Annan sat on the bed and told Maria that he had asked Gale whether she knew Jerry.
There were countless ratfolk, and a name alone would be hard to trace. But once they started investigating, they would narrow the search and find the Jerry who had been in contact with Annan...
The only good news was that, to win Annan's trust, Gale might not have had time to send that information back to the Clan.
But it was still dangerous.
Maria did not blame Annan. As she gazed out the window, thinking of a solution, Annan asked, "Can we turn what Gale planned to do to me back on her?"
Two bees were shamelessly piled on top of each other against the windowpane. Maria turned around. "Is there a difference between Gale carrying your child and you getting Gale pregnant?"
"That's not what I meant."
Hadn't Gale planned to slowly corrupt Annan, bring him over to the Stuen Clan, then use threats to bind Free City to the ratfolk for good? Couldn't Annan corrupt Gale instead, bring her over to Free City, then use threats to bind the Stuen Clan to Free City?
Maria was speechless. The plan sounded unreliable from start to finish, yet with Annan, it might just work...
Besides, he was a Sorcerer. For reasons everyone knew, people had always been remarkably tolerant of Sorcerers.
They would condemn a Noble for promiscuity. If a Sorcerer did the same, they would only say: oh, that Sorcerer was just doing what Sorcerers did.
A Priest of the Church would be condemned for wrongdoing. When a Demon did something bad, people simply took it in stride.
"Then let's try..."
Maria said this, then revealed her purpose and the faction behind her.
The Elder Council was the heart of the Stuen