Chapter 93: Chapter 90: Crashing the Party

Lilith adjusted her tie, took one last look at herself in the mirror to make sure her suit fit properly, then teleported away. She reappeared outside of a large building in the frontier town the Society had taken over, and began to stroll towards the entrance, not caring about the commotion her sudden appearance was causing; the Society was responding to the statement she had put out, and she intended to be there in person.

She walked right up to the door, ignoring both the line of reporters and the bouncer, up until the moment the bouncer stepped in front of her, fear clearly visible on his face. “I-I’m sorry, ma’am.” He said nervously. “I’m a-afraid this announcement is invitation only. I-I’m going to have to ask you to l-leave?” The last part was less a demand and more a plea, and he was looking everywhere except for Lilith’s face, eyes frantically darting around in search of someone who could help.

“And I’m afraid I cannot accept that.” Lilith said. “Invitation or not, I will be in attendance here, and this is not up for debate. You and I both know you aren’t capable of keeping me out, so let’s just skip that whole song and dance and let me through, alright?”

“Um…I…”

“Thank you.” Lilith said, teleporting herself the short distance to the other side of the door. She strode confidently through the halls until she reached the auditorium where the announcement was going to be made, then made herself comfortable and leaned on the rear wall, carefully watching the audience.

As she had expected, a low buzz ran through the room, the various reporters and other crew talking amongst themselves about her. A few even approached her for comment, but after she waved them away the others seemed to get the picture and left her alone.

Ten minutes later, a sharply-dressed man emerged onto the stage, walking up to a podium that had a myriad of different microphones in front of it. He took his place behind it and waited for the buzz to die down before beginning to speak.

“Before we begin, I believe we need to address the elephant in the room.” He said. “Miss High Arbiter, we did not invite you to this meeting, and we told you at the door to leave. We find your lack of respect for our privacy deeply wounding, and your intimidation tactics make you seem like little more than a common thug.

“We understand, however, that we do not have the necessary force to make you leave, so we ask that you do not interrupt for the duration of this meeting. Now, to get onto the ma–”

He was cut off as Lilith stopped leaning against the wall, took a step forward, and teleported to his side. “While I intend to let the rest of this meeting play out without any further interruption, I feel it necessary to clarify a few points first.” She said. “First is that any respect for your privacy was lost the moment you broke the rules I set out. In fact, I already said that I would be going through your internal documents and doing my own audits, up to and including scanning the minds of your leaders.

“Second is that this is not an intimidation tactic. I wished to be here in person for this announcement, as I am rather vital to the subject matter, so I came. Besides…we are well past intimidation tactics.”

“I th–” The man began, but Lilith cut him off with a wave and a spell, and continued talking.

“I will be administering punishment, and it matters not to me how severe it is. I do not care if my presence here has any impact on the announcement, and if my mere presence is enough to be intimidating, then that should have been taken into account before you crossed me. But that’s enough from me, I’ll let you all get back to your announcement now.”

She teleported back to her spot at the wall, dropped her silence spell, and let the flustered spokesperson continue talking.

“A-as I was saying, we are here to discuss the matter of the town of Foresthaven.” The man said. “It is our opinion that the rules that were laid out were too rigid, and did not account for scenarios such as the one we find ourselves in now.

“As we were not any sort of governmental body, and we were specifically asked to do this by the residents of this town, we presumed that this would be no different than the town residents choosing to set up their own governmental structure. We realize this is our error, but we also do not wish to ignore the feelings of the people.

“As such, we would like to propose that the rules be amended to account for situations like the one we find ourselves in. We understand that the High Arbiter is only human, and that it is entirely possible for her to make mistakes, and would like to remind her that amendments to rules are commonplace and not something to be ashamed of.”

Lilith snorted to herself. She didn’t buy that argument for a second, and the language they used didn’t help either. “Only human” was not only as far from the truth as possible, but it was also language that indicated where their priorities lay. It was something that effectively proclaimed that they only cared about humans; most reputable organizations had taken to using more inclusive language. Phrases such as “just a person” or “only sapient”, while perhaps lacking the same ring as “only human”, were generally considered to be preferable outside of very specific circumstances.

Unaware of Lilith’s internal monologue, the spokesman continued his speech. “In fact, we at the Society have drafted a list of proposed changes that we believe will allow the general populace the most freedom without going against the original spirit of the rules, and we implore the High Arbiter to consider them carefully before making any decisions.

