Sock and Buskin

Teslaimia showered and pulled out a fresh outfit before finally getting herself together enough to go make an appearance at her company. As she was walking toward the door, Gertrude walked up beside her and asked, "May I come with you, Your Majesty?"

Teslaimia had a hint of a smile on her face, "Hoping to hear what gossip we found about you?"

Gertrude shook her head, "I want to be able to do a better job here. I never even thought to investigate Roland and my job is to think of these things."

Teslaimia nodded and said, "Then come with me today and I will show you my way."

As they left the front door, Sir Killington and his men walked up and gave her a salute, "Your Majesty, we received word from the William Smith, Her majesty Emily was attacked in Port Gaul. They are returning now and should be here in Connaissance by morning tomorrow. No one was injured."

Teslaimia nodded, "Is that why you have extra men today?"

He nodded and then pointed to the fast attack carriage, "I need to insist that you avoid your normal routines, we'll be taking the fast car instead of your personal cab."

Teslaimia nodded, "I leave my security in your capable hands, Charles." Gertrude and Teslaimia climbed into the fast attack carriage and were whisked over to her office while Sir Killington and his men took up station around the building.

Teslaimia and Gertrude walked to the back and several of the girls gave Gertrude hard looks before gathering in Teslaimia's office. She turned to Gertrude and said, "Ladies, you all remember Gertrude? She will be working with us closely in the future, so for today anything you can say to each other or in front of each other can be said in front of her today. Chas, since Grace was away on business, please start off our daily run down."

Chas nodded and said, "I have been investigating Her majesty's people, I found that Roland the butler has been selling secrets to Emperor Bertrand's people. The others are capable and competent but each of them has ties to a different Noble."

Another spoke up next, "I have been investigating the sock and buskin, on face value they are a members-only club with many elite members who are recruited by other members. The more we pry into their secrets the deeper the waters get. We have yet to find where it started and who is the top of the pyramid. The organization appears to be at least a few generations old. Possibly more."

Teslaimia asked, "How many locations have our branches found?"

"At least one in every city. From Lanland to Injia, any place we open a location, a version of the club can already be found. Not all clubs are identical, there are some small differences based on the culture of the club's location. What they all have in common, is that the members wear masks to conceal their identities from each other and they all wear the pin of the sock and buskin."

Teslaimia nodded and then asked, "The employees?"

"As near as we can tell, it is just like with the members, employees are scouted and recruited never really knowing who they work for, if they come to the club to work, they are paid. If they don't show up, they are replaced." She frowned, "Even the general managers at the various clubs don't seem to report to anyone other than other area managers who we haven't found reporting to anyone. It's like the intelligence they gather is simply passed around without anyone taking advantage of it."

Teslaimia nodded and asked, "Could it be that a number of officials in Old Eurment are behind it? A shared intelligence network perhaps?"

"We thought it was possibly the Church, but they already gather intelligence directly without the need to do it in such a concealed manner." She shrugged and then said, "We'll need a lot more time and people in the chain at the sock and buskin to get to the top."

Teslaimia tapped her finger on the desk and looked at Gertrude, "What do your instincts tell you about it?"

Gertrude thought for a minute, "If it is an old network as the data you have gathered indicates, perhaps it has continued running long enough that the people who started it have long passed and no one is currently accepting the intelligence."

Teslaimia nodded with a smile, "With that being the case, it's a Jewel laying in the mud waiting to be rinsed off and worn." She turned to the girl who had given the report, "I need you to research the origin and see if there might be a way for us to take control of at least a part of the organization if not the entire thing." She turned to Gertrude, "You have also been doing this same research, that should be your angle now. Find the origin and see if the key to taking control is there." She looked at another girl and asked, "Do we have anything new regarding the Morely brothers?"

A younger woman stepped forward, "Duke Morely and his brother have been struggling to control their territory. They have an advisor, General Lee, who seems to have quietly taken all real power from the Duke and just allows the brothers to perform random acts of heroism for the people in order to cover the fact that in the background he is slowly erasing any direct connection the brothers have to their own labor. Within the next year or two, the brothers will end up murdered with all blame falling to former rivals. Either the Harmons or Hassard's family."

Teslaimia looked at Gertrude, "What would you recommend to Her Majesty?"

Gertrude thought for a moment, "I would suggest bringing General Lee here and helping him clear a path to taking the title of Governor for himself."

Teslaimia smiled and nodded, "Beaux and Lucas are people she considers friends though and she would most likely have this General removed. If I said that the problem with Beaux as a Governor is his love for Lucas, what would you think?"

