It didn’t take long for Kaldalis to get a quick word in with Garyung, but that didn’t mean that he could just drop everything and gather the council. All he could do was schedule them a spot to speak at the midday council meeting.

“At the very least,” Garyung said as he sent off the message to add them to the itinerary, “this won’t be a meeting that could have been an email.”

“Why not?” Kaldalis asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Garyung said with a laugh. “Whenever you’re there, things get real weird real fast.”

“That’s not-” Kaldalis began to protest, and then stopped. “Okay, I see where you’re coming from, but that doesn’t mean I’m not offended by the implication.”

“You’re bringing one of the Contender’s agents into a meeting,” Garyung said flatly. “And you’re telling me he has intent to defect. You can’t be offended when I point out that bullshit follows you everywhere when you just dragged it back into my house on purpose like a cat.”

He had nothing to say to that, so Kaldalis didn’t even try.

Kaldalis returned to Brother Gnider downstairs, and they waited until the midday meeting. He was just grateful it wasn’t too long of a wait. It would be a mistake to lose track of Brother Gnider before he could deliver whatever exposition dump he had on the Contender’s operation.

If Kaldalis’s suspicions were anywhere near accurate, they couldn’t afford for him to change his mind before the man either confirmed or refuted them. Or even more worrying, they couldn’t afford for any of the Contender’s other agents to scoop him up.

Regardless, an aide came down to fetch them when it was time, only about twenty minutes later.

“Ah, here’s our resident troublemaker now,” Garyung said as Kaldalis entered.

The council chamber was much as Kaldalis remembered it. Very little had changed since even the first days of the camp, even though the location had moved from a single-room hut to a side room on the second floor of a much grander building. Unpainted wood walls, bare wood floor, with the space dominated by a single long, rough-hewn table. Kaldalis wasn’t sure if it was Garyung’s aim to keep the council reminded of their simple beginnings, but the wave of familiarity that hit Kaldalis certainly kept him grounded.

The council seemed to be in full attendance, too, though with one empty seat - the one that had been Gavinkim’s.

“To be fair, he’s also been a reliable trouble-solver, as well,” another member countered. It was the shifty-looking Suyon man whose name Kaldalis hadn’t caught yet.

Behind him, Brother Gnider entered the room as well, and everyone’s polite chuckles went silent.

“I would like my remark stricken from the record,” the shifty Suyon said coldly. “I see that troublemaker is the correct term.”

“Listen,” Kaldalis said, suddenly aware that he had a very casual tone for someone addressing a nation’s leadership. “I wouldn’t be bringing him in here if I didn’t have a reason, alright?”

“The fuck are we afraid of?” Filomena asked. As the representative of the sailors who were becoming a vanishingly small minority as the town grew, Kaldalis had expected her to go from frequently-ignored to entirely-absent. But for a change, when she spoke, the council seemed to be listening. “Are monsters not allowed in the council chambers now? Most of us here were hand-picked by fucking Onirioago. Show some spine.”

“I’m sorry,” Kaldalis said, holding a hand up to his ear. “Did you say monster? He’s just-”

“The way the Contender has been choking us out,” one of the other council members grumbled - the Bhogad woman in charge of the construction efforts. “I don’t think the descriptor is out of line.”

“This seems to be straying really close to danger,” Garyung cut in, “can we adjust our tone? This man is, effectively, a Zaran agent. You know, the people we’re trying not to pick a fight with?”

“No, they’re right,” Brother Gnider cut in, “in fact, they don’t know how right they are. I am not here to expect the same differential treatment that the Contender demands. I am here to admit fault, confess to our crimes, and, I hope, help to defend against the crimes to come.”

“I’m trying to think of a way you could have phrased that more ominously,” Kaldalis muttered. “I’m coming up blank.”

To Kaldalis’s susprise, that drew a wan smile across Brother Gnider’s face. It gave him a feeling of vague vertigo. The man’s reaction to being shown a fundamental truth that ran counter to his worldview was to try to make things right. Kaldalis had reacted in nearly the same way after Onirioago’s reveal. It was a welcome surprise to meet a kindred spirit.

