The team moved towards the messenger servants where the gold-rank Magic Society official was already barking orders, both to his own people and the messenger servants.

“Get out of the way, you traitorous weeds! Get the control key for the freight skimmer off them and get it moving! I want this back at the campus.”

“I’m afraid that’s not where it’s going,” Humphrey told him as the team approached from behind. The gold-ranker was close to Jason’s height, so when he turned, he had to look up at the much taller Humphrey. He glanced at Jason before turning back to Humphrey.

“Damn right, that’s not where it’s—” Clive started. Humphrey cut him off with a gesture, not taking his eyes from the gold-ranker. The gold-ranker glanced at Clive briefly, his expression dismissive as he locked eyes with Humphrey again.

“You must be the leader of Asano’s little team. What were you called again? Team Snack? Team Brunch?”

Humphrey raised an eyebrow.

“Really?” he asked. “You think making fun of our team name will provoke me into doing something that will let you dismiss us out of hand? You think we didn’t know exactly what we were doing when we chose that name?”

Humphrey ignored Neil’s awkward cough.

“Look,” the gold-ranker said. “It’s all very nice that you get along so well with the messengers that wiped out our city. They’ll only work with you, probably because Asano there is still protected by the messengers that he saved from being captured during the invasion of Yaresh. But you’re silver rankers and you aren’t to be trusted. For all we know, you’re trying to bring something extremely dangerous inside the city defences to finish what the messengers started. Only the expertise of the Magic Society can handle something like this.”

Behind Humphrey, the team were different levels of riled-up, Sophie letting out an actual growl. Only Jason, Humphrey and Rufus demonstrated complete equanimity, while Clive burst out into uproarious laughter.

“…expertise…” he managed to choke out. “You…”

He couldn’t get out any more words as he doubled over laughing.

Humphrey gave Clive an amused look before turning back to the gold-ranker.

“It seems that our own magical expert doesn’t think highly of you, but I would not make the same mistake. I’m certain you know all about the dangers the messengers present. I’m guessing you took down many messengers during the Battle of Yaresh. Being gold rank, you certainly wouldn’t have been cowering inside the Magic Society campus because it was one of the few truly secure zones within the city. But I don’t have to guess, do I? The Adventure Society kept excellent battle records for all the gold-rankers in the battle. I can just look you up when we get back to the city and learn exactly what a brave son of Yaresh you are.”

The gold-ranker’s face turned ugly.

“What is your name, sir?” Humphrey asked him.

“I am Lord Warth—”

“Actually, I don’t care,” Humphrey cut him off, the smile dropping from Humphrey’s face as his fake-friendly tone turned cold. “Your name and the pointless noise coming out of your mouth stopped mattering the moment you accused me and my friends of being traitors.”

“You should show some respect, boy. In Yaresh, silver-rankers know better than to talk back to golds.”

“And in Vitesse, the gold-rankers know that the respect rank commands is earned by living up to that power. That to be gold-rank and act like a petty, greedy coward is to undermine the respect every gold-ranker worth the rank deserves.”

“Those are bold words, silver-ranker. Although it is uncouth to stab downwards, most people know better than to issue such provocation. I would be well within my rights to demand a duel over your words.”

Humphrey laughed out loud.

“Please do, Lord Warthington-Hampstead,” Humphrey said, the gold-ranker's eyes growing wary at realising that Humphrey already knew who he was. “In the first place, I would be more than happy to place my good name against yours. I wear my accomplishments with pride and take responsibility for my failures. I don't have any cowardly shames or wretched, self-serving schemes to hide.”

“It takes more than reputation to win a duel, boy. It takes blood.”

“Yes,” Humphrey agreed. “Funny you should say that, as I believe your natural predilection for cowardice has had you using duels as an empty threat. I imagine that is why you seem to have forgotten what the laws of duelling entail when it comes to crossing rank, so allow me to remind you. When a gold-ranker declares a duel against a silver-ranker, the silver can bring his entire team. I would be more than happy to pit my friends against whatever skills you have developed, sitting at home, slurping up monster cores.”

“I’ll take on your team, you little weasel.”

“Really? Because, as the challenged, we can set the terms. What was it you said about duelling in mirage chambers, back in Rimaros, Jason?”

“That if you want to duel, you put blood on the line,” Jason answered. “Anything else and you’re a coward pretending to be a hero.”

“I am not going to draw blood like a savage. I am a magical researcher. I have better things to do than run around, fighting like a thug.”

“Oh please,” Clive said. “You wouldn’t know magical research if it referenced you in an appendix. I’ve looked into the fungus growing out of the Magic Society that they’ve appointed as their officials. I know exactly who and what you are. You’re one of those political slimes oozing through the halls of Magic Society, using influence to get your name attached to other people’s research. I’ve seen plenty of your kind.”

