From the Aether that surrounds this particular corner of reality is plucked a single soul. Although he is not a human, he presently holds human form, because that is the form he held when a hijacked teleport flung him into the Aether in the first place. 

He's in a big stone room, on a circular platform with a pit around it (about ten feet deep and maybe ten feet between the inside and the outside). There's a ceiling thirty feet up and a lot of faintly Egyptian-esque detailing, though there's nothing representational or hieroglyphic. There's a bubble of force with a big ghostly off-white living ball of claws about twenty feet away, with its own, deeper pit around it, corridors that lead past that , some more going the other direction on a level above. A few crystals in the walls here and there give off faint light.

Everything here is magic, the air excepted. Mostly excepted. Even this small dusting of rust on the ground by his feet is faintly magic.

He is instantly on high alert. Hostile magic redirected him here — it could be a trap, another assassination attempt — but he does not see a pile of explosives, a battery of heavy guns, or a half-dozen magical girls with deadly powers. As the seconds tick by and no imminent threats materialize, he relaxes minutely. 

The magic here is not the same as his, nor does it seem to be of Earth. The ghostly creature does not look like an Earth cryptid or monster. The detailing is unfamiliar. 

All of these observations suggest a similar conclusion: He's not on Earth any longer.

Counterpoint: Neither his spells nor the magic of any magical girl allow one to traverse the Aether. But he caught a glimpse of the magic that seized his own; it looked like that of a magical girl, but there was something to it which he did not recognize. A rare manifestation? A fluke? The work of a Netherling or Aetherskimmer? Something else? He commits the pattern to memory all the same. 

(If only he'd reacted faster — but magical girls have always been his superior in that regard. Even quickened spells take a second to cast, but their powers happen at the speed of will.)

After confirming the apparent absence of imminent danger, Ipaxalon takes a moment to bow his head and grieve, once again, for those he has known and loved who are now far beyond his reach. 

It is not a long moment, but it will have to suffice. Perhaps this world needs fixing, too. 

This place is fairly large, but still a bit tight for his natural form; he remains human and begins to examine his surroundings in greater detail. He nonetheless employs a rather implausible array of magical senses.

(When one is a powerful spellcaster with access to functionally unlimited diamond dust, one has the privilege of sitting down at the Permanency Restaurant and ordering the entire menu.) 

Questions of interest to Ipaxalon include: 

• The alignment of the ghostly creature (as determined by the net effect of suffering or eudaimonia, and of legibility or illegibility, it has generated upon this world, weighted by the depth of causal responsibility it bears for same);
• The general structure of the various magics that surround him (wards will typically share some common structure with abjuration spells, summoning effects with the teleportation subschool of conjuration spells, elemental magic with evocation, and so on); and
• Whether the detailing consists of a readable language, and if so, approximately what it says.

It doesn't seem to be aligned, any more than a rabid bear is. Nothing else nearby has an alignment either.

There is definitely some abjuration in the magic in the walls, and the bubble around his neighbor is evocation and abjuration. The rust dust has fading traces of transmutation. None of it is particularly normal for schools, and all of it except the bubble of force is heavily mixed with the universal school; for the walls it's most similar to permanency and the rust and some of the breeze blowing in (also traces of transmutation) looks a bit like wish. (Though the weirdest thing might be that the crystal lights are pure universal magic, no evocation like you'd expect for a permanent light.)

Almost none of the details have linguistic content, but there's a group of indents around his platform, the one with the bubble, and the third on his other side, and they're marked with runes. Which - sort of have meanings? They're kind of like 婷 - they have associated meanings, sort of, but that's not what they're usually for. But they come in a set, and the three platforms have approximately ABCDEF, GHIJKL, and MNOPQR around their edges. Around the bubble all six are missing and the indents are holes six inches deep; around the third, all six are present and the indents are full; around him, only one is empty.

Hmm. 

What are the full indents filled with?

He also has tongues, of course. Does the creature in the bubble have a language? 

They have small regular stones carved with the same runes, inset with crystal. They're turned slightly so you can't just pull them back out of the hole, but even from a distance it's pretty obvious it wouldn't be hard to turn them back; it's more like a child safety lock than a real lock.

The Havoc is... muttering? Whispering? But it's hard to make out the words, and it doesn't seem to be coherent. At least it isn't maddening gibberish, but that's the obvious analogy.

They don't look like the runes used by the giants of Jorvasten to empower themselves, ward their fortresses, and enslave their kin, and they don't seem to radiate dangerous magic either. (Well, not any more than the rest of the room.) The place is still making him tense.

At any rate, he's not going to disturb them. This place has Dangerous Forgotten Ruin written all over it. Possibly literally. His adventuring instincts may have rusted a bit in the last two hundred years of Earth life, but one lesson from decades of raiding rune giant strongholds that has not faded in the slightest is that you Do Not Touch The Unknown Runes Without A Damn Good Reason.

As for the imprisoned creature, if he can't seem to form a coherent thought into words in its language (?) even with tongues, he'll leave well enough alone for now.

He pokes the air above the pit and, if this does not trigger some horrendous trap, hops the ten-foot gap with ease and picks a corridor to explore. 

Oh, languages, plural. If he has the discernment through tongues he can tell that there's two different anatomies being represented among them, one more human and the other more bugbear-like, but that's probably hard since they're whispering.

No traps are in evidence. Whatever was supposed to trap something on his platform either never activated or burned out.

If he goes past the trapped thing, he'll find sliding doors, in smooth channels, mostly but not entirely closed. Through there are more corridors, which are smaller than the room he arrived in but built on the same scale - for something about human-sized, but on the larger end; it would be cramped for even a pretty small giant, and he could slither through in natural form but it wouldn't be pleasant.

Some of the doors have crystal runes next to them at about shoulder height, faintly glowing. Most of these are a rune that just means 'door,' and the few others are assorted adjectives. Others have an alcove which could hold something about head-sized, and these ones have divination magic.

The general magic aura of the whole everything continues basically unchanged. The air mostly isn't magic, but faint gusts of breeze come from the direction he's moving occasionally, and those bring the faint transmutation and universal again with them. If his ears are really good he'll notice that faint thumping like a trap door bouncing against the floor when it's dropped precedes each of these gusts by a couple seconds.

It's otherwise extremely quiet. He can probably go a couple minutes in this direction without hearing any signs of life. There's an occasional drip of falling moisture.

His hearing is excellent, yes. He continues heading towards the breeze; it might mean an exit. 

The thumps get louder and the gap between them and the breeze gets shorter. It opens up into other chambers, designed a lot like the first one but without anything like the containment bubbles.

There's one where one side of the room has a second level where the first twenty feet are made of a bunch of thin walls, slightly greener stone than the rest, all the same height and projecting out of the floor, and the other side has almost the same, except they're at all different heights and make up a long staircase. And another where the walls and ceiling open up, but the floor stays the same width as the corridors. To each side there's a pit, deep and dark enough that the bottom isn't visible. Looking up, the top of the shaft isn't clearly visible either. (This is true even if he has darkvision, if it's limited to the usual 120 feet.)

But if he keeps following the breeze, it just leads down the corridor. There will be some more noise, a few chambers down the way, when he's covered around half the distance to the thumping. Sounds a lot like the whispering ghost from before, but with even more voices, and more variation. There's another mostly-closed door, and it's coming from the other side.

That sure does look like it was designed by wizards. At least the geometry is behaving itself, unless they managed to fit a truly bottomless pit in that one room. (He hopes not. Bottomless pits are not a responsible architectural decision, no matter how annoying it is to haul refuse out of an unnecessarily large tower. They have an unfortunate tendency to implode.) 

This close to something that could be a threat, he casts freedom of movement on general principles. It'll last a good long while. He has other buffs, but they are shorter duration and he has a feeling this could turn out to be a very long day. 

How wide is the opening? He attempts to peer through to the other side.

The gap is most of a foot.

This room looks like a junction, probably. But more urgently, it's full of claw ghosts like the trapped one. Much smaller; these range from housecat to wolf in size, not dire bear. They vary in color, which seems to match size. The smallest are pure white, look the least agitated, and are the most numerous; there's six visible from here and it's probably not all. About a quarter are bright red, visibly agitated, and fox-sized; they seem angry, like caged predators, and there's a small aura of enchantment around them. And the largest - only looks like one, here - is blue with an aura of purple energy that looks like necromancy; unlike the little ones, it never stops moving, but it doesn't seem to be purposeful motion, just drifting around.

They float above the ground, but either they can't fly, or they really don't like doing so; none of them are hovering more than a few feet up.

Perhaps it's the Sense Motive, or perhaps it's just the extreme Dangerous Forgotten Ruin vibes of this place, but Ipaxalon cannot help feeling that they're going to attack him on sight.

As much as he enjoys a good tussle, these beings are not obviously evil, he's a trespasser in their apparent domain, and he's not sure he can subdue them nonlethally. It's best if this doesn't come to a fight. 

There's still a chance he's misjudging things, though. He backs up a bit and casts the first nine-tenths of an invisibility spell. He'll finish it the instant there's any sign of hostility. Then he slides into the room and attempts to say "Pardon me, I seem to be lost," in their human-ish language; failing that, English will have to do. 

They actually start paying attention before he speaks, when he starts casting.

The whispers all get angrier, the big one stops being aimless and moves toward him, the reds surge forward, and the little wisps all file into their wake.

(Words like 'mage', 'destroyer', 'prey', and 'cursed' show up enough to be a theme.)

And yes, as soon as there isn't a door in the way they attack. Big guy seems to be a caster.

Then he will turn invisible and attempt to circle around them with supernaturally fluid grace, until he can dart down a new passageway. 

The invisibility does not seem to hide him but they do act slightly more hesitant. He's faster, but not much; several of the red things will get within aura distance, and the caster will throw projectile spells at him.

(They're trying to en-rage him and slow him, respectively, but he may not notice the specifics because they are unaccustomed to the existence of spell resistance and do not succeed at all.)

If he doesn't do anything else, he'll get a couple clawings on his way and pass through the necromantic* aura before he gets clear. But unless those're nasty, he will get clear.

(*actually, also some divination?)

Even in this form, he's moderately difficult to hit, between the bracers of armor that work even against incorporeal attacks and his skill at dodging. He takes his scrapes and moves on. 

Once he's clear, he takes a few moments to heal the scratches with cure spells.

As he passes through the necromantic aura, his freedom of movement ends, and the Malice acquires a shiny new abjuration effect that looks very familiar to arcane sight. It doesn't get any faster, though, so he still pulls ahead of them, and after a while they give up and stop pursuing.

The next stretch of corridors has some octagonal insets on the walls that have some crystals in their centers and strong conjuration magic. They have swirling energy inside them that looks somewhat like the bane, and there's divination magic laid out in a wide arc around each of them, along the floor. They're spaced out about every thirty feet here, though the first and the third from where he enters have the magic missing, the crystals cracked and half-shattered, and no swirling energy visible.

Spell stealing. Usually rare, dangerous to casters. Mostly an inconvenience to him — all his spells are replaceable, none critical — but it's still fortunate it got one of the non-permanent spells. 

The conjuration effect makes sense if they're binding outsiders. Divination, less so. He'd have expected abjuration. Can he skirt the divination magic as he traverses the room? Earth has hostile diviners in the form of certain rare magical girls, so he's still under a precautionary mind blank, but it's best to be safe for now. 

If he's careful, he can definitely do that. It's pretty much just an alarm each.

There are more of those conjuration traps past this corridor, but they're thinner, in clusters about that dense but covering less of the other corridors. As he progresses it's becoming clear from the occasional thumps that whatever's producing the wind and noise is off to the right, and not very far to the right - maybe half again as far as the furthest wall he's seen in that direction, at most.

Which is relevant because after a few of these trapped corridors, there's a decision. He can turn left along a clear corridor that then turns forward, or go forward into a comparatively cramped chamber that looks mazelike. Goes up and down several times, a few bridges over visible-bottom-less pits, and a lot more doors than most. Most notably, straight ahead, there's stairs down, and a gap straight ahead, with a particularly large door with two of the empty alcoves. And next to it, a partially mummified corpse and a large yellow glowing crystal in a runic shape from the same alphabet as before, of appropriate size to fit in the alcove.

Why are wizards like this. They might have items that let them fly for hours a day, but their servants probably don't. (The magic seems different here, but still.) 

He goes forward. It's fine, he can make a fog cloud and just walk across the gaps. 

Who leaves a mummified corpse in the middle of a main junction. 

...is the corpse Evil and/or powerfully magic?

Nope, it's the least magic thing here. Utterly ordinary nonmagical mummification without wrappings or anything. The robes are still recognizable as clothes, not that there's any recognizable insignia or inscriptions.

The crystal's unusually magic, though. Unsurprisingly.

It's probably not an undead guardian. He's not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. 

There are two empty alcoves the crystal could fit? Also, what school(s) of magic does it seem to have? Does the noise/breeze seem to be coming from behind the (presumably closed) door?

Crystal's got two signatures. One is basically the same as the walls and floors, but more concentrated. The other is universal and evocation, and it's pretty clearly reminiscent of an arcane mark. (Only mixed with light like an ever-burning lantern because this tradition of magic clearly does not believe in separating schools.) The alcoves have divination auras, and there's an obvious circular inset in the bottom of each which matches the size of the base of the crystal.

The breeze is definitely coming through the cracks of this door, though yes, it is closed. Actually, when he looks closer, he'll see that there are vertical stone bars sliding from the wall above and below into the door, so that to slide it open you'd need to break the stone bars reinforcing it. (At least one set from above and one from below.)

Could it really be as simple as "crystal go in hole"? Who leaves their keys just lying around? ...maybe this poor dead soul is who. One wonders what caused their demise, in that case, and how they ended up partially mummified. 

He probably could break the door down, or brute-force it with magic. But that might be construed as an act of vandalism if this place isn't as abandoned as it seems. 

He may as well first attempt to put the crystal in the nearest alcove, but he'll accomplish this task from forty feet away with a mage hand, because WIZARDS and RUNES. 

Half of the bars slide up/down and partially release both sides of the door. Now you only have to be tiny,* not gaseous, to slip through the gaps the breeze is coming through.

*Fine, technically, but who's counting.

...he levitates the crystal into the other alcove. Just in case that works. 

The bars slide back in when it leaves, and the other set do not slide out.

No thank you, he is not combing this entire fortress for another magic rock. It is time to get creative. 

He patiently casts a clairvoyance aimed about a thousand feet above his current position. 

Three thousand feet is enough to be well outside the fortress, but it's not as clear a view as you'd expect. The sensor is in the middle of a storm.

There's constant gale-force winds, irregularly gusting up to 'extreme even for hurricanes.' And there's some rain, but mostly there is dust. And rust. There are fragments of iron and bronze as powder and fragments everywhere you look, except the places they've been pulverized into plates, shields and armor battered into planks and walls of mixed metal.

Some places it looks like these battered walls of metal have been braced into covered camps that might hide people, but no people are immediately in evidence; the winds are too strong right now.

Looking straight down, there's thin enough dust and rust clouds to see the Oldwall snaking its way along the landscape. There's a section that looks damaged nearby, a piece of the outer wall hanging unnaturally and leaning on the rest.

Well, that's...deeply alarming. But he got what he wanted from the test. He finds a slightly less claustrophobic space to adopt his natural form.

Thanks to his vest of the shapechanger, a popular design among dragons who routinely interact with humanoids, some of his clothes and items meld into his natural form, leaving only an aura of transmutation and an array of passive benefits. A few remain worn on his person, however. 

Greater teleport, aiming for high enough that he won't be immediately slammed by hurricane-force winds. (He can handle hurricane-force winds, but why take the chance?) 

Now he is above the storm. It's one seriously ugly-looking storm. There's a hurricane, over five hundred miles across and only about half over land, spinning in place around some kind of fortress. A few enormous stone towers (dark stone, like the dungeon he was in) poke through the cloud cover, a ways to the southwest along the coast and maybe twice that far to the southeast. It seems to lose its force unnaturally fast along a wavy line not far north of here.

And that cloud cover is some of the ugliest you've ever seen. It's like someone ripped apart a hundred rusting scrapyards and tossed the remnants into the storm, and then it played keepaway with them rather than letting them fall to earth naturally.

