Chương 307: Failed

[Quest Checkpoint Failed: Advance Scouting. Decline: The Access]"Wait, what?" I blurted out, so shocked that I responded out loud. I normally try not to do that. I generally don't react to System messages or interface mechanics. I've already got enough strikes against me, if I show signs that look like hallucinations, I'm going to lose all credibility. As it is, I sometimes think that maybe I should stand next to Nux more often just so I look more sane to everyone.

But, going about my business on a Sevenday afternoon and suddenly finding out that I've failed a quest I did not even get an announcement for? That's unexpected. Unexpected and frightening. I had been pretty sure I was sailing along with no troubles, but that's usually the first sign that something's gone wrong. Fortunately, this bad news has already told me where to go for answers, since this was apparently Thumper's quest that I failed.

And that's convenient because Thumper's one of the people I'm currently headed to meet. At the time that the system told me I had failed Advance Scouting, I was on the path to the Student Center, where most of the students on campus would be gathered. That was where the dining hall, the couches, the popcorn, and the majority of my love interests could be found. I'm on the walking-path because it is nice out, as befits the month of Springhigh.

Next week is the opening weekend of spring Fashion Week, and so this is a really decisive time of year for me. Six months ago it was decided that I'd be the face of the Revolt coalition group. This is the session where we actually make the Revolt happen. The weather is warm enough that I don't need to magically warm the air around me or to cool it either, I can wear a light and comfortable gown and a nice sun hat. Yes it's a cave and we don't ever see the sun.

But this is a cave, and we have bats, and most people know better than to walk about without something over their head. I'm usually an exception, because my personal comfort-bubble comes with an umbrella feature. I spend more time bare-headed than not, which makes some people think I'm just proud of my hair, and - well, really, maybe I am. I pushed open the front door and untied the sash holding my hat in place as I strolled the hallway to the main sitting room.

As usual, every corner and niche that could be inventively interpreted as semi-private was full of teenage couples making out. Some things simply must remain constant. There's probably a parallel to the fact that I am meeting my squad here in the big communal make-out space. They are labeled as my love interests, after all. And hell, who knows. Maybe, just because Nathan doesn't ever get a harem ending, doesn't mean that I'm necessarily cut off from it. I've been getting lots of surprises lately.

It'd be nice to get a good one. Seeing an empty space on the couch was not a good surprise.

"Where's Thumper?" I asked, tossing my hat towards the hatrack, without looking. It flew unerringly, and settled exactly where it was intended. Unlike the lady I had learned that trick from, I cheated with magic. Now I need to practice it until it doesn't look like I'm using magic. Kimothy was stretched out languorously, boredom alleviated by my arrival.

"She had a ceremony to go to, I think. Or an award for something?"

"It was an exhibition match for her fencing tournaments," Kurumi corrected him, setting her book aside. She looked at the sorcerer with small annoyance.

"Apparently that's something they do during the tournament season. She'll be back later tonight, it's at the palace complex so she's not too far off."

"The palace complex... in Skyside?" I asked.

"That's what she said," Kurumi said. She looked irked that I walked in with a dozen questions about Thumper and ignored everyone else. I'm not prepared to tell her that somehow this is connected to a companion quest that I've failed. Apparently I had an opportunity to do something with this, related to Advance Scouting. Oh. I get it. Thumper's not The Fencer or The Dancer or The Biceps, she's The Access. Her role is to give me connections I would never have without her.

Such as, presumably, possibly, the chance to walk freely through the Skyside palace complex. And scout it out. The location that is going to be the center of the Rapier Revolt would be a good location to have a working knowledge of, maybe a chance to examine its defenses from up close. Or a secret entrance, I'm good at finding secret passages. Maybe I could have met an ally on the inside. What I'm realizing quickly is that missing out on this particular quest is a big deal.

Not just because this is a bonding opportunity lost, not just because this is a chance to advance my relationship with her, but also very strategically for the upcoming revolt. I know that Nathan has been inside the castle several times, the late princess would take him with her on various errands. For example that trade minister that screwed my homeland over so badly. So he knows the final battlefield better than I do. I've got my knowledge from the game, and what it can tell me.

For example that the main entrance is almost indefensible once the ward-sigils are cracked open, so the rest of the fighting is hall-to-hall and room-to-room. I know that the servant's stair has less of a bonus for defenders than the tower stair does. After all, I've played as Nathan defending those stairs before, and I know that you should choose the tower stair. But that's when I'm selecting options from a menu. I don't know the floor plan.

The game devs did not map it out like a tactical simulator or a dungeon crawl. It's not that kind of game. But now that I'm here and I need to get around with directions instead of menus, that doesn't help me much. That place has a dozen towers, a thousand servants, and lots of stairs for both of them. Once we get to that royal palace complex, I am going to have basically no tactical information to provide. No useful hints, no live-saving warnings.

