"The Attwells are the one case where he doesn't have to worry about appearances at all. He can just give orders. Probably the people he'll call on first are Matthew and the Shepherd, since that guy's pretty loyal. And the Eye, of course, if we count it as a person instead of a tool."

(Diana fills Johannes in on who these people are. He reacts as if all of them are completely new to him.)

(Sadde maybe does not buy all of those reactions as genuine.)

"I think I should contact Matthew's wife sooner rather than later, and figure out the exact wording of the oath Conquest extracted from Jeremy. And any other allies he might have and be willing to lend us." He purses his lips and looks at Diana. "I will very definitely not let him interact with you if you don't want to, for the record."

She smiles gratefully. "That's probably a good idea anyway, if he knows it's you and allies but as few names as possible."

"I was there when he gave the oath," Doug says, looking pained (for a corvid). "He can't directly or indirectly oppose Conquest's Lordship. Once he knows there's a war on he won't even be able to even recommend people to talk to next."

"...well, but perhaps the Duchamp he's married to will know who he would have recommended?"

"If she's in Toronto, it'd be worth checking. If not, it probably means the family has mostly given up on that marriage as an alliance and she wouldn't know much.

We're outside Ottawa right now," he clarifies. "There's a branch of the family there and they make it pretty obvious what they're doing."

"Yeah. Okay so as far as resources go, we have possibly the Attwells, possibly Jeremy's friends, astrology, illusions... My main worries are the Eye, the Shepherd, and the Sphinx... If we convince the Sisters we can win they might plausibly back us but they're not very powerful from what I hear. Although I'm not sure I trust this kind of common knowledge much."

"It's probably true. Even if not, they're the least martial voice in the city short of maybe the Queen's Man. Their order'll stay out given half a choice."

"When you say Sphinx, do you mean a literal Sphinx?" Johannes asks. "If so, best to keep her neutral if at all possible."

"I'm not sure if it'll be possible. I think she likes... maintaining the status quo."

"So if you delay, and let Conquest damage his city for no gain, would that change her mind? There has to be something she likes about the status quo with Conquest as Lord; otherwise she could probably have prevented it."

"...I don't know. Maybe? I talked to her and there was a very noticeable undertone of him being a jerk but a very predictable jerk, and I think she might just blame this damage on us instead of him? If you throw a stone at someone and it hurts them you're at fault, not the stone. And Conquest might just be a stone."

"Hm. And he's an Incarnation, so getting more stonelike and less human over the years... do we know when he last took a host?"

A round of headshakes.

"Maybe we're coming at this from the wrong angle. If he's that predictable it has to be an asset."

"Yes. This was all, more or less, predictable. Or, I suppose it would've been predictable if I knew he was the type to escalate this much over so little."

"But he's predictable. If there's a well-placed trap, he'll walk into it."

"I like where you're going."

Eventually the four of them can hash out the outline of a plan. Johannes offers to put the Torontonian refugees up for a few days, making excuses for why bending space is the primary way in and out of his demesne that's allegedly near Ottawa.

In the meantime, basically any plan would work better with allies.

It would. A good first stop for those (while Sadde keeps an eye on the news about Toronto) would be the Duchamps.

The one she's looking for does in fact live in Jacob's Bell. Sandra isn't hard to get in contact with, and is visibly intrigued by the idea once Sadde tells her what it's about.

(The current and former Astrologers stay behind. Right now only one side knows Doug's current state, and a familiar bond is probably pretty visible to an enchantress.)

Yeah, Sadde's okay being point woman for this.

"So do you have much idea of allies or other resources we might be able to gather?"

"The Sisters of the Torch will side with you, if they can do it without risk to their members, but they don't fight. Jeremy wanted them as part of his constituency for afterward, which it sounds like you aren't aiming for anyway. If they have secret military strength, they don't offer it even for a more credible resistance than yours. Most of my part last time around was to bring in the Duchamp network. We have rather a lot of allies. But those are probably not willing to come for a second try so soon, especially with no direct gain to the family.

One thing I can tell you is that Susan Fell is not enslaved like her husband is. We talked, before. She'll throw in her lot to the greatest extent she can hide from Matthew."

"If Jeremy's instated as Lord, your family does have something to gain, I feel," she argues. "Anyway, what's Matthew's oath like, do you know?"

"Oh yes, it is very possible for my family to come out ahead if Conquest loses. I don't think they'll try, because it failed last time and this time Jeremy himself would be staying out. And if I push for it...it won't escape anyone that it's my husband at issue.

Matthew's original oath is to serve and obey Conquest to the best of his ability. His actions are more dictated by day to day commands, which we have no way to know.
You seem oddly confident he can be subverted. We never tried; he's more tightly bound to Conquest than anyone else."

"I'm not exactly confident, I just want to understand what resources I have and what the field's like to the best of my ability, and I don't want to rely on a piece being wholly the enemy's and then turn out to be wrong about that."

"I can see how a disloyal minion would look like a liability to the master, but it's between serving someone he hates and being forsworn. You'd have a better chance with Isadora."

"Only forsworn if I can't think of a way around the oath without breaking it, but yeah. Isadora... is gonna be another problem altogether."

"We solved it by convincing her that Jeremy's Lordship would be a fait accompli once he won, and that he would be at least as solid as Conquest afterward. That first part is no longer true.

Do you know yet why Isadora hasn't taken the throne herself?"