Looking straight down, the clouds don't entirely block the sight of the Oldwall snaking its way along the landscape. It's big, and clearly stretches a long way east and west.

Heavens, what happened here? Not even the Font of Power unleashed devastation at such a scale. It looks like some kind of magically-induced catastrophe from the age of gods and titans. 

That fortress looks like the epicenter. Perhaps he can get some answers there. With an inward sigh, he sets out in that direction.

Ipaxalon hopes that the Pax Corps can carry on without him. They have a lot of training and contingencies, but his absence will still be a shock. And there's the worrying possibility of Netherling involvement, which could be a prelude to invasion.

If it were, though, it's a mystery why they would wait two hundred years instead of striking earlier. It doesn't seem likely they would take that long to make a move against him. Perhaps time does indeed pass relatively quickly in Earth's universe, and this influenced when the Netherlings arrived or chose to act? 

Alas, he has very little to go on. It's possible, perhaps even likely, that his unwilling travel was an unrelated fluke, and the Netherlings were not involved at all.

MEANWHILE

The ripples in the Aether caused by Ipaxalon's latest involuntary sojourn have the denizens of the Well in a frenzy of excitement. It's not often an Aetherskimmer is foolish enough to drag an entire magic system across the Aether, rather than adapting to the laws of their destination reality. Now it's happened twice in the same cluster.

There is wariness also, of course. Their agents in his previous world haven't succeeded in opening a breach in two hundred years of local time. Something is clearly amiss.

Nevertheless, this new opportunity is too delicious to pass up. They will send a variety of agents this time, with the usual arrangement: Those who succeed may partake. 

Three factions bid highest for the privilege. 

The Inhabitor prefers to scatter Its spores in search of hosts. It attempts to open a number of micro-breaches across Terratus, sending a handful of spores through each, and a single corporeal Reclaimer as well. They will seek places of power, where the mighty and the hungry may be found.

The Elder Shoals, among the most disciplined of the factions, choose the opposite path. They pool their energies and open a temporary breach for their vanguard in a relatively unpopulated region, modestly distant from where the Aetherskimmer landed. Securing territory in which to open a proper breach will be their first priority.

The Library of Fractures pens a single Sentence, a concentration of false reality so dense with power that it must be parsed into fragments before it can be insinuated, one lie at a time, into the weak places of the world. They go where they will. 

Sentinel Stand has been the home of the Regents of Stalwart for centuries. It has been besieged 44 times and repulsed 44 sieges. It is a matter of opinion whether the storm counts as the 45th, but so far it's holding out.

It hasn't stayed entirely immune to the Edict of Storms, and there are drifts of twisted metal against its outer walls and some impact craters where the metal has twisted upward, claw-like, around the edges and not been battered down to allow passage. But it looks strong, and the walls only broke in one or two places. (And in fact when he gets close enough he'll see it has faint traces of similar magic to the general abjuration on the Oldwalls. Not the same stone, this is more ordinary granite.)

The storm around it, on the other hand, is even stronger. It doesn't go up more than a few hundred feet before it dissolves into the main storm, but there is an utterly impassable wall of wind swirling just beyond the walls of the main castle. A cannon would struggle to shoot through it, let alone a catapult. Magic missile would probably work but you can really see the 'probably' on what's usually completely unerring. And that's not even considering the magic in it - the whole storm is a strong active spell effect (transmutation and universal), but the closer it gets to the center the stronger and more concentrated, and it's good and proper overwhelming here.

At the fort's gates and on its walls is an under-strength but dutiful guard in red cloth and well-made bronze armor, with heraldry bearing a symbol that looks somewhat like a snake twined around a sword. They're huddling against the wind, mostly, but when one of them does look up, they start yelling and panicking; several run for the inner keep from different directions.

Those poor people. That is an entirely reasonable and valid response to seeing an approaching dragon in the middle of...whatever this is. 

The storm makes it extremely difficult to approach the gates for a proper hail. He's genuinely unsure if he can do something about this, but it's worth a try. This calls for a freedom of movement first, though. 

He lands a good six hundred feet from the gate, braving the battering winds, and concentrates the whole of his will on control winds. The effect is strong enough to silence a tornado for six hundred forty feet around him, and by a mix of luck and magical might, he puts in enough power to handily overcome the workings of an epic archmage. 

The storm shudders.

It doesn't stop immediately. The stormwall between him and the keep wobbles, its course diverting inward and outward, and it seems like it might actually slack off.

The winds further out, for a good three hundred feet around him at least, do slack off, harsh winds blowing toward him and petering out rapidly.

But the stormwall holds. He has clearly hurt it, and it keeps wobbling somewhat. Nonetheless, it recovers, and does not fall.

(There are distant shouts of surprise and alarm from the area outside the stormwall which is now calm for the first time in a year.)

He won't try outright dispelling it without more context.

Hmm. He'd like to communicate before simply landing on the fortress, but there's a howling gale in the way.

Fortunately, he's had reason to yell at entire armies before.

His casting of mage's decree can reach up to sixteen miles, but he restrains it to a radius that covers merely the entire fortress. Then he says, to every awake creature within range, in whatever language is the most common among them:

Greetings from Ipaxalon, silver dragon of Jotenaugr, bearing no malice. I would speak with leaders. Fortress may indicate welcome by square of flags in courtyard.

And then he waits. 

It's a little hard to see what's going on in the fort, the stormwall makes it like looking through a raging waterfall, but there's motion.

There's also motion on this side of the stormwall, from two directions. The first to approach sneaks along the parapet of a badly-damaged wall that was probably part of the outer defenses of the fortress, looking out between the crenelations at the enormous beast-archon with trepidation. He's pretty stealthy, but he's used to having the constant noise and dust giving him cover, and also used to hiding from people whose senses are at most a little better than the normal human range, rather than an ancient dragon.

He's outfitted somewhat like the red-coated guards in the fortress, but his armor has seen much more recent use, his clothes are more camouflage than colored, and rather than red his insignia are dark brown.

Further away, and taking more time to ready themselves, a blonde woman in heavy iron armor over purple, and a small squad like her, are forming up in a square and marching toward the center of the still patch, spears and shields held ready.

A silver-scaled dragon, about thirty-five feet long from nose to tail with an even larger wingspan, awaits them patiently on the ground. There's a faint outline of cabochon sapphires on his brow, gem bracers like unmelting ice around his foreclaws, and bone anklets around his rear claws. Across his chest and along his back are strapped a couple of white leather bags with strange metallic bits. 

(They're actually two different kinds of highly overengineered zippered duffel bag.)

Then the scout will break the silence, standing carefully by a parapet and bowing as he speaks. He's probably thirty with greying hair and tanned skin that used to be pale, obviously a veteran soldier with weather-beaten features and scars to prove it. No weapons visible.

"Hello, Archon Ipaxalon," he says, clearly hesitant about the title, "Are you only looking to parley with the Regents? And on your own behalf, or others? I am Janos, captain of scouts for the Unbroken of the Blade Grave."

"I am unfamiliar with that title. Ipaxalon will suffice, for now." He recognizes that an "Archon" is not a kind of celestial, at least. "At present, I speak on my own behalf." And sometimes on behalf of thousands of friends and allies, a fact which is irrelevant because he will likely never see them again. He desperately hopes his people are safe. 

"I am from a distant land, and know very little of this one. I seek context and understanding. To this end, I intend to speak with the leadership of any faction that will agree to it, and with ordinary citizens of this realm besides. I can offer one-time healing of the sick and wounded in exchange."

Janos is currently the focus of aura sight (passive), arcane sight (passive), a number of redundant or irrelevant senses, and a discern lies from Ipaxalon's circlet (active, DC 20). 

(Those sufficiently skilled at controlling themselves can lie without the usual disturbances in their aura, and thus fool the spell, but unlike most Will-based spells, discern lies does not alert the target even if they succeed.) 

Janos has nothing magical about him except the dust from the storm, which is fading in magic like the dust did inside the Oldwalls. No alignment detected, which given his stated position (which is at least mostly true) probably means he's actually True Neutral.

"Far enough you haven't heard of Archons. Or... of Kyros the Overlord? -I don't have much time, his soldiers will be here soon. There's a camp near the eastern edge of this bubble of calm, visible from the air. We're still fighting to repel Kyros's invasion, and do our best for Stalwart's people, but as long as the First Regent and his line live, Kyros's Edict of Storms will stick around ruining us, and healing would be appreciated but starvation's our killer."

"Correct, I had heard of neither. Thank you, I intend to visit this camp to hear your side of the story. Kyros the Overlord is the mage responsible for this storm?"

(WIZARDS. Phenomenal arcane power, and they just can't keep it in their sleeves.)

"A mage? True enough, I suppose, in the same way this thing is a breeze. No one else can cast Edicts, even Archons can barely even come close. Normal mages can only imitate them. But yes, Kyros did this by magic."

"I see. I do not wish to endanger you, if it is indeed your foes that approach. Is there aught you would want me to urgently know, before I meet with them? Rest assured, I shall not act rashly after hearing only one side."

"If it comes to a fight, nothing short of death will keep them down; I've fought Iron Guard with half their guts split and spilling out. And they charged the walls for the last time less than an hour before the Edict hit. While they knew it was coming, and when. Either their 'great general' Graven Ashe, Archon of War, is a much bigger and dumber bastard than our spy reports ever gave him credit for, or they're fanatics to the point of suicide. And they're definitely zealots."

He glances to the side, where a drawbridge is being lowered.

"Best I depart. Just because Rumalan knows I'm around doesn't make it safe for her to know when. Until another time, Sir Ipaxalon."

"Heavens lift your soul, Janos of the Unbroken." 

He salutes and disappears behind the crenelations, sneaking off away from the approaching squad.

There are six of them, with the leader, the blonde woman, in the middle of the front row, and the only one without a helmet; she's also in more decorated armor, which is moderately enchanted and has purple smoke gently wafting from her shoulders like they're magical braziers, and has a greatsword instead of spear and shield. All of their armor is matching in appearance and similar in construction, mostly bare steel with dark blue and purple sheen on some pieces, and faceplates that appear skull-like. The shields are full-length, almost big enough to be pavises, and all decorated uniformly in rich purple with a black design that has been deliberately, identically defaced as if claws ripped through it. The shields, though not anything else, are faintly enchanted.

"Hail!", says the leader, "I am Iron Guard Rumalan, representative of General Graven Ashe, Archon of War, Kyros's instrument in the Blade Grave. Do I address Ipaxalon, and the architect of the storm's abatement here?"

"Hail and well met, Iron Guard Rumalan. I am he. I have indeed diminished the storm for a time, to better facilitate communication. I am newly come to these lands; I presently seek to orient to an unfamiliar context and to understand what has transpired here. I offer healing of the sick and wounded in exchange for non-secret information, shared without deceit."

Alignment of those present? Discern lies will be focused on Rumalan, on general principles rather than any particular suspicion. 

Lawful Evil for Rumalan and the two flanking her (she a bit more strongly), the ones behind them don't seem to be visible.

"There are no lands we know of that are not under Kyros's rule," (True, assuming you don't count that fort right there as enough to be a 'land,' which she mostly doesn't, or places that have been rendered uninhabitable by Kyros as outside Kyros's rule, which she definitely doesn't.) "though the School of Tides fled hoping to find another continent rather than fight for their homelands. Nor have I ever heard of such a large creature as yourself with intelligence. Or a beastman with half the manners." (Straightforwardly true.) "How did you come to be here in the Blade Grave? Or perhaps I should say, on Terratus?"

"By an accident of magical planar travel which, alas, I do not expect to recur in the near future. The kind of creature that I am is a silver dragon, though I am not particularly surprised that you have not encountered my like before; I might be the only one of my kind on the planet. 

"I have met humans before. I know little of Kyros, Terratus, beastmen, or the School of Tides. I would like to learn. I seek knowledge of the geography and history of Terratus, of its peoples and governance, and of the nature and origin of present conflicts, among other topics."

"Rufus, you're better read, tell him about the things everyone in the Tiers would know."

"Of course, commander," the man to her left says, pushing back his faceplate to reveal a black-haired, pug-nosed man, "Kyros the Overlord began his empire in the east of the continent," (true), "starting in what's now Year Zero," (false), "432 years ago now. Sometimes by diplomacy, sometimes by conquest, sometimes by attempting one or both, being betrayed, and levying an Edict against the oathbreakers." (true) "All known Archons in the world, except Occulted Jade if she's still alive, bow to Kyros and administer a region, army, organization, or more than one of the three; Kyros has few immutable laws, but the most important are the ones for delegating power, when sentence can or can't be passed, regulating magic and knowledge, and the promise that food and goods will be moved to where they are needed and no loyal subject shall starve. Terratus can be either the continent or the planet; the big moon is Terratus Grave. No sea expedition to find any other land has ever succeeded, and just about everyone considered Occulted Jade summoning her school and all its Tidecasters to go look for one to be a fool's errand, trying to save face by dying out of sight instead of standing with their neighbors and families in defense of the Tiers." (All true.) "Shall I clarify anything, or move on to other questions?"

"I have a few followup questions, yes. Has Kyros written or spoken about his motives for conquest? Where might I find a collection of his laws? Is it known how or when the Archons came to be?" 

"Archons come to be occasionally, most of them were probably ordinary men and women before, and they generally consider it an attack for anyone else to attempt to determine the specifics. Parts of the Great General's history are widely spoken of but he won't answer questions from even his legion about the details and so we don't ask." The implication 'and he absolutely would not lie to them, but they therefore don't know if they're true,' is probably not hard to pick up. It seems very sincere, and is all true as he knows it.

"All the histories are clear that the continent before Kyros, especially in the east, was ruled by cruel warlords, some of them near-Archons, and near-constant war; the Northern Kingdom where Graven Ashe's line and ours lived was well-ruled, but an exception, and still often at war with its neighbors. Rebellion against Kyros is rare and war between Archons likewise, either quickly finished or quickly crushed. And the law of sharing does its job. What's the words from the law of peace, um, 'Loyalty is freedom from hunger, hostility, and hopelessness,' I think that's right. And he's done it. If he had some other goal, well, he doesn't talk to his Archons much, let alone anyone else." (All true as far as he believes. At least in those exact words.)

History is littered with the failures of those who thought 'Conquer everything' was a workable solution to the problem of there being wars. He can't fault the motive, exactly, it's just that things rarely work out so neatly. And if this is what happens when a province rebels...

"Can you say more about Edicts and how they function? Are there well-known examples?"

"Oh, there's plenty. These days the Overlord writes one and delegates it to the Archon of Law, who hands it to one of his Fatebinders to deliver - though I think in the Bastard City he delivered one himself during the Conquest. Or he might just be able to crack half the city into ruin as a judgment on their profiteering on his own. Not counting that, there were four during the Conquest, I think? The Edict of Storms - I forget the wording - but it's something like 'Let the prideful who refuse to bow be ground down with their land and the so-called Unbroken be broken by the storm of our rage, until the last blade is broken or the line of the Regents ends.' Hit as bad as the stormwall across the whole of Stalwart for half an hour before it died down to - well, that," Rufus says, gesturing over at the stormy sky. "Setting-Sun, one of the cities along the coast, refused to join the Empire, and there was an Edict of Waves - the bedrock tilted to sea and a massive wave wiped the city off the map. The other three surrendered pretty quick after that. The Sages wouldn't bend to the Law of Forbidden Knowledge, so the Edict of Fire called a volcano up into their citadel and turned it into the Burning Library, and won't stop until... there was some specific forbidden archive Kyros demanded be removed."

"And the Edict of Stone," he says, scowling fiercely, "Was when that traitorous fuck Cairn, Archon of Stone, defected from the legion mid-Conquest, not even to Azure, but to the bloody savages who attacked them as much as us. Soil turned to stone and stone turned to tremors, and the land cracked open into canyons and turned him from a stone giant of a man to a massive near-living sculpture, and it won't let up until the Archon is properly dead. Anyway, they're always to a place, with a sentence, and a duration. Sometimes it's 'right now,' but usually it's until the problem is dealt with. There's some where it never is, there's a city in the east where everything falls apart and anything you try fails far too often, and no one's tried to resettle it in three centuries. Edict of Misfortune, I think. Some scholar would know details, probably."

