"Oh.  Well they're either dead or fired, then, I should fucking hope.  Salt Lord Kaliact was described to me, by someone I'd expect to know, as something like a pragmatist.  That tactic, whatever purpose it was for, clearly failed miserably at accomplishing it.

"...'the Gentle', my ass.

"Though I must admit to curiosity about whether any other attempt, such as by diplomatic envoy, was made to recover the children, before you attacked the port."

She does want the Grendelian perspective on this, though.  So she will place a call.

"Excuse me one moment."

Privacy screen!  

"Hello, Keth.  What can you tell me about one Garaigh 'the Gentle', lately of Apulus?"

"Threatened the Urizeni. Stupid move. They doubled down. Pretty sure he didn't make it, you're a bit late if you want to kill him again. Perfectly competent general, by all accounts, just did not at all understand that the Urizeni are not like other Imperials - or at least, not like the Brass Coast. Anything more specific you wanted? We're just in a holding pattern here."

"Just wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page about, to speak crudely, him deserving what he got.

"I was profoundly displeased to hear that he attempted to accomplish a military objective by threatening children, and hope that that is conclusively...

"Against policy."

"...look, I'm not going to lie to you about this. War is war. If you can capture a few kids and get their parents to surrender, have them stop killing your people from ambush, then, that's what you do.

If you want people to stop doing that, you're going to have to stipulate it specifically, because in general people like solutions where less of their people die."

"I would generally like war to not be a thing that happens.  But...yes, I suppose that was at best optimistic to expect from anyone on this planet."

She pinches the bridge of her nose, not that anyone can see.

"Well, I'll add 'making rules of war' to the pile of issues I need to handle.  Fucking hell, everywhere I look I find another problem.  The Druj, the vallorn, the absolutely - the ongoing guerilla conflicts - at least I've mostly fixed the Black Plateau, for real this time, but I have no idea why the hell the Varushkans did the thing that set it off and I'm sure I'm going to have to deal with that, and then there's figuring out how the hell spirits can be safely handled when some are literally made of hatred and communicate entirely in that emotion - I need at least three of me right now and I don't believe this universe supports time travel of the type that would allow me sufficient shenanigans with which to not be constantly harried by the situation no matter how many bodies I could theoretically have - "

She sighs, and slumps into a spot-conjured chair.

"One thing at a time."

"I'd also like war not to be a thing that happens, it's generally terribly wasteful and I'm not exactly fond of the sort of people who actively enjoy it. Unfortunately, getting there is generally held to involve a lot of war on the way through?

I suppose Ambition is meant to be good for the human soul, but even the Imperials don't expect their Paragons to fix every problem in the world at once. Is your fix to the Black Plateau safe to go out in? I think we should start traversing the area and relieving all the garrisons that are in various moderately unpleasant auras to shield themselves from it, if so - a lot of places are attuned to this Block here and if they could not be blanketed in Winter magic I'm sure they would feel a lot better for it.

If using your craft is acceptable for that, I'll get onto Mhendi and we can start right away."

"I'll have to keep running the same old playbook, then.  Darn.  I was hoping - wait, what the hell was I even hoping, that I could solve this with politics instead of confoam?  I can't politics worth a damn!

"But - gods, this isn't even ambition, it's - compassion, responsibility assumed by the power I've vested in myself...knowing just how much better for everyone things could be, and trying to find the way to that golden future.  Because people are dying as I speak, despite every effort I've pre-drafted to make things that aren't that happen instead of deadly death.  Especially permanent deadly death.  Whoever designed the orcish afterlife was a horrible, horrible person.  Because - it has permadeath, and - every soul matters.

"I'm certain I stopped the root cause of the province-wide hatred aura, but I haven't tracked down every last piece of obsidian that's been broken off to check that turning off the primary resonator and getting the hatred spirit to Not de-fuckened the secondary bits.  Still, the Black Plateau's for-sure shut down in a way that even a repeat of that stupid, senseless massacre couldn't undo without some seriously noticeable vandalism and wardbreaking that I would personally contest."

"Also, yes, the craft's at your disposal as far as transportation goes; I'll second it some messenger drones, actually; you mostly can't fuck anything up with those."

"I don't suppose we can get some of that non-lethal suppression foam, too? If we do have to restrain people who have got at the obsidian, well, the current policy is to shoot them on sight because there isn't a safe way of doing that."

"Yeah, that's absolutely doable; there should already be some drones on that duty.  I should probably check somewhere we know some cursed obsidian is..."

"Thank you, I think that's all we need at the moment. I'll let you know if anything else pressing happens, but for now I'll assume you're busy and we'll concentrate on spreading the good news about the Black Plateau, which should earn you some favour with the Salt Lord when you do have time for negotiations there."

"I don't think I'm busy with anything especially time-sensitive at the moment, just so you know.  Anyway.  Be safe out there."

Annd end call.

The expression on her face is best described as 'complicated exasperation' as she remembers why she made it to begin with.

"Good news, the Grendel don't dispute that that guy was an asshole.  Possibly-bad news, I am now highly motivated to stop every single military or paramilitary operation on this damn continent except maybe the one against the vallorn because everybody's been assholes to eachother.  I'd say war is hell, but hell doesn't involve hurting innocent civilians!  ...Where was I, anyway.  Hm hm, mm hm, hm mm," her hands shuffle unseen thoughts, "note to self, research local time travel or lack thereof if applicable, ...vallorn!"

She is triumphant over her own brain!

...On the other hand... "...Vallorn.  Is there anyone known to whom I should direct my inquiries on the subject, especially vis-a-vis ways to calm rampant magical effects in general and the safety of utilizing such techniques there in particular?"

"The Grendel just say what you want to hear, you know, you can't actually trust them?" 

