Details of a Betrayal [18 Lage 4385]

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

Zascalle hugged Ochirion to her chest, and snarled at me defiantly.

Zascalle: “You are here with terrible weapons at the ready! Would you kill the boy you worked so hard to heal, Sythyry?”

Me: “Great staring gods!” They were staring at us, too; that’s easy to see from Ketheria sometimes. “You are using your own child as a meat shield.”

Zascalle: “You have befouled and corrupted every other defense I had!”

La Hish: “Oddly, I do not feel befouled or even corrupted. I feel relieved that a certain minor problem of the last few months will be resolved.”

Me: “Zascalle. First of all, I want my money back.” Anyone with half a magic sense could tell I was carrying enough enchanted weaponry to run a whole duel-war, and then another. Direct threats were, thankfully, unnecessary.

Zascalle threw her purse at my feet. It landed with a dull amberish clunk; it was heavier than I was, and mostly with coins.

Me: “A good start. Next, the greater part of the theft — my missing bank accounts. Start with the one that pays the bills for Castle Wrong, where some thirty or forty of your friends — they are your friends, are they not? — still reside, and hope to reside for a long time more.”

Zascalle: “I can’t do it from here. I need to get to Trunk’s Amber.”

Me: “You shall write down letters, instructions, account numbers. Saza’s accountant and the banks of Oorah Thrassen will confirm that you have done it properly. Also, you shall give me all of your private notes and accountings — do not look so innocent, Zascalle, your degree of innocence has already been established. I know you have kept records of your deeds.”

It would have been extremely reassuring to use a truthspell on her, to know that the tiny, neatly-printed slips of paper she took out of the heel of her boots were complete and correct rather than yet another ruse within a ruse. I could have done it … but I was rather too squeamish. I was fairly sure I would have to kill or maim her in front of her children, but I wasn’t willing to read her mind. I hope this will be counted a virtue.

Me: “A good start. Care to explain all the details?”

She did not much care to explain, but she did. She had been trickling money out of my accounts for a long while, and then pouring, and then gushing, and then, for the last few days, when she panicked and knew that she must flee with her children from Vae, deluging. It was getting scattered around eighteen banks and suchlike up and down the main trunk. Inter-branch banking is a fairly new matter, with very confusing laws and customs governing it differently everywhere. So, Exempleia has strict laws of privacy of customers, which are well-motivated and utterly sensible. Egeia has strict laws preventing fraud, also well-motivated and sensible, but when money comes from Exempleia, Egeian banks cannot apply those laws very well, so they don’t try. Zascalle tracked down a number of such anomalies, and took advantage of them.

Five of the accounts are easier for me than the others: I am officially the one who owns them, pursuant to the laws of those city-states, though Zascalle has full rights to use them. Now that I actually know about them, I am going to toss one of them at Castle Wrong and another at Strayway, for short-term expenses, and use two of the others to pay off the bribes I owe the wizards of Oorah Thrassen.

The other fifteen parts will take a while to untangle. Untangling will be much easier with Zascalle alive and cooperative. My fortune, or at least my convenience, is held hostage for her life. to

I will say, I was sufficiently annoyed to consider killing her anyhow. But that seemed ungracious, as she had been (approximately) cooperative at that point.

Comments

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I'd rather not get the reputation as a mind-mage, actually. My current bad reputation is quite enough.

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

Who would know?

And even if they do, who would dare to speak of it? For example...

"My dear lady, you have shown truly remarkable acumen in managing my finances. I daresay not even the Emperor's auditors themselves would be able to track it all down. Which is why I am going to hire you on as my chief accountant. Your wage is to be tripled. You will also be granted a retirement account, for which I will be making a 15% matching for all funds deposited. Also, you and your children shall enjoy a healthy insurance policy that will cover any and all routine medical expenses, as well as any critical expenses that should arise as a complication of your employment. If you wish, for a slight deduction in pay, I shall also arrange for an educational stipend for your children's future.

As a side bonus, any legitimate methods you find to increase my wealth with a minimum of risk, will be rewarded with a 10% cut of any profits. Any illegitimate or risky methods you find will only be rewarded with a 2% cut, unless you can convince me sufficiently of the lack of risk, whereby your cut will be increased to 15%.

In return, you shall bow your head to me and I will lay sufficient enchantments upon your head to ensure your reasonable loyalty to myself and my household. Those enchantments may, at your discretion, may be of such nature that you simply do not remember your foul betrayal and have no desire to ever commit such ever again? Or that you will retain full knowledge of your crimes, and that any further betrayal will result in the subsequent detonation of your head.

Again, your choice as to which it will be."

See? Now who would object to such terms?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

First of all, I generally have been hiring wrongfolk -- my clients. Subjecting them to such coercive arrangements is probably illegal in Vheshrame, and certainly an abuse of the client-patron relationship.

Second, if I did that, surely the news would get around, and then I would (at best) no longer live in Ketheria.

[alex-muridae.livejournal.com]

You will have to forgive my asking, but as per the topic of conversation I think it's prudent to do so: you don't actually have such powerful Mutoc Mentador spells grafted, do you? So, it's not really an option unless you involve your coz (or another mind mage), and zi wouldn't want to acquire the (deserved) reputation either, right?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I am a polymath: a wizard skilled in all Nouns and Verbs. I could spont many of those, weave most of the others, or build a device capable of all those that are possible. Mentador is my weakest art though. My cousin is better at than I am, and may have some interesting things grafted; I have not asked.

[alex-muridae.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...yes, I think I underestimated the capacity for sponting and weaving with such skill in all the arts. It remains something to be proud of.

[rowyn]

Practically everyPrime, given the typical Prime reaction to Mentador use of even the most minor sorts. I get the impression that most Primes would prefer to be executed permanently, and hope for better luck in their next incarnation.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

In particular, the primes who *wouldn't* live in Birknazza or its client states, since that's basically Birkozon's thing.

[rowyn]

Right!

Of course, Mentador and Birknazza being what they are, it's not clear how many Primes living in Birknazza or its client states would choose to live in Birknazza. Not that they don't love where they live now!

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

I get the impression "primes who wouldn't live in Birknazza" is the same set as "primes who haven't been to Birknazza yet."

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Well, I meant 'the primes who wouldn't object to such terms'.

But you're quite possibly right. There's no legitimate reason for primes to be so afraid of mental control, not when the controller is someone infallable like Birknazza! It's not their fault that they're afraid, though -- minds allowed to grow naturally without being tended to during childhood are always going to have a few defects. Fortunately, that can be easily fixed!

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

This conversation has led me to discover that the second message in Friend Computer's Twitter stream is, at this moment:

@HappyWulf Furries in Alpha Complex = hirsute Sierra Clubbers. Likely mutants.