The small group made their way back towards Cotanaku at the best speed they could. Garyung was still recovering, and slowed them down, but he was able to update them on what had happened to him.

“I don’t want to say it started innocently,” Garyung explained, “but I gave the Contender the benefit of the doubt.”

“And I don’t want to say that was a dumb move,” Kaldalis said, “but I can understand why you would want to push for a peaceful resolution.”

“He said he had information,” Garyung continued, moving right past Kaldalis’s jab. “His people had uncovered something in the jungle that had to be seen to be explained properly. He said it would change my mind.” He reached back and touched the spot on his side where the joint in his armor was bloodied. “I have to say after what he showed me, I’m pretty sure my trust in you wasn’t misplaced, Kal.”

“I could basically guess at that,” Kaldalis said. “One of the town guards saw what happened. She couldn’t raise an alarm because, you know. The Contender is a scary dude. But I found the blood from the stab where they dragged you off.”

“How did they get the town, though?” Balrim cut in. “That’s what I don’t get. It doesn’t look like they were equipped to torture you.”

“Torture is a strong word,” Garyung said. “It was mostly just threats.”

“Was that all it took?” Balrim asked incredulously. He almost tripped over a downed tree branch in his distraction at what Garyung had said.

“I’m gonna be honest with you,” Garyung said with a grimace. “I was scared. I can’t describe to you how much it changes your perspective on things when you can’t move. There’s no chance to defend yourself, to escape… I could barely even speak.”

Kaldalis grimaced and nodded. He remembered being paralyzed by Ara’s poison. It had been a traumatic experience, and he could see the similarities with Garyung’s condition.

“He was very intimidating,” Garyung continued. “And I was totally at his mercy. I wasn’t interested in testing any of his suggestions.”

“Suggestions?” Myrin asked.

“He talked like he was going to…dismantle me.” Garyung shuddered. “Like he could figure out where in my body the Lataxinan abilities were stored, and further his investigation that way.”

Kaldalis shuddered as well. It was very reminiscent of what Ara had done to Dalgaard. A fate he had hoped to protect all his friends from. It was hard to say if the Contender could have followed through on the threat, but violent ruthlessness wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.

“When he finally offered an alternative, I jumped at the chance,” Garyung explained as he ducked under a low branch. “All it would cost me was the town, and I wouldn’t have to see what happens if they take my brain out of my head while I’m still using it? Easy trade. I never even really wanted the town anyway.”

“I don’t blame you,” Kaldalis said, giving the man a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “You didn’t have another choice.”

“But I did,” Garyung said with a heavy sigh. “We’re PCs. I would have respawned. Not just that, I would have respawned with my strength back to normal so that I could fight back.”

“It wouldn’t have been fun,” Kaldalis pointed out. “And there’s no telling what the consequences might have been. When Dalgaard got eaten alive and respawned, they went into a trauma spiral so bad it almost brought all of us down. There’s no way of knowing what you could have done after an experience like that.”

“But we could have worked through that,” Garyung argued. He gestured angrily with his hands at the path ahead through the jungle, towards Cotanaku. “And you speak as if we aren’t facing down the consequences I chose. Whatever happens next, it was my decision that brought it on. What everyone is going through is my fault. I let my selfish fear doom everyone who is suffering right now.”

“You’re not wrong,” Myrin said carefully, “but you can’t be that hard on yourself. We have a chance to make this right. What do we need to do to get the town back?”

“There’s a panel in the town control menu,” Garyung explained. “It let me abdicate from my station. I think it’s the only way. He couldn’t force me to do it - I had to find the menu and push the button myself - but that was it.”

“How did it work?” Balrim asked. “Were there any requirements or anything?”

“I had to pick who to take command,” Garyung said. “The recipient had to be in range and in line of sight. Kind of a weird requirement.”

