Jackal Among Snakes

“I’m surprised you’re visiting me.” Emperor Ji Meng poured tea for Argrave. “I thought I might see you only when it was absolutely necessary.”

In truth, Argrave himself was the most surprised he’d ended up here. Emperor Ji Meng had been a very large obstacle when they’d first met, then beca snake waiting for an opportunity to strike after he’d been imprisoned. Now, the old man might be considered a docile predator. Clean-shaven, wearing luxurious Great Chu-style robes, and devoid of any and all magic… frankly, he looked better than ever. And why wouldn’t he be? He enjoyed an emperor’s lifestyle without any responsibility. But there were still gluts of knowledge in that head of his.

“I need fresh eyes. Experienced eyes,” Argrave responded. “There’s not many other people that have experience with as large a nation as you do. When it comes down to it… I’m realizing the larger things get, you end up dealing with a few elites. Your commands trickle down from there. My problem lies in how I’ve handled sthings with those elites. I don’t want the negative effects trickling down to my people.”

Ji Meng picked up his own tea. “I’ll need more specifics.”

“I tried to bestow an… important position, let’s say, impartially. In so doing, I just made everyone a little miffed. I can’t afford any flaws right now, not with things as they are.” Argrave looked to the side, thinking. “And on the other end of the spectrum, I’m dealing with an erratic personality whose cooperation is extremely important. He’s selfish in a… hedonistic way.”

Ji Meng sipped his drink, then set it down. He rubbed his finger around the rim of the cup. “Impartiality is a fool’s errand in our seat. The simple fact is, speople are better suited for reward. Speople you don’t need to reward, because they don’t complain enough to matter. Even if you kick them, they’ll ccrawling back. Speople only work for reward. And some… no reward will be enough. Those people will get the most done, but they can also try and plant a dagger in your back. But you’ve already made the mistake, if I hear you right.”

Argrave nodded. “You do.”

“Do you have a good relationship with these people?”

“Yes,” Argrave answered without hesitation.

Ji Meng drank, thinking. “Do they have rapport with each other?”

Argrave considered that. “Sof them.”

“Yes, your closest confidants were your family, as I recall,” Ji Meng mused. “Friends and family don’t make especially good officials, I’ve found. The problems becall the more personal. Their disappointment is substantially greater when they expect something from you, and you don’t deliver.”

“That… holds true.”

“You can’t be seen as trying to placate them,” Ji Meng cautioned. “Nor can you show indecision by retracting the position. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is disarm yourself. I mean, look what I’ve done.” He gestured all around. “Giving a show of faith, a show of goodwill, can earn you a great deal. It can’t be forced, can’t be inorganic. You have to be patient. A chance will come, as it did for me. As for the other question, this erratic fellow… what do you need him to do?”

“Make a sacrifice for the greater good of the nation,” Argrave said.

Ji Meng winced, inhaling sharply through his teeth. “Ouch. Quite the ask. And you can’t drag him to the altar yourself, bleed him?”

“He’d smile if I tried.” Argrave shook his head. “No. It has to be something he does willingly. It’s his talent, his ability.”

“Would you describe him as self-important? Did he inherit all he had?”

“Self-important, sure. Inheritance… absolutely not.” Argrave crossed his arms. “He crawled his way up from the very bottom. An orphan.”

“I can work with that. It tellsthat he had ambition at spoint, but something changed that.” Ji Meng inhaled deeply, then something seemed to cto him. “You need to ruin his hobbies, somehow.”

“Ruin them?” Argrave narrowed his eyes. “You mean, stop him from doing them?”

“No. He’ll just cup with clever ways to get past whatever obstacles you erect. You claimed he was hedonistic. He gravitates toward debauchery for a reason. If you can find that reason, you can twist it so that the things that he does bring him no pleasure. When the joy turns to sand in his mouth… people like that, they can’t stand with their emotions. They have to keep moving, keep going, keep seeking the next thing. Because if they stop to reflect, whatever it is they’re avoiding will catch up with them.” Ji Meng spread his arms wide. “And so you’ll come, giving him a chance to feel something. Even if that something is pain.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Hmm.” Argrave leaned back. “What if I make it very easy to get everything he wants? Bombard him with drugs, liquors, et cetera.”

“You could kill him,” Ji Meng pointed out.

“Not if I tried.”

“Well… even still, I don’t think it’ll work. He sounds like one of those people whom no reward will ever satisfy that I mentioned earlier.” Ji Meng fell into deep thought.

