"OK. I'm not sure I'd be safer around diabolists than just hiding out or leaving the city, but if you might fight him then I should definitely not run."

"I might. ...I'm not sure I'll do it soon, like I said, the time pressure's gone."

"If l do run, it might not work. The Lord isn't the type to give up. He has the entire Attwell family line as his problem solvers, and Matthew's sons go out in the field all the time. There is some distance that'd be far enough, but l don't know what it'd take."

"Now I never got the impression the Attwells were extremely happy about all of that."

"Captured, forced, no way out," Doug's ghost agrees. "His servants are trophies, like l'm about to be." He gets slightly more transparent as he speaks.

"What... exactly is the story, there?"

Doug doesn't answer. "I assume there's a coerced oath involved," Diana shrugs. "It doesn't really affect us. Matthew is capable and loyal one way or another, and the Lord can call back the others if he thinks he needs to."

"It's important, though, it's much harder to control an unwilling and hostile tool than a loyal one, and that's a resource we can use—or at least figure out how exactly we'll fail to."

"He's on the third generation now, and uses them for complex missions. We can assume he's good at controlling people."

"Third generation?"

"Matthew, his father, and his kids who you haven't met. I'm not sure where his wife fits into this."

"That's useful information, that he has children and a father involved. No siblings?"

"Not involved, exactly; his father's dead and his sons are out of town. No siblings.

He might not have complete control, but I really doubt the Attwell family is the Lord's weak point."

"I'm not thinking in terms of weak points, I'm thinking in terms of understanding the battlefield and my opponent's resources. Is there any reason why his sons would be enthralled but not his wife?"

"Depends on if the Lord has control of the bloodline or the family. Marrying in shouldn't matter to the first one without some really old-fashioned wedding vows. Or she might not even be a practitioner."

"But regardless she's not usually sent while he and his sons are. Hmm. That's interesting."

"My guess is either non-practitioner or free and keeping her head down. If she were enslaved it'd be known."

She nods. "What does he have on the others?"

"Probably the same thing on the family in general. If you mean his other allies, no two have to be the same."

"I mean his other allies, yeah. I don't expect they're the same but the way they're different is important. I think the Sphinx will just plain oppose any plans to unseat the Lord; he's predictable and stable and doesn't object to the occasional cannibalism."

"I could see her not taking sides, at best. She did against Jeremy, though. He would love to take our side, because he's probably in the best position to take up the reins afterward, but he had to swear not to try this again.

I don't really understand how the Shepherd thinks. No help there. He probably does at least have a reason. The Eye serves the Lord because...it just does."

"Hmm... about Jeremy... What exactly did he swear not to do?"

"Jeremy can't work to dethrone the Lord," Doug answers. It hasn't become less true since when he thinks it is. "He can't help."

"He could offer me sanctuary; that doesn't involve any dethroning. But I'd rather leave the city than accept even if he'd definitely say yes."

"—why?"

"When he tried, he got us to support him by making me fall in love with one of his Others. No, not love. Lust. I found out about the mind control afterward.

I'd take the diabolists over the Dionysians."

(She got careless with verb tenses, and Doug's ghost edges slightly more transparent at the reminder.)