She could see how tired so many of these people were, especially the locals. The night had been endless, the wars in Jacob’s Bell and Toronto both had cut far too close to home for everyone present.
Nobody was speaking up to voice their support. Even from her own camp, though she suspected there was a strategic reason for it. If one of them backed her up, it would change the tone of things. The others would have room to argue.
But, Rose realized, nobody wanted to argue to say that this was a bad idea, because they could get shouted down.
The atmosphere suggested that the next to speak would lose the argument.
One voice broke the silence.
“Penis!” a small goblin cried out. “Peeeenissssssss! Penispenispenis-”
One of the other Others at the back gave him a solid smack.
It did something, however, to ease the pressure.
“Well,” the Elder Sister said. “I knew your grandmother. I’m of the impression the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Rose was silent. There was nothing she could say here that would position her better.
Turning it on me. I can’t say I’m surprised, Rose thought.
“What you’ve done here, bringing us here to suit your greater strategy, it seems very similar to what your grandmother did with her own grandchildren.”
“In a sense,” Rose said. “Is that really the concern here?”
“Isn’t it?” the Elder Sister asked. “Your grandmother deceived you, and you admit she provided only a portion of the information. She used some of you as sacrificial pawns. If she made you to fulfill a role, and if it isn’t a coincidence that you’re as similar to her as you are, why shouldn’t we assume you’re not just as deceptive? The type to provide only a share of the information needed, on a need-to-know basis?”
Rose felt Blake move, and it was an uncomfortable movement. Close to the skin, touching the ribs. Agitated, upset.
There was no good answer to that. The Elder Sister wasn’t wrong.
“You’ve given us good information. I understand you’ve worked hard to move away from the path that was laid out for you, and I believe you think you’re working to good ends. But, all that said, you very recently called us out for not recognizing those demon-made vestiges for what they were. You. A demon-made thing.”
Rose was still. Too scared to even tremble.
“You, a creation of a demon, brought us into this. You’ve turned a bad situation into a worse one. We’re dealing with powers so vast that they simply consume all they touch, and all you’ve done is add more wood for the fire.”
An all-out offensive, then.
“What would you have done?”
“What we have done,” the Elder Sister said. “Left it be. Minimize the damage.”
“As you did with Ur, the demon in the oil factory?”
“Yes. As we did with the demon there. As we will continue to do.”
“Even if people get consumed? Stumble into the factory and get eaten?”
“We have more wards up than before. Very few will slip past. Are you going to tell me that your method was better? How did that turn out? I can’t quite remember.”
Rose grit her teeth. She drew in a breath, and the Elder Sister spoke before she got a chance to give a response.
“We did the same with the Hyena. We sealed it away to languish in obscurity until an opportunity to deal with the problem presented itself.”
Evan took flight.
“No!” Evan said, loud. “That is a bad, bad answer!”
“Evan!” Mags said. “Let’s not-”
“You jerks,” Evan said. “I thought it was Conquest who ordered it, but you’re okay with that idea!? What’s wrong with you!? You let me die!”
“-Agitate things,” Mags said, trailing off. “Enough!”
The order didn’t help.
Mags suddenly stepped closer to Rose, who backed away a step at the movement.
The ambassador reached beneath the altar, picked up a length of pipe with a strap attached, then aimed it at the ceiling.
She jerked the pipe, and it fired off, a sudden, explosive sound.
Plaster and bits of wood rained from one spot at the side of the church.
“Order,” Mags said, calmly. “Evan, little man, come here.”
“But-”
“Here.”
Evan winged his way over to Mags, who put him on one shoulder.
“Elder Sister?” Mags said. “Do I have that title right?”
“Yes.”
“What do you want? What course of action do we take, right here and right now?”
“We minimize the damage,” the Elder Sister said. “The sorcerer has a powerful demesne. It’s a grievous loss for humanity as a whole, but I would approach the opposing forces and try to negotiate a resolution. They don’t want this conflict, nobody but the Thorburn Diabolist has committed to it, and we can try to secure a total or partial release of everyone else here, along with a promise that the demon stay within the demesne. We seal it within, we evacuate and condemn Jacob’s Bell so there is no town for the demon to claim Lordship over, and settle it at that.”
“And everything goes back to the way it was, with them winning just a little,” Rose spoke. Her voice was soft, but the church was quiet enough to let the words carry. Acoustics helped.
“Any option you propose, including an attack, the Elder Sister said, “Is going to see them winning a great deal more. Even if you win, we collectively lose, because we’re simply feeding more of reality to the metaphorical flames, as soldiers in an ongoing war.”
Fear was going to win, in the end. Fear drove individuals like the Astrologer to nod her head at the Elder Sister’s words.
Fear made the sphinx want to avoid this conflict altogether. A rare creature who put great value on her own ageless life.
“Okay,” Mags said. “Okay. That’s one side. Rose, what do you want?”
What did she want to do?
A heavy, heady question. One Rose had already answered, in abstract. Take out Johannes, hit the lawyers where it hurt.
But in terms of battle plans?
“I want to invite Ms. Lewis or one of the other lawyers inside,” Rose said. “She’s not stupid. She knows what we want, and she’ll hit us right there. She’ll offer you exactly what you asked for. Escape. Freedom. Concession. But if you want to know what I want? I want her to ask, and I want her to hear a no.”
“You want us to fight in a war no sane individual would take part in,” the Elder Sister said. “One with permanent consequences, reaching well beyond simple life and afterlife. A dozen or two dozen lives lost, a few more pieces of reality carved away, permanent damage to creation. All to gamble that you can keep them from taking the sorcerer and demesne.”
Rose nodded. “Damn straight.”
“Then why don’t we see?” the Elder Sister asked. “Both of our plans start at the same place. We talk to the enemy.”
“You want to talk to her, let her make her proposal, and see what people decide?”
“I know what I’ve decided,” the Elder Sister said, offering a small smile. “If the others want to decide one way or the other when the time comes, then that’s up to them.”