Self-isolation. Where it's not others trusting Mathilde less, but Mathilde trusting others less and subsequently distancing herself from them. And yes, Mathilde is used to keeping secrets, and has kept some big ones- but how many does the demon know about? Its speech implies not all, and certainly not all the ones where Mathilde is keeping the secret for her own personal benefit (as opposed to the colleges', Belegar's, etc,). That means it very much could be aiming for a 'tell nobody' outcome, because keeping secrets for others' sakes is a different kind of wearing on a person that keeping them to protect yourself.
You know, for all blackmail material is one of
the most classic elements in intelligence to flip enemy spies and figures is a classic thing here, I think that this, too, warrants inspection.
How do you get people to make and maintain a common understanding?
Proximity and Communication. Break that, stop them talking to each other, place lies and secrets* between them, and all that falls apart.
*Not all secrets are equal of course, a good relationship can be built around the understands that some will be kept, but even that comes with conversation and understanding.
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Honestly, since the idea of the bird telling the Order anything we don't say here keeps coming up...
We talk about blackmail material, but I think we should lay things out on the table and play this out like a move in a spygame.
First off. Accumulation of blackmail material is one of
the classic ways to dig someone deeper and deeper into entrapment.
Known Sources of blackmail:
1: Anything we don't say here about this incident here and now.
-Status: As large or limited as we make it during this option.
2: Mathilde's
very real collection of dark lore.
-Status: Existent but has does the
Smug Bird know about them, and which ones?
3: Anything it just makes up.
So, how could this go wrong?
Telling our boss everything.
1: Grey Order overreaction kills Mathilde or else drives us into enemy hands.
2: Smug Bird burns its current blackmail material for a major response,
3: Loss of trust damages our projects.
Limited information:
1: Anything we don't say will become blackmail. The less we tell, the more relevant blackmail it has to force our hand, which can be weaponized in ways that will produce even more blackmail. The classic spy game.
2: An unsatisfied Smug Bird may decide to burn us anyways to force a conflict.
3: Lesser loss of trust as a result.
Keeping mum:
1:
Maximum blackmail gain for the Smug Bird.
1a: many more ways for our hand to be forced.
2: May cause less contact between Mathilde and her allies.
Looking at it this way, this has me of the belief that the Order learning of the offer made to Mathilde, if they react with the same degree of care that and consideration that Mathilde did on learning about Egrimm's candidacy, makes it much,
much harder to break her away from the forces of Order. Partially because she will be watched, partially because that watching will be known.
Yeah, I get that, the option to talk about the Everchosen offer is
legit terrifying. There's fears of an overreaction, there's fears of an investigation being used by the Smug Bird to find one of Mathilde's very real books of dark lore. Still, there's another side of the coin here.
There's a chance they go for extreme measures but this is the
Grey College. Look at the likes Lord Magister Kurtis "Hedgewise Quadruple Agent" Krammovitch, and Magister Regimand "We put on a show of being harsh on our own so that hostile powers will
try to entrap us, and get burned in the process," Speiseschrank for instance, and tell me there that the prospect of a double-agent Everchosen-candidate would not at least be a
temptation.
Not one that would be a good idea to follow, I think, there's a long history of double agents being turned, especially when we're talking about Lying to the God of Lies, but one that shows that being understanding of the situation is just as much in-character for Boney's version of the Order as overreaction.
