Chapter 107
Part 17
“Give us all the relevant information you have on your program, including facilities, the rosters of
trainees, supervisors, and other staff, and the logistics of your supply systems. Have the trainees
gathered to watch the Revealing in one hour.”
Zwak frowned, but he passed her the information psionicly, and she immediately passed it to Karz, who
passed it to his team-mates. “May I ask the terms of their contract?” he inquired.
“We haven’t discussed it yet,” Povon admitted as she turned to the children, “But the essence of a just
contract is that both parties should benefit equally. On that basis, Mark should award you half the value
of thebor, costs, and resources that we’ll save under your system, plus a payment for your
improvement in the quality of our training.
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“On the other hand, that would mean we’d owe you the value of about a billion Sylvan’s continuous
liquid assets. We could give you a few hundred tons of gold as a down payment, but you would have to
take the rest in goods, services or resources.”
The four young simply stared at her a moment, then broke upughing.
“That’s a pretty good offer, Povon, considering that we’d nned to contribute the entire program at our
own cost, including borrowing from you five as necessary.” Sixughed. “Give us a second to consider
it.
“All right, we’ll emce and oversee the training program for the next year for only eighteen tons of
gold, on the condition that you pay the cost of having it minted into Hilian Crowns. With that to start
with, we’ll be able to make as much money as we want, so there’s no use in us charging you any more.
We know that Serminak isn’t producing a huge surplus, and besides, it’ll be a good thing to have the
government of Serminak owing us a big favor.”
“But we’ll take the favor in writing, in case there’s a change of regime here sometime before we choose
to collect on it!” Fireughed. “And that’s not ament on instability here, but on how soon I think
we’ll need to collect the favor!”
“Done!” Markughed, offering his hand to Val, who was closest.
The Governors shook his hand in turn, feeling quite pleased with themselves.
“We’ll have your gold to the mint in Hilia within the hour.” Povon told them with a smile.
“And I’ll have the writ of favor within a week.” Mark grinned. “I want to see how the ounting works
out before I decide on the wording.”
“Been a rough month, hasn’t it Zwak?” Fire asked the Sylvan with a smirk. “First demoted by Zarkog
and then by Kovink Seg Mivtz, and now relieved of responsibility for the youth training programs. With
the corresponding loss of status.”
“Yes, I’ve had better months, and my status has fallen while yours has risen.” Zwak told her. “But to be
honest, I’m d I won’t be responsible for the training programs anymore. It was a thankless,
frustrating, andplex task that consumed a great deal of time while conferringparatively little
status. Now that I’m free of it, I’ll have the time I need to find a way to deal with the damn gnome.
Zarkog’s move was purely symbolic and everyone knows it, so that didn’t cost me much, but the damn
gnome…” he paused and gnashed his teeth for a moment. “Well, let’s just say that he and I don’t see
eye to eye, and leave it at that.”
“I suppose our status has indeed increased, as Sylvan judge such things, and it will continue to do so.”
Fire told him. “But we don’t really care about that. The only thing that matters is beating the demons.
Until then, gaining status for its own sake is shallow and irrelevant.”
“I disagree.” Zwak insisted. “As I understand things, we still have long enough before we face the
demons that it’s still worthwhile to take some time to enjoy our lives, particrly if we can do so while
engaging in activities that help prepare us for the war. And while my dedication to the cause may be
less than yours, I can assure you that it’s far more than that of the damn gnome. His status is all he
cares about; the results of his activities actually decrease our preparedness far more than they
increase it. Great missing gods above and below, how I hate that damned gnome!”
“Hold on there.” Mark interjected. “If he’s decreasing our preparedness, he’s decreasing the
effectiveness of the military, which is a contravention of one of the primary rules of the game. If that’s
the case, how is it that he’s escaped being beaten for it as the rules decree?”
“He decreases our preparedness bypletely demoralizing every Sylvan and every adult of every
other race that he crushes in The Game of Status by utilizing the assistance of billions of non-yers of
his race! Tiny as they are, no one can beat the billions of them unless billions of us band together to do
it, which ispletely against the spirit of the game! All the damn gnomes are acting against us with
everything they’ve got, but since they’re non-yers acting through him, we can’t strike back at them!
It’s bloody cheating, is what it is! They should take part as yers, or stay the hell out of it!”
“Or, the Sylvan could abandon The Game of Status in favor of a system that offers them far greater
fulfillment, of a much more fundamental nature.” Six countered, and cast the Revealing that he’d been
helping to prepare with some of his attention during the conversation.
The sound and sight of interviews with Hiliani Sylvan trainees was cleverly interspersed and
ovepped with views and sounds of their training. They enthusiastically extolled the merits of battling
demons all day without worrying about being killed, then partying all evening with the perfect level of
drunkenness and none of the side effects, including being able to fight anyone in the arenas with
guaranteed perfect healing right afterwards, and the opportunity to have endless sex with no worries
about sexual diseases or unnned pregnancy. They extolled the quality of the food and thefort of
the amodations, and their pride in having built their new homes themselves.
“Ah. You had me worried for a moment.” Zwak said with a smile as the Revealing continued. “They’re
still Sylvan. The informal, instinctual game of status continues among them, in the new circumstances
you’ve created for them. And I must admit, they’re tempting circumstances. I doubt I could live the rest
of my life like that, but it would be a very pleasant vacation.”
“Sure, it’s the best way you’ve got to have some fun and sharpen your skills against the best demon
Simcrums there are.” Six grinned. “And maybe after you’ve tried it, you’ll decide that returning to the
stress of your present duties isn’t as important as you’d thought. You’re still Zwak Deathbringer, the
most experienced fighter and general among all Sylvan, and quite likely the most dangerous among
them, though we now know that you’re not the eldest, or even close to it. The unknown Sylvan God of
Stealth forbids his people who are twenty-five or older from killing each other, and he has for almost
three millennia. There are Sylvan on Hiliani who are almost that old. Anyway, many of your most
impressive abilities go unused in your present duties, and your status would be at least as high under
our system as it is now.
“And it might interest you to know that while the Hiliani Sylvan have to follow their deity’s restriction on
killing, and we keep them in line with overpowering psionics, none of them have been sworn to justice
on The Truthstone of Falgaroth, or on any other item of power.
“If you help us emce our system and get it running smoothly, and then you join it, we’ll see what we
can do about getting you released from your vow. We can’t promise anything, because we haven’t
asked Falgaroth about it and we don’t even know if it’s possible. But we’re against keeping anyone
under an involuntary binding oath if there’s any other practical way to guarantee the reliability of their
behavior.”
“By Gvetwa’s balls!” Zwak cursed under his breath, then was silent for a moment before he spoke up.
“You hit me hard with that one. I’d do a lot to be released from the vow; to truly have it gone from my
mind. Even with the freedoms allowed us under The Game of Status, the vow is an aggravating and
constant irritant. Not to mention that it was the instrument of my own humiliating defeat.