensibly stand at the top of society.”
“But that is not hard and fast,” Arabelle said. “Look at the Sapphire Crown Guild in Rimaros. They have more personal power than the royal family, but they’ve been instilled with an idea of duty.”
“Yeah,” Jason said, “but Rimaros is an exception. They put their people through the hard yards. You think Zara is some monster-core-eating waif?”
“Not the best example,” Arabelle acknowledged. “I already mentioned Ikola and how he was subordinate to Calcifer Bynes, despite being more personally powerful.”
“It’s part of an attitude the Aristocratic Faction promotes,” Allayeth said. “They are trying to normalise their strengths of money and influence as being more important than personal power. The problem is, they’re willing to undermine the structure they belong to. They undercut the city authorities, flatly lie about how and why they did it and use popular support to prevent any backlash. They blame everyone else while positioning themselves as the only solutions to the problems they themselves caused.”
“Why?” Jason asked. “What’s their end game?”
“The bureaucracy,” Allayeth said. “Each of the three groups brings their own strengths to the table, be it magic and monster hunting or communion with the gods. For civic administrations, it is the ability to run cities and countries. The day-to-day logistics of managing tens or hundreds of thousands, even millions, is breathtakingly complex. Once that complexity reaches a point where very few people understand it but a city or kingdom absolutely relies on it, you’ve created nexus points of extreme power. Power that most don’t even see until it gets exercised in ways they don’t like.”
“I see,” Jason said. “They’re riling up the population, using that to enact policies and force through appointments to put their own people in the nodes of bureaucratic power.”
“Yes,” Allayeth confirmed. “Everything from department heads like Bynes through to magistrates. Now, with the city fallen, you would expect them to back off. To let things rebuild before they resume their ambitions for control. Instead, they are using it as leverage. Their merchant barons are taking control of the private elements of the reconstruction; building firms, supply importers and the like. Their bureaucrats are taking control of the public elements. Regulations, seizures of private goods and resources in the name of the public good. And, of course, their people end up in charge of those resources.”
“They are setting themselves up so that, when Yaresh is rebuilt,” Arabelle explained, “they are in control of it.”
“And that’s why Bynes worked his way into that meeting?” Jason asked. “Because knowing, maybe even influencing whether Yaresh is rebuilt here or elsewhere is critical to their plans.”
“More than that,” Arabelle said. “If Yaresh gets saved from a fresh new disaster, the people behind that will have influence.”
“You already do, Jason,” Allayeth explained. “Your actions during the Battle of Yaresh, along with your conflicts with myself and Charist, have made your name known. The mysteries surrounding you only make you more interesting. I’m now convinced that Charist was manipulated into pushing you so that you would be undermined. The Aristocratic faction is a strong supporter of Charist, despite his ideologies being entirely centred around personal power hierarchies.”
“How does that work?” Arabelle asked.
“Charist dislikes many of the responsibilities that come with his level of power,” Allayeth explained. “When diamond rankers like myself or your father-in-law, Arabelle, settle permanently in a city, we take on certain responsibilities. The simple presence of our power has a ripple effect that goes unnoticed by the general population, but those in power are very aware of it. I suspect that you have some experience with this yourself, Jason.”
“Unfortunately,” Jason said.
“The Aristocratic Faction do a good job of relieving Charist of annoying tasks that he would otherwise have to deal with. People seeking him out for favours or knowledge. He lets the Aristocratic faction insulate him from that.”
“Will Charist act on their behalf?” Jason asked.
“Not directly,” Allayeth said with absolute assurance. “Charist is extremely enamoured of personal power hierarchies. He sees what they do for him as natural deference to his rank and would never grant them a favour for it, if only to avoid setting a precedent. But through their services to him, they’re able to filter the information he gets. I’ve been trying to get Charist more personally engaged in events, but to little success.”
“So that the way this faction painted me, Charist saw me as a threat to the city.”
“Yes,” Allayeth said. “Only when Charist’s approach was rebuffed effectively did he leave handling you to me. The Aristocratic Faction, however, did not give up so easily.”
“Bynes tried to paint me as a traitor and it backfired,” Arabelle said. “Bynes’ lackey, Ikola, tried the same thing on you, Jason. They were there specifically to sow doubt and diminish our influence.”
“What we did to Bynes will make him a laughing stock,” Allayeth said, “but it’s only one hit in a long and complex fight against the Aristocratic Faction. A good hit, but far from a finishing blow. We need to curtail their power and then do something about the Magic Society’s corruption. If we can manage both of those, Yaresh has a good chance of coming through this with a functioning political system that will actually help rebuild it. But, as the Magic Society and Bynes are demonstrating, times of crisis are strong opportunities for those willing to exploit them at the cost of everyone else.”
