Nanny Shank finished organizing the Stew Shower. While I hate that name, I wasn’t going to complain. That would simply make sure people would repeat the term ad nauseum, or someone would come up with some even worse nickname.

When things looked self-sustaining. She made her way toward us. Philip tried to speak to her “Nanny-”

“Not now,” Nanny Shank snapped, her tone softened as focused on Ticky, “Ticky, I gotta talk to this lot. Would you like to hang out with Pappy Terror?”

“I guess,” Ticky managed. The kid wasn’t so much listless as he was being shy surrounded by so many people.

“Okay, Let’s get you over there,” She smiled gently at the kid before turning a baleful eye on us, “Don’t start anything while I am gone.” She took Ticky’s hand and vanished into the crowd.

In the silence my mind kinda drifted. All the power I had, and the best I could do was feed an orphaned child. I almost fell back into an unhelpful cycle again. Jo and Hank would say that was a great use of power, better than most even. It just wasn’t enough by my reckoning.

Nanny Shank materialized out of the crowd. She didn’t look happy. The old goblin walked over to Philip, Helen, Toad, and Grimset, “What trouble are you damn kids planning?”

“I mean to wage war on behalf of the Left Hand of the Titan,” Toad declared, loudly so that the crowd could hear his noble pronouncements. He also struck a dynamic pose.

Quite a few people seemed on board with this. “Yeah, let’s shit kick ‘em!” someone shouted back.

“Yes… defeat them we shall!” Toad said, glossing over the crass nature of the crowd's encouragement from the crowd.

Grimset scoffed, “You would chain us to this creature. We should go into the Dark and find a better place.”

Toad almost shouted something back, “I will do what is necessary to carve out a place for us. My children will grow up seeing the sun, and the stars. They won’t grow old with rocks above their heads.”

Grimset opened his mouth to argue, but Nanny Shank spoke over him, “Shut up, both of you.” she turned her gaze on Helan and Philip, “What about you two?”

“I will go to the tower. Alone if I must.” Philip said. He took a step toward Nanny Shank, “This is our chance Nanny. We could free them.”

“Could! Maybe! Possibly!” Helen yelled. “This will get us killed. Thousands of us are going to die, and they will be the lucky ones. Never let them take you alive. That’s what they say about demons.” Helen stopped yelling, “This is a mistake. I'm sorry Philip, but no.” Helen made it a point to not look at me.

Nanny Shank sighed a cloud of smoke. She then tipped her pipe over and dumped out the ashes. “So I have to be the tie-breaker.”

“We simply need one of the Nannies or the Pappies to weigh in,” Grimset said.

Nanny Shank seized him by the ear and pulled him closer, “Don’t explain the rules to me, Grimset. I changed your diapers. You think you kids are clever and us old folks can’t see what is happening. We knew. I was elected to be the representative before that one,” She hooked a thumb at Philip, “called for an alliance.”

“Noted,” Grimset hissed.

“May I ask how you vote?” Toad inquired. I noticed he only did that after stepping out of the old Goblin’s reach.

Nanny Shank let go of Grimsets ear, “I abstain until after the trial. I want to see what this Titan Spawn is. So far… I have some doubts. He hangs out with humans and dwarves.” She shrugged, “At least he isn’t buddy buddy with elves.”

I had just enough time to flinch inwardly when Janie yelled, “Doug! Why am I under arrest?”

…Why was Janie under arrest?

She stood next to Sunit and Zarina. Sunit was clearly not under arrest, no handcuffs on him. He was also carrying his polearm that he almost killed Grond with. He was watching the goblins with a mixture of wary interest and unmask amusement. Other than the goblin that held onto the chain attached to Janie's handcuffs they stayed about ten feet or more away. In the crowded confines of this camp that was a lot of elbow room. Seriously though, why was only Janie under arrest? That lady, Zarina, the mentor of the mystic troopers, had a rifle slung over her shoulder. She even had grenades on her hip. She didn’t seem to find this funny at all.

Looking closer at the goblin leading Janie I saw he was positively spackled with icons of every faith I was aware of, and a bunch I didn’t recognize.

“Okay what is going on?” I asked.

“This thing is an elf!” he yelled.

“Her name is Janie,” I corrected.

“People are afraid she is gonna steal their souls,” Spine explained.

“That is dumb,” Janie snapped.

Spine nodded, “Yeah Janie is one of the good ones, she won’t steal anyone's soul. I think.”

I focused on Janie, “Elves steal souls?”

“No! Doug, that is just a hurtful stereotype.” Janie said loudly.

Most of the goblins did not look convinced.

“Is this based on anything?” I asked her.

“Fantasy racism!” Janie yelled. “I am disappointed in all of you.”

Spine looked chastened. Nobody else did.

“Okay, why is this a problem now, and not when Janie was here this morning?” I asked the crowd.

“You mean after you ended four heroic scale mobs in the space of 10 seconds?” Someone in the crowd shouted.

