Shelby laughed manically. "Well, I'll do my best." she said, with more glee than Daniel felt was strictly sane. Daniel watched as everything transpired.

"Death before dishonor!" she shrieked.

The Law of Fae...trembled confusedly. She confused the Law of Fae.

Daniel almost smiled. This was crazy.

This was the only thing he knew to do. Aggro. To aggravate meant to enrage, annoy, stand in the way. Shelby used it in a different way: To annoy an enemy so much that it focused on you instead of other, perhaps more important things.

Daniel eyed the stuck firepoker, one, last time, while he remained behind the crates.

Had anything "aggroed" him? Had anything pulled him away from areas he should have focused on? Had he let an enemy past his guard because he was distracted?

Fredar had certainly "aggroed" often when they were younger. The new Lord had locked on to situation and circumstances that had not always led to his Faction's benefit.

But then again, was what Daniel doing helping his former Faction? Then again, The Red Sword Faction was mysterious and splintered. Surely there were groups that were hoping for his success.

Perhaps, just one?

The Golem roared as Shelby rounded, and began her approach toward Daniel and the Warbler trap. "Have your insult ready!"

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Away, watching, in a space normally too large but now crowded beyond its normal capacity. The Controller was sweating profusely, reworking the matrix again and again, fingers draped in shadow. The overseers were taking turns threatening him and reassuring the rulers that this was normal.

"Focus on the Servant Branch." The Controller muttered, hands clenching the shadows.

Through his connection to the Golem, the Controller could feel the dim spark of life animating the Golem grow brighter. Golems were not alive. Not really. A brief spark of life was lit, then they accomplished their task, then the light went out. And that was a good thing for all parties involved, as Golems were not...exactly peaceful in nature. Or...strictly Natural. In fact...they had been banned by several Fairy Kings and Queens over the untold generations of the Seelie Kingdom. In fact...the methods for making Golems was...rather...Unnatural.

But his faction had found a reliable way to control them. And a reliable way to...snuff out the spark after the mission was accomplished.

It had led them to prominence, promotion, preferential treatment...They had won battles that the various Circles had struggled to establish a foothold.

But now, he could not control the Golem.

There was a twisted spark inside it that raged inside the stones and the earth and it was locked on the wrong person.

Management muttered behind him, their stress dripping on him "Where did this person come from?"

"Undoubtedly she is a plant from Elswith."

"Impossible. The former Lordling was unprepared for this challenge."

The Controller hunched his shoulders, gritting his fanged teeth. All this fretting behind him was not helping him regain control.

"How is she holding it's attention?" cold, impartial fingers clasped the hunched shoulders of the Controller, startling him. He dared not look behind him. Not when he might see the powerful being behind, and know for sure who it was.

"I...don't know."

"That maid does not matter. The Law of Fae is wily, and this servant is little more than a distraction. The Law of Fae is active, and it chooses its pieces for reasons unknown to the wise. What is it showing Lordling Elswith? Why is it using him for its ploys, even now?"

"He's not a lordling anymore." the Controller said, angry that that term was still being applied to the fallen Heirling.

The cold fingers relaxed their grip, but the freezing sensation intensified, and the Controller realized he had made a misstep. "Are you correcting me?"

He shook his head fiercely. "No, no, of course not. I just meant...technically."

"What is technically true is often a lie." the cold became painful, and the Controller struggled not to start shivering. This was not helping his focus.

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"I will heed what you say, great one. Please allow me to return to my task."

"Indeed you will heed what I said." The cold drew nearer as the being behind him leaned closer, toward his ear. "The Lordling is playing with fire, but this match is over. You have failed."

"How can the fallen heirling defeat a Golem?"

"He knows one thing you do not: History. Not deep enough, not deep enough to save him from his fate. But enough to defeat you. The very means you will use to harm him, he will use to his advantage."

Then the cold withdrew and was gone. Sweat adorned the Controller's forehead as he tried to regain the focus of the Golem. The Controller attempted to delve his fingers back into the shadowy matrix. The Golem would crush all before it. The former Lordling would be crumpled and cast away by the Golem. That was its function. That was why it existed.

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Back in the Servant's hall, the same former heirling prepared himself to hold the aggro.

Since Shelby had blathered about the attack pattern, Daniel reviewed what he knew and remembered. He wished he had time for the plain nosed girl to tell him, but he was clever enough to think for himself.

Every time the golem had thrown something, something had happened. Either when Daniel had gotten a certain distance away, or when the redhead had been rude.