Of all the trigger-happy petulant needlessly destructive wizard shit

On the plus side he gets to fight an evil empire 

Maybe routinely obliterating cities saves lives in expectation

It looks like Ipaxalon will be very busy for a while.

"What knowledge is considered forbidden? And can you say more about the Conquest?" 

Rufus looks at his commander, who shrugs. "The Conquest of the Tiers is the most recent, and probably the last, since there's nowhere else left - the Northern Empire, where the General killed the last Archon of War and then surrendered and became the new one, were the one before that, a century ago. This one's been complete for about a year, took about three years from when we knocked in the door of the Bastard Tier until everything either surrendered or had to be hit with an Edict. Unfortunately, the Overlord didn't see fit to let the Disfavored take care of it; he also sent the Adjudicator and his Fatebinders, which was entirely sensible, and the Scarlet Chorus, which is an abomination against discipline and all good sense just to exist, though at least their mad hordelings slowed down the Tiersmen with the sheer weight of their corpses. Why they recruit locals, and not even the soldiers, only Kyros knows, and only that madman the Voices of Nerat understands. 428, we took the trading city of the Bastard Tier, which wiped out the mercenary companies, most of whom the best that could be said is they usually stayed bought and had more discipline than the Chorus. Spread from there into northern Haven, there's a big town under the Sunset Spire and its waterfall that - was helpful. 429 hit southern Haven - they had no leadership to speak of - and most of the Free Cities, two got crushed by Edict and Archon and the rest surrendered. And Apex, who fought well, but surrendered as their casualties mounted up and ours didn't. Well, the Chorus's did, but unlike the Queen's Royal Army they didn't care. 430, we were all here in Stalwart, maybe half the legion, and it was a slow grind of a war, slowly pushing the Unbroken back. If they had anything half as good as the General's protection they'd have had a chance. But we got - pretty nearly here, at the gates of their capital, and besieged them, and it stalled until the Stormcaller got sent with the Edict. The Sages was mostly a Chorus operation, but I heard it was mostly a matter of spies, trying to catch out the Sages betraying the oaths of loyalty to Kyros they all pretty much knew were false from the start. And Azure turned a mess, but didn't start that way, or so I hear - breadbasket of the Tiers, ordinary enough campaign, making steady progress and little resistance from the local farmers except when the Chorus ran wild. But then Cairn showed his true bastard face, and it was a three-way war against savages who won't even stand and fight, and the farmland was getting torn up badly even before the Overlord decided on the Edict he wanted to punish the oathbreaker and his followers."

"I don't know too much about what's forbidden. Talk of gods is the one that comes up enough we need to watch out for it, I'm told that's true everywhere new to the Empire for a few generations. Anything out of the Oldwalls. I'm sure there's plenty else I don't hear about."

"Thank you. I'd like to summarize to make sure I understand. The Disfavored serve under General Graven Ashe, the Scarlet Chorus under the Voices of Nerat - also an Archon? - and the Fatebinders under the Adjudicator. They and some number of additional Archons, including Cairn, were sent to conquer the Tiers, and did so. During this Conquest, Kyros wrote several Edicts which were delivered verbally by Fatebinders to crush resistance or punish lawbreakers; one also condemned Cairn when he changed sides. The last holdouts here in Stalwart are - the Unbroken? - and those who serve the Regent and occupy yonder fortress, and the Disfavored here maintain the siege?"

War is always an Abyssal ordeal, but what an unholy mess this is.

"Nerat is the Archon of Secrets," he confirms, "And Tunon the Adjudicator is Archon of Law. The Archon of Song was involved as well, serving under Nerat. 'Delivered verbally' doesn't really do justice to it but it's not incorrect. Both the forces inside Sentinel Stand and the ones outside it are Unbroken, but they're sharply divided; the ones inside are too loyal to kill their master Herodin, and the ones outside hate Herodin more with every passing span for not taking his own life to spare his people. The rest is correct."

"Hypothetically, what do you expect would transpire if the Stormwall fell and Herodin lived?"

“He wouldn't live much longer," Rumalan says, "He still has Disfavored captives in there and we don't leave them behind." (This is technically true.) "There isn't anyone in the Blade Grave outside those walls who doesn't want him dead." (Hyperbole, but intended as truth.)

And if the fortress somehow manages to hold out despite this, they probably starve; and if Stalwart negotiates for independence, they don't get food from Kyros and they probably starve, since all the farmland for hundreds of miles has been scoured by the Edict. 

"I see. Do you happen to have a map of Terratus and the Tiers?" 

"We might have one of the Tiers at camp, but probably not a broad one." (False.) "The Oath Bound scout team, maybe. I'm sure the General does, back at Iron Hearth." (True.) She waves in vaguely the direction of where Ipaxalon teleported up, a little way east.

"This is all helpful context, thank you. I propose that I accompany you to camp, if it is near enough, to provide the offered healing and continue our conversation. I would appreciate a look at any map you are willing to share. I do hope to speak to General Graven Ashe once I am better oriented to the region, if he is amenable, but I suspect that will take longer to arrange." 

Well, she can't actually keep him out, not if his flight was real and it doesn't really seem like he could fake it... Unless it's all an illusion? But an illusion this good would be Archon work, probably, and then separately stopping part of the storm...

 "What kind of things can you heal? Most of our wounds heal themselves, and those that don't, usually need a specialist for healing magic to not cause lasting harm."

"At the moment, I am offering to heal nonlethal non-amputation injuries and cure infectious diseases. The kind of magic I would use does not, as a general rule, cause lasting harm unless the target is undead, a type of creature animated by necromantic magic." He already suspected they might be concerned about inviting strange dragons into their camp, so he clarifies, "I would also be happy to heal at a nearby location of your choice, if you are comfortable moving those who need treatment. If you have no need of either kind of healing, of course, then the point is moot."

"If an ordinary person has a bone that's broken and started to set in the wrong spot, will your healing re-set it properly? Disease cures would be appreciated, but the Sigil of Healing, where it's used, is inconsistent on bone and in cases typically only the Legion can survive are significantly worse about things like causing ingrown intestines when healing a local injury, rather than rearranging things back into the proper order before restoring working condition. Therefore the specialists. ...I don't think there are any present security issues with you entering the camp over overflying it, so we can return there now if you'd prefer. Please don't take that as an assumption for the future or for other camps."

Her squad stands slightly more flexibly, ready to turn and move.

"It depends how far along the healing has progressed, and in extremis one can re-break the bone and it will heal properly in the vast majority of cases. I don't know if your Sigils operate on the same principle as the symbol of healing that I would use, but mine provides a surge of positive energy that is generally quite good at putting organs into healthy configurations. Remove disease is not guaranteed to work on the first try, especially against particularly stubborn or magical diseases, but it works on most infections and I can make more than one attempt." He's not going to burn a heal on this, he may need the spells later, but he has a couple symbols of remove disease in his bag. 

He will acknowledge the one-time nature of this invitation and follow the squad at a walk when they set out. (The winds outside the Stormwall will obediently calm themselves at their approach. It sometimes takes him a couple attempts to get a control winds to stick, but as an innate ability he can put quite a lot of power into it. He gives no visible sign that this requires effort on his part.) 

En route, he will ask: "What would be considered common knowledge about magic in Terratus?"

"It all comes from Kyros or Archons, ultimately. Some bookish mages work out the basic sigils from studying the Archon directly, or sometimes their history later. It can't duplicate everything they do, but it does something like it, and - Rufus, can anyone learn sigil magic?"

"Anyone with the head for it, commander. Literate, good memory for the events and complex sigil diagrams that go with them."

"So, most people who are interested, at least. Not me, that's for sure."

"Interesting." It sounds much more like his brand of magic than Earth's did, at least in learnability. "From their history, you say? What sorts of things can mages commonly do, with sigils?"

At some point he should check if these people have souls, but he's not asking the Iron Guard. It might not be wise to risk introducing the likes of Kyros or the Voices of Nerat to the concept of necromancy.

"Pretty varied," Rufus says, "And if you get a dozen clever ones together it's hard to say what you can't do, those Sages left some crazy things in the Burning Library. As I've heard it, any reproducible effect, you need to keep events from the life of the sigil's Archon, appropriate to the effect, in mind as you draw it. Magic comes from Archons, even if it stays in the world after they die. I've seen... illusions, manipulating fire or creating it, same with ice and lightning, moving stone, strengthening the limbs or the skin, weakening bodies... whatever that is that the Chorus Blood Chanters do that causes frenzy and panic. I've never seen gusts of wind but I'm sure you could, unless there's never been an Archon of Wind to trace it from."

Everything he learns about the Scarlet Chorus makes them sound like some kind of horrifying Abyssal death cult. 

"Are there factors that limit how frequently one might use sigils? For instance, could a mage repeatedly move stone or cast lightning for hours at a time, and if not, what problems would they encounter if they tried?"

"I think they tire, but recover quickly."

"If they're not very good, lack of focus makes them make mistakes," Rufus says, "And that gets worse over minutes of battle or hours of work, like any craftsman's work."

"I've never seen it. But then our mages are very good. And barely-trained enemy mages getting all the life drained out of them in seconds, or swallowed in a bonfire, if they didn't have the control they thought they had, that I've seen."

It's probably not a good use of his time to try to learn this magic from scratch unless he's here a very long time. For now, though, there are more pressing problems, like all of the everything going on in this place. He'll stick to the basic practical knowledge for now, with liberal application of discern lies to whoever's speaking. He doesn't particularly expect them to lie, but that makes it all the more informative if they do.

He has a few more questions about the common-knowledge limits of magic before they arrive at camp. Ballpark power and range of a typical combat spell, whether the Blood Chanters seem to be doing some kind of ritual sacrifice, what feats the Archons have been publicly observed to perform which other mages could not match. 

They argue a bit about whether there's ritual sacrifice. They conclude that probably the sending a wave of new conscripts to die and then painting blood on the ones who live when they're inducted into the Chorus properly wasn't actually magic and that's the only time they've seen them deliberately do anything that involved killing their own people. One of the others suggests that's just because they don't keep slaves around to sacrifice, but Rumalan 's confident that Nerat would have them take slaves if it actually benefited his mages, he can't actually care about it. Anyway they've never seen anyone else do it, enemy or ally.

They're a little tighter lipped about range and power of sigil magic but it's pretty much all sounding short range, though you can get catapult-level artillery with preparation. Nerat's made of green flames and floating bronze, and he eats people. Their minds, their souls, who knows, the bodies are never seen again - the General would love to prove he's done it to the Disfavored, specifically to - someone important they won't describe, but they can't. Bleden Mark, Headsman of the Court of Tunon, can travel through shadows and no one's quite sure what else, or how far. Many miles, at least. The Triplets of Winter up north were all born stillborn and still aren't any warmer than that, and it's always winter in the Northern Empire now, except the parts set aside for the Disfavored's families.

Could they elaborate on the Triplets of Winter, that...does not sound like a natural phenomenon, but he's not clear on what events are supposed to have caused what, there.

"That might be a myth," Rufus says, "I'm pretty sure there's another Archon who had power as a child, because she's barely an adult now and her title isn't new, but it's not a common story about any others. And asking too much about how an Archon earned her title - or their mutual title - isn't wise. But Ranna, Nirabel, and Slayr are all ice-cold, they act like one person rather than three sisters half the time, and one of their holidays is about honoring their mother for dying of chills delivering them."

What an awful way to be born into power. Tragedies like that are not unheard of in sorcerer families, but still. 

He'll ponder what he's heard on the remainder of the trip to camp.

There's a camp! It's got several fortified compressed-metal 'tents', and walls, and a dozen more people visible. Most of them are outfitted the same as Rufus and the rest of Rumalan's squad; a few of them are in colorless linen, wearing metal collars and doing menial labor.

"Stadius fixed up yet, Ludovicus?"

"No, Guard Rumalan, still the messy fracture. We sent a messenger to the Oath Bound but haven't gotten a reply."

"They'll be a little busy. This is Ipaxalon, the one blocking the storm; he offered healing in trade, which isn't from the usual Sigil. Also curing diseases - Lysus still has that lingering lockjaw, and check if anyone else has something they could use help throwing off. Bring 'em over."

"Yes, commander!"

"Sir Ipaxalon, if you could join me there?", she says, indicating the largest lean-to.

Ipaxalon obliges.

"I notice your laborers do not wear the same uniforms as what I assume to be enlisted soldiers," he observes. "Under what arrangement are they employed?" 

"Prisoners of war we've kept as slaves. They're more fragile than us, but still useful even treated honorably," she says offhandedly, unconcerned.

"Stadius! Show me the bad leg, would you? This Ipaxalon says he can heal without the usual problems we need surgeons for."

Stadius is on a cot, and his armor is neatly piled on a camp table next to him, though his sword is still sheathed at his side and the large shield in reach. He pulls back the blanket, and indeed, his right leg looks pretty shattered, bare and with bone cutting through skin. There's no blood, and the skin's been washed - no dust, unlike the blanket and most other surfaces.

"Go ahead, sir, if you're offering."

Again with the slavery. Somehow he doubts this government will have a burgeoning abolitionist movement on the cusp of key political victories. 

Ipaxalon opens the pack fastened to his chest with a cantrip, and levitates out a small stainless steel plate on which is engraved a permanent symbol of healing. The burst of positive energy it provides is usually more than enough to bring a wounded ordinary human from the brink of death to full health, sans any missing limbs.

(He could use claws instead of magic to retrieve the symbol, but magic is both more convenient and, he suspects, more impressive. He doesn't plan to reveal too many of his capabilities to a group he may end up fighting, but it is also useful to be seen as powerful and competent when one is attempting to negotiate with those who primarily respect power and competence.) 

They have pretty good discipline, but the brief signs of surprise in their expressions still show.

And when the bones almost instantly withdraw into the skin and the skin heals over good as new, Stadius looks very surprised. He flexes the leg.

"Feels good as new, Commander Rumalan. Thank you, Sir Ipaxalon."

"It is my pleasure." And he means it. There's a strong possibility he'll be at war with these people within the month, but that doesn't make their suffering any less important. He will heal whoever they bring him.

There are only three people here with disease enough to be impairing them but they assume magic on offer is only limited by time to repeat it so five others follow them when Rumalan nods them in. They're all very thankful, and though they're probably thinking about how they'd fight him, they don't show those thoughts overtly.

Thinking about how they'd fight him is of course their prerogative. In the meantime, he is happy to casually outperform their expectations in a field that isn't even his specialty. 

...speaking of which, may he magically diagnose a few of them to improve his understanding of local diseases? He is careful to stress that this request is in no way tied to his offer of healing, that it does not have any effects other than identifying important traits of the disease in question for later study, that any individual may refuse for any reason or no reason at all, and that he will not take offense if they do. 

It's not that medical diagnosis is completely unheard of, but it's abnormal and thinking about it as there being diseases which are a separate thing that can be identified is pretty weird. And they're somewhat leery of anyone getting a magical look at how their bodies work. They'll all decline.

"Thank you for your assistance," Rumalan said, "I hope you can speak with the General some time soon."

"I expect so. Likely within the next day or two, if he is willing. I intend to speak first with the other factions here in the Blade Grave, thereby to obtain as complete a picture as possible of the situation here. I intend to make them the same offer I made you, of healing in exchange for information.

"I am doing this because - in addition to wanting to heal people for their own sake - it would seem the current situation is an urgent crisis, and it is important to me to orient as rapidly as possible. I hope to resolve this crisis with a minimum of additional bloodshed and suffering, but it would be foolish in the extreme to meddle without consulting those who might be harmed thereby. 

"Is there anything else you would have me know before I speak with the Unbroken?" And is it a lie, that part's important too.

"There is a prisoner we are fairly sure has been in the inner keep since well before the Edict. Iron Guard Amelia. We know she is alive. If you parley with them, please ask to speak with her."

The only part of this that's a lie is the name.

Now why would they lie about that? It's something to bear in mind when he visits, at least.

"I will take that under advisement, thank you. Do please note, the abatement of the storm is temporary. I estimate it will only last another two hours without my active attention, and may resume suddenly thereafter." 

After polite farewells, Ipaxalon departs for the Unbroken camp.

And they will be waiting for him. This camp is larger, and rougher. It's tucked into the landscape (some of it existing hills, some of it the strange fused-metal spikes and curling 'waves') and wouldn't be easy to see approaching from the ground.

