Hils Jaramaris was not a happy man. He had been happy, enjoying his role as the Storm Kingdom’s ambassador to Estercost. The nations were rivals, but friendly oheir distance leaving them with few reasons for flict. This meant that Hils, for the most part, was a glorified mailman for diplomatic messages. This suited him just fine, allowing him to pursue his alchemy far from domesti Kingdom politics. It was the arrival of Team Biscuit that cast a shadow over his sunny days.

  It had been shaping up to be a rexing month. Finalising a trade accord, cyg through some aff members, fresh from home. Then the king’s sister and her adventuring team arrived. He’d known they were ing, of course, and that the problem would iably be Jason Asano. He khe man mostly from reputation and Adventure Society alerts.

  Hils had met the man briefly, but that had been two monster surges ago. It was right before Hils had reached silver, back when he was still adventuring full time. He’d been with his friend Orin, who went on to travel with Asano, but Hils knew better than to ask. Orin wasn’t oo talk much, especially about the days with his old team. They had followed Asano into a hole in the ground, and most of them hadn’t e back.

  pared to what Hils had been afraid of, the arrival of Team Biscuit and their first days iy were unremarkable. No royal entas, no mass destru. He’d read the Adventure Society reports of the test city to be destroyed with Asano in the middle of it. It seemed that Asano had realised Cyrion wasn’t some backwater where he could throw around his gold rank like a hammer.

  Hils even had a nice dinner with Zara, where he’d mao get some more insight into Team Biscuit. She was an old friend from ba their days as young Rimaros aristocrats. That was before she went off adventuring, first with Orin’s ill-fated team and then with Asano’s. She’d been willing to offer details of that time he couldn’t get from Orin himself.

  While she en with stories more than a decade old, she was more careful regarding her current team. Her firsthand knowledge filled gaps in the reports he’d seen, but she withheld occasional details and refused to answer certaiions. Team Biscuit had its secrets, especially Asano himself.

  Hils had been optimistic about Zara aeam’s visit. He’d started hearing about issues between Asano and some of the noble houses, but nothing that required intervention. The issue was fly normal, being that the noble houses had found leverage on someone and were looking to squeeze everything they could out of them. The question was how a team of gold rank adventurers would react.

  Looking into it, Hils found the issue both straightforward and minor. Asano wanted a group of people to leave with him, but many were studer iure tracts. The families were looking to gouge Asano’s team for their release, and he was being intractable about making cessions.

  To get his way, all Asano o do was give the families their pound of flesh. It was standard diplomatic fare, and they wouldn’t push too far. Instead, Asaalking about moral imperatives, which would get him nowhere. The kind of public attention he would o shine on the families to make them eveend to care would be immehen he remembered what he’d read of Asano’s history, and what he’d learned directly from Zara.

  Almost a week into Asano’s flict with the nobility, there were signs of trouble. Asano had ceased all efforts at iation and hadn’t been seen in days. Hils reached out to Zara, and her immedia setting up another meeting only added to his s.

  Hils met with Zara in a parlour ihe Rimaros embassy building. It was a small and intimate space, shrouded in the most potent privacy magic avaible. Located close to one of the more discreet entrao the building, the room’s usual purpose was for destiings with close allies. He was not happy when she requested they use it.

  Their meeting began with small talk, plus the obligatory questions on when she would return to Rimaros and rejoin the royal family. Hils had no iment in that, but he was under very clear instrus t it up every time they met. With is like Zara’s enter with the draian prince, returning to the fold would offer her greater diplomatic prote. The questions came from both the current and previous Storm Kings, so there was no way Hils would skip them, even if it ahe former Hurrie Princess. He pushed through them as fast as he could, however, having more of an agenda this time.

  “Zara, what is going on with Asano? Is he about to do something ill-advised?”

  “Usually, yes.”

  “Zara, this is serious.”

  “I know, Hils. And what I’m about to tell you, I’m only able to do so because of a favour to me. Since I’m on his team, and my family is my family, Jason decided to let me give them a few days warning of what is about to happen.”

  “Let you? Whatever politics might be at py, Zara, you’re a princess of the Storm Kingdom first.”

  “Don’t try to lecture me on flig loyalties, Hils. A good boy like you has no idea of what I’ve had to navigate over the years.”

  “Which is why your father and brother want you to e home.”

  “They are not the highest authority iorm Kingdom, Hils.”

