Deepwoods Fort, Sandstone Temple, the Olive Council, and a now-defunct state called Strength of Stone was the alliance they tried to wield against the pirates. The alliance against Ullumar was a lot bigger, consisting of over 20 polities, and Three Bells wasn't the overall leader- Corewoods, one of the Oak Spears successor states, was. They're defunct too, now, Ullumar was not kind to them.

Are any of those party to the current pacification of Three Kills?

Nope, that's an all-Three Bells fight! They're very proud of how far they've grown in strength!

Okay!

The Amentan observer attends the trial.

It seems to be more of a show than a formal process.

They have a prosecution and a defense, one chosen by the accused, even. The defendants are three captains and the commander of their shore defense. Lots of observers are present, including diplomats from the defeated town, and several of them are looking at the Amentan in the room more than the actual trial. The king is in attendance, but the judge is someone else. First they establish facts and a timeline, including listing specific ships that were stopped.

Did you attack this ship?

Yes, but they shot first.

Did a sailor truly murder two of this ship's crew in cold blood?

Yes, and the soldier was executed for it. By the offended ship's captain!

Did they forbid the Three Bells trading ship Heavy Belly from going through the pass? And also attacked two military ships pursuing a pirate vessel?

Only if they didn't pay the toll, which they refused to do. Three Bells' ships proceeded even when warned, they were defending themselves.

Ah, but Three Bells does think it's their business. And the deal they're offering involves taking the rest of Three Kills' navy, ceding total control of the strait and basing rights on a little patch of land, in exchange for protection, passage rights, and some rent.

So Three Bells is admitting to projecting power and wanting to control the strait, regardless of the locals' wishes?

Three Bells is reliant on sea trade and extending a single policy over critical regional waterways is a major interest of theirs. They can't negotiate in good faith with pirates, unfortunately.

Three Kills' delegate insists they're not pirates.

Court is adjourned, with 'further negotiations pending'.

(The diplomat to Tapa later privately says they will take the Amentans' opinion on this matter into account but think they have more than enough leverage to get what they want, here.)

Tapa doesn't have a strong interest either way, though they will have to consider this sort of thing as representative of Three Bells's track record if considering assisting in future conflicts, especially as they develop more ties on the planet.

This particular band of pirates is a unique situation as far as their diplomatic relations goes.

Then perhaps no future situations will particularly resemble it! Tapa has, again, no interests one way or the other about the outcome.

Three Bells cedes some concessions (leaving them half their navy, more money), officially recognizes them as no longer pirates, and exchanges a diplomat with them.

Just as all that is getting finished up, Stoneheart shows up at the Amentans' place in Three Bells again, ready to leave. There are other Dwellin in other locations who'd like to visit Amenta, too.

Sure! They can all shower aboard a ship and then be toted to Tapa.

Even the ones specifically chosen as diplomats get pretty antsy confined to a smallish ship for three days. Is there a zero-g section to play in? An exercise room to exhaust themselves competitively in at least? But no major incidents. The other Dwellin all leave Stoneheart alone and she lurks in her room, but everyone oohs and ahhs at the spaceport architecture when they land.

"How do you even build something so large?"

There is a place to exercise aboard the ship!

The blue they meet at the spaceport is happy to talk about steel and carbon fiber and heavy-duty glass and cranes and concrete, at least on a layperson's level. Also she has a passing command of the Dwellin language now.

(There are several Dwellin languages, but those here all speak the most universal one, albeit with accents.)

Stoneheart, whose flame is still there, would like part of her visit to include talking to purples who know these things, it's all very fascinating. And she should meet this one city planner's staff and have a careful look around some farms and water treatment plants and so on, but that can wait a bit.

The other Dwellin are excitedly curious too! More about new people to meet and exciting sights than the wonders of modern science, but. Is there some sort of plan for the visit? It's not like most of these Dwellin can usefully do Amentan work, though they'd be happy to try.

They can get her a meeting with an architectural engineer and the city planner's staff and some farmers and the clean end of water treatment! The visitors are not expected to do Amentan work; they can stay in this nice hotel and see tourist stuff and have lots of people take pictures of them if they don't have priorities of their own.

She'll need to see the dirty end of water treatment too, to make sure all can be made well in a resort city.

...they can probably get her into a hazmat suit and have a social worker escort her if she really needs to.

"...What? I think there has been some sort of miscommunication. Why would a social worker be necessary for a close look at wastewater treatment?"

"The staff at a facility like that aren't going to be prepared to directly talk to an alien, and the social worker would be there to interface if you had any questions for them."

"I'm more concerned with the processes and ecological impact than the actual workers, but that sounds unusual and troubling."

"They won't know anything about the ecological impact, either."

Her ears flick uncertainly and she tilts her head. "Well, most of why I'm here is to experience an Amentan city and help plan how to avoid backlash when you build one at home - since anything could be detrimental but I can't tell if I don't see it - but it's not like it's urgent."

"It might be that there's a new facility going up somewhere that hasn't been put into use yet and could be toured before it's hooked up, would that work for you?"

"...I think I'm fundamentally confused about something that will make more sense with more context. I'll come back to this some other time."

"All right!" They can go back to planning a tourism itinerary.