The goblin holding Janie’s chain spoke up, “Most of us figured you had a Santa/Krampus thing going. Then it-” he paused seeing the look on my face- “she started wandering around the camp unsupervised. We got nervous.”

“Okay, let’s put this to bed, Janie, do you promise not to steal anyone’s soul?” I asked.

Janie didn’t take this well, “Screw you Doug! I am a wood elf! I can’t even steal souls!”

Zarina lightly shoulder checked Janie, “So, Doug is asking you to promise to live your life like normal.”

Janie paused, “Oh, yeah. I promise. No soul stealing. Scout’s honor” She held up her shackled hand with three fingers raised.

“Good enough for me,” I said loudly. A quick Destruction check and I slid the cuffs off. A nascent thought and a successful craft check fixed the shackles. I handed them back to the goblin wearing all the charms.

“Don’t let your guard down,” he said before retreating into the crowd.

“You should probably stuff her into your tent,” Nanny Shiv said.

I looked at Janie. She eyed me, I shrugged, “Would you please step inside the tent.”

Janie took a breath. Held it a moment, and sighed, “Fine,” Janie was not as tall as me, but she was about as tall as Angelica. That she really had to duck to enter the tent. As she almost crawled through the flap she turned as said, “I am not happy how they treated me. We need to -aw shit!” she proceeded to tip ass over teakettle as she fell off the side of the stairs.

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I need to put railings on those steps.

We all followed Janie. No one else fell down the steps. I crafted some more human sized chairs for our human guests- who were not prisoners. This was not a hostile situation. Ignore the armed people glaring at each other.

“Okay let’s clear the air? What happened out there?” I asked the room.

Janie glared at the goblins. Philip and Toad looked more than a little uncomfortable. Helen, and Grimset looked uninterested. Nanny Shiv was watching everyone else.

Nanny Shank shrugged. “To hell with it. My give-a-damn's busted anyway. Everyone panicked because she is an elf. Humans kill us a lot. That said it doesn’t feel personal, mostly fighting over space, or retribution for our retribution. If we back off they leave us be… for the most part.” She hooked a thumb at Brunhilda, “Dwarves are meaner. They do screwed up shit like hunt us down. Wipe us out for no reason. On the Coast they even do malicious shit like herd us into the Dark to be some sort of meat shield for their… what even is that thing?”

“The Hellevator,” Brunhilda said. “It is a tunnel connecting the surface and the Deep-Dark together.”

Nanny Shank nodded, “Yeah, see what I mean. Dwarves are evil. They hate us. But they aren’t nothing to elves. Elves are just vile.”

“Like you are some saint?” Janie demanded. “Goblins will do just about anything to kill elves. They have hunted elves cross country. They want to wipe us out.”

”Because of the soul stealing,” Nanny Shank spoke up. I noticed she didn’t deny anything Janie said.

“Not all elves steal souls, you old bitch!” Janie snapped.

They glared at each other for a long moment.

Before either of them could say something likely to start a fight, Sunit asked, “Some elves can steal souls?”

Janie mulled his question over for a moment, “Yeah, Blood Elves can.” She immediately talked over the obvious follow up question. “They give all other elves a bad name. They are all a bunch of psychotic edgelords from the world that was. When the system showed up they all spec’d into mind and status effects. The most powerful of them are allegedly able to steal souls. All of them can do terrible things to your mind.”

“See, elves are bad,” Nanny Shank accused.

“Blood Elves!” Janie snapped. “I am a wood elf. I am good with trees. Those guys are the sadistic manipulators. Plus they are the ones that had Fantasy Racism bad.”

“Fantasy Racism?” I asked.

“It is a phenomenon people have observed,” Angelica spoke up when she saw Nanny Shank was about to pick another fight. “It’s basically is the tendency for nonhuman players to be more prone to… animosity with each other than they are toward human players. Some mobs are also more prone to attacking certain players. Like g- I mean Trolls and Dwarves.”

“Nice save,” Nanny Shank snarked. “So what people think it is part of the system?”

“It is a theory. You would need someone that has High Scale, High Mind Attribute and the Analyze skill at Grand Master level or higher to be able to prove it.” Angelica explained.

Nanny Shank considered that, “I still don’t like elves. My Nanny would tell me stories about what those Blood Elves would do to us if we misbehaved. That old bitch wasn’t soft like Shiv and I try to be with the kids.”

“What happened to these Blood Elves,” I asked.

“They are all Servants of Aella. They tried to gang up on her and turn her into their weapon,” Angelica paused. She realized that was probably not well known. “She flipped the script on them, hard. All of them are completely bound to her will. That is how she got the title of Soul Drinker.”

“She didn’t get that title until she let them loose on the rest of the world.” Janie corrected. “Those were… dark times. You never could tell if the person you were talking to was your friend or one of Aella’s cultists. In the end all the gods had to work together to round them all up and drop them in the desert. We are on the edge of the dead zone they put around Aella. No one wants her out talking to people.”

“What?” I asked.