"Don't touch the Vallorn without talking to the Navaar."

"They're kind of busy at the moment with the Broceliande expedition."

"Advisor on the Vallorn - that's Siân Eternal, right?" 

"No, it changed very recently, it's now Nathair Autumngale."

"Oh no, did Siân die? Her book is great."

"Might also be able to find someone who wasn't going on the expedition but knows their stuff at the library they just founded - Great Library of Hacynian, up in Hercynia."

"Or closer in, you could do worse than dropping in at Bronwen's Rest in Therunin, they're unlikely to have the expertise but they know everyone, they'll be better at pointing you in the right direction."

"I might not be able to trust the Grendel as a polity, no, but individual Grendel citizens can meet epistemic standards to make them trustworthy as sources on Grendel opinion.

"Probably would double-check if they said the sky was blue, mind," she only half lies - though she's unsure which half it is - "but this at least I'm confident in.  Anyway, that's a diversion from the whole," encompassing-gesture, "vallorn.  Y'all know anything else that's province-scale and critical to solve soonest?  Otherwise, I think I'd best get on that as soon as possible, given that some of the vallorn-touched are still conscious."

Right.  Map.  What sayest thou about travel times and such.

"Vallorn's officially the greatest spiritual threat to the Empire."

"The Thule gave up their living slaves, but it's not clear that their undead ones are all just animated bodies and no trapped soul."

"There's another war over the other side of the Empire with the Jotun, but it's pretty clean compared to anything with the Druj or Grendel in it."

"Asavea still has widespread slavery and there's about to be a big fight over the island with the ringleaders of their slavery cult on, it's kind of in hand but it's going to be messy."

"And the Iron Confederacy, nobody's doing anything about them because they're near enough to invade us."

"If you're not keen on kids dying regardless of the species, I think the Commonwealth are still in a war of extermination with the orcs on their continent, too."

Therunin is the territory on the near shore of that big awful lake, just a quick hop away in something like the flying machine. Broceliande is just behind that, going back into the heart of the Empire. Hercynia is several hundred miles further on and northwards.

Alright.  "Thank you, everyone."

Add those to her quest tracker...

"And I think I must be off.  I'll be heading to Therunin and then Broceliande, most likely.  If anyone has a burning desire to go on an adventure, speak up, I suppose."

"Do you have a vacancy for occasional provider of metaphysical explanations and common sense?" She thinks about adding, 'because you need a priest more than anyone here does' or 'because I can tell your net is going to be important and also if you keep moving like this full of holes', but they seem like unnecessary extra verbiage.

"I do believe I do, Ms. Willstone."

And that coincides with the arrival of her vehicle.

(If Evantia had said the latter comment, she would be glad to explain the way her network expands using the capacity built in as overflow.  If Evantia had said the former, she would have sighed exhaustedly.  But Evantia did neither, so neither did she.)

Evantia gesticulates vehemently at the crowd until they make space for the vehicle to land neatly. 

It's not that big, really, it hardly has more footprint than a car, but yes, there are probably quite a few excited wizards getting a bit too close.

"Our chariot awaits," she directs to Evantia.

Once they're in the air, though, and their course is set...

"So why'd you come?"

"Urizen has two kinds of priest. The Questor's duty is to ask the awkward question nobody else is asking, and the Illuminate's job is to connect nodes in the Net of the Heavens in order to strengthen it.

In both cases, chasing after someone as powerful and out of context as you is a sacred duty."

"    ."

"Of course it is, I would too, breathe, you can handle this it's technical."

She passes a hand over her face, wiping both the traces of humor and her anxious muttering away.

"Anything in particular you'd like to know, then?  Can't say I've heard of the Net of Heaven before."

"Oh, I'm sorry, was I meant to say that I was so charmed by your dashing presence that I was determined to be swept off my feet like some Dawnish maiden?"

This is, of course, delivered entirely deadpan, but there is certainly some deliberate ambiguity mixed in with the sarcasm.

"The Net of the Heavens is the connections between people - much like the stars are arranged in constellations. The Illuminate's duty is to find the brightest stars and connect them to each other, or shift them into the places they will be of most use - to themselves, to each other, to Urizen, and to the Empire.

I would like to know a great many things. Perhaps we should start by - do you have any plans or intentions, beyond sprinting across the continent attempting to fix every problem that comes to your attention?"

That gets her to laugh.  "No, I just expected, I don't know, an answer that wasn't only 'it's in my job description'?  Not to say that it's a bad answer!  Just that - there's not many people who take their jobs seriously enough to go gallivanting around the country on a moment's notice about it, statistically speaking?  I'm surprised.

"Though I suppose the demographics could support Questors and Illuminates itinerant, and - anyway, as fascinating as sociology is, it's not directly relevant to what's presently happening."

"Do I have, plans or intentions...Uh.  Not really?  I've been running on 'oh fuck, what's happening now' about the various...the Black Plateau, the Druj, the rampant slavery...oh, can't forget the town I arrived in...for the past...several...how long has it even been?

"...If I have to ask that question, 'too long'.  Okay.  Okay.

"I don't know; do you have any suggestions?"

"It sounds like we have a little travel time, so why don't we calm down, make a prioritised list, and see which things you can sensibly address immediately, and which things you should maybe take your plans to Anvil about and consult some Imperial title holders, before you discover you have made new and interesting problems.

The Empire has successfully integrated some ex-Druj, or at least their subject tribes - the Sand Fishers at Holberg, some of the remnants in Ossium - and you might want to learn some of the lessons there about the slow process of building trust and rebuilding Virtue that had to happen, much as - what is the logistical situation, anyway? You have so far seemed quite concerned with spiritual forces, but not, say, the difficulties of providing food and medical treatment for large populations of malnourished and often injured slaves in what is mostly a poisonous swamp."