The women and (mostly) men here are wearing armor of thick cloth and bronze, not iron, and most have wrapped dull-brown turbans and scarf-veils, veils currently lowered in the calm air. Half of them are wearing roughly the same style as Janos, several of them with javelins on their back or close to hand; the rest, like the ones guarding entrances, are armored more heavily, and with shields, though not as much the legion of walking fortresses look the Disfavored seem to give off. Everything they wear looks weather-beaten; a few things that seem new and undamaged still look beaten, blending in with their surroundings.

They have a beaten-metal table and chairs set up, and Janos, a woman, and another man are waiting, talking quietly, and watching the sky for his arrival.

He is extremely easy to spot, and once again the winds calm at his approach. He glides in gently, checking alignments on general principles when he lands. 

"Sir Ipaxalon," Janos said, "My fellow captain Rodica, and Lieutenant Velkan. I'd rather introduce you to Captain Mattias, the overall commander of the loyal Unbroken, but he's further out. No one's alive with urgent injuries, but if you'd rather heal first and talk later, as you prefer."

He's not going to take their information and leave without healing, but they don't necessarily know that. He offers to heal first. It has the added advantage of buying goodwill, and they can talk while he works. He offers the same explanation of his healing that he offered the Disfavored. 

They're grateful for it, and will show him around to the couple dozen people in the camp, most of whom have some wounds that are closing, unhealthy-looking scars not totally healed (multiple have scars stained with verdigris or rust orange), or bad legs or arms from a more serious wound. One has chemical burns in a scar all down his right shoulder. ("Had to switch shield arms for that, cookfire blew in and the arm's been slow ever since.") One man has a poorly-healed gut wound and is unable to easily rise to see Ipaxalon.

Few of them have alignment; Velkan is Lawful Evil and Rodica is Lawful Neutral, one of the other guards is Neutral Evil, and the man with the chemical burns is Lawful Neutral. Rodica has a faint abjuration-universal aura from her shield, which has snakes inscribed in the curves of the spiral pattern most of the round shields the Unbroken carry.

Several symbols later, the wounds and infections are gone as if they'd never been. The chemical burns recede; they still scar a bit, but the arm's working better now.

Healing is gratifying, especially since Ipaxalon suspects doing right by these people is going to be much more complicated in the future. 

Once the last wounded are treated, he nods to Rodica. "Captain. I would be grateful for your summary of the situation here and what led to it. You would not be far wrong to assume I have only as much context as a traveler from a land far enough from this one to have never heard of Kyros the Overlord."

"Five years ago, the Tiers were the last independent part of Terratus. The Younger Realms, founded four and a half centuries ago, and we've been squabbling ever since. Stalwart is the oldest - 810 by the Sage's Ancient Reckoning - but not by more than a dozen years. West of here is Haven, just north is the Contested Lands, past that is - was - Azure, and between those was Apex. Along the south coast are the Free Cities, which broke loose of Haven about a century ago and hollowed it out, and Sunder, which was ours. The only permanent settlement in the Contested Lands is the Sages' castle, because we fought over it too often to leave villages. That's important mostly because you're going to ask 'why didn't we band together?' at some point - I damn well did, too late - and that history's most of the answer."

"The Sages played us to keep it that way," Janos says, "And I think Nerat, too, since the Northern Kingdom fell."

"I'd like to believe our foolishness wasn't our fault. But it was foolishness. And there's no excuse."

"An understandable regret."

Ipaxalon has many questions. About the nature of Edicts, about the Sages and what they studied, about relations between the Unbroken and the Regent's forces, about the diplomacy and formal declaration of war (if any) that led up to the invasion. He also asks many of the same questions he asked the Disfavored; often two biased perspectives are much more informative than one, and their points of agreement will be informative. 

Sages study quite a lot, from diplomacy to agronomy, but they're most known for translation, messenger birds, chronicling history, and their mages. There's not much in the way of Sigils where they don't have someone who can cast it. Or didn't; most of them died in the Edict of Fire. There's some around, as mercenaries or just doing field research because they're nerds. They also teach most nobility their letters and other tutoring, they're very good, if expensive, tutors. The Unbroken know less about magic than the Disfavored, but nothing will come up that contradicts what he heard before.

There were declarations of war, separate for everyone. Arrogant ones, more like "Kyros claims this land, kneel or die" than recognition of a war between realms. There'd been diplomats - Fatebinders of Tunon or Northern Kingdom nobility, mostly - in the decade or two before the Bastard Tier got invaded. They were probably spies looking for potential traitors, they didn't sway anyone and from what Janos and Rodica heard they didn't try very hard. (Nerat definitely had other spies.) During the invasion peace talks were offered, but only Haven (kind of a rump state, the money and power left with the Free Cities) accepted it peacefully, and only Apex (smallest) agreed to terms after fighting. The last three Free Cities surrendered unconditionally after Fatebinder Calio - one of the former diplomats - and Archon Cairn knocked Setting-Sun and Sunder into the sea. An Edict, from the Fatebinder.

Edicts are terrifying and unstoppable and that's most of what they know. Sages seem to have kept the Edict of Fire from completely turning their citadel into a volcano but it's still a volcano with a library-castle mixed into it.

Before the Edict of Storms, the Unbroken captains were selected by their men (with local conscription quotas usually filled by volunteers) but reported to the Regents, and ultimately the First Regent in Sentinel Stand. Since communication's been cut off, the regents outside it all got picked off by Kyros's forces (this is a lie), and those within it, Regents and Unbroken, are cowards shirking their duty, they've chosen leaders like Mattias by consensus of captains. Communication's hard enough it's mostly local anyway.

Specific questions?

He doesn't probe further on the outside regents; if they're covering for someone, that's their prerogative. He does note it, though. 

What do they know of the School of Tides and the beastmen? 

When and how did Kyros the Overlord begin his reign? (Ipaxalon is curious if the Disfavored apparently lying about Year Zero is mirrored here.) 

Were Kyros' laws ever communicated to the Tiers? If so, do they have an opinion on said laws? 

"Regent" would seem to imply a temporary arrangement. Are the Regents standing in for someone? 

What do they know about the actions of Cairn, Archon of Stone? What other Archons do they know of? 

Are they aware of any Sages that might be willing to speak with him?

What would they expect to happen if the Stormwall fell and the First Regent yet lived? 

If peace talks could be arranged, what priorities do they want represented as theirs? (This is carefully worded so as to not require them to lie about their priorities, if there are some they prefer to hold close to the chest.) 

What's considered common knowledge about magic in Terratus? (With similar questions as to the details.) 

What are the positions of the Tiers on slavery? 

Do they have a map they're willing to share?

Tidecasters were the other big school of mages. Waterworking and manipulating the moonlight - that's terrifying in a fight, drains your life straight to the one hitting you. They were pretty tied into the nobility along the coast, and did etiquette and navigation training for lots of people. Occulted Jade was one of the Five Wives who founded the Tiers back in the early years of Kyros - by the Overlord's calendar, they sailed west around minus fifty. Everyone was pretty surprised when she up and left, and took them all with her, rather than defend the Tiers. There were a dozen or two who stayed (true), but they fought in the Conquest and got killed (true), so there aren't any left (false).

Beastmen are weird. They're clearly smarter than animals, and cunning when they try, but at the same time they're incredibly stupid about anything civilized. Most of them in the Tiers were up in Azure, but they had tribes everywhere. Enslaving them is legal but usually stupid. Don't arm slaves, or take slaves who are permanently armed. Slavery's legal in Tiers law but it's not heritable, they have a fair amount of rights, and it's almost all done to settle debts - large numbers of rings in the hundreds of iron, or blood debts. A big fishing ship might have one slave, and he's basically like anyone else except most of his pay isn't his to keep.

Who knows, about Kyros? There were warlords in the east when the Fives Wives and Seven Husbands left, he was probably the winner. They didn't start hearing about him for a century or two, and mostly the Edicts.

Tunon's tried to tell everyone the laws but literacy isn't as high here as in the north, they will grudgingly admit that standardizing on a single script for the whole Tiers would have been smarter, if not using the Empire's script. They're different, and it's a violation of all custom and justice, but not awful for all that. The one about the overlord's name sure is full of himself, though.

It's been Regents for centuries. Nominally they're standing in for the two of the Seven Husbands from Stalwart who went back out to sea and didn't return, but Velkan's pretty sure that was made up later by the noble families and there's some other reason. (It will come up in passing that Janos and Rodica, though not Velkan, are distantly related to the Regent family.)

Cairn was an angry rotter. Seemed to hate everything and take it out on them. They hear his corpse is a hundred feet high now, he was only twenty then. There were rumors of the 'Wild Man of the Peaks' a couple decades back, probably the same guy, drafted by the Overlord. Walked through castle walls like piles of pebbles, but not Sentinel Stand, it's sterner stuff.

Besides the ones the Disfavored mentioned they know of Sirin, Archon of Song, she's with the Scarlet Chorus and controls minds. Janos heard she wears a locked headdress with a big gem in it, but he's not sure he believes it. Orphan Midwife, she's a good one, Sigil of Life is hers and she's been imprisoned for more than a century for letting her students spread it outside the Empire. Blood Ruin was the last Archon of War, more like Nerat than Ashe, and at least Ashe isn't him. Pox is the Archon of Ruin and plagued the whole Northern Kingdom last Conquest. Thousand Embers was born in Haven in Stalwart's year 60, he died in under a century but left a mercenary fire-mage guild in the Bastard Tier, the Chorus ate them up. Lightning, Entropy, Sorrows, Wounds, Fungus ("Really?" "Sage said so, swear on my shield."), Light, couple more Fire, Pestilence. Oh, and Runes, Mind Chisel, he's the first one anyone knows about because he invented writing a thousand years ago.

Mattias has a Sage handling messages, but most of them are out of the storm's area where they can send birds back and forth. Maybe look by the Oldwalls entrances, they like that stuff and the ones who're still resisting the Overlord are mostly the kind to try stupid things like find Oldwalls artifacts and use them blindly.

If the storm's still there and Stalwart's still suffering? Three-way fight, probably. Disfavored and the Unbroken captains both trying to break in and be the ones to hold the fortress when it's over, royal Unbroken fighting them off.

They want an independent Stalwart. There are only three Regents left (probably less) and they don't trust the First Regent, so they'd want a new government - they'd say militia elections like their captains now. Any other independent Tiers realms are bonuses. In principle Stalwart claims most of the Free Cities, but the only one it's picky about is Sunder.

No good maps here. Nor good knowledge of magic; they've heard of less than the Disfavored guy and disagree with each other about whether some things are possible. They're not ignorant but there's been a lot less military magic in their lives.

Interesting that they've heard of more Archons (or admit to it, at least) but less magic. 

(A plague Archon. What is this Kyros thinking.)

Can they explain the Five Wives and the Seven Husbands? That sounds relevant and he's not familiar with their history. 

He'd like to speak to Captain Mattias and the Sage at some point, is that something they might arrange?

"Well, yes, all the Archons - except the Orphan Midwife, maybe - are our enemies, to the Disfavored they're mostly strategic resources that might get brought in on the war," Rodica says, "But the stories spread far beyond their territories. Kyros doesn't care to stop it. He cares a lot about keeping control of the mages, especially the relatively new sigils like Life, Stone, that rage thing the Scarlet Chorus do, and iron-making."

The Five Wives and Seven Husbands are the founding mythology of the Tiers. The three officers vary in how much they believe it actually happened, roughly according to how close they are to nobility; Lieutenant Velkan says that the Tiers nobility, and such of them as remain, take it very seriously and trace their bloodlines to one of the Five Wives. Four, really; the Fifth, Occulted Jade, had few grandchildren and didn't found any of the noble lines, most of them stayed in her school.

In any case the story everyone tells is that there was war on the eastern peninsula, and a dozen small ships or more set out west across the open sea to find new land. Seven made it, with seven captains and five women of their families between them; there were others onboard, but they were the leaders. They landed, cleared settlements on the coast, and the Five Wives took charge of the towns and little hoe-farmed plots they had started while the Seven Husbands went back out to sea to check the fisheries. Few of them - maybe none - came back, so the Wives were in charge, and as the fishers got built up the next few generations, it became custom that, either in memory of that or (according to Velkan and the others can't actually argue the point effectively) in what would inspire the story, men rule at sea and women on land. By Tiers law men can't inherit or bequeath land, even a house in town, and women can't for boats or ships. You can own it, but if the gender's wrong, when you die it'll pass to your nearest relative whose gender permits it.

"If it's legend, it's one Occulted Jade never wanted to set us straight about," Janos says.

"Like that's saying much, the only thing more obscure than the Archon of Tides was an unruly Sage."

They'll definitely contact Captain Mattias and tell him. (False, actually.) But they're going to wait and argue before telling him how to go about finding him, no offense. (True.)

Hmm. That's an odd way of doing sexism, but given all of the everything here he's got other priorities. And why would they lie about contacting their leader? Perhaps they can't for some reason? He also quietly notes that this Occulted Jade would be centuries old if she was in fact present at the founding of the Tiers, but that doesn't seem impossible given the implied powers of Archons. 

"I intend to visit Sentinel Stand next, if they will see me. Is there anything else you would have me know before I do so?" 

Everything about Archons mentioned so far suggests that they don't age, and this is obvious enough to the locals it's not worth mentioning.

They look back and forth, at the question.

"We haven't had any dissenters defending his decision," Janos says, "Militia or remaining civilians. And if someone cared... they could have sabotaged us, without much favoring the invaders. If it's still Straydus Herodin with the title and throne, he probably thinks otherwise." (This is the truth as he sees it.) "I doubt it will sway him to be an honorable martyr if he didn't before," (True) "but better late, than having to kill him ourselves." (False.)

That is an almost ominous lack of disagreement implied, even assuming everyone who was initially sympathetic to the Regents stayed behind in Sentinel Stand. But a deeper investigation will have to wait until after his visit to the third side of this bloody conflict. "Thank you, Janos, I will keep that in mind."

Ipaxalon warns the Unbroken about the temporary nature of the calm winds, then takes his leave to overfly Sentinel Stand. Have they elected to indicate welcome by means of flags? 

Yep, men in dark red and bronze are waiting with four blank blue flags in a square.

He still can't easily make the absurd tornado around the walls halt outright, but he can go over it. He descends through the eye to land. If they had wind problems within the square before, they now don't. 

They had wind but only to a reasonable level, especially inside the walls. They still notice; the wind wall draws back from the walls slightly, and the air's actually calm.

"Greetings, Sir Ipaxalon. On behalf of the First Regent, welcome to Stalwart and Sentinel Stand."

"Thank you. I am from a place that is distant enough I hadn't heard of Kyros the Overlord or the Tiers before my recent arrival. I have thus far spoken with authorities among the Disfavored and the Unbroken outside these walls, but I may still lack important context. 

"For now, if you are amenable, I offer one-time magical healing and treatment of disease in exchange for non-secret information on a variety of topics, that I may orient more rapidly to the situation here." 

"I'll have someone ask, sir. We've been isolated, so I'm not sure we're in need, but the offer is certainly appreciated. Certainly First Regent Straydus would be pleased to speak with you regardless."

"I look forward to the conversation. I can adopt a more compact form, if it would be convenient to you." 

"It would be, yes. We, uh, weren't expecting someone so large." Or a Beastman Archon. Or whatever this is.

With no gesture nor incantation, he shrinks down to take the form of an extremely well-dressed and magical human. "Lead on." 

Archon stuff, yup. Archon of Turn Into A Giant Sky Lizard. Among other things. It is not this officer's job to deal with it. (He's probably a lieutenant, if the helm decoration that matches the one on Lt. Velkan's left shoulder is any indication.) It is merely his job to show the Didn't-Call-Himself-An-Archon Ipaxalon to the throne room.

There are: hallways. Torch sconces. Bronze decorations, whose general theme seems to be 'we are military people who don't do excessive decorations' somewhat spoiled by wanting to demonstrate that they could afford excessive decorations. Many are decorated shields or spears, not painted but patterned. 

