When Kaldalis came down in the morning, he saw that Garyung had gathered everyone together for breakfast. Even Big Mike was there. There were three or four quiet conversations going around the table, but everyone quieted when Kaldalis joined them, looking at him expectantly.

Kaldalis found their attention slightly unnerving. Garyung was right here. Why were they all looking at him like he was in charge?

“Alright,” Kaldalis said, when it was clear he was going to have to lead the discussion. “Before we start with the big bullshit, I want to ask how everyone else is doing. Everything alright? Any weird encounters or unusual events?”

“I think someone is following us,” Myrin said, gesturing to herself and Balrim. “But they haven’t approached us at all, so we figured it was just Zara being Zara.”

“We’re spending a lot of time running errands around the castle,” Balrim added. “It makes sense that they’d keep an eye on us, since we’re technically foreign agents.”

“I’m assuming you stuck together,” Kaldalis said. When they nodded, he continued: “good thinking. I don’t know what’s going on in Zara, but not everyone has benign intentions for us. Attempts have been made on Garyung’s life, as well as my own. So I’m glad everyone is okay.”

Gavinkim and Bangen shifted nervously, and Kaldalis was glad that they realized the implication. They’d been out and about while alone. It was possible that they had just not been targets, but it was also possible that they’d merely been lucky. Kaldalis had additional insight from Demriv’s attack. Since it was her, it was possible that they had been in grave danger for their parts in Onirioago’s imprisonment and upcoming trial. But from Demriv’s words, it seemed like she had been on some kind of anti-PC crusade.

It wasn’t important, and he knew mentioning Demriv would derail the whole discussion, so he moved the discussion along for now.

“Garyung and I had our meeting with the Zaran War Council,” Kaldalis continued. A look of concern went around the table at that, but Kaldalis kept talking before anyone could raise any complaints. “We were trying to square up for Garyung’s mistake in making Cotanaku a new country.”

“They had some interesting things to say,” Garyung cut in. “Especially about Cerh and some apparently wild overreach of his authority.” He gave Gavinkim a sidelong glance. “When we get back to the rest of the council, we’ll have some very pointed questions for him.”

Big Mike shifted uncomfortably. He was technically on Panbu’s council, serving under Cerh. The council treated him pretty poorly, so Kaldalis wasn’t surprised that the captain didn’t raise any objections, but it was clear he wasn’t happy about them openly talking shit about his boss.

“Long story short, I think we can safely declare ourselves square,” Kaldalis said, looking around the table. “They made it clear that they don’t want Cotanaku, so I think we get to be our own country for real now.” Kaldalis reached over and patted Garyung on the shoulder. “As such, Garyung and the council are going to start work on a constitution as soon as we get back. We’re gonna do this right, okay?”

The group gave an appreciative nod at that. Kaldalis had managed to frame the whole thing as positive, and he felt a warm tingle of pride at that. Considering how poorly Garyung had taken it when the council delivered their verdict, making it sound like good news did wonders for morale. Even Garyung himself seemed happy, even if it was only because it gave him the freedom to get the hell out of command as fast as he could write rules for the next guy to take over.

It was good everyone seemed in high spirits after that. Because the next subject wasn’t going to be as happy.

“There is a downside, though,” Kaldalis warned. “It means we actually have to deal with Cotanaku’s shit, and the War Council dropped a big one on our heads before we left. I’m sure you’ve all been told not to use the Lataxinan abilities in public, right?” A nod went around the table. “Well, the guy who was mad about me using one of those is on his way to Cotanaku now.”

“The Contender?” Big Mike asked, voice cracking at the name.

Kaldalis nodded, and Gavinkim and Bangen flinched as well. That guy was a big deal in this world, and Kaldalis wondered why. It seemed like he was just some random investigator. He hadn’t even leveled any real threats against Kaldalis, just an endless stream of questions. How much power did he actually have? Why was he so scary?

“I’m confident that the Lataxinan abilities aren’t evil magic,” Kaldalis said. “So we don’t have anything to fear from the Contender’s investigation.”

“Why?” Bangen asked.

Kaldalis pressed his lips into a thin line. He didn’t really have an answer to that.