Why would words hurt a Golem? He didn't know. Or had it been the words at all?

He did not even truly knew what a Golem was. His duties as the Heirling of the Red Sword meant that he had been busy. Busy with training, busy with administrative tasks, busy attending parties and meetings. But he had seen them in battle. They had seemed soulless killers. Blind to the alignment or faction of any outside of the Lordlings themselves, the Golems were indiscriminate about whom they targeted.

But no one had ever yelled at a Golem before to call it names. The Golems were used to fear. What would happen if that fear were subverted?

What would trigger the Aggro?

What had Shelby done? Did she truly even understand it, or was it just a lucky accident? It worked, so she continued to do it without understanding which step was the all important essential step?

Daniel spied the girl coming again. Her mouth was still hurling insults, but her eyes were blaring and her face drawn; clearly she had exhausted herself in this endeavor.

Daniel crouched forward, getting ready to get into position.

A hand grabbed Daniel's ankle. "Don't go!" Whispered Jasper. Daniel shifted and spied Jasper, hiding behind some crates. "If it attacks here, it'll get both of us." His Partner looked disheveled and miserable. He had been too afraid to run away, even though there had been ample time.

A flash of insight struck Daniel: He understood Jasper.

Jasper Dunlap; from far away, a mouse forever hiding from giants. Clever enough to see opportunity, but too timid to ever take anything but the safest path forward. Resentful of those who succeeded where he never ventured. He saw splendor and considered others lucky to achieve it, belittling their boldness when they failed and bemoaning the unfairness when they succeeded.

He was poor because his mindset was poor. He was a coward because he was afraid to be brave. He was his own jailer.

Such a contrast to the red haired maid. She was much weaker than Jasper, and yet she had put herself on the line. She had more than earned back the authority Daniel spent to save her life, and Daniel realized that the maid never truly realized that he had saved it. For all she knew, she had fallen, narrowly missed being squished by the Golem's projectile, then joined in this mess just because she could.

She had jumped in and risked her own life, accomplishing a feat that Daniel had never imagined before by capturing the Golem's attention.

Such a contrast.

Daniel offered a free word of wisdom to the cowering hall attendant. "Jasper. You can't be afraid forever. You will never get ahead if you do not risk yourself. Now let go of me!"

It must be now. Daniel must take back the aggro of the mighty stone beast.

Whether Jasper released his ankle or Daniel pried his leg free remained unknown, but Daniel jumped out and stood facing the charging Golem.

Shelby was running toward him, watching.

Outside would be the Surmount Butler and the O'Tells guards. Soon to be arriving would be the enforcers.

Behind a crate cowered Jasper, peaking just slightly.

The main focus of this entire event was the Golem. It's stone body completely remade again and again, taking on the huges of the ancient floor that it had riped out to grow its own body. It's head formed to the point that two points of fire burned blue. Daniel had only ever seen those flames burn red before, like flames about to be snuffed out. This was a new development. The force of its steps shook the ground and rattled the old windows. The floor was broken, the walls marked by its passage. The world was full of noise.

And then was Daniel, standing in front of it.

He had to anger it. It threw an object when it was angered. When it did not make tactical sense.

Daniel looked at the golem, like he had stared down the corpse of the dead dragon.

The Heirling Lordling Elswith had been vastly more powerful that day than this day.

But it wasn't Lordling's power that defeated the dragon's corpse that day in the past.

It was his mind and his courage to stand where others would not.

Those things could not be taken away.

While Servant Branch may be weak and lowly, his voice was strong and clear. "You may be large, and tall. Unwoundable. Unbleedable." he said, speaking to the Golem itself. Who would ever speak to something like that? He had not, and the dread creatures rarely had mouths to begin with. People had begged Golems to spare them. Small fae too little to flea in time, too old to leave their land, to pale to pass to new ground. Those had begged, and not been spared. No one else had ever spoken to the Golem.

The eyes of the Golem flared, brighter blue. Shelby took this as her cue and ducked left, and skirted beneath a table. She had lost the aggro.

Daniel had its attention now.

Now he just had to make it angry.

His voice rang out, large and strong. "But you are nothing. The earth is not your body, it falls from you and is replaced without it ever being you. You have no spirit, you create nothing. You grow nothing. Do you even have a soul? Why should I fear you, when you. HAVE. Nothing. You are nothing."

The ground roared and cried out, and the Golem reared back its arm, and detached the entire appendage toward Daniel.

Well, that was...one way to accomplish the job.