All the stone of the castle has that same abjuration aura. As they approach the throne room some of the decorative tools of war on the walls have faint magic auras themselves. (Mostly evocation, transmutation, and/or abjuration, none of them more than two.) All of these have inscriptions below them giving names - from "The Spear of the Enache" (implicitly, the Enache are a family) to "The Tide's Requiem, the Iordanescu." (Likewise.) Some of the nonmagical ones do, too. Just outside the door is an inscription below empty wall, with a large-sword-shaped shadow showing its empty spot, labeled simply "The Dauntless."

"First Regent, sir!", the lieutenant announces at the doorway, "Sir Ipaxalon, the storm shaker!"

He follows quietly and notes the decor with interest. Seeing so many magical weapons, even weak ones, in a single place is fascinating after so many years of not seeing any magic items that he didn't make himself. Curious that the weapons are not being wielded; perhaps they are less rare than they seem, or less useful in defense than as symbols, or simply kept in place by long tradition.

Storm shaker, eh? He doesn't contest the impromptu title; it's as good a one as any. 

The old man - well, fifties, probably, but this is the Bronze Age - stands from his bronze throne. (Like the decorations, it's trying to not look too much like a throne. Badly. Just an bronze and wood chair with no gems or gold, on a raised dais, in a throne room, with intricate engravings.)

He doesn't bow, but he does nod respectfully to Ipaxalon as he enters.

"Greetings, Sir Ipaxalon. Your arrival is already cheering; we had not thought anything would penetrate the stormwall while I lived. Please, in the name of the Regents, be welcome."

"Greetings, First Regent, and thank you for your kind welcome." He nods as well. "I hope you will forgive me any indiscretions on matters of protocol; I hail from a distant land, and am only just introduced to your people and culture." And he has not cast cultural adaptation because, for the moment at least, adopting the mannerisms of Terratus would be misleading on that point. 

"The horrors that this war has evidently visited upon the people of Stalwart fill me with sadness, and I hope that a path to peace may yet be found. But it would be foolish of me to interfere without context. I seek your counsel, to better understand what has transpired here and how it might be resolved." 

"Certainly. I imagine you've gathered the generalities; Kyros is a greedy, proud tyrant, he invaded the Tiers, and when he reached Stalwart we resisted, as we have every other invader, for over a year. He grew frustrated at not being able to take our stronghold, and declared the Edict. Most of my Unbroken were left outside the walls, in the storm with our people, and I'm sure they continue to resist the Disfavored and Scarlet Chorus. But I can speak more about any of it, if you wish. Ah, if you'd prefer it, we could sit in my study to speak." He waves a hand toward a side door.

"Whichever is most convenient for you." 

Ipaxalon's set of questions for the First Regent are similar to those for the Unbroken outside the walls, pruned for immediate relevance. He asks about Stalwart's governance and the role of the Regents, relations with the rest of the Tiers now and before the invasion, positions on slavery, diplomatic communications from Kyros (if any), what they expect to happen if the storm suddenly abated, and their priorities for peace talks. 

"I'd also appreciate an opportunity to speak with your historians or recordkeepers about the history and magic of Terratus, or to any Sage interested in such a conversation, and to some of your citizens about their own lives and ambitions, but I do not expect this to be a bottleneck on the next steps." 

There are (were) two tiers of nobility in Stalwart - the three rich, inter-bred families of the Regents (Straydus, Aspison, and Sender), which Herodin says (dishonestly) were the founding families, and a dozen or two lesser families, most of whom are loosely related, as bastard branches (there's no derogatory sense to 'bastard' in this language, it's normalized) or milk-siblings, to Regent families. There was a Regent's Council that decided most realm-wide matters outside wartime, but the First Regent was military leader of the Unbroken Blades, and chose Captains and the Champion of Stalwart, and gave the great relics and sometimes the lesser ones to the Unbroken to use. There's no one left for the Council now; every other Regent potentially alive at the time of the Edict was missing in action, presumed dead.

Slavery is basically the same story as outside. He represents that he is not willing to compromise on Stalwart's independence. Their traditions are who they are. They expect to be attacked again if the storm falls, but they held off anything but an Archon before and they'll do it again.

"Kyros sent envoys a few times in the last few decades. Spies, I think, but we couldn't honorably refuse them entirely. I wasn't First Regent during the war first reached us - that was my mother Straydus Sarinna, and then our cousin Aspison Veaceslas - but he did offer terms of submission. When they reached the edge of the tier, and then when Aspison and I inherited. All Regents and most family heads go in hostage exile in his Eastern court, accede to his law, surrender the great relics. But Mother refused to be the first of Stalwart's Regents to bow to an invader or surrender territory" (True) "and I will not dishonor her memory or our ancestors by doing otherwise." (False.)

"We don't keep any grand archives; we've always been a practical realm, not much inclined to writing or sigils. Some of the annals and law precedents might be of interest, I suppose. You'd have to ask the Vellum Citadel for anything with detail."

"Thank you." He pauses contemplatively. The most likely reason for that last statement to register as a lie is that Straydus is indeed willing to submit. He can hardly be blamed for that; it certainly looks like a losing war. But that's only one possibility. 

"Aside from the storm, what do you see as the main barriers to reuniting the Unbroken? If the Dishonored were to retreat, what problems would be most pressing?" Let's see if Straydus brings up the linnorm on the peak, namely that most of the Unbroken are after his head. Also food, that seems important. 

"A number of Unbroken captains refused my authority after I retreated to the Stand and my son died leading their loyal fellows. I don't know how those and the loyalists fared in the storm, or how the 'storms of his Rage' have affected the farmers and fishing. He targeted the Unbroken by name, but we have always made our soldiers and our citizens much the same. And I am sure Kyros intended it, to divide us. I do not know what form repairing that trust and honor will take."

The Unbroken seemed to think the First Regent's son was alive. But before that... "Do you know the exact wording of the Edict? Did the captains say why they refused?" 

"Yes, a scribe wrote it down. Not that anyone within five leagues missed hearing the words. I should have it here..."

The single guard (with a face-concealing helm, not common in those he's seen) who followed them into the study coughs and points.

"Ah, yes. Here."

"Those who, in pride and arrogance, stand against the peace and order of Our Empire shall be ground beneath the stones of their land. Let those who call themselves Unbroken, who embrace the chaos of war in defiance of Our Order, be broken in the storms of Our Rage. Let Our storm rage until the last blade be broken, or the line of Regents fall."

"The only captain willing to defy me to my face called me a coward. For not commanding in person, after better warriors than I had died by the dozen losing field battles against the cursed Disfavored."

"This, then is the situation as I see it. Without provocation, Kyros the Overlord invaded the Tiers in a war of conquest. Edicts of Kyros, delivered by Fatebinders, have slaughtered entire cities. This speaks of an attitude that is determined to rule each part of the continent or else see it destroyed. 

"I infer that ending the current Edict, and defeating the Disfavored, would not by itself be sufficient to end this war. If armies fail, Archons will come, or further Edicts might be leveled. Perhaps Kyros might be convinced to negotiate, but this seems unlikely absent a demonstration of overwhelming force. 

"These then would appear to be relevant strategic priorities for Stalwart: End the storm, unite the Unbroken, force the armies of Kyros to retreat from the Blade Grave, procure enough food and supplies for the people of Stalwart in the aftermath, and demonstrate sufficient martial power or diplomatic influence to forestall a future invasion. 

"Your thoughts?"

"Broadly correct, I think. To unite the Unbroken may be under-ambitious; it may be equally possible to gather remnants of what other realms have fallen. I know I heard of Royal Guard of Apex who did not surrender with their queen, and while I do not know the fate of Azure or the Free Cities, any or all of them might join together in the name of liberation when they did not for independence. And as holding them off with the blue flag rather than the bronze shield... I have some hopes that some Archons may be turned against Kyros. They are, however, faint."

"I am still new to this land, but I have seen enough to make it clear to me that Kyros must be stopped. It is conceivable I might be missing something of monumental importance that justifies the atrocities he apparently endorses, or makes them the lesser evil, but I strongly doubt it. 

"I intend to offer my aid to those who resist his rule. 

"Diplomacy has become something of a specialty of mine, and I find it nearly always worth attempting. Many needless conflicts can be forestalled thereby, many enemies made into allies. Where diplomacy fails, well..."

"Overwhelming force is also a specialty." 

Straydus smiles as well. "Certainly a wise approach. If you do not mind the question - where do you hail from, and whence come your abilities? Merely what I have heard and been told of so far is outlandish, even for Archons, and you do not describe yourself as such as did Occulted Jade."

"That is rather a long story. I do not think I am an Archon as you understand the term. Such magic as I have seen is different from that of Terratus. I originally hatched on... if I say 'another plane of existence', does that hold meaning for you?"

"Not in the slightest," he says cheerfully, "Abstracts aren't my area. If I still had a Sage here, I'd ask them, no idea if they would know."

"Then let's say I'm from a place that can only be reached by magic, and not by any amount of moving around the usual way, flying included. This is an oversimplification, but it's good enough for practical purposes. 

"I am also, importantly, not human. This form you see now is assumed for convenience, since I am normally too large to comfortably fit in human dwellings. I am a silver dragon; that is, a subspecies of dragon identifiable primarily by our silver scales." He gestures to his cloak to demonstrate. 

"As for my abilities, they arise primarily through the power of my soul to impose various effects on the world, and secondarily by virtue of my being a centuries-old dragon with a strong soul. I can cast spells using my homeworld's version of magic, craft magic items given time and material, and, as you have observed, exert certain influence over the weather." 

"Remarkable. I've certainly never heard of the like. More similar to Archons than anything else, but not very much similar.  To be sure I understand: items that are magic from the moment they leave the forge or loom or so on, before they see use? That's considered impossible, I believe."

"I've come to realize that what is impossible for one form of magic may be routine for another. Aside from testing, use is indeed not a prerequisite. The creation process typically takes magical skill more than mundane craft, so one can in principle turn a well-made sword into a magical one without the use of a forge, though it helps to be competent in both domains. Do items here typically acquire magic over time, then?" 

"Exclusively, yes. It's usually begun with something well-crafted, and some smiths and such have the knack of making future relics better than others, but nothing gains magic until it's been used well and gloriously, enough times that it remembers its deeds and repeats them. Usually that means a generation or two to hold a sharp edge and avoid patina and so on, and a few more to burst into flame or rally the hearts of those around it or other such showy feats. And it improves with age and further deeds, usually. Being used for truly magnificent heroism can see it done faster; they say the Azure Shield was merely a symbol of tradition for centuries until the Tarnished Flag Betrayal, when the champion held off the assassins with it and they left untouched, the truce-breakers all dead or fled."

It would be utterly delightful to be able to create an item of raise dead by simply doing a lot of resurrections while holding it. It's probably not that simple, though, alas. 

"Your magic certainly has a flair for the dramatic. Does the power of an Archon seem to grow similarly with grand deeds? Can one invoke the history of a powerful item via sigils as one would an Archon?" 

"I've never heard of it, but that might be. Though, hmm, there's a good deal more great relics than Archons, even if you only count the most powerful like the Dauntless and the Sage's Staff of Hours. Some of them may come from Archons? I'm afraid I don't know, nor how Archons change over time; we never heard much detail about anyone but Occulted Jade and the occasional short-lived local like Thousand Embers."

"I shall add it to the growing list of questions for when I finally meet a Sage.

"In the meantime, politics. I would offer my services as a neutral mediator with the Unbroken. It may seem difficult to negotiate under conditions of such deep resentment, and I expect no one will be fully satisfied, but perhaps a peaceful settlement can yet be reached."

Straydus sighs, but what thoughts are behind it he doesn't share. "I would be thankful for your assistance in this way, for both Stalwart and myself." (True.)

"Speaking in that capacity, then: The Unbroken I spoke with seemed under the impression that your son was still alive, although this could be due to outdated information. They also claimed that your deaths would likely end the storm, and though I infer that this would not be true if any other Regents survived, it seemed to be a major source of resentment that you chose otherwise." 

"I don't know how they'd have had that impression; he was alive when the siege began, but it was a good month before the Edict when he fell. Near Duskwatch, too. There were only three of us left to hear the Edict, and not him; Sender* Cami, Sender* Florin, and myself. They both half-died on the walls as the storm hit, and so did our only mage with the Life sigil, so they're long dead now. I'm the last of the Regent families," (True.) "but our traditions are Stalwart. The people who made our blades Unbroken would never forgive me for surrendering, so I will endure." (False.) "My own life barely enters into it." (True.)

*(A name, not a title.)

Hmmm. He wonders which part was a lie, the lack of forgiveness or the determination to endure.

"That may prove a sticking point for the captains. Under what circumstances might you be willing to consider abdicating?" 

"If there is no Edict resting as a threat above me," (true) "and Stalwart's people are in charge of themselves," (false) "then I could be persuaded." (True.)

"What might it look like for Stalwart's people to be in charge of themselves, in the sense you mean?"

"If the Unbroken captains think they can lead in peace, let them. If the natives of Stalwart - I imagine some have left, and would return - have some other tradition to revive and alter, I won't stand in the way. My duty to Stalwart is to keep our culture and its proudest accomplishments, of defense against every assailant, more than to my line of ancestors, and if they want the Regents removed along with the invaders, so be it."

"In that case, I may see a path forward to the Unbroken reaching accord. Perhaps a representative from one side might consent to negotiate on their behalf. I can convey diplomats across the stormwall, and pledge myself to their safety."

"I and mine will start no violence against them. If they cannot say the same, I will make no promise protecting them from their foolishness." (True.)

There's a loud, fast knock on the door, and the knocker doesn't wait.

"Regent, sir, it's- Ah?"

"This is a poor time, Prunea. But I know what you mean. Is she in any danger?"

"She insists she is not, sir. But as you said..."

"I will be there within the hour, at most. Leave us, please."

He gives a wan smile. "I prefer soldiers who follow orders strictly to ones who are too lax, but it can be frustrating," he says, "and I apologize for the interruption. There's nothing for you to concern yourself about, a purely internal frustration." (That last sentence is false.)

How concerning. He is in fact concerned. "If I am keeping you from some urgent matter, it is no trouble to delay our conversation. I had hoped to spend some time with other inhabitants of Sentinel Stand, to seek a variety of perspectives. And if someone is ill or afflicted, I would be happy to help. My healing abilities are rather...comprehensive, and I can often counter curses and magical ailments as well." 

Yeah he didn't really expect that to work even without knowing about the lie detection.

"She would not ask for it, and specifically discouraged me from interfering, as Prunea suggested, a suggestion I did not take. She knows better than I; it is merely an old man's prerogative to let worry quiver my belly anyway, despite my heart understanding she will be fine." (True.) "There is really nothing to worry about." (False.)

"I see. Let us continue discussing diplomacy, then. Have you received any messages from the forces of Kyros since the invasion began, besides the few envoys? Do you have a means of communicating with them, or with the Disfavored in particular?"

"Since the Edict we have had no means of communication with anyone at all outside the walls; even messenger birds sent upward would be driven into the ground by the storm before they could cross the storm-wall. The Fatebinder who proclaimed the Edict - one of the senior ones; Fatebinder of War, I think - gave the hinterland a warning, the few days before, but didn't actually offer one to us, nor a parley."

"In that case, I propose that a priority of mine should be to speak directly with General Graven Ashe. I do not expect to convince him to stand down, but perhaps some agreement can be reached regarding the conduct of war and the treatment of prisoners. The Disfavored, at least, seem disciplined enough to hold to such an agreement if the Unbroken do likewise. Establishing communication before a fight begins again in earnest may also prove valuable if a chance arises to turn him against Kyros." 

"Of the many, many just insults to be made of the Disfavored, poor discipline is certainly not one. And a faint hope of opportunity is better than none. In your place I think I would place attempts to contact remnants of other Tiers governments as more important - the Sages are too tricky to not have some plotting rebellion whatever happened, the Apex guard I mentioned, and Azure was holding on alright with that three-way war with Beastmen and Kyros before our Edict hit. But Ashe is... respectable, for an enemy. And easier to find."

(He's been slightly more tense since the messenger came in, and this part of the conversation's made that slightly worse still. All true, though.)

Ipaxalon notices the tension, but doesn't comment on it directly. "Understood. When time permits, I'd like to sit down with a map and someone familiar with the Tiers capitals to collect best guesses about where active resistance might be headquartered. Once I know where to aim, I can bring a small delegation by teleport." 