Gertrude thought, "I would think that Lucas should be assassinated and then let everything else should fall into place naturally."

Teslaimia nodded and then told her girl, "Remove Lucas, tie it to General Lee."

Gertrude blinked, "What will you tell Emily?"

"Nothing. Emily doesn't need to know all the things I do here. You, on the other hand, are now faced with a dilemma, if she asks you to look into this you will have to decide if Beaux and Lucas are worth causing tension between your Empress and her Consort." She smiled, "I wonder how you will handle it?" Gertrude started to speak and Teslaimia cut her off, "It doesn't matter what you decide. I will handle it gracefully either way."

*****

Cardinal Gibson sat across from Emily as they ate dinner on board the William Smith he asked suddenly, "I wonder if you know the history of that pin you are wearing?"

Captain Alyen and Grace nearly choked on their food as Emily replied, "No, what is it's history?"

Cardinal Gibson smiled brightly, "As you may know I am a Léon Jean Reno scholar and I have extensively studied his own journals and the records of his life as told by his followers. In the year of our Lord twenty-seven, Lord Léon Jean Reno decided to start his own intelligence-gathering network. He knew that it had to be something people in power would choose to attend, so he opened a club that catered to sexual fetishes! Each club was its own separate world unconnected with any other, and yet, the information was gathered on who attended, what they liked, who the liked, and various other personal bits that Lord Léon Jean Reno might need to know."

Emily nodded and then asked, "What happened after Lord Léon Jean Reno passed away? Did the organization continue?"

Cardinal Gibson chuckled, "Oh of course not! I believe all that remains of that old network are some antique pins and copies like the one you are wearing. Young people wear them for fashion not even knowing the history behind it."

Emily asked, "Could I read about it too?"

Cardinal Gibson nodded, "Of course, we'll just need to visit the great Library in Stansfield."

Emily called to the Captain, "Captain Alyen, change course for Stansfield, notify the capital that I will be delayed in my return." She looked at Cardinal Gibson, "Could you tell me more about Lord Léon Jean Reno's intelligence-gathering? Anything you remember is fine." She smiled at him.

Cardinal Gibson smiled brightly that she was taking an interest, "Of course! Lord Léon Jean Reno once wrote that all humans were creatures that had basic needs, the obvious ones being food, shelter, air, and water. Aside from that, people also need love, attention, and sex. Because of those needs, people also have greed, envy, lust, and jealousy. He knew that in order to get people to throw aside loyalty, you simply needed to tempt people's greed or lust. Then to completely turn them, you use their envy or their jealousy. He created his sock and buskin clubs for that purpose. You bring them into the club using their greed and their lust and then when you needed to use them, you turn that greed and lust into jealousy and envy."

Emily nodded and asked, "Did he write about what he did?"

Cardinal Gibson nodded, "Yes of course, for instance, a man who was enticed by lust for a woman. If Lord Léon Jean Reno needed to create an assassination, he would simply have the woman switch from the would-be assassin to the target of the assassination. Not only would he not need to pay for the assassination, but it would also appear on the surface to be a simple homicide caused by jealousy."

Emily nodded and said, "Fascinating! Wasn't Lord Léon Jean Reno just a blacksmith?"

Cardinal Gibson shook his head, "No, of course not. Lord Léon Jean Reno started his life as a smith for sure, but circumstances forced him to be so much more. Since we are going to Stansfield I can show you some of his writings that will shed more light on this topic."

Emily thought for a moment and then asked, "Doesn't the church frown upon these kinds of things?"

Cardinal Gibson chuckled, "Of course, it's like a parent to their children. Do as I say, not as I did! If you read enough of Lord Léon Jean Reno's words you'll find how he was full of regrets for a lot of his actions near the end of his life. The more experience he had in life, the less he felt that he had made the correct choices in his youth, and yet the results of those choices were clear for all to see."

Emily chuckled and asked, "Your Eminence, was he upset with how or that he had made those choices?"

The Cardinal's eyes opened wide, "You wonder if I brought my own bias to his writings and read into his words? There is definitely a possibility of that. I think it certainly was vague enough to have several different interpretations for sure. I looked at his writings not from the standpoint of a casual observer, but as a true believer. That's why you should read his words yourself." He nodded. "Of course, another thing to consider, we don't read directly from his original writings as those were made three thousand years ago, all we have now are transcriptions made of older transcriptions."

Emily asked, "How can you be sure the writings are genuine?"

He smiled and shrugged, "The tradition is that each person who reads the words must make their own transcription. When a copy is found that has an inaccuracy, all copies are compared and the consensus is chosen." He thought for a moment and said, "That has never happened in my lifetime."