Subversion

Another, more advanced technique is to do what one of our number liked to call "cultivating flowers of evil." One simply creates or exploits a needed - and, by necessity, illegal - behavior in a target, and then simply lets them go on their own way... perhaps with the occasional change of course, courtesy of yourself.

Why? Because, every so often, it is a good thing to have a random factor in the mix. Not only do the results of such a thing surprise us, they sometimes teach us something new. And, should you ever need to do something with what you've cultivated, it may have more resources to bear than you could have ever dreamed of.

It also adds a layer to your deception. Who can say you were the one who brought this wraith so low? If you only gave them one little push, and the rest of the journey downhill was entirely their own, then they might not seek your hand in it, nor be as likely to find it.

All I suggest is that you give yourselves a lot of time before trying such a thing. A badly-cultivated flower may choke the garden, as it were.

 

("It only sounds foolish and illconsidered. Once, I managed to trick a humble Centurion into Skinriding. It went badly, and he was guilty and afraid. However, rather than blackmailing him, I decided to play around a bit and convince him - all without the Art, mind you - that he actually liked the fact that he was ruining the lives of the Quick through his actions. And then I just let him go on his own way.

("By the time I'd caught back up with him, five or so years later, he'd risen in the ranks of the Hierarchy by disposing of his rivals' Fetters, joined the Puppeteers and done more or less the same thing, and managed to work out a situation where he could play one group against the other and benefit from it. And this was all his doing - all on his own initiative, just because he didn't want to get caught doing what he now loved.

("It was almost a shame to have him wreck it all. Almost. - Master Fredrick Feldman)


How


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