“You keep saying ‘we,’” Jason said. “I hope you don’t mean we three.”
“No, I mean those of us that fight for the soul of Yaresh,” Allayeth said, then sighed. “It is a challenge that seems increasingly insurmountable.”
Jason let out a sigh of his own.
“I’m not great at intervening in political situations, as it turns out,” he said. “I’m pretty good at reading them, though. And what I’m getting from this is that it’s an internecine rat’s nest that I can only make worse by sticking my big dumb head into the middle of. But you two just went and stuck it in for me.”
“You didn’t have to let him into that portal,” Allayeth said.
“Don’t give me that,” Jason said. “Arabelle knew I’d do that the moment she suggested it. And you knew it too.”
Allayeth glanced at Arabelle.
“What makes you think she was so confident?”
“Because she knows me,” he said, then also turned his gaze on Arabelle. “Don’t you, Mrs Remore? Why don’t you tell her why I did it?”
“Because I wanted you to,” Arabelle said. “I shouldn’t have done that. You’re right; involving you in the ground-level politics was a mistake. Given who and what you are, the circles you travel in, we should be treating you more like a diamond-ranker. Unless you know the local situation as well as Allayeth, here, you shouldn’t be involved.”
“Honestly,” Jason said, “it’s actually kind of great to see you make a mistake. You’ve always been this sage-like figure, talking me through every dumb thing I’ve ever done. It’s nice to see that you can stuff up, too.”
“I guess I shouldn’t apologise, then,” Arabelle said.
“No, you should definitely apologise. I’m caught up in this Bynes nonsense, now. His people will probably come after me.”
“I think they may not,” Allayeth said. “The Bynes family is not a loyal breed. Depending on how much his humiliation hits the father’s reputation, he may cut the son out and move on. Not from the family, but you can expect Calcifer to become society wallpaper, seen and not heard. I think it’s more likely that the Aristocratic Faction leave you be. They know you’re not a soft target, now, and you have too many mysteries. One of them just bit back, and smart political players don’t pit themselves against the unknown if it poses any real threat. Not unless they have to. They probed and got bitten for their trouble. They’re more likely to leave you be than risk making you an enemy.”
“Well, that sounds nice,” Jason said. “I just don’t know if I have the kind of luck where the bad guys have a go, get spanked and then cut their losses.”
Announcement:
Today and tomorrow mark the final chapters before the series goes on break until February.
Gormanston Bynes, Allayeth explained, is one of the most prominent members of a powerful political faction here in Yaresh. It was his son, Calcifer, that you sent running off in a panic, but the father is the true threat.She was still walking from Emir's cloud palace towards Jason's with Jason himself and Arabelle Remore. They were keeping a leisurely pace while others hustled around them under magic umbrellas, regular umbrellas or a pointed longing for umbrellas. Jason's aura was pushing aside any rain before it reached him or his companions.I first came across Bynes when I was working with the original refugee camp, Arabelle said. This was before the attack when we were scrambling to get any survivors out of the towns and into the city while keeping any world-taker worms out of the city. You remember the scramble to get supplies coming in and the logistics in place to do that efficiently.I do, Jason said. His cloud building had been the original screening centre before it was eventually moved to Emir's.Bynes was pushing to get the funding for that cut. He was riling people up about the messenger threat, saying that funding should go to fighting the messengers.Bynes and his faction are extremely focused on consolidating and expanding aristocratic power, Allayeth explained. They are also aggressively lacking in scruples regarding how their agenda is met.Which usually means they'd be happy to feed puppies into a wood chipper, Jason said.Can I assume that a wood chipper is a device for turning large pieces of wood into very small pieces of wood? Allayeth asked.You can.And I assume that placing small, adorable animals into such a device would remove a considerable amount of their innocent charm.I would characterise that as accurate, yes, Jason said.The main point, Arabelle said, being that they are willing to stoop to significant lows.Like taking money from the refugee efforts, Jason said. Why would he make a move like that? It can't make him popular.Oh, you'd be surprised, Allayeth said. There are two things you need to know to understand Bynes. One is his political faction, and the other is that political faction's agenda. The short version is that they are a cabal of merchant barons and old-money aristocrats. What they want is the ever-original money and power.What makes them interesting, Arabelle said, is that while they do have combat-oriented people, they largely eschew the traditional power structure of personal power. Look at Ikola, a trained ex-adventurer, taking orders from Calcifer Bynes, a core user who's never faced a monster in his life. The one he's really serving is the father, not the son.For the long version, let me start with context, Allayeth said. In any major population centre, political power is balanced between three forces. One power is the civilian government, be that a royal court or, in the case of most city-states, a