“Now, be nice, Clive,” Humphrey faux-admonished. “Just because you are both a prestigious adventurer and a famed magical researcher doesn’t mean you should belittle other people for being neither. Take a little walk and calm down. Belinda, see he doesn’t get into any trouble.”

Belinda raised her eyebrows at being chosen as the one to keep someone out of trouble. She met Humphrey’s eyes, seeing the ever-so-slight smile teasing his mouth.

“Alright, come on, Clive,” she said.

“But I want to—”

“Nope,” she said firmly, dragging him off by the arm.

“Sorry about that,” Humphrey told Warthington-Hampstead. “We need to keep things civil.”

“Civil? You have called me a coward to my face!”

“And you called me a traitor. More importantly, you called my team traitors, so the fact that your insides are still inside you is the height of restraint, I can assure you. You are a coward and a parasite, but you were wise not to actually challenge us to that duel. We would have seen you dead, and it wouldn't have been clean.”

By this point, the Magic Society contingent had stopped trying to claim the orb and grouped up behind their leader. The two groups were arrayed before one another, behind Humphrey and the gold-ranker.

“Do you think I will stand for this kind of insult?” Warthington-Hampstead asked.

“Yes,” Humphrey said lightly. “Because you’re used to people seeing your rank, your political faction and your position in the Magic Society and backing down. But we’re not backing down. Clive would take down the whole Magic Society, given half a chance. Once he reaches diamond-rank, I think he might even take a shot at it.”

“You think he'll reach diamond-rank?” Warthington-Hampstead asked with a mocking laugh.

“I do,” Humphrey said. “You should follow mine and Clive’s example, and find out who you’re dealing with. Ask around about Clive Standish when you get back to the Magic Society. You’ll find out soon enough. In the meantime, you need to decide if you’re going to challenge us to that duel. You can send the little minions standing behind you if you like. Team versus team. We’ll take them on, and hiding behind a bunch of silver-rankers will definitely prove that you’re not a coward. If you can’t muster up the courage for even that, then get your people away from that orb.”

“You think you can throw me off with a false dichotomy, boy? I am taking that orb, and I won’t be fighting you like a bloody-minded barbarian. What will you do about it? Attack us?”

“Oh, that won't be necessary,” Humphrey said.

“What will you do then?” Warthington-Hampstead asked. “You talk big, but what can you do without hiding behind someone else’s skirts? Are you going to have Lady Allayeth force me to give it to you? I know your boy Asano is her little pet.”

Humphrey smiled, his fury gone as if it had never existed.

“We both know she won’t,” Humphrey said. “And we don’t need her to. You see, we’re going to do things the way you do. You talk about power, leaning on the rank you bought with money. But you understand that when it comes to politics, the key is to find the leverage point and push.”

“Oh, you fancy yourself a cunning politician now, do you?”

“No,” Humphrey said. “I just happen to have a very solid fulcrum. You said that Jason here is Allayeth's pet. Do you remember why? It's because if he doesn't participate in this operation to go underground, the messengers won't participate. And if the messengers don't participate, it doesn't happen. Which means that instead of rebuilding Yaresh, it will have to be evacuated. The entire population will become refugees and you'll have to build a new city somewhere else. All while messengers and remnant monsters from the surge are roaming about. While the whole region is devastated by a magical disaster on a scale that none of us have ever seen.”

“You’re bluffing. You wouldn’t let the city be destroyed.”

“The city has already been destroyed, remember? You said that yourself. If the people in it would be killed, then you would be right that we wouldn’t walk away. But, if anything, it would be easier to found a new Yaresh somewhere else rather than deal with what’s left of the old one, even with all the troubles. Jason advocated for that in the first place. He had to be talked into taking part at all. So, take your people and go home or you won’t have time to try and fail to open that orb. You’ll be too busy explaining how the population now needs to evacuate because you convinced us to leave this city in our dust.”

The gold-ranker’s face took on an increasingly savage sneer as Humphrey spoke, but he held his tongue.

“You’ll pay for this, silver-ranker.”

“Every action has a consequence,” Humphrey told him. “If you need to find me for that, my name is Humphrey Geller.”

The gold-ranker paled slightly.

“Geller?”

“Yes.”

“As in…?”

“Yes. As I suggested before, if one anticipates a confrontation, it is best to learn in advance the manner of person one will be dealing with.”

The gold-ranker’s expression turned even uglier. His body language screamed reluctance, but the gold-ranker capitulated, ordering his people back to their skimmers with a tirade of angry shouts.

Left to their own devices, Sophie sidled up to Humphrey.

