The silent woman had a servanoid vote against the option of taking the job offer, mainly because the group was sorely lacking in any high-grade mind-mages.
“I know, but I would like to work with The Traitor!” the martial declared slightly annoyed.
“We don’t even know The Traitor’s real gender!” the destructor interjected.
“Does something like that really matter?” the strong woman got annoyed at such a notion.
“Yes, because while hiding even the most basic information, the creepy thing can choose to betray us whenever, and when that happens we are soo fucked, let me tell you. You have been out of the loop for multiple decades now. It’s not as it used to be. Every other customer tries to screw us over!” the destructor lamented, anger flaring up on her face.
“That is just an additional reason to get rid of the ‘goddess’. If we leave the situation unattended, she will just grow in power, and a reversal of the situation will get ever more unlikely!” a fourth woman inserted her opinion into the conversation.
“There are more than enough reasons to usurp her. Point and case, you lot living in this grotto!” the martial commented on the group's accommodations.
“That is all fine and well, but only if the sucking shitfuck really wants to get rid of the bitch!” the destructor gave air to her aversion regarding this coup. After taking a breath to calm herself she added: “This is very much unlike you! Wanting to join in on such fucking stupid and infantile plans, Mel!”
“I have already taken steps to ensure that we can cut away at the new queen's power! And I made sure that we will be able to cut The Traitor out if they turn out to be full of-.” She coughed slightly “You know what I mean!”
The silent one implied that the destructor had rubbed off on the martial and a low squeaky voice began to chuckle.
“Anyways what I am trying to say is, we could make good use of someone with their influence and their funds!” Mellde reinforced her argument.
After a short pause, the silent one had one of her servanoids nudge the fourth woman and made her state her opinion.
“I am quite inclined to go against the goddess! She has been nothing but hardship for us! The thing I do not understand is why Mel wants to have a go at her now of all times! We have had run-ins with the zealots for at least two centuries!” the woman obliged while stretching on a couch.
“Now is as good a time as ever!” Mellde tried to argue.
“Which is exactly my point! Why now instead of earlier!” the comfortable woman specified.
“The goddess took over the country! The status quo is broken! Multiple factions are rising, and the goddess was able to pit them against each other! There is a civil war on the horizon, yet none of the factions is expected to go against her. And the zealots are getting more brazen in their effort to purge heretics!” Mellde answered, hatred gradually invading her voice!
“Those creeps always purged to their heart’s desire! There has never really been a time where these shitheads adhered to the law!” Ella objected, interrupting the ranting woman.
“It may very well soon become the law to purge heretics! And I very much want to prevent that! Also, we now have a sponsor!” the tall woman argued, having calmed down ever so slightly.
The silent one did not buy into her friend's story that easily and implied that the martial’s wealth should remove the need for a sponsor.
“Forming a plan that is more than just ‘kill the queen’ takes funds and time. And up till a few days ago, I was still missing a few pieces to finalize this plan of mine!” Mellde continued to justify her position in this negotiation.
“Then tell us the plan, please!” the woman on the couch demanded in a slightly sweet, but mostly neutral voice.
“Gladly! Listen up, girls! Since most of the governors and even a lot of officers are still loyal to the previous queen, recently proclaimed the queen-mother, I thought about an open revolt! Yet forcibly taking on the goddess is not possible, because she somehow has leverage over the queen-mother! So, I began with rooting out the queen’s assassination plots and supplied the governors with Siep’s disciples! In this way, they at least get an early warning system and a chance at survival. Recreating some form of balance. Now with this status quo in place, we will hunt down the talal of the goddess’s faith! For this purpose, I want to employ your little army!” after elaborating on her plan Mellde added: “And if The Traitor can supply us for however brief, that would be a plus in my book!”
“You want to what? Do you even understand what kind of beings the talal are?” the comfortable woman had grown ever more nervous while listening to Mellde’s explanation, and at the end of the explanation, she screamed in disbelief.