"Our map room is good, but certainly out of date. We weren't the first Edict, and Cairn reshaped more than a few places even before Kyros decided to send his own words to attack us. The Vellum Citadel would have the best ones, if they let you use them."

"I suppose I'll pay it a visit soon, then." Ugh. He is not looking forward to poking around an overgrown wizards' tower that's also a volcano. 

Other topics for discussion: Relative numbers of soldiers and mages available to each side. Anything that Sentinel Stand currently needs procured, or could offer prospective allies in the Tiers. Whether they have a preexisting notion of war crimes or international laws about the treatment of prisoners and civilians. (He's guessing no.) Anything else the First Regent considers important to establish early on.

If you got all the Sages together last he knew, you'd probably have a quarter as many mages as with Kyros's armies, by head; the handful of remaining Tidecasters and Wild Wrath would barely raise the count, but they'd still be more common than unaffiliated mages. As of the day Cairn breached the Gates of Judgment and attacked the Bastard Tier, with the Scarlet Chorus at a fairly low ebb, the total armies of the Tiers probably outnumbered theirs seven or eight to one. Most of the Overlord's were Chorus, too; ignore the untrained conscripts and it would have been twenty to one. When the Edict of Storms hit? It was just Stalwart and Azure outright holding out, and Last Harbor, Baris-in-Chains, and the Sages with combatants still willing to resist, and the Chorus was large; probably it was down to even odds, three to one if you ignore the conscripts. Over half of those were Unbroken Blades; three-way wars were rough on any army, and the rest of the holdouts were small. The Edict would have been nasty on the Disfavored and nastier on the Unbroken; they were fighting off a legiion attack minutes before the Fatebinder started reading.

They're good on supplies, over a year for the remaining garrison, but not so much they're willing to spare them until there's peace with the other Unbroken and the storm's broken. Many families have been extinguished leaving their heirlooms in the First Regent's hands, but loaning those out to those who don't know the history behind them would be... fraught. The Tiersmen will understand, and some will probably be willing to learn enough to honor their adopted ancestors. Also, if the Dauntless, Steadfast Insignia, or Helm of the First Regent is recovered, he'd trade many of the relics for them - weaker ones, almost nothing even matches up to the Helm, but strong enough, and in numbers. They would probably be in or near the Oldwalls near the Ocean Spire unless the storm blew them across the landscape. And if the Unbroken outside haven't already found them.

There aren't international laws but the Tiers does have strong cultural conventions about several things, including truces; a blue flag means at minimum you have to clearly refuse parley and give them the chance to retreat, you're allowed to retaliate against a truce-breaker but even that's shameful. And for treatment of prisoners; the kind of rules that assume anyone worth keeping prisoner rather than executing is noble enough to be worth ransoming, but don't bother to say so. Kyros's armies didn't respect them, on either count, and from what he heard, general feeling in the Tiers was that they forfeited the protections. There are no rules about who has to be taken prisoner, and other than respecting some semi-religious festival days civilians are permissible targets. Azure had some stronger customs about that, but didn't apply them to Stalwart because Stalwart didn't keep civilians out of the militia.

If they provide a description of the artifacts he mentioned, he can keep an eye out for them. 

It's concerning that Kyros's armies didn't respect a truce, although the existence of the Chorus makes him wonder if it was all them. Regardless, he'll keep that in mind when he goes to treat with Graven Ashe. 

He's aware that keeping prisoners rather than executing them can get expensive, and given the seemingly total nature of this conflict he can't even be sure it would do more good than harm. An agreement against torture might be reached with the Disfavored, though, if Stalwart is amenable? 

As he heard, Queen Vendrien Alanta of Apex was killed during a truce to negotiate surrender, in a duel, by a Fatebinder. Both the armies would have been there. The Vendrien queens had a well-earned reputation as insecure hotheads, but it's hard to imagine how that could happen while respecting the custom. There were other reports before that, both armies, but that was when the Tiers gave up on it.

He's not terribly opposed to banning torture, though it's the customary prescribed punishment for deliberate perfidy. (And serious treason, but that's not covered and he doesn't need to mention that. Nor that torture barely works to get a reaction from most important Choristers or any Disfavored anyway.)

Noted. (Exactly what happened with Alanta could be good to investigate later.)

Some societies use corporal punishment of some form or another for criminals; an interstate treaty on prisoners of war would apply more narrowly. It's mainly aimed at ensuring honorable and humane treatment of one's enemies. He'll see if the Disfavored will agree. 

"Speaking of prisoners, the Disfavored requested I inquire about a particular prisoner while I am here. They said the prisoner predates the Edict, and the name they gave was Iron Guard Amelia." 

"None of my people have done Amelia harm in at least the last year. That was... not entirely true when we first took her captive, but my son prevailed on us to order it stopped, and he was right. I do not believe any have ever violated that. I visit her regularly and she was in good health and considered herself comfortable as of the last visit. Iron Guard, hah. I'm sure she would be, if she wasn't going out of her way to avoid favoritism from her father, but her arms are an Iron Walker's. Perhaps he's promoted her in her absence. She'd be annoyed to hear it, I suspect."

"Oh, who is her father? The Disfavored didn't say." 

"Graven Ashe. What, did they think we didn't know?"

"I'm not sure what they thought. Perhaps they avoided saying anything on general principles. Might I speak with her? I don't consider myself obligated to insist, but it could prove beneficial to be able to honestly say I've seen her and she's well."

"I'm sorry, I can't allow that. I can ask her if there's anything she wants sent in her own hand? I'm reasonably sure we don't have anyone who knows the Northern writing even enough to know what she's putting on the parchment." (This seems to be true.)

"Yes, please. And please ask whether she'd prefer I avoid reading it myself, she should be made aware I have translation magic.

"That covers all I'd hoped to urgently discuss; if there's nothing else you are eager to address, I would ask to spend some time among your scholars and cartographers." 

"Certainly, you're welcome to what scholars we have remaining. I'll show you to them, and then speak to Amelia. If my conversations with her have taught me anything about her character, she'll prefer a short message, but may take some time composing it."

"Thank you."

There really are not many scholars to talk to, but they can show Ipaxalon some maps, and the legal archives - like some other things, this is mixed with story, and a number of things that mention precedents call back to sagas that read more like Homer than Herodotus as their justification. Very little comes in the form of new law, almost everything is 'properly interpreting' old law or saga, or, reading between the lines, occasionally a manufactured addition to a saga, 'discovered' at an appropriate time.

The maps are pretty good, though! Here, look.  Stalwart's the bottom of the map, the Tier and Oldwall along the northwest are the border. (The peninsula center south was Sunder. The strait cutting it off gave it its name, and the cluster of three islands was its site.) The large circular area is Azure, the smaller one with a Spire dead center is Vendrien's Well, that's all that Apex held for the last century, west of that is Haven, and up a Tier was the Bastard City and their mercenaries and merchants. They don't really have maps of the land further northeast, in what used to be the Northern Kingdom; some of the coast along the eastern to southern stretch, but any land trade went through the Bastard Tier.

This is extremely useful! Between the books and the scholars, he attempts to piece together a basic understanding of the history and law of the Tiers. (Their legal code does seem to be a bit of an unprincipled mess, but he has seen much, much worse.) 

Can they locate the place the Disfavored call Iron Hearth? 

Oh, yeah, that's easy, it's been right along the Tier's edge, where the Oldwalls dig into the earth and are part-ruined, since they started. There's a few plateaus off the main trade road, their reports said that the Earthshakers had made them larger and defensible from above as well as below. It's probably clear of the storm, not that they can tell.

Good to know. He'll continue soaking up context for a couple hours, unless he's interrupted before then. (He can also set a spell to copy one book into a blank one, if there are any they'd like duplicated and they've the material for it.)

They're mostly on scrolls rather than bound volumes, and they're not overflowing with parchment, but this one's the most common reference and the older copy's been weakening since they lost their last Sage to preserve it with sigilry. A new one would be nice.

Straydus will be back in under an hour, though not much under. He has a rolled parchment, unsealed.

"Sir Ipaxalon, I have the message. She is... in good spirits, and understanding of my disapproval of meeting in person at the moment. She did not object to you reading her missive, and asked me to thank you for calming the winds somewhat today; she had strained herself and found the partial break in the noise relaxing." (This is all true.)

He can tell there's something strange at work here—strained herself?—but declines to pry or comment for now. "Thank you. I am glad to have lifted her spirits, however indirectly. I will see the message safely delivered when I meet with General Graven Ashe. 

"Speaking of which, may I borrow a sizeable blue flag or cloth?" He can create one with magic, but he's conserving spells. "And is there aught else we should discuss before I go? Messages for possible allies in the Tiers, perhaps?" 

"By all means. One of the four we had in the courtyard can be yours. For others in the Tiers... That the remaining Regent is eager to negotiate at all, is as much concrete as I can say, six months isolated."

"Understandable, and thank you. Before I depart, is there anything else you can tell me of the powers and capabilities of Graven Ashe? Are there any in the Tiers you know or expect to have fought him personally, or seen him in battle?"

"I understand him to rarely fight personally, though he will lead from the front at times. He can break through almost any armor, blast lightning around him from that hammer of his, and heals extremely swiftly, when he's hurt at all. I think if he exerts himself, his legion around him gain a portion of that might, beyond what they have already. ...If Captain Janos lives, he'll likely have seen him, or have a scout who did. Ask at Duskwatch, I can't imagine the Unbroken outside our walls would still be organized if they've lost Duskwatch. Beyond Stalwart, no one I'd know to look for who survived the experience."

"Then I will be on my way, and return with news. Heavens lift your soul, First Regent, and the souls of your people." 

"Yours as well, Ipaxalon. Thank you."

Ipaxalon does read the missive before he leaves, because Straydus did not appear to be lying when he claimed she offered permission, and there might be something within that she wished him to know. 

Father,

I am well. I am not free, but none of us are, are we? I was hurt somewhat early in my stay, but nothing I have not healed from a dozen times in your service, and not since the Edict - earlier, even. I have been treated as an honored guest, if one behind bars and locks, for almost all of the span. I am allowed to walk around the keep as long as my Iron Walker's arms stay under watch, and Straydus has been as kind as caution permits. I agreed not to collect numbers of soldiers, nor provisions against the siege, inside the walls, as part of being free to move, and in any case it's likely changed little from your last reports. They have been honorable, and I think they will continue, so so will I.

I love you,
Amelia

He notes the vagueness of "hurt" and the possibility that a few lines might contain important subtext, but nothing here looks like a cry for outside help. It's concerning they didn't want him to meet her, and the lies in the previous conversation could have been about her, but he has other business, and needs more trust and leverage before he tries to unravel this. Something to ponder again under the effects of cultural adaptation, perhaps.

He stops by the courtyard to collect his borrowed flag, then bids farewell to the guards here and sets out for the Unbroken camp to update Janos and company. 

The camp's still where it was, and active, though Janos isn't in evidence. Some of the sentries look up and salute when they see him approaching, and Captain Rodica gets them to clear a space for him to land.

"Sir Ipaxalon! I take it you spoke to the Regent?"

"I did, and I have news.

"First, I have decided to support Stalwart against Kyros. It was overdetermined, really, since even the Overlord's own forces admit he invaded without much cause, is responsible for multiple genocidal Edicts, and apparently employs the appalling travesty that is the Scarlet Chorus. 

"Second, the First Regent expressed openness to negotiate the reunification of the Unbroken. Not necessarily under his rule, if the Edict can be ended and an alternative governance peacefully established. I am bound for Duskwatch, next, to communicate this offer, unless my information is outdated and I should look elsewhere." 

"That is... fantastic news, all of it. We're extremely grateful," Captain Rodica says, "And Duskwatch wouldn't be a bad place to look, especially if you still want a good map. They're besieged, but they're toward the edges of the storm, so we have birds going in and out with orders and reports, short range, and sometimes scouts. But it's not where Mattias will be; he'll be further south, one of the canyons that turned into a maze. Janos is on his way there, but I don't know if he'll have arrived; you move rather faster than anyone else."

That would perhaps explain why the earlier promise to contact Mattias parsed as a lie. Maybe they hadn't yet decided to send Janos or weren't confident in reaching him if they did. Ipaxalon will keep his musings to himself either way. 

"How difficult do you think it would be to spot Mattias from the air? Is he likely to be in imminent danger or on urgent business, such that I should prioritize locating him over delivering my news to Duskwatch and attempting to collect an envoy?"

"If the sky's clear... It might be easy. Or it might be no easier than usual, which around there is cursed hard. Depends a lot on which spot he's picked as his ground to hunt Disfavored in. The Furrows, probably easy. Trapper's Junction, there's a lot of the bronze spines, so depends if he's being cautious about the clear skies. Lupei's Tombs, no way you'd see him, that's practically tunnels. Sorry, that's probably not much help. He's been there long enough it's probably active fighting, but one he's picked. I'd probably go to Duskwatch, but you're very fast, maybe giving it a look's worth your time."

"I think I will check the area but not spend overlong searching, then, if you can describe the relevant landmarks for me. I also plan to treat with Graven Ashe, both to open diplomatic channels with the Disfavored and to sound them out for turning against Kyros if my presence proves decisive. From what I have heard of the Scarlet Chorus, I do not expect General Graven Ashe to make commitments on their behalf, but the Disfavored at least seem disciplined enough to hold to an agreement. I expect I'll do so after visiting Duskwatch, but if there's anything else you feel I should know about the Archons involved in this war before I meet with one, now is the time to share." 

"Landmarks, hmm. From the air, probably the first thing you'll see is the Titan's Ribcage..." She goes on to describe five or six more things, trying inexpertly to guess what they look like from above.

"Ashe was in our position once. The last general of the Northern Kingdom, leading his legion and turning guerilla when the capital fell. He drew out Blood Ruin, Archon of War, and killed him. Then Kyros brought three more, Pox and Nerat and... the Archon of Lightning, I think? And he saw he couldn't win and chose to kneel to protect his army and Northern culture as Archon of War. They're all, the Disfavored, descended from that army. Or at least they say so."

And by all accounts the Northern Kingdom is still extant, and Kyros does seem likely to be willing to threaten it with ruin to maintain Ashe's loyalty. Ashe himself may know more...something to consider. 

Do they have a sign or signal he should give at Duskwatch to indicate friendliness, or any reports they'd like him to communicate? 

The blue flag's always good, if he can carry one while flying. Once he can land, well, she's literate, and so is Captain Agathon, the fort commander, so she'll write a fast letter of introduction.

Excellent. He stows the letter in his chest-slung extradimensional backpack. The flag can go in there as well, actually, since he might wind up in an active combat zone before Duskwatch and doesn't want to send mixed signals. 

He thanks the Unbroken and takes his leave. Time to go looking for Mattias!

It's difficult. From a little before the Titan's Ribcage (a pattern of the bent spikes of corroded metal that show up everywhere in Stalwart-that-was that looks uncannily like an enormous ribcage), the ground's very broken, with gullies cut down into the stone by water or wind that look relatively new, a higher density of the corroded metal shaped into sheets, and general twisting of the ground into more of the third dimension than it usually occupies in a narrow space.

Fortunately(?), if he narrows it down by "there's active combat over there, let's take a look" he'll find that there's something happening in The Furrows. Brief inspection will find that there are Unbroken on the high ground, but they're cornered; one of the slopes up is fortified and three soldiers are holding off eight Chorusers, but on the other side, there's nothing built up, and despite the defensive and outnumbering the Scarlet Chorus on this slope, they are having trouble and probably already pulled back twice.

Chorus hordelings look marginally better than 'horrifying Abyssal death cult' but only marginally. They all have blood-red war paint, many of them as permanent tattoos, often with scarification to make the color stick. Most have rusty weapons and no armor to speak of, or just a tough boiled-leather helm and some makeshift bronze pauldrons or belly-plate. Each cluster has one or two in better gear, still makeshift but making up most of a suit of armor and a sword or spear in good condition, not just a dagger. Only half a dozen have armor that looks mostly made for them - four with full covering leather and distinctive side-to-side crests, one in spiked bronze armor and red silk, and what's probably the leader, also in bronze but bare-faced with long dark vertical stripes of war paint over his eyes, and what could be a saber if it didn't end in a wheel of spikes rather than a point.