I'll be floundering around trying not to get lost and just killing everyone wearing the wrong uniform. This is a huge opportunity lost to me. But, again, the news is even worse than that. In fact-"Well, if nobody else is going for popcorn, I'll do it myself," Rabert said.

"You all have five minutes to plot against me behind my back, be finished before I return." He hopped up and walked over to the self-serve station. Tiviti stared after him, puzzled.

"I don't think think I get that man."

"What's there to get?" Trazom said.

"He said the quiet part out loud for once." I often forget that even more than I, he was raised in gala-intrigue culture. At a single remove, granted; he was exposed to it but not expected to participate in it. So it can be interesting to see his perspectives. To him, Rabert Frantlin is an open book, and yet he finds that Quarl and Kurumi are both total mysteries. Belisa was watching me. She sat with punctiliously perfect posture, despite the relatively comfortable couch she was sharing.

She still sat like the tragic damsel, sometimes, when she forgets herself. She looked concerned.

"Are you all right, princess? Did you really need Thumper for something? You look even more troubled about this than you did about the fashion show." Quarl's head snapped up.

"You've got news about the fashion show?" Tiviti tilted her head with a quirky half-grin.

"Oh, right, that thing. The haberdasher."

"Sorry, the what now?" Kimothy asked, hand raised as if asking teacher a question. I need an extreme degree of slouching for this conversation. Ordinary slumping and flopping and lolling won't do. Fortunately, I can conjure. I let my knees fall out and I collapsed backwards into a massive bean-bag I made for myself. The dried stuffing hissed and crackled as they adjusted to my weight and posture, and then settled.

"Ugh," I said.

"I'll explain when Rabert gets back. We should cover all this at the same time."

"What is that?" Kurumi asked, poking.

"It's a bean-bag."

"I want one."

"You're already comfortable on the couch."

"I want to be comfortable on a bean-bag." With only a slightly overdramatic roll of my eyes, I swept my hand and conjured a beanbag for her to recline on, and she abandoned the couch to sink into the body-molding lump. I was about to turn away from that when I got a small surprise: a point of experience. A point of mission experience. A breadcrumb for the main plot. From beanbags? How? I wondered. And I had no time to deal with that right now. I shelve that idea for later, I need time to figure that out.

Rabert came back with bowls of unpopped kernels and started passing them out.

"Time is up, no more plotting against me," he said blithely, with no trace at all of a smile. As soon as everyone was served I added heat and started them popping, a fun little auditory background. Okay, put aside the mission-breadcrumb-beanbag thing, and the fact that Thumper's missing, and the quest-fail warning. Ahem.

"So, about the Fashion Week thing," I said, opening the discussion. I double-checked the sound-proofing.

"So, for those that don't know, each year there's two Fashion Weeks, one in spring and one in autumn. And they are the most politically-fraught occasions in the kingdom. More policy gets decided during the intermission than during any five sessions of the High Council. Nominally it's a fashion show but right under the surface is the most heated battleground for control of the kingdom, short of actual battle. Assassins in the city call it 'the busy season'." They all stared at me, munching, listening.

Such a remarkable spread of emotions across their faces. I kept going.

"Lately, I've been dominating these events. I invest a lot of planning, effort, money and talent into this culture, and I take more risks than I would like. It has taken every unfair advantage I was born with, and every scrap of leverage I could create with my own labor, but I'm basically the most important person in this realm of society, barring perhaps the king and queen themselves. And this is very important because I need to be in control of some major events that are coming up soon, the next couple months."

I take a breath, sorting my words. Belisa's mouth is tight, she only just learned about this next part. But I'm fighting to figure out how to say this next part, how to go forward. Rabert interrupted my thoughts.

"If you don't think you can be trusted with the most serious sorts of secrets, this is the part where you need to leave. Information that you cannot leak or hint at, things that need to stay entirely confidential. Even if you disagree, even if you think you know better. And understand, it will probably be secrets that make you very uncomfortable. Don't answer right away." Yeah, he's better at this than I am. Some people looked entirely calm and settled. Rabert, Quarl, Tiviti, Trazom.

But Kurumi, Kimothy, and Belisa all looked concerned, hesitant, discomfited. I watched them and waited patiently for them to decide. Steam wafted off of fresh popcorn. Butter and salt were passed around while people considered. Belisa raised her hand.

"Is it worse than what I already know?"

"Eventually, yes," I said with frank honesty.

"But that's not what we're talking about today. This next part goes no further than what you've heard." She sank back in the couch with a relieved sigh. She had already been aware that 'the war that is about to break out in a couple months' is not the worst news I have about the future. Kurumi glanced across at Trazom, of all people, and saw how relaxed he was, before she nodded and settled herself. Kimothy was the last to stop fidgeting, but curiosity won out over caution.

"I'm in," he said.

"In the first week of Summerhigh, a war is goin to break out," I said, watching their reactions.