“There are ways around their shared perpetuation! For one we could shred their soul into pieces! A second option would be to seal them away, with body and mind! And thirdly, the link they have with their goddess can be severed or at least temporarily disturbed, and finishing them off in that condition should be the end of them!” Mellde calmly replied to the other woman’s outburst.
"Ha! How do you want to realize such crazy ideas?" after an amused outburst of laughter the woman standing on her couch asked.
"I just need a premium coordinator, to coordinate our combined army of Sieps! And that is where you come into play, my dearest Drane!" the martial happily replied with a wide friendly smile on her face, undisturbed by having to constantly defend her suggestion.
“I feel honoured, but I am not ready to constantly have the success of every mission hinge on my ability to coordinate this barely experienced crowd of mindfucks!” the woman whose position was exposed as the group’s coordinator argued, completely ignoring the martial's slipup at having mistaken mind-mages with Sieps.
“You don’t coordinate the mages?” the tall woman asked, doubt having replaced the facade on her face.
“No coordinating the front-line is enough stress on my mental capacities!” the coordinator admitted unashamed.
The meeting was interrupted when an excited woman came storming in.
“Master! I did it. I finally managed to do it!” the young woman exclaimed before noticing the ensemble in the room. Having realised what kind of situation she just ran into she silently apologised, and tried to retreat out of sight.
“What did you manage to do sweety?” Thunder of Insanity replied after being called out.
“Uhm, I can tell you later!” the bashful and embarrassed woman wanted to postpone the discussion.
“No need, we are all friends here, tell us!” the destructor encouraged her junior.
“Well, I successfully created a skill, to target vitals of rockeaters!” the woman quickly explained, before turning to leave again.
“Hah, what did I tell you? She is a genius!” the small destructor declared boastfully.
“What is your name, sweety?” Mellde asked, stopping the young woman dead in her tracks.
“Lionee, madam!” the leaving woman turned around and politely answered while bowing slightly.
The martial looked around in confusion and asked: “Who taught you to talk like that, it was definitely not the Ella I know!”
“My mother, madam!” the comparatively young woman answered while shyly looking at the floor and fidgeting with her feet.
“That is surely great, but we have matters to discuss!” the coordinator reminded them of the original reason for this meeting.
“Don’t be like that, Drane! This information is quite valuable! The queen employs quite a few rockeaters!” the martial defended the intruding woman. The destructor in question decided to stay around and observe her idols, emboldened by the fact that everyone had seemingly forgotten about her.
“Employs!? Pah, you cannot employ such things, you can only use them!” Drane harshly judged the martial’s choice of words.
“Sorry I briefly forgot who I am talking to!” the strong one sincerely apologised, not a smidge of sarcasm in hidden in her words.
“And what is that supposed to mean? Are you trying to imply that my status is too low for you to care?” the coordinator felt offended.
“Nothing of the kind, I simply have to adjust my vocabulary! Not all cycles of society appreciate this kind of direct manner of speech!” Mellde explained with indifference dominating her voice.
“Well then, back to business! Are there any news about Siep?” the destructor suggested getting back to the topic at hand, openly showing her boredom.
“Still nothing, I am slowly starting to believe he died for sure!” the martial reacted mainly by getting quite sad.
Silent Company turned angry, at the mention of the event.
“I know you believe it was my mistake that they died. But I recall the events almost every other day, and believe me none of the other options results in a better outcome! I know Insar was special to you, even though after all these years I still do not know in what way exactly!” still depressed the martial reacted defensive at the operator's change of mood.
The silent one implied that her rage arose from another detail.
At a loss for what the operator was referring to, the martial went through all the possibilities.
Having lost their image as one of the best mercenary groups out there? Bae was not the kind of person to care about something like that!
Having temporarily been incapable of taking on commissions? Neither of the three women had been pressed for money at the time, so that option was unlikely!
The loss of Siep? Impossible, he may have been a founding member, but something like that would not matter to Bae! And although Siep had died multiple times, that would not make him special, would it!?
The death of Gellos? Now that she thought about it there was that thing about him. If only she could remember what it was! Must have been something insignificant. It was unlikely to have been the cause, but at the same time, it was the least implausible option!