“First, we believe it important to make an exception for cases such as these, where the will of the residents of these towns does not fully align with the rules as they were originally stated. If the people are to govern themselves, that must include the freedom to cede their governing to other bodies, otherwise the people are not truly free to govern themselves as they wish.

“Second, it should be explicitly stated what a pre-existing organization is for the purposes of your rules, so issues such as this are not repeated in the future. We would argue that much of the blame for this incident lies not with us, but with the unclear rules that were set out.”

He had a few more proposed rule changes, but none of them were particularly meaningful nor were they something Lilith was willing to consider. All of the proposed rule changes, bar the second, were rather blatantly things that would greatly benefit the Society. They were all phrased such that they “increased the autonomy of people”, but in reality, they just were things that made it easier to effectively segregate people, and allow outsiders to meddle more with the frontier towns.

As things winded down, Lilith began to make her preparations. She had Mae work on using some of her extra senses to pinpoint the locations of everyone in the building and get a read on the capabilities of the Society members therein. For her part, Lilith weaved a spell that would block any teleportation within a large radius of the building, effectively cutting off any escape route short of outrunning Lilith, which was next to impossible, even if vehicles were used.

After the spokesman finished with the proposed rule changes, he once again asked for Lilith to consider them before opening the floor for questions. At this time, Lilith stepped forward and raised her hand. The spokesman ignored her, but the reporters certainly took notice.

It started slowly, but some of the reporters began to stop vying for the spokesperson’s attention. After a few more questions, other reporters noticed Lilith and noticed their colleagues’ silence, and they too fell silent. Soon it reached a point where it had become obvious that most of the reporters were waiting for Lilith, and the remainder, either giving into the peer pressure or sensing that allowing Lilith to speak would make for better television, stopped their questioning as well.

The spokesman nervously looked around the room, then looked back at the door he had come in from. He froze in place for a moment, nodded his head, then turned back to the podium. “As none of our invited guests have any other questions, we will be ending this meeting here. Thank you for your time.”

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With that, he and the rest of the Society members hurriedly exited the auditorium. In their absence, Lilith took a step forward and teleported to the podium, then gave the assembled people a smile. “While I would have much preferred to say this to the Society in person, I am afraid they declined to allow me any further comment. However, I understand that they are still monitoring this room, so I will be saying my piece regardless.

“It is my opinion that most of the proposed rule changes are made in bad faith.” She said, pausing briefly before continuing. “However, I have no issue with further clarifying what I meant by a pre-existing organization. I was under the impression that those parties that would fall under that category would know they fell under that category, and, failing that, would check with me before doing anything that would violate the rules.

“For the purposes of the frontier towns, a pre-existing organization is any that was not formed with the sole purpose of governing a single frontier town. Corporations, governments, your neighborhood sports league, I don’t care what it is. If it’s not made by the people of the frontier town, and not made to govern themselves, then it’s not allowed.

“Even groups fitting those descriptions will be heavily monitored by myself to prevent abuse. Abuse that I’m afraid the other proposed rule changes make all the easier. The majority of these changes, while technically giving those in the frontier towns more agency, actually serve the purpose of allowing foreign entities an easier time influencing the frontier towns.

“By allowing the people more say in these things, it puts them at risk of being pushed around by entities such as governments, wealthy corporations, and, yes, the Society. What people want is not always the best for them; as a rather simple example, I think it’s not a reach to say that most people would like to be free of taxes, but in the majority of scenarios, entirely abolishing taxes would prevent their government from functioning and ultimately reduce their quality of life.

“I believe the frontier towns are a similar case. Allowing the people to skirt my rules is not for their benefit. Yes, it is technically a dictatorship, but if you don’t like it, then my suggestion is simply to leave. I have done my best to preserve all individual rights and only restrict larger groups, and fundamental among those rights is the right to not be subject to some of the stricter policies I have regarding the frontier towns.

“You are more than welcome to go elsewhere, or make your own town. In fact, I welcome any and all attempts to make new towns and nations in Haven, provided they do not interfere with the frontier towns. The purpose of Haven’s frontier towns is to get people more comfortable with settling in places other than the three cities, and I would be overjoyed to see it working.

