124 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 112

[SteveMB]

I suspect that Parson is going to attempt an info-op on Ansom. Make him believe that his forces failed in the tunnels not by the skin of Sizemore's last bit of magic, but due to treachery. I think he tries to frame Jillian. If Wanda knows about Jillian's antipathy to Webinar, he can use that. He can throw in her known anti-royal bias. He can reveal that the "caster Jillian knows" is Wanda, the dreaded Croakamancer, and that they're (probably) former lovers. Jillian's rescue of Ansom at the dwagon donut can be framed as a setup for a defeat not just of Ansom personally, but destruction of the entire RCC and discrediting of the entire principle of royal rule.

Parson doesn't know about Jillian's relationship with Wanda (whatever, exactly, it is) beyond a very abstract and impersonal level ("We captured Ansom's main air-units warlord, Wanda squeezed a bunch of intel out of her and put a suggestion spell on her, but she snapped out of it and ganked the wounded dwagons from the siege raids.") He similarly doesn't know about Jillian's relationship with Ansom beyond the basic fact that they love each other.

That said, the general concept that Parson is trying to mess with Ansom's head is probably correct. He was certainly doing that with that needling Thinkagram. You're also correct that Ansom's situation, based on what he knows, leaves him very vulnerable to such head games.