“Gellos?” in utter confusion the martial grasped at straws.
The silent one had one of her servanoids nod in approval.
“What? Really? Why?” the affirmative reaction was so unexpected that the martial was unable to form a coherent thought for a few seconds.
“Wasn’t he …? No! I remember he was special in some kind of way, though!” Ella tried to answer but was likewise unable to remember what it was.
“I think he was somehow connected to her family!?” Drane offered the first clue to solving this mystery.
“He was a direct descendant of Insar!” a very muscular woman entered the cave, sweat running down her whole body.
“Hi Gluda, how are you? And how do you know?” Mellde greeted her former disciple.
“Master!” with a nod she greeted the martial master, “As I regularly send reports, you know full well how I am! And I know because he told me, obviously!”
One of the servanoids reacted in the affirmative to the well-trained woman. Gluda took it upon herself to remove the eavesdropping woman from the room. Under heavy protests Lionee left the four women to their negotiations.
“But that still does not explain why Bae cared about him, like at all! We all have distant descendants, and none of us cares about them. At least not more than we care about strangers!” the coordinator voiced her confusion.
Silent Company had them become aware of the fact that Gellos would have been her first long-living descendant. Thus, she would have been able to play family and pretend as if life had meaning.
“This is getting too depressing, let’s get back to talking about how we kill the queen!” Ella demanded, having decided she had been silent for long enough.
“To summarise, we have a plan, but lack the personnel to put it into action; and we have personnel not integrated into a plan! Then there is some sleazy politician, who may fund the operation but they refuse to give away any information! Is that about right?” the coordinator reiterated what they had been able to discuss so far.
“The corpse at least claimed that our friendly neighbourhood traitor would give us all the information we desire once we accept the mission! But I cannot say for sure how trustworthy the information will be!” Mellde told them about The Traitor’s promise “And since we are definitely not going to take on their mission, it is questionable if they will be willing to give us any info at all!”
“I agree, we are definitely not going to attack the queen head-on!” Drane accepted that premise.
“Well, I am bored! And since I am sick of the bitch, I vote in favour of massacring these talal-creeps! I’m out, so figure out how to do it!” Ella declared matter-of-factly. While exiting the alcove she gave each of the three remaining women a big hug.
Mellde looked on in silent confusion, perplexed about the hierarchical structure of the organisation she was negotiating with. And its apparent incongruence to what it is on paper!
“Don’t be confused, she does this with about 20 per cent of our decisions! She just refused to take the post of the organisation’s leader because dealing with the details is ‘too tedious’ for her! And because she does not want to deal with the other 80 per cent of decisions, like at all!” the coordinator explained, putting emphasis on ‘too tedious’ as if quoting someone.
“So, Ella decides everything she feels like deciding and refuses to make any decision she doesn’t want to think about?!” Mellde concluded in disbelief.
“That is about right!” Drane agreed.
“Ok!? And you are both fine with this?” the martial had to ask again, due to being incapable of agreeing with this mindset.
“It’s not as if we have a chance!” the coordinator voiced in defeat.
“If that is so, I need an updated version of your roster!” the martial tried to put the discussion back on topic.
“We have one armybuilder;” Drane motioning at Bae and while pointing at herself added: “one coordinator; three destructors, Ella and the two girls she trained, both very good for their low age; seven mindfucks, five of which are disciples of Siep; the other two are even worse; nine front-liners, six actual martial knights and three equivalently powerful culters; and last but not least three officers with a combined force of 51 soldiers!”
“That means, we are sorely lacking in adequate mindfuckers! But since the frontline does not need any additional support, instead of a healer a battery or syphon would do!” the former mercenary leader quickly analysed the weak spots of the team.
“No such things as batteries or syphons are needed as this niche is perfectly covered by the officers, culters and me!“ the coordinator disagreed.
“As soon as I have decided about the first target I will reach out to you, again! It would be nice if you were able to recruit some mindfuckers! Especially since it is up to me to offer our good friend The Traitor some kind of cooperation!" the martial concluded the meeting before leaving the Mantis’s hideout.
