Swarming Sovereignty

As Lia explained the situation, she could practically see the gears turning in Amelia’s head. She was slowly but surely returning to her normal emotional state, and was beginning to think up plans.

“Our first order of business is to get you all the Blood Money you need to buy that locator.” Amelia said. “If we’re lucky, we can cut off this Hero before he grows too powerful. How much Blood Money do you have on you?”

“About seventy five hundred.” Lia said.

“So, only seven percent of the way there…but we’ve also been focusing more on conversion than killing, so if we shift our focus, we can increase our production by an order of magnitude.” Amelia mused.

“As much as he seems like a decent guy, he also has a personality that it seems like we can take advantage of.” Rose said. “Depending on how gullible he is, we might be able to lure him into joining us voluntarily by promising him a harem, using our status as “friends of the Goddess of Commerce” to make us seem more legit. I doubt he’ll accept, he’ll probably want that harem to form naturally, but it depends on how big a pervert he actually is.

“Now, if our relationship goes sour, we have options. I’ve seen his type before, and they’re incredibly easy to predict; by strategically picking our targets, we can shepherd his movements as we please. Our ultimate goal will be to capture and convert as many of his companions as possible and lure him into a confrontation with them. He will likely look for some way to deconvert them, and we can use his distraction to find an opportunity to convert him as well.

“That’s not even mentioning the favors we can buy from him…depending on how expensive they are, he can be used as our tool, as well. But…Amelia is right, that magic tool for locating him comes first.”

“Alright.” Lia said. “Let’s do that, then. Convert any monsters you think would be particularly valuable combat assets, but kill the rest. Rose, Amelia, the three of us will be hunting as a group, out in the Spine proper. We need our individual combat strengths as high as they can be. For now…our goal is to defeat the nightmare and phoenix; if we can’t defeat them, we can’t defeat the Hero. I’ll let everyone know about the change of plans, meet at the portal outside in an hour.”

Rose and Amelia nodded, and Lia left the room, already sending out telepathic orders.

---

Lia sliced down with her claws, decapitating the beast that Amelia and Rose had restrained. She waved away the window indicating she had leveled up, scanning her surroundings for additional foes. When she was satisfied that they were safe, she turned her attention back to her companions. “I leveled up, and can evolve now.” She said. “Shall we shift our attention to Rose for now?”

“No.” Rose said. “We’re not too far from home, let’s head back, get you evolved, and then come back here. It’ll be safer that way.”

“I agree.” Amelia said. “We’re getting close to when we would normally head back anyway, so the loss of efficiency is negligible.”

The group set off, trekking back through the mountains and towards the cave entrance that led to the dungeon. For the first ten minutes or so, it was uneventful, but that wasn’t to last; as they moved through the foliage they came into view of the corpse of a monster, lying on the ground.

“Nightmare probably came through here.” Rose said, walking hesitantly over to the monster and kneeling down. “It…no, not the nightmare.” She grabbed something on the corpse and tugged, the thing coming free with an unpleasant squelching noise. “Arrows. Probably another scouting party sent to find us. We need to get back, fast.”

With that in mind, they picked up their pace, Amelia casting some silencing magic on them to keep their approach quiet while remaining speedy. They tore through the terrain, and in only ten minutes were back at the entrance of the cave…where visitors were waiting.

It was a team of three distinctly nervous people, bearing a white flag. “Amelia?” One of them, the one carrying the flag, said. “We wish to negotiate.”

Lia slowed, eyeing them warily. A white flag was a universal sign of truce, one that could not be broken without incurring the wrath of both the God of War and the Goddess of Law. Such ambushes would never go well for the aggressors, so it had become the de-facto way of surrendering or trying to open negotiations during war.

“Lia’s in charge, not me.” Amelia said, jerking a thumb at Lia. “Everything goes through her first.”

“Fine.” The flagbearer said. “Lia, we come on behalf of the kingdom of Aura; our queen wishes to begin talks of an alliance. If you accept, we have a message from her and coordinates for a location you can leave correspondence, assuming the Hero is capable of teleporting items that far, as we have assumed she is.”

Lia frowned. “And you have decided to wait out here why?”

“Because entering the dungeon and attempting to obtain information would violate the white flag we bear.” The flagbearer replied. She gave a sigh, then continued. “And…as a token of our sincerity, the three of us are being offered as “gifts”, to be dealt with however you see fit. Sacrificial lambs, so to speak.”

Lia frowned. Though she had no intentions of hurting these people, just converting them, the fact that they were being offered as hostages left a bad taste in her mouth. “Amelia, disable their recording orbs, if you would.”

