Chapter 27: “The Immediate Aftermath of Deep Betrayal”

Season Covered: Fall 1908 (Part I of III)

The moves process.  I make a move towards Germany with no explicit betrayal.  Will he buy it?  I’ve got to hope so. In the last chapter I said I went to bed right away, but that was a lie. I wrote that at the time. I actually stayed up and kept messaging with others.

I helped Austria.  Will he pay me back?  Or will he act as an ingrate, like I did with Turkey?

I crush Turkey.  I move to the Irish Sea even though I told France the unit would move to Wales.  I just lie, lie, lie.  This time I doubt I can recover with him, and I make no effort to do so (unlike my unsuccessful effort to rekindle my relationship with France in 1904). France and Austria are happy, though.

France writes separately.

I write the following to Turkey. No apologies. He wouldn’t like them. He responds, but I leave it alone.

France is not upset about my move to the Irish Sea, or so he tells me:

Austria is happy in private press with me.

I meant it.  That line about my daughter the night before weighed heavily on my mind.

Meanwhile, Germany is blissfully asleep and is going to be mad when he wakes up. I try my best to cover up with more lies. I guess I even told a lie to myself about no more lying. The game felt soul destroying, or was my soul always this dark?

I’ll see if that works; I’m dubious. I just eviscerated two goals:  I’m a prick and I have not made many friends, except for Austria, and France (kind of).

Germany reaches out.  He’s obviously upset because I made a move in his direction, but it seems somewhat manageable, at least in our press.

I know the “everyone on this board wants you dead fyi” line was not about me personally, but it stung.  I failed to achieve even more goals.

Now I go to bed realizing there is still a game to play, and for now I’m still a part of this game.