ducal administration. It also frequently includes guilds and associations outside of the Adventure and Magic Societies, along with the noble houses and any other families of influence. Arabelle's Remore family is a good example.Strictly speaking, I married into it, Arabelle said. It's how I manage to go five minutes without telling people my family runs a school.Jason snorted a laugh.The two societies, adventure and magic, make up another of the three major pillars of any city or country, Allayeth continued. The third force is the collective churches.I'm going to go with the much lengthier explanation of the first force, Jason said, and guess that local government is the problem here.Yes, Allayeth said. The problem is one of balance. When the three forces are in balance, things work more or less as they should. Corruption disturbs that balance, having various knock-on effects.I've seen that before, Jason said. The politics of Greenstone had a lot of rot, and Jason had seen dire consequences before that rot started being excised. From the exploitation of Sophie to Jason's kidnapping to the disastrous expedition during which Farrah and many other adventurers died.In Yaresh, Allayeth continued, the civic administration is considerably weaker than the other two. This is almost entirely due to internal strife. Every one of the three groups has internal conflicts as they jostle for power, but a particular group amongst the city authorities has become a problem.A bunch of rich pricks making trouble, Jason said.Yes, Allayeth said. In this particular case, it is a collection of mostly aristocrats with exceptional wealth, along with a few merchant barons. They are known as the Aristocratic Faction. They own most of the land in the region and provide most of the jobs. They use that power and influence to co-opt their tenants and workers into certain ideologies. They take ideas that are easy to sell to large groups that the aristocrats themselves make sure are poorly educated. I'm talking about the usual tribalist and exclusionary ideologies, which they weld to other ideologies that help the aristocrats. Playing on simplistic ideals and commonly held prejudices, they've built a power base of loud and angry people who rabidly support their policies. The very policies that keep them poor and ignorant.I've seen that before, Jason said. A lot of countries in my world have suffered through that. My own included.What I just described is unpleasant, Allayeth said, but not, in and of itself, crippling. The problem is that the aristocratic faction has done something extremely unusual in that they have focused on power structures completely divorced from personal power. No adventurers, no magical researchers. Just money and political influence.But political influence in Pallimustus is always tied to personal power, Jason pointed out. Royal families get stuffed full of monster cores so they can ostensibly stand at the top of society.But that is not hard and fast, Arabelle said. Look at the Sapphire Crown Guild in Rimaros. They have more personal power than the royal family, but they've been instilled with an idea of duty.Yeah, Jason said, but Rimaros is an exception. They put their people through the hard yards. You think Zara is some monster-core-eating waif?Not the best example, Arabelle acknowledged. I already mentioned Ikola and how he was subordinate to Calcifer Bynes, despite being more personally powerful.It's part of an attitude the Aristocratic Faction promotes, Allayeth said. They are trying to normalise their strengths of money and influence as being more important than personal power. The problem is, they're willing to undermine the structure they belong to. They undercut the city authorities, flatly lie about how and why they did it and use popular support to prevent any backlash. They blame everyone else while positioning themselves as the only solutions to the problems they themselves caused.Why? Jason asked. What's their end game?The bureaucracy, Allayeth said. Each of the three groups brings their own strengths to the table, be it magic and monster hunting or communion with the gods. For civic administrations, it is the ability to run cities and countries. The day-to-day logistics of managing tens or hundreds of thousands, even millions, is breathtakingly complex. Once that complexity reaches a point where very few people understand it but a city or kingdom absolutely relies on it, you've created nexus points of extreme power. Power that most don't even see until it gets exercised in ways they don't like.I see, Jason said. They're riling up the population, using that to enact policies and force through appointments to put their own people in the nodes of bureaucratic power.Yes, Allayeth confirmed. Everything from department heads like Bynes through to magistrates. Now, with the city fallen, you would expect them to back off. To let things rebuild before they resume their ambitions for control. Instead, they are using it as leverage. Their merchant barons are taking control of the private elements of the reconstruction; building firms, supply importers and the like. Their bureaucrats are taking control of the public elements. Regulations, seizures of private goods and resources in the name of the public good. And, of course, their people end up in charge of those resources.They are setting themselves up so that, when Yaresh is rebuilt, Arabelle explained, they are in control of it.And that's why Bynes worked his way into that meeting? Jason