“There’s probably a reason for that,” Kaldalis said, “I just don’t know-”

“Information transmission,” Myrin cut in absently as she picked her way around a large boulder in the path. “If I could give ownership of a town to someone on the other side of the planet, that gives me information. I know they’re alive if it goes through, and I know they’re dead if it fails. There’s an elaborate setup you could do with that to turn murder into a telegraph machine.”

“Okay, that’s spooky,” Kaldalis said.

“But that’s not the weird part,” Garyung said as he easily stepped over the rock Myrin had had to circumvent. “The contender wanted me to give it to one of his guards. I was so scared out of my mind, I gave it directly to him instead, but he wasn’t happy about it.”

“Transfer limit,” Kaldalis replied immediately, remembering the conversation they’d had with Ikzoz. “You can only transfer control of the town a couple of times before it goes on cooldown.”

“Might have been an early attempt to curtail the murder-telegram,” Myrin mused.

“Right,” Garyung said, snapping his fingers. “I give it to an underling, and that underling gives it to him, and then we can’t displace him for a whole month.”

“Good thinking, giving it direct to him,” Kaldalis said. “He can’t expend the last transfer unless he wants to give it to an underling, and he’s not going to do that. Even if he doesn’t know that I turned Brother Gnider against him, I flipped the councils to my side right in front of his face. He can’t trust anyone but himself.” Kaldalis smirked. “And he can still transfer ownership of the town back to you without, you know. Doing it the other way.”

“What other way?” Garyung asked.

“You wrote the constitution, man,” Kaldalis said with a shrug. He could feel something cold pass over his expression. “Control reverts to the council for a new leadership vote if the current leader dies. He’s just an NPC, so there’s always plan M for murder.”

Kaldalis was a bit surprised at how his three companions went silent at that. He wasn’t sure where they thought this was going to end if the Contender couldn’t be convinced to yield. It wasn’t as if they were just going to give up and go into hiding if the Contender dug in his heels and refused to surrender.

“Obviously,” Kaldalis added, after the silence dragged on a little too long, “I would prefer to handle this without further loss of life. I’m not a monster. But it might be a lot easier to get what we want out of this if we acknowledge that a permanent end to his reign of terror is on the table.”

“It has to be the absolute last resort,” Garyung said firmly. “I don’t care what deal you have with the other priests, or what you think you can convince the Zarans about him. It’s not going to matter what he does. If we kill him, that’s the end of us. We’re gonna learn real quick what it means when they say that history is written by the victors, because we’ll have Zaran warships off the coast in days, and soldiers standing on our necks a few hours after that.”

“Obviously it’s a last resort,” Kaldalis repeated. “But if we take it off the table entirely, then he’s going to just laugh in our faces.”

Garyung grimaced, but didn’t protest any further.

Kaldalis understood what he meant, but the way he saw it, they had no other choice. There was no way they could survive if the Contender had control of Cotanaku. But a military campaign from Zara would have many points of failure. But more than that, the Contender’s rule was going to prevent him from ever getting back to the Lataxinans with the key to their return. Meanwhile, an attack from Baimer could never reach Cotanaku fast enough to stop him.

If it came down to surrender or assassination, it seemed like Kaldalis might have to do what needed to be done despite the protests.

“Halt!” a deep, commanding voice barked from the trees ahead. “Who goes there?”

Kaldalis wasn’t sure who could be hailing them here. They were close to Cotanaku, though. Did the Contender already have guards posted? He pulled out his new War Weapons, and Myrin and Balrim did the same, taking up defensive positions around Garyung.

“Who wants to know?” Kaldalis called back, shield raised.

A human man in a green-and-gold robe stepped out of the foliage. Kaldalis felt a stab of fear that things were about to escalate well before Martok and the others could catch up, but it only took him a second to recognize the man before him.

“It’s about time,” Brother Gnider snapped. “I don’t know how much longer your friends can last.”

“Who?” Kaldalis asked, looking around at Balrim, Myrin, and Garyung.

“The council,” Brother Gnider said. “There’s only so much they can do to stall the Contender’s efforts to change your precious constitution. And once he does, your days on this island are numbered.”