“I did that before we even started talking, don’t worry.” Amelia said.

Lia nodded. “Place the coordinates on the ground next to you, along with your weapons, and then get down on your bellies.” She instructed.

The prisoners reluctantly complied, and Lia turned to Amelia. “Amelia, if you would?”

Amelia gave her a nod, and large globs of modeling wax appeared in the air above the three prisoners quickly encasing them in cocoons. “What now?” She asked.

“Let’s bring these poor people to Lily and have her decide where they’ll see the best use.” Lia said, walking over and picking up the bundle that the prisoners had dropped. “We…need to talk about this.”

---

“The package is safe.” Amelia announced. “No poison, hidden mechanisms, magic, or any other dirty trick. It’s just paper.”

“Thank you, Amelia.” Lia said, taking the package and gingerly opening it. Within were a few sheets of paper, neatly folded. Lia grabbed the topmost piece, opened it, and began to read.

Lia and Amelia, I hope this missive finds you well. It read. I am Alisha, Queen of Aura. I don’t know how exactly you got Brom to swear an Oath, but it would seem you are women after my own heart – strong, driven, and willing to do what needs to be done to improve our world. I cannot pretend to know what you are planning, but I know it will shake the very core of our world, much as the Ruby Emperor did in ages past.

To cut to the heart of the matter, I can tell that our kingdoms have no chance of standing against your might; we have no way of sending any sizeable force to your location, all the while you will grow in power until we are unable to stop you. I see no benefit in being on the losing side, so I propose an alliance.

My kingdom and your army will remain on friendly terms, and I will provide you with intel on the plans of the other monarchs. And, of course, when the time comes for you to make your move, we will surrender and officially join your cause. All I ask for in return is to be one of your generals, someone in a position of power in this new regime you will create. I wish to be taught your ways, so I may better my country in the new world that is soon to dawn.

Should these terms not work for you, I am amenable to negotiation, but the safety of my people comes first. You may have the firepower to conquer us, but history has shown that a willing populace is far easier to manage than one that resents your rule, and immediate access to the resources of a nation is not something to scoff at.

I know that not all of my country will accept a new rule smoothly, but I will make an Oath to you on behalf of Aura, and they will have no choice but to quietly fall in line. There may be dissatisfaction in the short term, but once they see your overwhelming might, I have no doubts they will realize that I have simply done what is best for them.

As a token of my good faith, I am granting you my messengers. You may do with them what you see fit; use them as your spies, keep them locked up, I care not. Behind my letter I have written out a series of coordinates; simply teleport a response letter to these coordinates, and I will leave a reply in the same spot by the end of the day.

Respectfully yours, Alisha.

“So…we’re all in agreement that she’s got some other agenda here, right?” Lia said. “I can’t believe she would send us an offer like this right after a Hero is summoned.”

Rose sighed. “She really couldn’t be any more transparent if she tried. In my time, machinations had to be far more subtle than this if they wanted to escape my notice. She’s clearly looking down on the two of you, assuming you’re kids with no experience in this matter, not treating you as opponents to be reckoned with like a good politician would.”

“I know she’s a schemer, and I can tell there’s something wrong, but not what.” Amelia admitted. “What does she want?”

“She wishes to subvert our rule and take command of our army herself.” Rose said. “She’s fixated on the power she sees us as having, and she’s making a deal that will put her near the top of the hierarchy. She likely intends to use that position to slowly plant ideas in your minds that will bolster her own position, slowly gaining more and more power and amassing people who are loyal to her alone.

“The Oath is a sham, as well. An Oath between countries is valid only so long as the country in question exists – the moment it is declared that we have absorbed Aura, the Oath will be fulfilled, and the people freed from its obligations. At that point, she is aiming to have a position of significant influence in our ranks, as well as the backing of her country, at which point a coup would be quite doable. And if it doesn’t pan out…then she’s probably banking on the Hero taking us down. Either way, she comes out on top.”

Lia thought about that for a moment. “Is there any reason not to accept this, then?” She asked. “If we say yes right away, it should feed into the image of naivety she thinks we have, and we can persuade her to come here or meet with us, right?”

Rose beamed like a proud parent. “I’m glad you’ve been paying attention in my lessons.” She said. “Yes, the most important thing is to get her here and convert her. From there, our job is much easier.”

“But not finished.” Amelia said. “We still need to make sure she is absolutely loyal. I don’t think there are many people that can overcome the conditioning I put into conversion, but if she’s really all her reputation claims she is, she might be able to. I mean…if we wanted, we could throw her in the cocoon with Ira, the nightmare, and the phoenix, mix them together, and boom, problem solved.”