  “They are the current and former Storm Kings. Who is higher than that?”

  Her only response was a ft look.

  “The founder?” he asked. “His Aral Majesty?”

  “During the st monster surge, Aor Soramir personally took me aside. He told me that Jason Asano is the most important political retionship the Storm Kingdom has had sis founding.”

  “That seems a bit much.”

  “I see how it could, from the outside. But I don’t need you to agree with me, only to warn my brother. Jason has offered our kingdom a head start on formuting a response.”

  “A respoo what?”

  “I need for you to uand something, Hils. My expectation is that you will respect the courtesy we are being shown here. That means not letting what I’m about to tell you get out. No using the water links or the sky links when you take this to my brother. Yoing to portal baaros in person.”

  “Zara, what is this about?”

  “The System.”

  Hils was informed enough to know that the System was allegedly ected to Asano, although few details had been firmed. Supposedly, the new means of interfag with magic was identical to a personal power Asano has possessed years earlier. What was firmed was how important the System had bee in a very short time. More than just personally valuable to essence users, many anisations were increasingly relying on it. From craft guilds and local govers to the Magic Society, the System was rapidly being adopted into their operations.

  The Adventure Society was especially enamoured of the adva offered. From quantifying powers to identifying people with restricted esseo managing and identifying loot, the System had been an absolute boon. Previously unseen essence abilities tapping into the system were starting to appear, and ritual magic that relied on it was being developed.

  “What about the System?” Hils asked warily.

  “In a few days, Jason is going to turn it off in every try and city state that has iured servitude ws.”

  Hils blinked. A few moments ter, he blinked again.

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  “He’s going to turn off the System in eaation and—”

  “He do that?”

  “He .”

  “Are you sure?”

  “We’ll see in a few days, but yes. I believe that he .”

  “How? Where does he get that kind of access? That level of trol?”

  “It hasn’t been spread around, but I suppose it will be soon. Jason is the System, Hils.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “Just what I said. He is the System. It’s aension of him. He’s still learning how to trol it — he told me it was like learning a new nguage — but he’s fident he do this.”

  “He is the System?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, if he dies, the whole thing goes away.”

  “He ’t die. Not anymore.”

  “Are you saying that he’s the god of the System?”

  “The great astral being,” she corrected. “He doesn’t know if there’s going to be a god of it. The goddess of death and the Reaper, for example, have distinct roles in administering dead souls. He doesn’t know if a simir situation will require a god of the System to form. Even if one does, it will probably take a few turies. Look how long Purity is taking to e back. We still aren’t sure exactly how long Disguise was ag in his pce.”

  He stood up and paced around the room, running his hands through his hair distractedly as he thought. He finally stopped, leaning on the back of his chair with both hands as he looked at the still-sitting Zara.

  “Okay,” he said. “Disregarding, for the moment, the idea that Asano is some kind of god-adjat supreme being, you’re saying that he just turn off the System on a whim?”

  “It’s more involved than that, to my uanding. At least until his prows. But yes, that’s essentially what I’m saying.”

  “You’re saying he do this, and his power is still growing?”

  “Hils, do you uand what a great astral being is?”

  “Obviously not, but I know the Builder was one. Now you’re saying that Asano is the same, and he’s going to use his power to try and hold the world hostage.”

  “That’s not how he framed it, but your description is at least broadly accurate.”

  “People are going to throw a fit. The adoption rate for using the System in every group from govers to churches is… are there any exemptions? Churches, the Adventure Society?”

  “No. And just between us, he’s already secured endorsements of his pns from Dominion and Liberty. That’s going to matter, given how rarely they agree on anything.”

  “If the churches already know, I don’t see why you’re being so secretive. It’s definitely going to e out ahead of time.”

  “The churches don’t know. Not yet.”

  “You just finished saying he had the endorsements from the churches of Dominion and Liberty.”

  “No, Hils, I didn’t.”

  “Wait, were you talking about the actual gods?”

  “It ’t be that much of a surprise. Surely, you’ve heard about what he’s like with them. He had them around for a cup of tea with the whole team. It was a very odd experience.”

  “Gods drink tea?”

  “They’re gods, Hils. There isn’t much they ’t do, whatever Jason might say about their limitations.”

  “And they’re going to support this publicly?”

  “Yes.”

  “That ges things signifitly. Or maybe it doesn’t, I don’t know. I have no frame of reference for some gold ranker holding the p hostage by threatening to turn off a major faagic itself. Because he’s actually some kind of ridiculous being. I saw o cim he was one of the messengers’ gods.”