The Unbroken make a sharp contrast, all of them about equally well-protected and well-armed, even the man they're deferring to, who's probably forty, with very dark hair (under the dust and grime) and pale skin. He's helping with first aid on one of his fallen as he talks to a woman, who nods and takes a coil of rope to another side of the bluff they're stuck on.

Is this storm literally generating iron? It has to be, that's way more metal than even an army usually carries. To think, a mage with access to matter creation on this scale, and he's using it to lay waste to a country because he wasn't conquering it fast enough. 

He has been told that the Scarlet Chorus (a) employs mind-altering effects and a literal mind controller, (b) press-gangs conquered civilians, and (c) spends troops like water. He really does not want to kill these people.

Protection from evil, because while he's really difficult to enchant, it could be truly catastrophic if someone managed to land one on him anyway. 

Time to find out how much nonlethal damage it takes to down their leader. (He's a monk; he does not really have to hold back to inflict nonlethal damage, and he can get in a lot of attacks on a diving pounce. He does plan to use his first strike to calibrate on his target's resilience.) 

That is a good question that no one has asked! They're kinda busy lately.

Here is - a fucked-up torture man. He does not try to dodge the claws; he tries to strike back instead. The first blow... mostly doesn't affect him, actually? He just grits his teeth a little and sneers. Not trying to kill him? What, you're going to make him hurt? He knows all about pain. Better than you, enormous sky lizard thing.

(Meanwhile everyone else around him except the other guy in good armor are panicking. They're not running away, but they are definitely scrambling backward. The women in the distinctive helms are being more chill about it but they're also backing away and making sure they have clear escape routes.)

Impressive, in a horrifying sort of way. There are minor tactical advantages to being hard to take alive, but Ipaxalon is getting a sense these are not the proximate cause of this man's apparent resistance to nonlethal damage. He is really going to hate the Scarlet Chorus with every fiber of his being, isn't he. 

Ipaxalon is very, very hard to hit. He is also, separately, hard to damage by mundane means. If the Chorister is not wielding a magical weapon, he is unlikely to even scratch the sky lizard. If he is wielding a magic weapon, well, uh. Being an ancient silver dragon with a Wisdom bonus to AC (i.e. a really good sense of which hits he can tank and how to disrupt, blunt, and redirect them) and bracers of armor, Ipaxalon would actually find it difficult to injure himself in a fight. 

...not all of the damage has to be nonlethal to knock someone out. Magical healing exists. Ipaxalon will break bones if need be.

His awful-looking sword-like object is very slightly magic but it doesn't seem to be enough to help, but he does get one strike in between the scales that penetrates enough to seriously hurt. The other armored man attacks with a spear and growls. "Fight, you useless idiots, if you don't want to be raw materials for the Voices!"

They're slightly more terrified by that prospect than by Ipaxalon and stop looking to flee, though they're still try to dart away as soon as they try to stab him, and also are completely ineffective. Two of the be-helmed women get closer and attack with paired swords, but this doesn't do much other than making him split his attention.

And it doesn't take long to knock down the bloody leader, and when he collapses everyone but the spearman and the dual-wielders breaks immediately.

Do the rank and file look to be enchanted?

"Surrender and be spared!" he bellows. It's not a mage's decree but it is still very loud.

This is clearly a case for saving whomever he can. He's holding back the aura-of-supernatural-scariness, because he doesn't actually want these people scattering, but he's plenty mundanely terrifying. He follows this up with a calm emotions on as many of the rank and file as it can cover. It's not quite as good as a magic circle against evil at suppressing hostile enchantments, but it works even better on mundane panic. "Let the Voices contend with mine, if they dare!"

The quartet of elites exchange glances and then scatter, more "running for cover" than "fleeing in panic." There's still a few doing the latter, but most of them drop and cower.

There's no enchantment visible, but the spearman shouts in rage as his allies flee and tries a desperate stab for Ipaxalon's eyes. And there's a brief flare of magic (divination and necromancy) around him when he does, though it doesn't look like he did anything to cause it, or indeed to show he's aware of it at all.

He doesn't try to hold concentration on the calm emotions for long, its main purpose was to give people a moment of lucidity in which to reevaluate their life choices. 

The spearman can now have his (mostly) undivided attention. Is he resistant to nonlethal damage? 

No, he's just tough and angry. And now unconscious. (The aura's still there.)

The Unbroken can probably handle the other eight on the fortified slope, now. "Unbroken, I stand with you. Please accept surrenders," he says over his shoulder. "Soldiers of Kyros, drop your weapons and do not flee." And he will cheerfully pounce on anyone disinclined to obey, starting with the elites. 

He will get the two Scarlet Furies who hit him with swords; the two who were further off with bows will probably manage to break line of sight and one might be hidden before he gets to her, they went in different directions. (And are pretty good at this; it seems like the stereotypical ranger weapons went on rangers despite the complete lack of shared culture to justify that. Weird.)

If he looks over to the eight who were attacking the other slope, they've been running since around when the Crimson Spear yelled at his guys. They don't have anyone actually well-armored but they do have two guys whose weapons are newish unrusted iron and who have bronze breastplates that basically fit. They're still leading in their retreat. The Unbroken on that side aren't pursuing.

The ones on this side are... not aggressively pursuing. But they do push down past the two fallen Choristers in proper armor, and one starts relieving the Spear of his. Another flips Jagged Remedy on his back and eyes him with his shortsword; if Ipaxalon wants him alive he's probably going to have to interrupt his pursuit to say so right now.

Honestly, those weapons make sense for people with the supernatural grace to wield two weapons efficiently and the strength to draw a bow. (The saber with a wheel of spikes, on the other hand...)

There is a high chance they can't convince the unconscious leader to abandon Kyros, don't have a good way to feed him, and have to kill him anyway. Whereas every other frightened Chorister who gets away is a probable victim that he might be able to rescue and rehabilitate. On the other hand, the leader might know things, and might also be subject to magic Ipaxalon can poke to figure out how to combat Chorus magic. And if any of the surrendering folk see the Unbroken stabbing the helpless, they may have second thoughts about surrendering.

Well. If he can see them, they can probably hear him. He banks to yell at the stabby one. "Leave them alive!" 

The armiger here is not just out for revenge in general, there's genuine hatred in his eyes. But the big scary flying lizard (1) is big and scary and (2) just wiped the floor with better warriors than they have in the whole Furrows and possibly all of the Blade Grave. He settles for stomping on Jagged Remedy's hands until his fingers snap. 

War is terrible for people even when they aren't fighting horrible Abyssal death cults. At least that seems to have worked for now and he can get back to corralling as many of the fleeing Choristers as he can reach before they've gone too far. He'll fly unconscious bodies back to the hill later, if need be. 

There were just under twenty total and he'll definitely get at least twelve surrenders and two unconscious leaders. Most of them, and even one of the Scarlet Furies, are planning to stay surrendered. (The others are trying to hide it but he's an ancient silver dragon and there is definitely no one on this continent better at sensing motives than him who isn't an Archon or the Overlord.)

But the smaller gang is scattering and he got briefly interrupted, so he can either get the fourth Fury or half of that gang before they get pretty much totally lost in the canyons and rust-and-patina spikes of the Furrows. Well, or 'neither' if he likes. Just not both. (Unless he has some more tricks up his currently-nonexistent sleeves.)

He has some tricks, but none it's worth spending here and now. He'll prioritize the rank and file.

Once the prisoners who can be gathered have been, Ipaxalon lands to address the Unbroken. "Greetings. I am called Ipaxalon; I am a silver dragon from a place far from Terratus. I support the people of the Tiers in resisting unjust conquest. I apologize for my earlier brusqueness, but it seemed prudent to prioritize speed given the circumstances. I can heal, if you have injured among you." 

"That... would be appreciated," says the woman who'd been leading the defenders, "Is Ivona still breathing?"

"Still fogging the bronze, ma'am, just barely."

"Her first then. Then the walking wounded, while I check with the Captain. And thank you, Sir Ipaxalon; it's been a while since we had a surprise break our way."

(Incidentally, the aura on the fallen Crimson Spear has dissipated.)

It sounds like he's found Mattias. He will heal Ivona with a symbol (which also incidentally handles his own shallow cut) and then anyone else who needs it. 

That will all go smoothly and by the time he's checked everyone here, the woman with the rope will call him over toward Mattias and the wounded he was assisting with.

"Sir Ipaxalon? Thank you for your aid; I'm Captain Mattias, in general command. Jagged Remedy and his gang have been pressing us much harder than the Disfavored in the area. What, ah, brings you here?"

"A magical accident brought me to this plane of existence," again, "and I spoke with the factions around Sentinel Stand before deciding to support those resisting Kyros. Your Unbroken sent Janos on foot to alert you to the initial contact; once I communicated my intent to ally, they suggested I search for you here. I appear to have found you before he did. 

"Relatedly, the First Regent offered to negotiate on the reunification of the Unbroken. He may be willing to step down, if the Edict can be ended and an alternative governance peacefully established. After resolving our business here, I plan to convey this news to Duskwatch and pick up an envoy to discuss terms." 

"Well, that's unexpected. All of it, really." He's reeling, though he's making a strong effort to maintain his composure. "I've thought about the beginning of a plan to break the stormwall, but breaking the Edict, no idea beyond the obvious."

"I plan to attempt it once I am confident that doing so will not immediately result in a needlessly bloody three-way fight for Sentinel Stand. I have a few ideas myself, though they mostly involve hard-to-predict interactions between my magic and that of Terratus. Your thoughts on the stormwall might be helpful, if you feel inclined to share them.

"I expect we'll both have a lot of orienting to do if we want to work together to stop Kyros, but I also expect that it can be done. If you have questions for me, I'll do my best to answer." 

"Well, you're certainly not thinking small. Even breaking Edicts without using their terms as they were given, well, the Sages I asked said it had probably never been done. And 'probably' only because Kyros would certainly kill anyone who succeeded, and suppress the knowledge as best he could, and they think they'd notice but they're not sure. I just thought we might be able to get a picked group through the wall if we could find the Steadfast Insignia; it's been centuries since anyone so much as retreated a step beside it, from morale or force. It was with Regent Aspison in the west when the Edict happened."

"It is not my intention to save the Tiers from conquest only to let Kyros creatively murder everyone within. If we want to defeat this Overlord for good, we will likely need to find some way to counter Edicts. Speaking to any surviving Sages I can find seems to be rapidly rising on the priority list. And this Regent Aspison, if they yet live. Do you know of a way to contact either?"

"I'm nearly certain Aspison is dead but I don't know whether he was alive when the Edict hit; we haven't found his body and don't know where to look. There's some Sages out there, probably looking for lost relics or something in the Oldwalls, and I've been hoping to entice them to helping. But messenger birds obviously don't work, so we're limited to those we find in person on foot." (True.) "The last group of Sages I spoke to didn't want to fight Kyros," (False) "and left, but many of them do, I'm sure there are some in Stalwart somewhere."  (True.) "I've never been a grand strategist, just a commander with a good eye for subordinates; I've just been trying to win this war, and then make it hard enough for Kyros to try again that he backs down for another century."

"Hm, noted. I don't think seeking Sages in the Oldwalls is a good use of my time today, but perhaps I can spare a few hours soon. If you know any names, of those who might be alive and friendly, that could help as well." With divination magic, specifically, not that he's inclined to show those cards just yet. 

"I have considerable experience in deterring conquest," adds the dragon who got a world peace named after him, "and will assist the people of Stalwart as best I can in this. Besides the prisoners, do you have any immediate problems which might benefit from my aid?" Also, has he seen any dead Unbroken. 

There are some dead, yes, only a half-dozen (all from today) and not yet laid out for burial.

"Duskwatch would know better. Let's see, I think Sage Renata is one of their Captains, so to speak, in the Contested - Burning - Lands. I definitely spoke to a Sage Garus traveling near the Tier Ridge, and he seemed on our side, but he would have to be a good liar to pass Iron Hearth if he is, so I'm not certain of him. Sage Dissonans was one of the ones who headed north, and I think he might be persuadable. We'd surely appreciate your help with the prisoners; the Scarlet Furies particularly we gave up trying to take prisoner months ago, one in five broke loose, and then killed more of ours on her way out than we had captive. This many ordinary gangers... I don't know what we'd do. We certainly don't have anywhere to keep them."

"I will not begrudge you the necessity of executing the prisoners if there's no feasible alternative, but I'd at least like to try to find one. By all accounts the Scarlet Chorus forcibly recruits civilians, and I hope to offer the captives a way out. I have the means to confirm honesty if they agree not to make you regret sparing them. I'm less confident in my ability to persuade the hardened soldiers, but they might at least be coaxed into revealing important knowledge." 

"They try to forcibly recruit soldiers, too. It doesn't often work."

"Well, Bastard City mercenaries."

"They barely counted. If we had territory where we could put farmers, it would be worth trying. But what can we do if they swear to forsake Kyros? Even people of Stalwart have only stayed to fight; most left. And then they're back in the Voices' reach. Forsworn or tortured, or both. I'd have to be pretty certain of them - and of Nerat not laying traps - to trust my men's lives to them as soldiers. Any craftswomen*, maybe. Or those born of Stalwart."

*(Culturally this is default gender and inclusive, not marked, related to the 'women own land' thing.)

"Can you keep them for a matter of hours? I can teleport, and can attempt to transport the willing to an allied or neutral settlement, if one can be found." Or in a demiplane, assuming the Astral Plane is still reachable from here like it was from Earth, but he really does not want it to leak to Kyros that he can make those. 

"We can," he says after a moment, "But finding a place they'd be concealed from Nerat might be difficult. He's found things we thought less than a hand's worth of people knew about, all of them well-trusted. I suppose you could dump them somewhere in the east; they'd be given to Kyros but not the Chorus, and I don't know his penalties for surrendering but they're probably better than Nerat."

Thank the Eldest for mind blank. "I suppose I ought expect no less from one called the Archon of Secrets. Are the whereabouts of this Nerat known, even generally?" 

"He is - they are? - usually in Cacophony, up in the Stone Sea, but some of his elite are his Eyes, and rumor says there's nothing inside their minds but Nerat snooping and puppeting. And there's a less common rumor, but I believe it, that not all his Eyes know what they are. So... could be any Chorus. Maybe."

Well, that's going to be a nightmare for managing prisoners of war. Ipaxalon takes a minute to ponder this. 

"I believe I may have a workaround, although it will take some time to set up. A little over two hours. 

"At present, my plans are as follows: Inspect the prisoners closely for signs of lingering magic, leave for several hours to make arrangements to hold them, return, individually heal and speak with the prisoners, vet them via my own methods, remit into your keeping those you will accept, contain those who seem containable by myself, and execute those who prefer execution to imprisonment or who seem infeasible to securely hold. 

"I would heal the prisoners sooner, but I do not wish to put more strain on your capacity to hold them than I must. I would also ask for a chance to speak briefly to your soldiers before I depart. During my absence, I will be some distance above your forces, likely concealed from your sight but able to intervene if there is an attack. Finally, I would ask to perform certain brief rituals on behalf of the deceased, once the matter of the prisoners has been settled and the risk of eavesdropping minimized. 

"Is there aught you would add to this, or questions you would ask of me, or obvious flaws which my lack of context on Terratus might expose?" 

Mattias looks at a few of those around him, trying to find any problems.

"Rituals for the dead?", Ivona suggests.

"Good point. I don't expect it will be a problem, but we've tried to keep traditional rites, including for burials. What's your intent with those?"

"I would ask you to delay burial for a few hours. There will be magic involved, which is why I recommend settling the prisoners first, denying Nerat a glimpse of the process on general principles. Among my intentions is to attempt to determine whether the creatures of Terratus possess souls, as do most creatures from my home plane. If they do, it should do them no harm."

"That - should be no issue." He may be restraining himself from a comment, but what it was isn't clear. "Then I think your plan is good."

Ipaxalon examines the unconscious and surrendered prisoners and their equipment one by one under arcane sight and (for thoroughness) enchantment sight. He concentrates briefly on each to detect spells and innate spell-like abilities (which Ipaxalon hopes includes "serve as a vessel for an Archon" but there's no guaranteeing that qualifies as spell-like) as well as lingering auras. He will attempt to puzzle out the function of the latter if he notices any; he's unfamiliar with this new style of magic, but that is not exactly a new experience for him.