“No.” Lia said. “Ira is one thing, since he was clearly insane and looking to destroy the world, but this Alisha is different. She doesn’t seem like a good person, but she doesn’t deserve to have her entire personality wiped out for that. Besides, she won’t be of much use as a spy if she can’t remember things from before.”

“She’ll be able to remember, it’ll just be like how Ophelia views the cerberus that was used in her conversion.” Amelia corrected. “And…is it really that big a deal? You just said she wasn’t a good person, so it’s fine, right?”

As Lia struggled to formulate a response that would properly encapsulate the finer points of morality, Rose intervened. “It’s not all or nothing.” She said gently. “It’s a spectrum. If a three year old throws a tantrum because they can’t get a cookie, are they bad?”

Amelia frowned. “It’s not a good thing to do, but they don’t know better. Alisha does.”

“So, good people can do bad things?” Rose prompted.

“Yes…I suppose.”

“I’m sure Lia got into fights with her siblings when she was younger, right?” Rose asked, nodding at Lia.

“Yeah.” Lia confirmed.

“And would Lia deserve to have her personality and sense of self destroyed over that?”

Amelia immediately shook her head. “Of course not!”

“Then, assuming Lia was in the wrong, how should you handle that?”

Amelia frowned. “I don’t know. Take away dessert, or ground her, or something like that?”

“So, different actions deserve different punishments.” Rose said.

Amelia hesitated, then nodded. “I’m starting to see that, yeah.”

“Destroying a person’s sense of self is the greatest punishment we can give, even more than death.” Rose said softly. “I know it’s hard to understand, neither of us really liked the way we were while the Urge was in charge, but for most people, that’s the worst thing in the world. They would rather die as themselves than become something they hate.”

“But we do that with regular conversions!” Amelia protested. “And look how happy they are!”

Rose sighed. “I know. Even though I cannot bring myself to agree with this sentiment due to the conditioning all swarm members have, I acknowledge that what we are doing here is considered wrong. The only reason I have yet to seek a way around that lack of care is because…well, at the end of the day, the person being converted is still themself. They have new loyalties, but their base personality is usually the same. And, even in rare cases like Ophelia, it is still mostly unchanged, with only some tweaks. I’m sure it’s why the gods have left us to our devices instead of preemptively destroying us, as well.”

Amelia’s frown deepened. “But…all the harm she could do to us…”

Lia laid a hand over one of Amelia’s. “Amelia, sometimes the easiest choice is not the right one. Like Rose said, what we are doing here is wrong, and while I likewise cannot care about regular conversions, I still think we should do our best to do the right thing as much as possible.”

Amelia was silent for a long moment. “Did…did I make us bad people?” She asked in a small voice.

Rose gave her a sort of regretful smile. “It’s…not as simple as that.” She said. “The gods have accepted our actions, so I don’t think our actions are evil, but…they are not necessarily good, either. I don’t think we will become bad people until we start doing things like purposefully wipe out people’s personalities, but we should still endeavor to do the most good we can. Personally, I think that means we should give people the chance to convert voluntarily before we force it upon them, but I understand that is not always an option. Alisha is attempting to sabotage us, so converting her is fine, but that act alone does not make her deserve a fate debatably worse than death.

“Perhaps our solution should be to simply reinforce the loyalty aspects of her conversion and emphasize them as much as possible. It likely wouldn’t work on someone insane like Ira, but Alisha seems to be completely sane, so I think it has merit. Is this something you can do?”

Amelia shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Maybe? I…I don’t know if it would be better or worse morally, but I…think I could link acts of loyalty to happiness for her, too? I’m getting a better grasp on things now that I’m…feeling, but it might be less intrusive than making her just outright have higher loyalty? Since she’d just be getting the normal stuff and feel extra good when she obeys.”

“I…I don’t know.” Lia admitted. “This is…hard. But…I think it’s better than the alternatives? This way, it’s at least her…well, giving into pleasure instead of overwriting all her base nature with loyalty? It’s…it’s a frustrating gray area, but we got this far on principles of unity and being good to our fellow swarm members, and I’m not going to let one duplicitous person ruin the bonds we’ve built.”

Rose gave a nod in agreement. “I’ll draft up a response.” She said, smiling darkly. “I’ve been through this sort of trickery more times than I can count, so subtly manipulating her will be no sweat. If this is truly all she’s capable of, then she’s a hundred years too early to be challenging me.”