“Regardless,” Garyung cut in, “we’ve got some concerns about the Contender arriving unannounced. Is there any way for us to get word to Cotanaku first?” He looked over to Reno. “Kal and I were thinking we could get someone on the stream to send a donation message to some still on the island to get the word out there. But that only works if the messages are going to go out in the next couple of days, before the Contender arrives.”

Reno looked around, suddenly alarmed to be made the center of attention.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you for like a week,” Kaldalis said to her with an apologetic smile. “You know when the next drop is, right?”

“Yeah,” Reno said, grimacing. “Well, I have a good idea about it. But it’s probably going to be tight.” She looked over to Big Mike. “How fast can he get there?”

“Without having seen his ship, it’s hard to say,” the captain said, scratching at the corner of his mustache next to his nose. “Four days would be impossibly fast, but it’s hard to guess more specifically.”

“What about six?” Reno asked. “Because it’s either six or seven, because of the way the drops happen. I don’t remember exactly if it’s on or after the sixth day.”

“You don’t remember?” Kaldalis asked with a smirk. “Why am I not surprised?”

Reno shot him a glare, but Big Mike’s grimace spoiled his enjoyment of the teasing.

“If he left today, arriving in seven days would be reasonable,” Big Mike said. “But whoever the captain is, you can bet he’ll be pushing his ship as hard as she’ll take to avoid getting on the Contender’s bad side. If you twisted my arm, I’d guess six.”

“So it might work,” Reno began. “Because it happens at change of day, there’s a fifty-fifty shot-”

“He left yesterday,” Garyung interrupted. “Not today.”

“Damn,” Big Mike cursed.

A grimace went around the table almost in unison. Kaldalis felt the good spirits at his spin on the earlier news slipping away. He didn’t have any more good news to turn it around, but he had to keep people moving. At least his next topic was actionable.

“So that’s it,” Kaldalis said, shaking his head, “there’s nothing we can do about that. So all we can do is move right along to the next order of business.” He looked up and focused on Bangen and Gavinkim. “Onirioago’s trial.”

Their grimaces went from despair to disgust. Neither of them liked thinking about her, or their part in what was coming next.

“Something is going to go wrong,” Kaldalis predicted. “I don’t know how and I don’t know what, but something is going to go wrong.”

“Why do you think that?” Garyung asked.

“Because nothing has yet,” Kaldalis said with a grimace.

“You told us we’ve been under the eyes of assassins the whole time we’ve been in town,” Balrim pointed out. “The council spat on your offer of a free town. And as the Spanish Inquisition is closing in on Cotanaku, we can’t warn anyone to expect them. How is that nothing going wrong?”

“Because Onirioago wasn’t behind any of that,” Kaldalis said. He steepled his fingers. “The longer we go without hearing from her, the better whatever she has cooking has to be.”

“So?” Balrim pressed. “We’ve bested her before. Two of her best-laid plans are already in splinters at our feet. And this time we’ve got the whole Zaran justice system on our side. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the bureaucracy is strong in this one. Even if she can talk her way out of her compromised position, a web of red tape will slow her down more than enough for us to catch her again.”

“The best weapon Onirioago could possibly ask for is hubris,” Kaldalis warned. “The second we get overconfident, she’s going to tighten whatever noose she’s been tying, and our swollen head will be the death of us all. Possibly literally.” He looked around the table, and saw that he’d taken the wind out of Balrim’s sails a bit with that. The talsar reached up and tugged at his collar, as if the close contact with his throat was suddenly uncomfortable.

“You’re right,” Ess said, but leaned to narrow her eyes at Kaldalis. “But it’s possible that she’s as scared of you as you are of her. She must know that you know that she’s gotta be planning something, right? Maybe she’s paralyzed by indecision, afraid that you’re going to be ready for her?”

“Is that a plan, though?” Myrin cut in. “I’m not at the top of her list, so I’m not gonna criticize if that’s what Kal wants to do, but I don’t know if playing chicken mastermind-to-mastermind is going to end well if that’s all you have.”

“I don’t have the time to make a real plan,” Kaldalis admitted, shaking his head, “but that’s why I’m bringing it up here. The trial is early this afternoon. What can we do, together, to get us all to the end of the day alive?”