Chapter 228: Something Even a Faceless Man Can't Fake
Silence settled over Ian's study.
Despite the confidence he'd projected when making the promise, Ian wasn't entirely certain how to protect a Faceless Man's marked target from getting killed. The whole problem with the Faceless Men was the disguise — perfect, seamless, effectively impossible to detect through normal means. They could be anyone.
But he had to find a way. Three reasons, in order of importance.
First, keeping Adam alive kept the player count at twenty-one, which meant one more month of leaderboard payouts. Those monthly rewards had been compounding into a genuinely significant resource base, and Ian had no interest in watching that stop.
Second, he didn't want the third Bounty Mission to activate yet. Per the system's rules, it triggered automatically when the player count dropped to twenty. Ian was currently neck-deep in Slaver's Bay operations and had no bandwidth to compete for a major mission reward elsewhere — but he equally couldn't afford to sit back and watch another player collect it unopposed. Delaying the trigger was the cleanest solution available.
Third, and most practically: Adam was an industrial specialist Ian genuinely needed. With his background, the manufacturing bottlenecks that had been sitting unsolved on Ian's shelf could actually get solved.
The question was how to keep a Faceless Man from killing him.
Ian's first working idea was simple containment. Lock Adam alone at the top of a tower, seal the doors from the outside, and deliver food and documents by rope. No human contact. No entry points.
That left poison as the only viable attack vector.
"Add a tasting requirement for whoever handles the food," Ian muttered, pacing. "No — that doesn't work either. If the Faceless Man isn't posing as the food handler but manages to introduce a slow-acting poison through some other point in the chain, the taster doesn't help."
He stopped pacing.
If you couldn't break the disguise, you couldn't build a defense. That was the actual problem.
Ian stood there thinking, then looked at the two Unsullied posted at his door.
"You two. Come here."
They stepped forward without hesitation.
"Drop your trousers."
They obeyed immediately, without question.
Ian studied them for a moment. Then, quietly, to himself: No matter how skilled a Faceless Man is, there are certain things they can't manufacture on short notice.
"You've figured something out." Adam had been watching Ian's expression. He stood up — then took in the sight of the two Unsullied and winced. "What exactly are you thinking?"
Ian laid it out.
"I'm giving you the top three floors of this pyramid as your secured area. No one enters those three floors except the specific Unsullied I assign there. No movement between floors by anyone else. Your personal area is the top floor — the two below are buffer layers."
"We pre-stock the top floor with enough non-perishable food for an extended period. Your meals are prepared on-site. Every dish gets tasted by a guard before it reaches you."
Adam frowned. "The Faceless Men can impersonate Unsullied. That's not beyond them."
"They can copy the appearance," Ian said. "They can't copy everything." He gestured toward the two men behind him. "Look. Tell me how a Faceless Man fakes that on short notice."
Adam looked. His expression went through several stages.
"The Unsullied stationed on your floor will all be wearing open trousers at all times — so that every man on that level can verify every other man at a glance. Beyond that, they conduct regular checks on each other. Close inspection. They're looking specifically at the scarring and the state of healing, which takes years to develop correctly and can't be replicated." Ian kept his voice completely even. "That eliminates the possibility of someone cutting themselves to pass the check. And all the work documents I need from you will be delivered by falcon — no human courier."
He looked at Adam. "Can you find a flaw in that?"
"I —" Adam stopped. "No. I'm going to be sick." He turned away and was sick on the floor.
"It's entirely for your protection," Ian said, suppressing a laugh with some effort. "Relax."
He turned back to the two Unsullied before Adam could respond. "Go out and pass the order to all Unsullied on the upper three floors — trousers down, effective immediately. Clear everyone else out of those levels. Anyone who hasn't left within the time limit gets killed. Thorough search of all three floors before lockdown."
The upper three floors were cleared and secured within the hour. The Unsullied Ian had designated took their positions. Non-perishable supplies were hauled up and stockpiled. Detailed duty protocols were established and communicated. Ian brought up every document he needed from Adam, transferred them to the top floor, and then handed the space over.
The upper pyramid was now, by any reasonable assessment, impenetrable to a Faceless Man working within the limits of what the original stories had shown they could do.
Which meant Ian's real concern had shifted.
If the Faceless Men found they couldn't break through this particular defense — if they kept coming back and kept failing — the more pressing question was whether they'd eventually redirect their frustration toward the man who'd built it.
In the original story, Jaqen H'ghar had operated under a strict internal code: a life taken requires a life given in exchange. The rules governing the Faceless Men seemed to create hard limits around collateral action — you killed your mark, and that was the transaction. You didn't start killing everyone in the building because the building was inconvenient.
But Jaqen H'ghar had bent those rules when Arya Stark cornered him at Harrenhal. When she'd named him as her third kill and refused to take it back until he helped her, he'd cut down a group of Lannister soldiers to secure her cooperation — people who weren't part of any contracted killing.
If the Faceless Man assigned to Adam was similarly willing to improvise outside the strict boundaries of the contract, Ian's people were potential targets.
Ian called for Yara.
With Rol still away managing the Worm River operation, Yara was the most capable person immediately available. Ian needed someone to run the optional quest exploit — partly to keep generating attribute points, partly to test something more specific.
He needed to find out whether the Faceless Men would move against anyone other than Adam.
[Support Goal: 500 PS → +1 Chapter]
[Support Goal: 10 Reviews → +1 Chapter]
Your review helps the story grow.
P1treon Soulforger (20+chapters ahead)