“We all know that nobody, not even that miscreant Syvox, has shared the rules of the Tuvvok Council with you. It’s pretty clear that if someone had, you’d have already issued your first challenge.”

  “Challenge?” I ask, confused. I release Perfect Focus and the world speeds back up. Tenebris automatically adjusts without a beat in a way that’s kind of scary.

  “The Tuvvok Council is the real power behind the SSA, and beyond it. We number 1024 and the number of people who know of its existence are perhaps less than a thousand times that across the entire Universe.”

  “Why the secrecy?” I ask.

  “It simply is not a matter for those without the potential. The SSA is a massive organization which fronts the will of the current and past Tuvvok Councils. Let them deal with all the complaints and issues of the Universe.”

  It’s almost expected after everything that’s happened after the Mana Influx that I’ll be drawn into Galactic politics somehow and some way, whether I want to or not.

  “Votes in the Tuvvok Council are weighed, not counted. The top position has a vote that counts twice as much as the second and third position, whose votes count for twice as much as the next four, and so on. It is the most powerful who have the most say by far. Initial membership in the Tuvvok Council is determined by combat, but ultimately the Rankings are determined through a combination of scores for economic, political, and military might. Rankings are also adjusted for innovative technology or initiatives that further the Tuvvok Council’s goals.”

  Just thinking about it makes my head spin.

  “Why are you telling me all this?”

  “Because, Bronwic… while your scores in most of the categories will barely be a blip, your combat effectiveness could potentially be high enough to place you in the lower ranks. If that happens, you stand to gain more sway over the future of Earth and humanity, though it will be at the cost of increased visibility amongst powerful individuals. Your ability to hold your position will depend on the allies you make and, I suspect, your ability to personally keep the others in check. Every Ranking member of Tuvvok can act with virtual impunity against anyone outside of it - the Council is united in that.”

  “But again… why are you telling me all this?”

  “I also stand to gain if you succeed. Even if you don’t ally with me, when you took my Mark I took a chance and named you a potential Tuvvok Councillor in the future. Never did I think it would happen this quickly, but my standing increases if one of my choices manages to Rank. Recruiting powerful individuals into our way of running the Universe brings some a certain level of stability that helps us to resolve conflict without destroying everything each of us has worked for. Before Tuvvok, wars between the biggest factions left nothing for the victors and assassinations were common. While assassinations still happen, we punish them swiftly where possible. You could call it a kind of truce amongst the Council. It may seem strange, but it has been in place effectively for over a million years.”

  “A million years…this is a lot to take in, Tenebris, and I’ve no love or skill for politics.”

  “Indeed, but it is thrust upon you Bronwic. What you do with it is up to you. At the very least I suggest you issue a Challenge, but perhaps I’m biased.”

  Tenebris looks distracted for a moment and then refocuses on me.

  “I must go, Bronwic. For a different perspective on all this, I know the perfect person to finish giving you an explanation of how it works.”

  Tenebris waves one of his massive claws and I feel that same faint ripple in dimensional space, then Syvox appears a few meters away from us. His weapons are clearly charged and at the ready in an instant. His defensive Skills and technology deploy a second later and information gathering drones and tendrils explode out from him to blanket the space around us. I notice nothing comes near Tenebris. And then Syvox realizes who he’s with.

  “Ah… fuck. Tenebris. Bronwic,” he says with a nod of his head to each of us as everything powers down.

  “Why don’t you give Bronwic your perspective on Tuvvok, Syvox? I must leave.”

  Without any other preamble or explanation space ripples and Tenebris disappears to somewhere else in the Universe. I think I could stop him if I really tried, but hopefully I never need to find out. However he’s moving around the Universe it’s a very different way from how I do it.

  Syvox grunts in resignation while staring at the place Tenebris disappeared from. I get the impression Syvox powered everything down to show he didn’t want to fight rather than because he’s friendly with Tenebris. We both stare at the empty spot for a few seconds and then Syvox shifts his attention to me with a frown. “Tuvvok? Really?”

  I shrug, not really knowing what to say. It’s all super fresh and not something I was looking for.