“Aella used the Blood Elves to steal followers from gods. She almost unmade a few. Eventually they bribed her to just stay in the desert south of here. People sometimes flee the coast to her city, no one ever comes back,” Angelica answered.

That was deeply ominous. I admit it was a limited interaction, but I didn’t really get a relentless all-consuming horror vibe from the vapid shadow trying to get me laid and spite Zach. “So, what you are telling me is every elder Titan Spawn is basically horrifying and a menace to the world?”

“Yes,” Grimset agreed.

I didn’t like hearing that. It definitely hit harder sitting in a command tent, surrounded by desperate people, arranging to become their warlord. Yeah that looked pretty bad. …to hell with how it looked. I was going to do what I could to help the goblins and Angelica.

“Are there any hard and fast rules for this fantasy racism?” I asked. If this was going to bite me on the ass, I would like to know what sort of teeth it had.

“It is a theory, but the main thing most people agree on is that the effects are worse the higher the average scale is. Blood Elves were all Heroic Scale or higher.” Angelica explained.

I considered that. “Well I am a Titan Spawn, technically not human, does that mean this is affecting me?”

The vibe in the tent shifted noticeably.

“Doug, you don’t feel… any urges… to -I don’t know- kill everyone, right?” Spine asked, in a forced casual tone.

Everyone turned to look at me. They watched me closely. I could feel the weight of scrutinize skills being used. I felt like we skipped several levels here.

“Nnnnnnnoooooo,” I said slowly. That probably didn’t make them feel better. I hesitated too long.

“What about violence instincts or drives for conquest?” Zarina asked.

“None that I can think of,” I said, sitting on a throne made from the bones of my enemies.

Grimset scoffed, “I don’t believe you. We are here to discuss the execution of your detractors.”

I did feel something close to resentment clench in my stomach. I almost said something snotty back. I didn’t though. Really thinking about what was happening and it is hard to argue with that interpretation of events. What I said was true, but I didn’t blame people for believing the worst about this.

This world was way too high stakes and violent for thoughtless optimism.

I needed to convince people of the truth, “I am not a tyrant. We are going to have a trial, following the customs of goblin culture. If you are so skeptical of me, perhaps you should help provide their defense.”

Grimset scoffed.

“I am serious.” I continued. “They need a local to help them at least follow the rules and give them the fairest chance to present their case.”

The Nannies Shiv and Shank exchanged a look before they both gazed at Grimset. Grimset glared back at them.

“Take the role, Marvin,” Toad said, tired of other people's theatrics. “We all know the Nannies get what they want.”

“”Fine,” Grimset almost growled.

“Good that’s settled then,” Nanny Shank lit her pipe again, “Marvin and whoever he wants will represent the defense. Doug will be the prosecution.”

“Wait what?” Spine. Angelica, and I all said at the same time.

“Did you think you would be judge?” Nanny Shank laughed.

I had. Honestly that was a hell of a presumption come to think of it.

Nanny Shiv stepped in, “Listen to the old bat. You want this to be fair. Nanny Shank will be fair. It is gonna piss everyone off, but she will do it. Besides, people need to see you advocate for goblins.”

Expend Free action? Yes/No

Note: you must select the total number of seconds spent before activating.

I selected 1 and yes.

I just needed a beat. I just needed a second. I took a breath. I know I said I needed to convince people of the truth, but this was like talking to a wall. I could feel the bubbling rage building up inside me.

Please select an action…

Everything was still frozen. I looked at everyone. Nanny Shiv didn’t look like she was talking down to me. The old goblin looked nervous. She wanted this to work. She wanted to help me.

I sighed.

The weight of things was beginning to pile up. I doubted that was going to lessen any time soon though. That said, I needed to keep my head on straight.

Please select an action…

Yes, people constantly implying I was acting in bad faith was beginning to bother me. I didn’t like it. I hated that my efforts to calm their fears seemed to only prove those fears true… to them at least.

Please select an action…

The real pain point was being asked to be the prosecution. Maybe that was just me being naive? No. it was willful ignorance on my part. I had investigated Tazia’s murder. I had identified Waldo, Chet, and Madigan as the killers. I put out the warrant for their arrest. I interrogated them, I charged them with the crime. I may have messed up the order of operations here and their, but this was my case.

I was going to be the one pushing for their execution.

Please select an action…

Warring: Continued delay will result in free action being lost.

It felt different.

Acting to end someone’s life, rather than being around as it happened. This was also different from Mina. She thanked me after killing her, freeing her from the curse. Nor was this like Rebecca or my -the Titan’s- father. Those were desperate and chaotic fights. I didn’t feel great about them, but I wasn’t exactly crying for it either.

This was more deliberate. I was choosing to do this. Deep down I knew that. Even as Spine and I had gone to investigate the murder.

I could still hear the breaking glass.

This was like the time I killed David Clark.

Please select an action…

Warring: Continued Delay will result in free action being lost. Last chance!

“Are you alright, Doug?” Celeste asked gently.

“Not really, but I will make do until after the trial,” I admitted. “After the sentencing,” I corrected.

Time started again.