“As you all may have surmised, I am taking this announcement as intent to ignore my request to step down, and will be giving full punishment as I see fit. With matters such as this, it is not better to ask forgiveness than permission. If any group has proposed rule changes for me, I expect them to bring it up before taking actions that would break my rules. If anyone breaks my rules and then seeks to have them changed, I will punish them for the rules they broke, regardless of if I implement the changes they suggest.”

She gave the reporters another smile. “That being said, I am going to immediately commence with my punishment, beginning with the Society members still in this building. I will do my best to avoid anyone else getting caught in the crossfire, but I suggest that those who are unrelated to this situation pack up and leave as quickly as possible. Thank you.”

She stepped down from the podium, cast a few haste spells, then dashed for the door the spokesperson left through. She blitzed her way through the halls, ignoring the various cries of alarm from the personnel, until, eventually, she reached a room deep within the building.

There her path was blocked by two incredibly nervous guards. “I-I’m afraid this room is for authorized personnel only.” One said. “W-what is your business?”

Lilith flashed her a smile. “I’m beginning my punishment.” She said sweetly. “May I remind you that any attempts to stop me will be taken as obstructing justice and will be met with force? I am well aware that neither of you are carrying any of the anti-Perfect Chimera weapons the Society has manufactured, so I would highly recommend not testing me on this.”

I just checked, they’re grunts, and as far as I can tell they’re relatively new recruits. Mae told Lilith. They haven’t done anything bad, we can safely leave them alone.

“If you leave now, I won’t come after either of you personally.” Lilith continued. “And that’s the best offer you’re going to get. So…what’ll it be?”

The guard who had spoken up looked at her companion, then dropped her weapon and dashed away. The remaining guard swallowed, then shook his head. “I…I know you’re reasonable, miss High Arbiter.” He said. “This really is for the best, I think. The Society’s turned themselves around since the old days, and they’ve done a lot of good for me and my family. Are…are you sure you’re not letting your history with them get in the way of things?”

Lilith raised an eyebrow. “A bold question. I’ve been keeping tabs on the Society for a while, and all my investigation tells me that they really haven’t changed their ways. They may have ceased outward terrorism, but those at the top still seek only their own power. Yes, you can argue that most other organizations are the same, but the difference is that those organizations mostly did not start as terrorists, nor have they flagrantly broken my rules. If, during the course of my punishment, I find otherwise, I will make the necessary changes, but until that point, they are considered guilty. Now, are you going to block me further, or do I need to forcibly remove you?”

The guard paused, then shook his head and stepped aside. “I’ll be out of your hair, ma’am.”

Lilith stepped forward and tried the door, and, finding it locked, opted to simply tear it off of its hinges and step in anyway. Mae immediately began reading the minds of those in the room, particularly the spokesman from before, all the while feeding Lilith the most important information.

“Eli Dunkley, was it?” Lilith said, walking towards the spokesman. “Head of PR for the Society? I believe you and I have much to talk about.”

Eli ignored her, instead firing a shot from the gun he was holding. Lilith, already knowing he had been about to fire, simply moved to the side, dodging the bullet that had been made of anti-Perfect Chimera material.

In response, she dumped much of her Mana into a simple spell that would rip the gun out of his hands and bring it to her. The spell hit the wards Eli had set up, but the sheer amount of Mana it contained allowed it to easily overwhelm the wards, and the gun flew out of Eli’s grip.

Lilith caught the gun, spun it around her fingers, then flicked the safety on and jammed it into a holster she had made. “Don’t try again.” She said. “The rest of you aren’t properly equipped to deal with me, so I suggest you don’t.” She said. “If you insist on attempting to do so, then I shall insist on beating you unconscious, understood?”

There was a silence, and one of the guards tried to surreptitiously press a button he had been blocking from Lilith’s sight, only to find his body locked in place by a spell. A moment later, Lilith was there, and she hit the man hard over the head, causing him to crumple to the floor.

“The button won’t save you, anyway.” Lilith said, pushing the button several times. “See?”

The button itself was one that, according to Mae, would teleport in an armed troop from another base, but the teleport block she had set up neatly stopped it from doing anything. “You should have been tipped off by the fact that your attempts to teleport out didn’t work. Now, if no one has any further objections, we have an interrogation to start, ‘kay?”