Book 3, Chapter 27
…this is not to say that all of Ingerman's early espionage actions were missteps. While her first year as Berk's spymaster featured a large number of missed opportunities, other opportunities were seized on, including the creation of a network of information gatherers paralleling the initial Dragon Mail routes and the uncovering of several plots against Berk. Still, her early focus was, unsurprisingly, more on the recruitment of information sources and potential field agents. It was not until later that the need for analysts and organizational clerks became apparent in the face of the scope of Berk's potential fields of interest across Europe and beyond.
These early days of the North Sea Empire's intelligence services offer a valuable case study in the field of espionage when it comes to the scale of an intelligence service. Many of the feudal spymasters of the European kingdoms were around Ingerman's initial levels of sophistication, but their concerns tended to be provincial at the behest of their feudal lords and thus needed no further sophistication beyond what could be handled by a single person or at most a small group of people. Berk, in aiming for a sphere of influence spanning an entire continent and beyond, required an espionage service scaled to suit. As such, seeing the early failures and successes of Ingerman's tenure—and the inspirations and lessons that she drew upon, from her husband, her mentor, her fellow agents, and even the more sophisticated espionage services of the Byzantine Empire, the Vatican, and beyond—is a potent reminder of not overreaching one's institutions and structuring them to fit the actual needs facing that institution.
— Statecraft: The Great Game Of Diplomacy, Espionage & War By Other Means, 1732, Rouen University Press
Tropes That Appear In This Chapter:
- Attempted Rape: One of Dagur's warriors tried to force himself on Toiréasa, emphasis on tried.
- Content Warnings:Chapter Trigger Warnings: Explicit Threat/Attempt of Non-Con, Explicit Act of Execution, Explicit Act of Torture. (Just... be careful in the Berserker scenes, okay?)
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Savage executes a prisoner by performing the blood eagle
on him. - Even Evil Has Standards: Although Alvin's training of his spies was brutal, Toiréasa realizes when watching Dagur and Savage torture a prisoner that at least Alvin's torture was always for a purpose, whereas the current torture is just for the sake of inflicting pain.
- First Kiss: Sophia and Heidrun share their first kiss.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Toiréasa finds out that the "prey" the Berserkers hunt is people.
- Internal Reveal: Inga and Sophia find out that Gunnar is bisexual and is interested in Sigurd.
- Perp Sweating: Downplayed with Heather and Johann. She takes him to the cellar of her house, where there's a table, three chairs, a lamp, and a tablet for Atali to record notes, evoking modern interrogation rooms. Johann is pretty cooperative though.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Savage executes the Berserker who tried to rape Toiréasa without a second thought. Subverted because Toiréasa thinks to herself that nearly every one of the men there is likely guilty of the same crime, so really his crime was breaking Sacred Hospitality.
- Reformed Criminal: The group of bandits Hakon and Gunvor dealt with in Chapter 54 are fully reformed by this chapter, with at least one working at the paper mills and being so good he became the man in charge.
- The Reveal: Sophia and Heidrun are revealed to both be bisexual.
- Sadist: Savage executes a prisoner in a particularly gruesome way and from Toiréasa's POV it's obvious that he's doing it that way because he likes it.