“What I am about to say cannot leave this room,” Brother Gnider began, doubling down on sounding as overdramatic as possible. “If the Contender catches wind that I am no longer his man, then my career and life are forfeit. Even if he believes me when I deny being the leak, I am likely on the next boat back to Zara in disgrace. If I am not executed on the spot.”

“He has the authority to do that?” Garyung asked.

“In the name of fighting evil?” Brother Gnider said with a shrug. “The Contender’s authority is absolute. So long as he can justify any accusation of unholy magic, he will have the church’s support.”

Kaldalis didn’t realize how much the man had risked by approaching him, and then coming to the dungeon to learn Kaia’s Flicker. Perhaps the man’s excessive reaction to everything was genuine. He had so much on the line. Could it really be called overdramatic when he was literally risking his life to cast aside the beliefs he’d built his whole life on?

“You’ve made your point,” the shifty-looking Suyon said. “We can keep our movements covert, so long as you’re not about to suggest an existential threat to us.”

“The investigation is a sham,” Brother Gnider said. “The Contender is only expending a minimal effort to learn about the Lataxinan abilities. His real purpose here is to stunt Cotanaku’s growth. He is working with Cerh and Jetmorpan as an agent of Zara to obstruct your resources so that you can’t become a greater threat than you already are, or to force you to lash out so that they can crush you with justification on the global stage.”

“What did I just say about existential threats,” the Suyon man said with a heavy sigh.

“We…” Garyung began. He hesitated, but elected to push through anyway. “We suspected that was the case already. Though it certainly helps to have confirmation.”

Brother Gnider grimaced with a nod. “It’s why he moved to block off the dungeons and the wilderness, so that he could stifle your growth. Even if it has the same effect on Panbu and Kayore. Those towns will have the financial support of Zara to stay alive.”

“Then why did he let me unblock the sunken ruins?” Garyung asked.

“There’s only one reason I could think of,” the priest said, grimacing. “If he’s not stunting your growth, it’s because he expects you to lash out, and considering your behavior at the last meeting with him, it’s easy to see why he might think that.”

“What are we supposed to do, then?” Kaldalis asked. “Just let him shove us around?”

“You need to adjust your approach. You most of all,” Brother Gnider said, turning away from the council to look at the adventurer. “You’re using the wrong tools for this fight, and you don’t even know it.”

“Well excuse me for trying facts and logic,” Kaldalis grumbled. “What am I supposed to do? Fight fire with fire and try to argue with outright lies like the Contender does?”

“The Contender doesn’t fight with lies,” the priest corrected, holding up a hand to stop Kaldalis from interrupting even before he began. “Instead he fights with ideas. Perhaps they aren’t true, but they don’t need to be. They touch on fears and concerns of his audience. You’re trying to fight with details. And details get lost before anyone can even attach to them. You can’t fight ideas with details. You need to fight ideas with better ideas. Bigger ones.”

“We’re bringing to light the lives of their people,” Garyung cut in. “Their townsfolk. Their friends. How is there a better idea than the preservation of innocent lives?”

“Scale,” Brother Gnider said, turning his attention back to the council. “You’re waving the threat of a few deaths in front of them. The Contender is wielding a much greater threat. A new country that represents the organization of the immortal weirdos we’ve all feared would arise, if enough of you gathered in one place.” He nodded to the shifty Suyon. “I believe you phrased it best. An existential threat. Your argument is against the deaths of a few dozen noble soldiers going down in a fight they signed up for. The Contender has them worried about an end to life as they know it.”

“Fuck,” Kaldalis cursed. He grimaced as he realized that this wasn’t exactly the place for such a vulgar outburst. Though from her seat on the table, Filomena nodded with a grin. Heluna was rubbing off on him. “I guess if you can’t beat them, join them?”

“Join them how?” Garyung asked.

“How else?” Kaldalis said with a heavy sigh. “Brother Gnider here said it: we fight his ideas with even bigger ones.”

“What bigger ideas do we even have?” Garyung demanded. “What’s bigger than an existential threat?”

“What else?” Kaldalis said with a shrug. “The truth.”