  “That’s at least a thousand times faster than the next fastest progress toward an initial Ranking. You’re either a total freak or have the computing power of a rock,” he comments in his slightly cybernetic tones.

  “Possibly both,” I respond with a grin. “Seat?”

  I pull some chairs and a table and some food out. I’m not exactly comfortable with Syvox, but I don’t see the need to stand around and talk with him like I did with Tenebris. Hard to relax at all while everything about his presence sends even my nerves jangling.

  Syvox looks at me for a few seconds and then decides to join me and sits in the chair I’ve pulled out for him. Like mine, the legs sink deep into the ground when he puts his weight on it. Rather than eat any of the food I have out, he pulls a few things of his own out of his Inventory. Even though they look like packages of baby food, I don’t mention it.

  “Pretty nice place,” he comments as he looks around.

  “I secured it from the SSA,” I reply, now not feeling as good about the whole thing. Syvox freezes as what I’ve said registers.

  “You haven’t put a Settlement or MIS Hub somewhere have you?” he asks.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “No - and Tenebris told me not to.”

  Syvox nods and looks around again and then back at me.

  “By the six Curkonons, Bronwic! How did you end up with a planet?”

  “Bit of a long story. I still think humanity needs to be strong in more than one place than Earth. We’re too easy to target.”

  “No rush on that. You’re better off just maximizing this period and getting as strong and rich as you can while you have some protection,” Syvox comments.

  “Why isn’t any of this in the SSA Protocols that I can find? Aren’t I supposed to have access to everything as a High Enforcer with my clearance?”

  Syvox tinkers with some kind of device on his left side briefly before he returns his attention to me.

  “There are some other Protocols that High Enforcers don’t really deal with. So no, you don’t have everything. Normally you’re notified of these kinds of things before you make an ownership transaction. I assume the way you obtained this planet was… not the standard way?”

  “Probably not,” I agree and then for some reason I feel the need to explain that I didn’t just steal it. “I did try to make it as legitimate as possible, though.”

  Syvox waves my concerns away as he looks me straight in the eye.

  “There’s plenty of corruption and power games out there, Bronwic. It really grinds my cybernetics sometimes. Anyway, Tuvvok?”

  I chew on some Monster meat and shrug again.

  “I don’t really know anything other than what Tenebris just told me. What do I need to know? How does it work?”

  A small flock of large birds emerges from the tree tops and spears toward us. I ignore them as Syvox looks thoughtful and some of the lights on his cybernetics look to engage and glow. Without looking up his arm reforms and he blasts all the birds out of the sky at virtually the same time.

  “It’s been around a long time, Bronwic. Deeply, deeply entrenched power that decides the way the Universe is run, without having to run it. Fiercely competitive and at the same time protective of their ranks. Those on the bubble who move in and out tend to cause the most noise, but not the most harm. They back each other’s rights to essentially do whatever they want to anyone who’s not part of the Council.”

  I frown.

  “What’s the purpose of having it? Why does it exist?”

  “I’m not sure there’s much of a purpose other that making it easier for those with immense power to keep it. Maybe sometime in the past it was purpose driven, I don’t know. Maybe they have one now and I just don’t know about it. Some will say it prevents chaos and massive wars, but we seem to have both of those anyway. The SSA does a lot of good, but I hate the corruption and duplicity. Maybe it’s to be expected of an alliance as old and big as it is.”

  “I’ve seen plenty of that in small and new alliances too,” I comment.

  “Affirmitive. That too,” he agrees.

  “How does it work? Tenebris said something about combat and Rankings?”

  “Anyone who wants to challenge for a Ranking in the Tuvvok Council has to win at least one combat match against an existing member. A win doesn’t mean you replace them, though. Your Ranking is based on a bunch of factors that combine to give your Ranking. The way Rankings are calculated is not transparent and some people, including me, think that it’s not a fair playing field for everyone. But we’ll probably never know.”

  “Tenebris said something about miltitary, economic, and political strength, plus innovation.”