"A carefully-arranged war, years in the making. On the headlines, it will be a spontaneous outpouring of resentment against the abuses of the royal house against the kingdom. On the back end, it's a strong-arm maneuver to drag more power to the Houses and away from the central government." Not to mention the war profiteers.

"It starts in nearby towns, gathers troops, and moves towards the capital. On the tenth of Summerhigh the troops reach Hearstcliff. After that, there's several possibilities. Win or lose, clean or dirty, almost bloodless or utter catastrophe. If I can control events, I can minimize casualties. To save those lives, I need to be in a position of authority in the right moment. And to do that, I need the support of the Houses. And to do that, I need for Fashion Week to go well for me. Next week.

I understand this is all very complicated already. It's going to get worse."

"You are just eating this up," Kurumi said to Rabert.

"If I didn't know better I'd think you live for this kind of thing."

"You won't learn better than that," he assured her. She looked confused and sat back, trying to figure out exactly what that meant.

"Anyway, my brother has gotten himself a position as one of featured designers headlining the fashion show," I said, with a casual disarming tone. It did not work, there were several groans at that, save only the ones that already knew. Even Trazom seemed aggrieved, and I had thought he actually had a rather good opinion of Nathan. They always got along well as children, at least.

"He's been wearing the same jacket for two years," the musician complained.

"He's got a good eye for matching colors but that's all. He's got that artless 'don't care how I look but I look good anyway' style, but pretty much anyone with his bone structure can do that. And the tousled windblown look?" He shook his head.

"I grant that I did the same thing for many years, until you and your friends started taking me with you on shopping trips. I literally did not know better. And, I had no illusions of being a fashion designer."

"Well, good news," I said.

"He's not going to be using his own fashion sense for this show, he's using designs that he interrogated out of an underworld spy that he held prisoner after he tried to cut my hair." I let that crazy sentence hang in the air for a beat.

"It made more sense at the time," I explained.

"Anyway, I can fill in a lot of those details later. The important part, the central point, is that he's got plans for how he's going to sabotage the event against me. But the good news is that for once, I can ask for help making a plan to deal with it." And I fabricated my chopsticks, and started munching my salty buttered popcorn while the conversation began to unfold between them. They're smart.

And they're not just followers that need me to organize scenarios for them, they're skilled and capable in their fields. Ruthless, Huntress, Wealthy, Sorcerer, Famous, Broken, Assassin. These are not limited skillsets, these are not helpless standbys. This crowd has information that can change things for me. So, while Tiviti and Kimothy lobbed out questions to try to wrap their minds around the nature of this conflict, I relaxed a bit. I was changing the game.

This is not something that can happen in the game, bringing all the love interests together to work on a mission event together. A big step, big change. And, really, a necessary change. I need to let people help me. These people like me, some of them are learning to love me, all in very different ways. I should learn to rely on that a little. I have let fear push me into a small box for a long time.

I've been so proud of my ability to keep secrets that maybe I've lost track of which ones were important to keep, and who to keep them from. After all, I intend to win this game, but unlike my brother I'm not committed to a spy route. I don't need to live in a state of mistrust and half-truths. That's how he plays the game, and if I'm going to match him I need to be competent at it. But I don't need to center myself there. After all, if I let him dictate the terms of our conflict, I will lose. I added some salt.

I had forgotten to sift when I added it before, so none of it trickled down. Trazom and Rabert almost had the rest of the group understanding the ground rules and the tempo that ruled over gala culture, enough to knock out the easy questions and start compiling solutions and options. I let them go, content to let others do the talking for a bit. I brought them together so I could listen, after all. After all, this isn't something that can happen in Harigold Glitter.

At no point do you pull a Council of Love Interests together to deal with big problems. And I'd be tempted to say this is just a [Rival] path thing, something unique to the antagonists. Except that from what Belisa has told me, Nathan is doing something similar, pulling all his remaining love interests together to help with his fashion show. That's not something that happened in the game. His placement as a designer is completely unforeseen, his interactions with Gharie are completely off-script.

The butterfly effect has taken events way off the expected path. That's good, because it means that the world is diverging and developing its own story. What's bad is that quest failure. The game only notifies you of quest failures when it's almost too late. The players and community call that process 'spiraling', by the time you get remotely notified that a quest has been failed, you are already losing a lot of favor with that love interest, and their main-line quests are falling apart.

Spring of second year is way too early for anyone to be spiraling. And, it's Thumper. The game is letting me know that I'm losing Thumper and I didn't even see it coming. I don't know where it was I failed. What conversation should I have picked up, what dialogue option did I mess up? By now I've probably already lost out on a dozen opportunities to fix this, because I didn't know. This game is fucking hard to win when you're playing a brand new route blind.

And unfortunately, to save the world from being just a game, I also need to win that game. Fashion Week. Nathan. The Revolt. The Freckentops. Assassins. Magisters. But now I'm getting existential threats, spiraling. Fuck.