asked. Because knowing, maybe even influencing whether Yaresh is rebuilt here or elsewhere is critical to their plans.More than that, Arabelle said. If Yaresh gets saved from a fresh new disaster, the people behind that will have influence.You already do, Jason, Allayeth explained. Your actions during the Battle of Yaresh, along with your conflicts with myself and Charist, have made your name known. The mysteries surrounding you only make you more interesting. I'm now convinced that Charist was manipulated into pushing you so that you would be undermined. The Aristocratic faction is a strong supporter of Charist, despite his ideologies being entirely centred around personal power hierarchies.How does that work? Arabelle asked.Charist dislikes many of the responsibilities that come with his level of power, Allayeth explained. When diamond rankers like myself or your father-in-law, Arabelle, settle permanently in a city, we take on certain responsibilities. The simple presence of our power has a ripple effect that goes unnoticed by the general population, but those in power are very aware of it. I suspect that you have some experience with this yourself, Jason.Unfortunately, Jason said.The Aristocratic Faction do a good job of relieving Charist of annoying tasks that he would otherwise have to deal with. People seeking him out for favours or knowledge. He lets the Aristocratic faction insulate him from that.Will Charist act on their behalf? Jason asked.Not directly, Allayeth said with absolute assurance. Charist is extremely enamoured of personal power hierarchies. He sees what they do for him as natural deference to his rank and would never grant them a favour for it, if only to avoid setting a precedent. But through their services to him, they're able to filter the information he gets. I've been trying to get Charist more personally engaged in events, but to little success.So that the way this faction painted me, Charist saw me as a threat to the city.Yes, Allayeth said. Only when Charist's approach was rebuffed effectively did he leave handling you to me. The Aristocratic Faction, however, did not give up so easily.Bynes tried to paint me as a traitor and it backfired, Arabelle said. Bynes' lackey, Ikola, tried the same thing on you, Jason. They were there specifically to sow doubt and diminish our influence.What we did to Bynes will make him a laughing stock, Allayeth said, but it's only one hit in a long and complex fight against the Aristocratic Faction. A good hit, but far from a finishing blow. We need to curtail their power and then do something about the Magic Society's corruption. If we can manage both of those, Yaresh has a good chance of coming through this with a functioning political system that will actually help rebuild it. But, as the Magic Society and Bynes are demonstrating, times of crisis are strong opportunities for those willing to exploit them at the cost of everyone else.You keep saying we,' Jason said. I hope you don't mean we three.No, I mean those of us that fight for the soul of Yaresh, Allayeth said, then sighed. It is a challenge that seems increasingly insurmountable.Jason let out a sigh of his own.I'm not great at intervening in political situations, as it turns out, he said. I'm pretty good at reading them, though. And what I'm getting from this is that it's an internecine rat's nest that I can only make worse by sticking my big dumb head into the middle of. But you two just went and stuck it in for me.You didn't have to let him into that portal, Allayeth said.Don't give me that, Jason said. Arabelle knew I'd do that the moment she suggested it. And you knew it too.Allayeth glanced at Arabelle.What makes you think she was so confident?Because she knows me, he said, then also turned his gaze on Arabelle. Don't you, Mrs Remore? Why don't you tell her why I did it?Because I wanted you to, Arabelle said. I shouldn't have done that. You're right; involving you in the ground-level politics was a mistake. Given who and what you are, the circles you travel in, we should be treating you more like a diamond-ranker. Unless you know the local situation as well as Allayeth, here, you shouldn't be involved.Honestly, Jason said, it's actually kind of great to see you make a mistake. You've always been this sage-like figure, talking me through every dumb thing I've ever done. It's nice to see that you can stuff up, too.I guess I shouldn't apologise, then, Arabelle said.No, you should definitely apologise. I'm caught up in this Bynes nonsense, now. His people will probably come after me.I think they may not, Allayeth said. The Bynes family is not a loyal breed. Depending on how much his humiliation hits the father's reputation, he may cut the son out and move on. Not from the family, but you can expect Calcifer to become society wallpaper, seen and not heard. I think it's more likely that the Aristocratic Faction leave you be. They know you're not a soft target, now, and you have too many mysteries. One of them just bit back, and smart political players don't pit themselves against the unknown if it poses any real threat. Not unless they have to. They probed and got bitten for their trouble. They're more likely to leave you be than risk making you an enemy.Well, that sounds nice, Jason said. I just don't know if I have the kind of luck where the bad guys have a go, get spanked and then cut their losses.Announcement:Today and tomorrow mark the final chapters before the series goes on break until February.