  “Yeah, and whatever else they throw in the mix. You’ve obviously got a bit of those things since you own so many Settlements on Earth, but compared to the people who are Tuvvok Ranked, you’re not even a blip.”

  “Why tell me then? Why bother?”

  Syvox looks at me thoughtfully. I get the feeling he’s deciding what to tell me rather than thinking about the answer.

  “Because you can issue up to ten challenges every hundred million UTUs on a rolling basis, and if you fight and win against Councillors of high enough Ranks you could potentially land yourself a spot near the bottom of the 1024, even if you don’t have much else going for you.”

  “Don’t they all just… kill each other? I wasn’t allowed to fight in the Koldaavi Combat Championship because they calculated I was too likley to just kill everyone in a match and this has to be much, much worse than that?” I ask, puzzled.

  “Not many know this, so I would not go spreading it around, but Tenebris asked me so I’ll tell you that a Challenge can’t be refused, and all Challenges take place at a special location with special conditions that means they can fight to the death, but be brought back to life.”

  I consider for a few seconds and he lets me work through it, lets it sink in.

  “Some kind of Skill, or many Skills then,” is the conclusion I come to, and Syvox nods.

  “The KCC is a training ground not only for the contestants, but also for those who monitor the fights, create the environments, and ensure the fighters don’t get killed. That’s the real reason behind why the KCC keeps going, even above all the wagering and backhands for events like the KCT.”

  It makes a weird kind of sense.

  “Why would I do this at all?” I ask him.

  “If you gained a Ranking, you could start things up on this planet for humans and nobody would stop you,” he says while gesturing around with a cybernetic arm. “You could do a lot of things to help humanity. If you Ranked high enough, you couldn’t even be knocked out unless you lost in a bunch of combat Challenges. Only you know how you might fare in something like that,” he says.

  “And the downside?” I ask. “I assume… just being on their radar in the first place, especially if I lose?”

  “I imagine first time Challenge losers don’t have a long lifespan,” Syvox agrees.

  “Do I have an alternative that you know of, Syvox? To be able to Settle this world and other worlds without losing Earths’ status?”

  “Hopefully you can appreciate that I don’t really care. But you are still as interesting as you’ve ever been, so give me a minute.”

  A minute of silence gives me a good chance to properly get stuck into the food while Syvox flicks through notifications. When he returns his gaze to me I put the table and food back in my Inventory.

  “There is an edge case of precedent for you to petition to settle another world without losing the status of your existing one. You’ll have to show up at the SSA Homeworld in person to try to get a dispensation, and there’s no guarantee. Here’s the information,” he says and then flicks me a few notifications. I glance through them, but they look complicated and I’m guessing as a cyborg his CPU is a lot faster than mine.

  “Thanks Syvox. I’ll have a look over these. For now though I think I’ll go back to Earth. You are released of your duties!” I say with a laugh that he doesn’t join in with me.

  “Bronwic… if you do issue a Challenge, there’s no point going for the low Ranks. At the same time, with your rate of progress the longer you leave it, the better you’re likely to do if you’re Leveling up. Imagine - one day perhaps you will reach the pinnacle of your Ascended Class. Don’t underestimate those in the Tuvvok Council. All but a few of them have been alive for thousands of years, and some tens of thousands or more. There are no easy targets and it’s very difficult to get information on any of them that would help you in a Challenge.”

  “Thanks Syvox, I didn’t know you cared.”

  “I don’t. But I like that you create chaos wherever you go and it’s usually someone arrogant or oppressive that gets a bloody nose after you show up. Maybe it reminds me of the passion I used to have for the job, and life.”

  “How long have you been doing this?” I ask Syvox, suddenly a bit curious.

  “Since before your ancestors learned to walk, Browic. Far too long. The only thing new about me is my tech.”

  “Well, thanks anyway,” I say and stand up. He follows and I put the chairs back in my Inventory and trigger Omnipresent to find Jeff. I think he’s going to be disappointed, but I’ve got some work to do before we can settle here and I think I know the first person I’m going to go see about getting this happening through legitimate SSA channels.