  “He is, and they’re called astral kings.”

  “I thought you said he was a great astral being.”

  “Yes, it’s all very plicated. What you o uand, Hils, is that Jason isn’t threatening to do anything. He’s doing it. I’m here so the Storm King has a ce to get out ahead of it.”

  “Ahead of it how? He wants to abolish iured servitude? That’s a erstone of the legal system for most of the civilised world. What does he want us to repce it with? Those pces where they lock people up for years on end, the way they do in Kurdansk? Even ign what the point of it is, do you have any idea of the operating costs of those pces?”

  “He’s not making specific demands beyond the elimination of iured servant ws.”

  “Meaning that he expects us to throw out a major part of the justice system and offers nothing to put in its pce.”

  “Do you think it would be better if he did start dictating how tries should ge things?”

  “That’s exactly what he’s doing!”

  “Well, yes,” Zara ceded. “But he wants everyoo find their own solutions, rather than dictating them himself. Which is what Dominion said he should do, by the way.”

  “Why does Dominion even approve of this? Shouldn’t he be in favour of iured servitude? Or aude, for that matter.”

  “I’m not sure. I wohe same, but Jason said that Dominion isn’t what most people think he is. We didn’t sit down for a theological discussion, though. What we did talk about otential rept systems for iure. Jason won’t dictate eople should do, but favours a shift in the current system that only makes limited ges.”

  “How limited?”

  “His problem is the svery aspect.”

  “Iure isn’t svery.”

  “Except that sometimes it is, Hils, and you know it.”

  “No system is perfect, Zara.”

  “Which is not an excuse to not make them better. The current practise is to sell off iure tracts, ive them to the criminal’s victims. Jason favours taking what were iure tracts and repg them with public service orders. For most practical purposes, the systems stay as they are, but without selling people. Local authorities use the bour for public service, with regution io redud remedy instances of abuse.”

  Hils rubbed his thoughtfully.

  “So, mostly just shifting the iure holders from private individuals to gover authorities.”

  “It’s an option. Ohat has already been w in some city states for decades. There are still problems, but the worst of the abuses have been curtailed.”

  “Worst of the abuses. We’re talking about criminals, here, and it’s not as bad as you make out.”

  “Do you genuinely believe that?”

  “Of course I do. If I didn’t, what kind of monster would that make me?”

  “An unfortunately on variety. You know of Sophie Wexler, from my team?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you know that she was an iured servant?”

  “I think I recall reading about that.”

  “The local Magic Society branch director was obsessed with her. The Adventure Society direade that happen iurn for certain cessions. It took Jason and Emir Bahadir stepping in to prevent that from happening.”

  “See? The system works.”

  “People with undue influeepping in to stop other people with undue influence isn’t the process w, Hils. It’s the process being so broken that the corruption is folding in on itself.”

  “Look, Zara, I doirely disagree with you. I don’t think it’s as bad as you make out, but what I’m really telling you is what everyone else is going to say.”

  Zara nodded.

  “I told him much the same. As did Danielle Geller.”

  “Did you tell him that he’ll be standing up to every gover in the world?”

  “I did.”

  “And what did he say to that?”

  “That he’s stood up to worse. That people know who he is, now, so it’s time to show them what he is.”

  Hils let out a groan.

  “He’s one of those obnoxiously melodramatic people, isn’t he?”

  “Oh, you have no idea. Sometimes I’ll spot him with one foot propped up on something, staring into the middle distance.”

  “Zara, this is going to be a mess. tries aren’t going to cave in to some random guy telling them to ge how their legal system works. I don’t care what he is or how crazy the stories about him are. Even diamond rankers don’t act like this.”

  “He’s not a diamond ranker, Hils. He’s a man who invites a couple of gods around for a cup of tea and they actually show up.”

  “Then maybe you should go around and tell everyohat story. See how that works out.”

  Zara got to her feet.

  “Hils, I’m not here to vince you of anything. This is just a ce for our try to get a few more days than everyone else to formute a rea. What my brother does from there is up to him.”

  “This is a bad idea, Zara. You should try and stop him from doing this.”

  “If people could stop Jason Asano from following through on bad ideas, the world would be a different pce. I told him how messy this was going to be.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Something about a spider and responsibility and his uncle, I think? It didn’t make a lot of sense.”