There's a few weapons that have faint traces of universal magic - one of the Furies's bows, one of the other one's swords, and the Spear's spear, but none of the armor or shields. The ugly-looking spiked sword Jagged Remedy wielded is stronger - moderate enchantment, faint necromancy.

As for the people themselves, almost all of them are completely clean.

Unfortunately only almost. The Scarlet Fury who genuinely intended to surrender and stay surrendered has a strong aura of divination on her; not spellcasting, not an active spell, an item aura except bound to her. A slinger who was one of the first to run and, when that didn't work, first to surrender, is the same, but only a moderate aura.

Jagged Remedy has a strong aura of that kind, and also a faint divine spellcasting aura.

The Crimson Spear has no magic on him at all. Yep. Definitely.

A divine spellcasting aura is indicative of granted powers. If the source is Nerat, that puts Archons on par with demigods and raises his threat estimate of them significantly. There's no guarantee this works like it does at home, though. And the fact that mages can use magic derived from Archons seemingly without those Archons' knowledge or consent suggests that it doesn't.

Do the Unbroken have any mages willing to be examined for comparison? 

Meanwhile, Ipaxalon will take the time to study the magical signatures of the weapons in depth. He starts with the faint universal auras, as they seem likely to be easiest to grasp and might turn out to be nearly the same, then the more complicated auras on the weird sword. With enough points of comparison, he can maybe puzzle out what the "item" auras on the Choristers are doing as well. 

(Between the arcane sight and the centuries of Spellcraft experience, he probably can.) 

No mages available here. Sages and Tidecasters had a duopoly on it.

The faint auras look to be pretty much ordinary +1 weapons, though these are maybe more like +1/2. Any arrow in the bow will get more force, the sword will bite deeper through armor, and both of them will resist corrosion, rot, and other damage. It's definitely harder to parse than what he's used to; the enchantments look grown more than crafted, like vines on a trellis he can't see. But they're not complicated; it takes him five or ten times longer than usual but it's not really in doubt that he'll work it out.

Jagged Remedy's sword is harder. He'll notice that even mundanely, it's higher-quality; most arms and armor here is good quality for the Bronze Age but not more, and this is genuinely up to a 'masterwork' standard. It looks rusty, but that's superficial, it's not flaking off or impacting the structure. And the magic on it has the general shape from the other sword, but it also, when it is used to kill or downs a target with sheer pain, heals the wielder and drives them into a supernatural rage, moving faster and shrugging off damage.

With those examples, it becomes clear that the item-like effects on the two Choristers are partly like the 'grown' enchantments and partly like normal enchanting. And the divine reading on Remedy is a bit 'grown' as well.

Hmm. The "grown" elements seem like a match for what has been described to him as the process whereby items gain power as they're used. It's reminiscent of the way souls strengthen over time when exercised. Do items have the same effect here? Do legends? 

He double-checks with the Unbroken that his assessment of what the weapons do matches (or at least does not contradict) their own expectations. 

Then he attempts to figure out what the divination effects are doing. 

Yeah that sounds like what they'd expect. Arms start off just not getting worn down, then they get better at their job and then maybe something unusual beyond that. It takes a bit to find someone who saw Remedy kill someone and rage out, and survived to fight again, but they do, and no one's surprised it does that. He's that kind of bastard, and so is Nerat.

 The two divinations are clearly related. And seem like they're made by the same enchanter/caster. But the weaker one is entirely passive, probably a beacon. The stronger one isn't quite an active scrying sensor, but it seems to be ready to become one. It hooks up almost like an alarm, but that's the most 'organic' part, and it doesn't have any coherent trigger. He's seen enough to be able to observe it changing in time to counterspell, but he's probably not going to work this out without help.

...Unless he happens to have aura sight active, in which case the part where this legitimately-surrendering Scarlet Fury is as Chaotic and Evil as, oh, a lilitu, may be a hint.

Ipaxalon's list of permanent supernatural senses is almost double-digit. Aura sight is among them, yes. (Synthetic diamonds are the best.) 

Hm. Let us assume Nerat is currently possessing this prisoner. What does that likely imply?

Nerat cannot possess all Choristers, just those he's tagged. Perhaps the weaker divination effect lets him scry the target and the next one up allows full possession. 

If Ipaxalon takes any of the three divination-tagged prisoners to a demiplane, Nerat may learn about the fragment of Astral Plane that seems to be following Ipaxalon between worlds (or adjacent to all of them and merely inaccessible before now). This does not necessarily allow Nerat to figure out a way to attack Ipaxalon in a demiplane or remove prisoners therefrom, but it is generally unwise to bet that an archmage won't figure something out. 

The divination and necromancy effect Ipaxalon noticed on Jagged Remedy earlier might be a "look at me" trigger. A one-shot, now inactive? Why the necromancy? 

Nerat knows Ipaxalon can look at items and people and get a sense for their magical effects. He may have had sufficiently boosted senses or scrying options to eavesdrop on the healing and conversations held far from the prisoners. 

All of these are guesses, albeit modestly informed ones. 

Suppose Nerat is not possessing this Chorister. What else could cause that observation? The Chorister is especially powerful or has had an especially Chaotic and Evil impact on the world. (More so than Jagged Remedy?)

Nerat is aware of the detection magic and attempting to fool Ipaxalon into thinking he can tell when Nerat is possessing someone. (Unlikely.)

Ipaxalon's magic is outright malfunctioning, or he erred in examining the effects. (Also unlikely.)

The effect is not possession, but some form of gestalt hive mind involving many bodies and/or souls. (Plausible, and worth considering, but does not make many predictions which are different than possession.)

Something he hasn't thought of. (Plausible, given his newness to this world.) 

Ipaxalon will come away from this moderately confident he can tell when Nerat's actively inhabiting a body, weakly confident that Nerat can only observe through those he's previously tagged with a marker visible to Ipaxalon as divination, and weakly confident that Nerat cannot apply said marker without direct access to a creature. 

What to do with this information? 

Ideally, act upon it in a way that does not immediately betray that he is doing so, or else not act upon it at all just yet. 

Is it worth attempting to conceal from Nerat that he can examine magical effects? His consultation on the weapons took place away from the prisoners themselves, but Nerat could have a way to eavesdrop at a distance from a body he inhabits. Furthermore, Ipaxalon doesn't plan to bring someone he strongly suspects to be a potential mole into a demiplane. He could deal with the apparent officers separately, but that leaves the slinger. 

It is probably worth exposing the fact that he can screen Choristers for divination effects. He is likely to need to do so many times throughout this war and it's not worth trying to keep a secret indefinitely. He doesn't have to expose it right now, though. 

Ipaxalon approaches the surrendered Scarlet Fury. "Are you the ranking officer, among those currently conscious?" 

She blinks at him. Does this guy not know how the Chorus works?

"If you cut us all loose except Remedy, Misery, and my sister Skullmulcher, and I told the rest what to do, they'd all do it. If Skullmulcher disagreed with me, they'd probably split. That count by whatever fancy army standards they use in giant sky lizard land?"

Who names themselves Skullmulcher - he has in fact heard much worse, just not since leaving Jotenaugr. None of this bodes well for diplomacy, but Ipaxalon soldiers on.

"Close enough! I am called Ipaxalon. I want to - understand what motivates members of the Chorus, from conscripts to Nerat, to see what room there may be for negotiation. I want to be able to offer freedom from Nerat, to those who desire it, and an alternative to wasteful conflict for the remainder. Can you tell me more about yourself and your time in the Chorus?"

Oh don't worry, she didn't name herself Skullmulcher either.

"If anyone tells you they know what Nerat wants they're lying. Probably even if it's Nerat. He's crazy. But he's in charge, and he wins. Pretty sure you won't get any takers on avoiding 'wasteful conflict,' or anyone believing you about freedom, but hey, your lookout, not mine."

"Most of the conscripts? They don't want to die. They'd probably take serving Kyros some other way, but Tunon ain't hiring, Bleden Mark would gut you for suggesting it and laugh at you while you died, and Ashe only takes his fancy Northern ponces, except as slaves. You could go hunting for the Songbird, if you like your skin more than your mind, I guess. Probably wouldn't find her, neither. If the Chorus, or hell, Disfavored, comes knocking, nothing's gonna protect you but Kyros's Peace. So they join. You want to know what's going through their heads, you should ask Mulcher, I wasn't ever a conscript."

"Kyros's Peace?"

She blinks at him again. "Guess fancy sky lizard land's a long way away. Anyone who swears to Kyros - and he isn't bothering with grunts and peasants, so, to an Archon who's sworn to the Overlord - obeys his laws. And Kyros promises, hell, I don't remember the fancy words, that you won't starve, you won't be killed, you won't be left useless, as long as you follow the laws. And if someone interferes with that, Kyros - or, because he still isn't bothering, Tunon and his Fatebinders - will bring hell down on them. Or, well, usually just kill 'em. Nobody's allowed to kill Kyros's subjects but Kyros, unless he's given permission, like to an Archon to enforce their own justice within their army or province or whatever."

"A very long way," Ipaxalon agrees. "Could you point out the present Chorus members you have named?"

"The two in the fancy bronze armor are Jagged Remedy and Misery, Remedy's the one with a beard who never wears his helmet. Skullmulcher's in the leathers with the plume like mine, and the good bow. I'm Quiet Squall." (The magic sword was Skullmulcher's, the magic bow belonged to Squall.)

"Thank you. To your knowledge, do you, or they, have a way of contacting Nerat - or Kyros, for that matter - to convey a message? I understand he may be...unreliable...but I find it is nearly always worth the attempt to seek common ground even with one's apparent foes."

"...Probably not. The Voices are usually hands-off; send us out with a goal and a general location and wait. If you want to talk to Kyros, I think the only one around here who sends messages back and forth often is Tunon. Not that I'd know if Nerat did, I guess."

"Would you be willing to carry a letter to Nerat, if released, and could you confidently get it to him if so?" He wants to send one to Tunon as well, if not visit in person, but entrusting it to the keeping of Nerat seems foolish in the extreme. 

She starts to say something, stops, thinks, and then says, "Yeah, I could get it to him. Might take a while if the Disfavored don't let me past, but they usually don't mess with official business. And this counts, or close enough."

Ipaxalon's current guess is that either Nerat is engaged in a passive possession, not fully in control, or else quite shockingly good at pretending to be rank and file. Both are plausible, but the version of Ipaxalon that cannot sense Chaotic Evil Archons at forty paces is only slightly suspicious of possession, and that's who Ipaxalon is choosing to be right now.

"I think I can work with that. Although I cannot at this time make commitments on behalf of the Unbroken, I am presently looking for ways to hold Choristers without exposing their captors to undue risk. I moderately expect to succeed, but I will need to make some preparations for a few hours. I do assume at least some of your number would prefer imprisonment over death, given the option; please do correct me if you believe I am mistaken, as that would prompt me to reevaluate. In the meantime, is there anything that would make your captivity less burdensome?" 

"Most of 'em will, probably. Might regret it later, but that's later's problem. As long as you don't keep me in a box where I can't move I'll probably be fine, but it's not like I was ever fancy enough to be worth ransoming, I dunno what prisoner-keeping's like."

"Fraught, at times, but I hope to make it less so. I find all people worthy of preserving from suffering and death, regardless of how fancy they may seem, and that includes you, Quiet Squall. I do not believe it will be necessary to restrain you to that extreme. Thank you."

And now it's time to tell the Unbroken that he's ready to make arrangements for the prisoners. First, though, Ipaxalon will take Mattias aside and quietly alert him to the three suspected Eyes or potential Eyes. "I am tracking the very likely possibility that Nerat is already listening in on my conversations with the prisoners," he adds. "I am moderately confident, not certain, of several things: that I can detect the magic Nerat uses to prepare his Eyes, that I can defeat said magic with some difficulty, and that it would be unwise to hold potential Eyes alive if I cannot sever the connection. I suspect Nerat will be able to infer eventually that I can observe his magic, though it is possible he is presently unaware. I have thoughts on how to proceed from here, but would welcome yours first.

"I would also ask your leave to release the one called Quiet Squall to deliver a message - not because I particularly expect diplomacy with Nerat to work, but because there are things worth communicating even in situations of minimal trust and this is one way to demonstrate sincerity." And for another reason, but that's one he isn't planning to communicate at all.

"...He's never respected the blue flag, or parole, but it's not like three Furies getting out is much worse than two. If you think it's worthwhile, and that she'll go instead of harass us more, I'm not inclined to argue. Anyone else you think we should send off with her? And should we stay quiet about where you're planning to go, if the Voices might be overhearing?"

He's probably guessed that Ipaxalon has tested some of the magic, though unless he's a better liar than he looks he's not sure and doesn't think Ipaxalon is confident either.

"I won't go far, for my preparations, and afterwards I may be changing my intended destination anyway based on what I've learned here. There are a few things I'm refraining from discussing on the off chance they might be overheard, but that's not one of them.

"I might be tempted to try to conceal my detection abilities from Nerat for a time, but I think it is simply worth it to be able to openly screen Choristers for being potential Eyes. If you agree, then I think I will attempt to dispel the magic that I suspect ties them to Nerat, after my preparations are done. I only moderately expect to succeed, in this." 

"...Yes, I think he'll work it out soon enough you might as well go ahead. Mostly by reputation; he hasn't been the main opponent we've had since the Edict. Hmm. They probably can't repeat the tricks they did before, in the first war, driving mad men and beasts who had any sympathy. Not from a distance. And we - well, we won't open ourselves up to the other tricks again."

"I think I would like to hear more about what happened in the first war, and why you believe it is not repeatable?" 

"All the beasts we had laboring - never that much - would go mad if the Chorus mages came by, and there were a lot of fake defectors before we stopped accepting anyone without someone who could personally speak for them. Also a number of people killed themselves when they were approaching but I don't thank that was supernatural, and maybe not deliberate, the horror at what they might do was enough to overwhelm some civilians."

Yep, horrible Abyssal death cult makes war even more awful than it already is. What was the Earth idiom? Thanks, I hate it. 

"By 'beasts' you mean the 'beastmen' whom I understand to inhabit parts of the Tiers, not animals?"  

"Well, some of both, but mostly the Beastmen, and those were the dangerous ones."

And Ipaxalon does not see any beasts or beastmen with the Unbroken, so presumably this concern wouldn't apply.

"Would you like me to attempt to sever the connections now, or after my preparations? I lean towards the former, even if it does expose more of my capabilities a couple hours earlier."

"I don't think a few hours will make much difference, unless Bleden Mark happens to be speaking with Nerat today, and also cares. And I think those two are very different types of monster. Go with your judgment."

"Now, then." After alerting Matthias, Ipaxalon will take to the skies and conjure a screen of mist to hide his gestures, then attempt a dispel magic on Quiet Squall from a hundred feet away. 

Well, isn't that interesting, no one's tried this in ages. The Voices are made of sterner stuff than that, whoever you are. Better phone home, though, this newcomer will be a challenge...

Huh. They can't. And actually they've only just woken up and looked at Squall's memories and they're already exhausted. Well, that's not great. Our vengeance will be prolonged, enormous cretin!

It's not gone, but both magic aura and alignment aura just dropped in strength a tick.

Really? That doesn't usually happen. Well, as the saying goes, if some blaggha* works somewhat, you can always try more blaggha.

*n., Draconic, informal: "breath weapon"

Dispel magic.

Wobbles a little but doesn't change. Or, rather, it changes a little bit but ends in exactly the same state as it did after the last try.

He needs to be closer for the next attempt, about sixty feet. New cloud, and break enchantment.

Ow! That hurt! You woke me up and it hurt! ...Not enough to keep me awake, though, damn you.

It bites deeper into the remaining magic, but ultimately it doesn't go, everything still there stays.

Hm. Dispelling and cursebreaking are usually all-or-nothing. This magic does bear some resemblance to magical items, though, which are only suppressed by dispelling.

Traditionally one might try rather a lot of spells before concluding they don't work, but Ipaxalon may well end up needing to conserve his magic. Well, he can try dispelling the slinger, the unconscious spearman, and Jagged Remedy the same way, see if he has better luck there. (The spearman on general principles; Ipaxalon hasn't forgotten that flash of magic when he attacked.)