“What if I showed him something more than he could handle?” Argrave questioned. “Something far beyond what he was willing to endure?”

“Those opportunities are few and far between,” Ji Meng said. “When you attempt to uproot the desire with fear, scaring someone straight is seldom the actual result—especially in adults.”

“I think I know something that could work.” Argrave drank the whole teacup in one go, then set it down. “Nice tea.”

“That isn’t really how you’re supposed to enjoy it, but you made an attempt, I suppose.” Ji Meng raised his cup. “I hope this becomes a regular thing. It’s nice to put my hat back in the arena, once in a while.”

Argrave smiled at him. “Maybe not. I would hate if you got the wrong idea.”

Ji Meng laughed heartily. “I can see why that might cause problems.”

#####

“You’ve turned the place around, somewhat. Made it a bit more… human.” Garm looked up at the entrance to the Low Way of the Rose. They stood on the side of the Burnt Desert. A new road had been paved, facilitating trade between the southern deserts of black sand and the more fertile valleys of Vasquer. Even now, sfew caravans entered into the vast cavern below.

“But I also can’t see why I’m here.” Garm looked at Argrave.

“Melanie and Elenore did all the renovations. I can’t take credit. But you really can’t guess why I brought you back?” Argrave asked him. “You asked a rather pertinent question last night, my friend. The Order of the Rose collapsed. No one really knows why.” He gestured toward Garm. “You can fix that. You can find out how and why each and every one of these people died.”

Garm narrowed his eyes. “A lot of people die without knowing the reason. A rockfall, a trip, a flood of blood… just because they died, doesn’t mean it can be explained. Perhaps it was divine providence.”

“We know that can’t be true,” Argrave disagreed. “But it’s a lot more than that. We can take a stroll down memory lane. We can reminiscence about puddles of blood that used to be there, and necromantic abominations that once attempted to eat the face of passersby, or the vampires protecting a vault of books they couldn’t even reach.”

“Well and good. But do you have tfor strolls?” Garm questioned.

“For you, old buddy? Why not.” He rolled his shoulder. “And hey, this isn’t just for my curiosity. This is for you, too.”

“I fail to see how.” Garm frowned.

“You askedsomething yesterday, through your haze of wine and mead. Why did your son kill you?” Argrave shrugged. “It’s a good question. And since this is the first place you died, we can do a comparison: before and now. We can run through how much you’ve changed in the centuries you spent staring at a door. I think, though, you’ll be far more interested in the life of your son, or the life of his mother. You can answer those questions you had last night, you realize. The ‘why’ of it.”

Garm’s invulnerable temperament finally proved a façade as he was rendered speechless.

“Is the idea a bit much?” Argrave scratched the back of his head. “Yeah. I suppose I was a little thoughtless. If you don’t feel you’re up to it, we can turn back.”

“You’re not half as subtle or manipulative as you think you are,” Garm cut in harshly.

Argrave laughed, his reverse psychology called out. “All cajoling aside, you have to admit… it does make you curious, doesn’t it? Why would your son betray you? Was it just cold-blooded practicality, or was there something else? Maybe it was out of stwisted sense of affection. Either way, he probably died somewhere in there.”

“A lot of people died ‘somewhere in there,’ you realize. Malgeridum was the capital of death in the world.” Garm kneeled before the gaping opening in the mountain. “You didn’t stay here for long if you didn’t have a little sadism in your blood.”

“Either way, we can finally find out so many answers,” Argrave continued. “Even Erlebnis didn’t know just how the Order of the Rose cto be extinct. But you can, perhaps. And along the way, you might unlock more secrets to necromancy. More ways to perfect the new body that you transfer for. Every bit of necromantic knowledge you could ever imagine is hoarded within there, ripe for the picking. Not just what was written in books—what was written in their minds. It’d be the greatest heist of the century.”

“Yes, because you care so very much about the field of necromancy.” Garm spoke distantly. “You just want to scramble my head. I’m not an idiot.”

“Don’t you want to know how people remembered you after you died?” Argrave asked. “I know I would.”

Garm rubbed his leathery lips, thinking hard as that dimly illuminated abyss awaited ahead. Argrave let him think in silence. Then, Garm stood and began to walk. He lacked the carefree vigor he had, instead walking measuredly and solemnly. Argrave followed right behind, eager to learn the truth of the man that was—and is—Garm.

Hopefully, learning about the legacy he left behind might make him want to forge a new one, with what the’d been reallotted.