No efforts are in vain

Part I

I could have given up hope. I could have let everything as it was. Monday would be sleeping and entertaining himself forever, letting lots of Realms fall with him. My brother and sisters would then see their mistakes, but too late… Like when you stand a lot of time in the sun, when you begin to be in shadow, it takes time before your sight is back perfectly. I could have told myself: "Let it be, it would be easier to give up and leave the Morrow Day Mister Monday destroy himself." But I could not. I considered my Master like an uncle. If he had kept the good work, I would be glad for him to keep the Key, and I even would come to believe the Will was wrong to force Monday to relinquish the Lower House, how could a mortal beats that excellent work Monday did right after coming into possession of the First Key? No mortal would have been able to do better… but now, even a slug would be more active then the actual Master of the Lower House.

After a while, I devised a plan. I pushed hardly the door of the meeting room of my council of administration. The seven Denizens were seconding me for the administration of the dusk while it was Monday outside. The door banged when it smacked the wall.

"Ok, friends!"

At first, my servants were surprised by the vocabulary I used, but I had no time for oral protocol or grammar.

"We will free ourselves from the administration of the dawn and noon!" I proudly said.

The small crowd began to chatter, in agreement.

"But first, we need to buy contracts from Denizens fromall over the Housein order to strengthen our military force!"

The chatter suddenly stopped. The council clearly thought we would not stand a chance against the Bespoke Sentinels. Huge human shaped metal creatures, no corporeal details, their body polished perfectly, blades instead of hands and nearly invincible. Doubtless a Dawn, Noon or Dusk would hardly triumph over one of them, but only a Day would defeat all twelve.

"I am sorry, sir, "said one member of the council. "But I think it is an bad idea to attempt a war effort, if my ideas of your plan are true, I think it is not wise to get Mister Monday's wrath on us…"

"My Master won't bother about that. The Rightful Heir shall be selected when we will get the Part One of the Will back." I finally revealed my plan. We were to gather legions in order to slay the Bespoke Sentinels.

"But sir! A council member answered. "You are aware that the Sentinels are the work of Grim Tuesday, their thick metal skin is probably to be wounded by one of you majestic sword you and your sibblings hold, sir, and even more bya Key, but it is not everyone who has the power to wield such wonderful weapons, or even the rights."

"Light-swords or axes shall do enough, if we can gather the army I ask, gentlemen." I merely answered. "I know we will have to surprise the enemy so it can be slain easily. I also know that we need to prepare everything carefully so my brother or sister won't notice anything, but I know we can do it! There are many Denizens in the Far Reaches who will gladly join us in our campaign instead of digging and mine the Grim's Pit!

Everyone kept silence. Now every parts of the House knew about the Far Reaches' industrial activities. It was no secret since Grim Tuesday developed avarice as my Master had sloth progressing through him. Rumours were that Lady Wednesday was being prey to gluttony, though it is unknown if it was her choice, like for Grim Tuesday and a little like Mister Monday, but facts are that she was turned into a whale.

"Sir, you are not without knowing that every Denizens sent to the Pit have huge debts they owe to the Reaches' authority only because they breath the foul air that reigns there?" said one of my servant. "And they owe even more for their very presence there. Even if we bought Denizens right before they have debts, they would be hard to train as soldiers. "

"Not even considering they will not be soldiers!" replied another Denizen. "It will take millennia before they even learn to use a silver sword!"

Then everyone spoke to contest or to make a critic about my plan.

"Silence! I shouted. Having a lot of authority over them, they could only do what I asked them, though I did not wish to force them into my campaign, but convince them… unlike my brother. "We could command Comissionaires but, you are aware that such an order would not be unnoticed and my brother. AndMonday's Noon, has the authority upon such units in the Lower House. If he was to learn our plans, he could turn them up against us. Denizens that will be loyal to us are preferable."

For a while, the council thought about my proposition. The Denizens forming it were functionary, not warriors. Even those we would "buy" off the Grim were something else then enforcers of the law. They were also untrained to be miners, which was basically an easier job then soldier. In brief, we would have to train them from scratch. They had no fighting experience; a human would be able to slay them, even alone.

"Who will risks themselves against the Bespoke Sentinels?" Boldly asked my second in command.

"We shall see." I replied. "For now, order Nightmare Whips and Night Gloves from the Reaches. Pay the lowest price possible."

"We could take some cash from the Dawn Department, since they named us Account Trustees of their bank account" One of my servants proposed.

"We could… but I do not whish to make Monday's Dawn suspect what I'm doing. While Inspectors can't do military harms to our operations, they can warn Noon who will be able to round us up."

Every member nodded in agreement. I considered my campaign was adopted. We would first arm any Denizens we could engage into our operations, Hall or Corridors Cleaners for example, though some would still be required, but too many were cleaning. It was so neat I wondered where dust was going away. We had to gather money also so we had to triple our services. We could take care of the Monday's dawn and noon even more so our commissions would increase our benefits, and my brother and sister, in their sloth, would only be glad to take more time in the Realms. Mister Monday would notice nothing and since I had taken control of the Lower House, in a certain way; I could take a commission from him. I had direct access to all banking accounts since all three Monday's departments were under me now (the Dusk Department was doing the tasks of the Noon and Dawn one); I even had a small access to the Day management. In brief, my operations would go unnoticed. My only concern was if my brothers called upon me to relinquish the administration of their accounts, doing so, my source of money was cut short. Nothing bad could happen. If I could also buy a few crafters from the Reaches, forging of weapons could be done here and I would only have to pay for the Nothing, which I could also take from the Deep Coal Cellar. If I could find a few allies, my plan would go as I wished. First, gather all financial means in order to form an army capable of taking down the Bespoke Sentinels. Second, prepare that army for a war against twelve super powerful foes. Third, finding some allies all around the House, I supposed I could gather help from the Border Sea since I could offer services to them because they appeared to have troubles with their administration, like here in fact.

I omitted one single fact: All those things would happen if I kept control of the Lower House. The Rightful Heir would probably assume the same role Mister Monday kept for a few hundred years after gaining possession of the First Key. I could not give the promisedhelp to my allies at the aftermath… the only hope I had was to make the Rightful Heir name me Steward of the Lower House. After all, the Heir would owe me that, with all my faithful services.

Then I realized I was not scheming the releasing of my domain from Monday's sloth, but my ascension to power. What if the fallen Trustee's curse had no influence on me, but that my brother's gift of manipulation had? Was it my brother who was polluting my mind with such schemes? Was I jealous of the fact Monday was preferring Noon to me? Was it envy driving me forward to topple my Master? What if my efforts were in vain and that I would still be Monday's Dusk and nothing more? At first, I wanted to free my siblings, but was it to be superior to them? Was one of the other Morrow Days' curse upon me, instead of my Master's one? Was I becoming power thirsty, instead of slothful? Then I said to myself: "The Architect would be proud that you want to do something about Her will. Fear not, all you do is well and rewards from the Heir will only be bonuses." I did plotted against Monday but he first got against the Will of our Creator, so whatever I did against him was in Her name, so it was good. Anyway I was sure he would be glad about waking him up. Though the idea to raise an army to topple the Morrow Day so the Rightful Heir would reign over what is his or her was a weird one, it was what had to be done. Things had to change, no matter what. Sloth would be hunted down, and I would be rewarded, my brother and sister would be safe, as my Master would also be. That's all I wanted. The doubts I had were only caused by my lack of confidence, but I knew my efforts would not be in vain… not totally at least.