Dergoz seemed duly hesitant now, though whether it was out of respect, confusion, or fear, Lawrence could not tell. Perhaps all three. ‘What about Sanko? Is she involved in your plan, too?’
“No, unfortunately. She remains entirely loyal to Sermung.”
‘But she could arrive any day now. If she joins the Rainlords against us--’
“It won’t come to that.”
‘How can you be sure?’
“You will just have to trust us.”
‘You have something up your sleeve?’
Parson only smiled.
And Lawrence began to realize how wrong he’d been about these two. For as long as he’d known them, Parson and Overra had been the most moronic of all his superior officers. Parson perhaps a little more so than Overra, but still. They’d always been goofball slackers, enjoying themselves just a bit too much for Dergoz’s liking, and Lawrence couldn’t really disagree.
And yet, now that Lawrence was thinking about it, they had been largely successful in most of the missions where he’d worked with them.
No.
There was more to it than that, wasn’t there? By now, he and Dergoz had worked with them dozens upon dozens of times, but Lawrence was struggling to think of an instance when they’d truly failed a mission. Things had certainly gotten messy sometimes, and no doubt, some of the official reports would indicate failure as a result, but that wasn’t the whole truth of it.
Lawrence recalled an incident during the Jungle Wars where Parson lost track of a certain unruly Melmoorian diplomat whom they were supposed to protect. They eventually found the diplomat in an Abolish prison and rescued him. The man was so grateful that he went on to provide the Vanguard with decades of key political support that probably ended up saving Melmoore from the same financial ruin that caused its neighbors to crumble.
Then there was the assassination attempt that should not have succeeded but did anyway, because Parson insisted on an overlong equipment check that morning. They caught hell from Lamont for that screw up, and yet, a few years later, documents surfaced which indicated that the man they let be assassinated had been maintaining secret prison camps for Abolish.
There was always something like that, Lawrence was realizing. Parson would make some mistake, be labeled an idiot for it, and then everyone would forget. Or at least, Lawrence would. Only in retrospect did it become clear that most of those “mistakes” had since been vindicated in some way.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
plot twisting again
ReplyDeletealso first! yay, I'm up way too late
Interesting. Of note, this also proves that Parson and Overra (and by extension Lamont) are still firmly loyal to the Vanguard, even as they plot to betray Sermung. Even their shadow objectives center around shoring up the Vanguard and damaging Abolish.
ReplyDeleteIt says something about the Vanguard command structure that no one thinks it particularly odd that a goofball like Miles stays at the rank he does - perhaps they put a little too much credence in raw physical power? Perhaps Lamont is keeping him elevated behind the scenes, but still, the fact that this revelotion is possible is an argument for its necessity. So long as they do some major overhauls of the command structure anyway.
ReplyDeleteWell I just really hope that we get to meet Sermung before/if he gets killed.
ReplyDeleteAlso do any of the people in the shadow faction of enough power to hold off the Abolish leaders? If not that's kinda like removing all of your nukes in a war when the other power will not. This seems risky.
Wonder how long until we know why they wish to kill Sermung. He's apparently unfit to rule, but why is he?
I'm not sure it's possible to kill Sermung, short of convincing his reaper to drop him, as someone as old as him probably pan-rozums full-time to protect his reaper, and his soul defence probably nullifies just about any attack. That's not even taking his ability into account.
ReplyDeleteMaybe. They certainly seem to have very accurate intelligence about Abolish matters that the rest of the Vanguard does not, to be able to pull off their little "mistakes".
ReplyDeleteIf that was true, the emperors would all be thousands of years old. Obviously it IS possible for the big guys to die and be replaced.
ReplyDeleteIt was mentioned that the current emperors are far older than earlier ones and as a result the top commanders of all the major factions have stayed the same for a really long time.
ReplyDelete