“That was incredibly sexy,” she whispered.

“Agreed,” Clive said enthusiastically as he strolled back to the group with Belinda.

“What?” Humphrey asked, wide-eyed.

***

The Magic Society contingent were returning to their skimmers and taking off, and Neil looked around at the rest of the Yaresh convoy. Quite a few had stopped to watch the spectacle of the team confronting the Magic Society, but most had gone to work. They had rounded up the messenger servants and were questioning them in a none-too-friendly manner.

“Why weren't the rest of the group backing us up against that idiot?” Neil complained. “All these people here, and they leave us to stand up to a gold-ranker? That fool might not know the details of our involvement, but I know some of these others have to. They were in the meeting where Jason said he thought they should evacuate the city in the first place. They knew we wouldn't stand for this.”

“The man being a fool was the point,” Rufus said. “I suspect he was carefully chosen. A fool, but one with enough influence and power to be an annoyance. He was used to test us. We’re playing at a high level, now, in power and politics both.”

“Wasn’t the same true in Rimaros?” Neil asked.

“Not really,” Rufus said. “We were involved with powerful political figures, but not the actual machinations of politics there. Princess Liara and Soramir Rimaros shielded us from that. Except for that final party, we were always on the periphery. Jason was meant to become more involved, but events overtook those intentions. That plan effectively died with Vesper Rimaros.”

“This time, the local diamond-ranker isn’t shielding us,” Humphrey said. “She’s leaving us to sink or swim.”

“Myself, Humphrey and Neil understand the rules,” Rufus said. “We’ve been raised on them from birth. It’s a complex balance of etiquette and power. When to use decorum and when to put it aside. Who can be pushed and who cannot. The rest of you don’t have that background, and Jason somehow has the exact opposite of it. He has a knack for figuring out when he’s too important to dismiss and then swinging like a hammer in a glassworks.”

“I only talked when Humphrey asked me to,” Jason complained.

“Yes,” Rufus told him. “It must have been hard for you. Well done on persevering.”

“I don’t just say whatever lunatic thing that pops into my… this is not convincing anyone, is it?”

The rest of the team all shook their heads.

“This is all well and good,” Neil said, “but you think that idiot was sent here just to see how we’d deal with it?”

“Yes,” Rufus said. “It’s an event that all the political factions are sensitive to, but the stakes are ultimately low. This is just something Jason wanted, not the device that is critical to saving the city. That made it the perfect opportunity to see if we were able to hold our own in a political confrontation, or if we were worthless outside of combat.”

“Why would the Magic Society go along with this?” Neil asked. “Doesn’t this make them look bad?”

“If you think about them as a monolithic group, yes,” Clive said. “But any group is a collection of individuals. Remember what Rufus said about the fool being a mix of power and annoyance? I promise you that someone a lot better at politics than him arranged it all. They picked up political points with the other factions by agreeing to have the Magic Society do it. Then he chose Warthington-Hampstead, whose power all comes from family ties to the Magic Society and the Aristocratic Faction of Yaresh politics.”

“Exactly,” Rufus said. “Either Warthington-Hampstead gets spanked and sent home, diminishing his influence, or the Magic Society gets their hands on the orb. The person behind it all reaps the political points from the other factions and either has an obstacle in Warthington-Hampstead removed or gets more influence in the Magic Society for having masterminded the acquisition of the orb.”

“So, there’s someone we can’t see behind all this,” Jason said. “Someone smart who put an idiot on the end of a stick and poked us with him.”

“That seems likely,” Rufus said. “The truly skilled politicians go unseen, leaving amateurs like us to be pieces on their board. We were played, but to an end that works out for us, so there's little point making an issue of it. That, too, is a demonstration of deft politics. Make the pieces on the board accept their position, even if they understand what they are.”

“I don’t like the taste of that,” Jason said.

“Yes, and we know what happens when you decide to flip the board,” Rufus said. “but don’t do it just because you can.”

“I know,” Jason said. “I’ve seen Zara Rimaros do that on the big stage, and I’ve seen how it goes.”

“I don’t suppose that means you’ve reformed?” Humphrey asked him.

“No,” Jason said. “It means I’ll be more careful about picking my moments.”

“Good,” Sophie said. “I hate all of this. Leave me out of it until it’s time to punch things.”

“What happens now?” Neil asked. “They’ve tested us. What next?”

“Now, they know we won't be pushed around and can play by rules they understand,” Rufus said. “We can expect an appropriate level of support, but also without being treated like children. And they know that we know they were testing us because you can bet they're all listening right now. That is political leverage all on its own. They know they owe us, now. Not a lot, but enough that we can use it, should we have the need.”