He has some math for trying to narrow down guesses on approximate headcounts anyway, but it's - not very narrowed down. 

Vanaren's situation is concerning. Less so because the rebels probably aren't going to be ready for another battle anytime, and he probably has time to wait for accurate headcounts and then figure out whether to send reinforcements, which will be faster for this, the absolute numbers are just smaller. 

He really wants to know one way or another if they have a monk of a military religious order who can reliably be possessed by his god on the battlefield. Or something. But his options are 'interview a surviving Adept who claims to have seen the warrior, try to scry based on that' and 'Gate over to pastwatch the battlefield, scry based on that'. Both of which are going to be clearly stepping on Vanaren's toes, he probably does want to replace the man but not right now and he doesn't want to make their working relationship any more complicated in the meantime while he's busy, and neither of which is clearly justified. 

The window for pastwatching is nearly over. For normal Adepts. Altarrin can probably eke out another twelve hours, if he's willing to tire himself out more - tolerable if it ends up being worth doing at all - and start losing fidelity on mage-sight, which seems fine for this, godpossession isn't subtle. 

He'll have a copy the letter urgently conveyed to the Office of Inquiry, who may or may not be more likely than he is to recognize a foreign god (who Altarrin was almost certainly aware of in a different life but didn't prioritize reviewing those records) or a foreign militant order with very specific taste in written declarations of war. And if they don't have someone investigating the rebels' leadership, he wants them on that, capacity allowing. If that check came back with 'the rebels are led by a priest of this god Aroden who claims to be guided by divine visions' or something, he...will reevaluate then what that means. 

He keeps some of his own people on scrying, to get more accurate headcounts on the surviving rebel army as soon as possible, and goes back to his other work. 

The Office of Inquiry has never heard of Aroden either! They can check with the Office of Cults, which provide a few notes for possibilities, all of which are a huge stretch.

They are already investigating this rebellion but they are very busy. Their only summary is that they are apparently lead by a "Marshal Orestan" who nobody has ever heard of before, but they have no idea who or what he is when he isn't wearing the visible-via-scry dragon helmet. An increased budget would help them hire more people to do this sort of thing.

Kastil has made a breakthrough, and his latest update includes a possible culprit responsible for the sabotage.

The Jenonan noble house of southwestern Tolmassar has never held one of the major lordships of the Eastern Empire, instead playing a minor role as a font of local squires, regional officials, and supporters of projects launched by grander clans. Though near the border and close to divine influence, they at no point displayed any interest in worship of the gods, though Kastil's interviews suggest there may have been cultists in some of their villages, nor played any relevant role in imperial politics or, frankly, anything.

Until the latest generation. The past lord, Count Cenio, was a notable eccentric, author of a number of well-regarded translations, treatises on the philosophy of rule - overly idealistic drivel, largely - and treatises on education, on which Kastil has not been able to track down a copy. Cenio declared himself capable of raising any child to be a genius, and started with his thirty-eight (!) children (by twenty-five mothers, most peasant women, all of whom the Count specific chose for rare mental talents, magical abilities, or frank genius). Between disease, mental breakdowns, random chance and possible murders (Kastil's sources, not in Tolmassar because of the present civil war, report that the magistrate ruled it an accident), only twenty-four of the children made it to adulthood, but the siblings include four up-and-coming generals, an exceptionally popular author, the hostess of one of the most prestigious salons in the Imperial Capital, the number four person in the Ministry of the Treasury and someone doing research work on more efficient Gating that Altarrin might be able to understand but Kastil frankly could not.

They also include - or included - Jean of Jenona, one of the researchers on the project to develop the why-did-they-develop-it-in-the-first-place enchantment. An exceptionally talented long-range Mindspeaker but only a journeyman mage, and not a powerful journeyman at that, Jean was generally agreed to be quiet, personally charming, absolutely brilliant, and deeply invested in the welfare of the population of the Empire, carrying out various infrastructural and industrial projects on family lands at a young age before moving into the imperial bureaucracy, where he found himself assigned to magical research instead of his (widely agreed to be hoped-for) administrative post. Jean, however, had a mental breakdown after the death of his half-sister, an Adept in imperial service with whom he was very close who died six years ago shielding top imperial officials from an assassination attempt, and withdrew completely back to the family estate; he was reported dead of disease shortly afterwards, and no one has seen him since.

Except for one of the people who Kastil had interrogated, an enchanter on one of the accursed factories, who (when a thoughtsenser-interrogator went over him enough) had talked to someone who looked a great deal like him about his work, four years ago, telling him everything that went into enchanting factory equipment, because nobody except Kastil and Altarirn has ever heard of security mindset.

Kastil would like to investigate more, but with Tolmassar under enemy occupation, he does not think it is presently practical; he does, however, think that Jean looks exactly like the sort of person the gods would aim and steer for their goals, and also that they should try to make sure that none of his siblings are on the armies in the western fronts, because he has no idea which of them would be willing to do a minor, inconsequential favor for a beloved brother long since thought dead and now trying to destroy the Empire.

That's intriguing and frankly bizarre and also almost certainly not relevant to the situation in Taymyrr, though of course Altarrin will have copies of this passed on to his own spies in Taymyrr, and both directly to Governor Vanaren and to his undercover Mindspeaker in Oris (who is at this point somewhat hard to reach without giving up their cover) and his on-site eyes on Governor Vanaren's staff. 

Aaaaaand then he really does have other things to worry about. He wants a report from his own, trusted people on updated casualty figures in Oris, and he to know immediately if Vanaren hears anything else from the "Knights of Ozem", or if any followers of Aroden are captured, but in the meantime he is going to set Oris aside and focus on his own logistics. 

And the Army of Oris continues the march to war, pausing only briefly to reorganize after the battle before advancing northwest, lightly reinforced by farmer-volunteers and feudal lords' companies who had waited for victory before committing to the war as they march on the capital. They're on the Tucannon Road, now, crossing the frontier from the poorer rural regions that were in Oris between this war and the last towards the southern borders of Tozoa Province, where the farmland is fed by imperial-made canals (Jean's mages disassemble the gate-focuses but leave the canals intact) as they march towards the city of Naushanka, and, after that, the provincial capital of Tatanka.

And it is in this context that one evening a Gate opens and a pair of plainly-dressed flunkies with sticks of the sort used to beat away beggars come through into the small town where the Orisans have camped for the night, followed by a pair of soldiers in fancy uniforms-with-armor that are neither Imperial nor Oris-which-is-mostly-stolen-Imperial, followed by a pair of people in outfits fancier than anything anyone in Oris ever wears, who are holding ceremonial gilded whisks in their right hands and ceremonial bags of money in their left hands followed by a gorgeous silk-curtained palanquin carried by four muscular slaves in color-coordinated even-more-plainly-dressed-outfits with color-coordinated hair, the curtains to which are closed, followed by another two subtly-differently-fancily-dressed flunkies with silvered ceremonial whisks and ceremonial bags of less valuable money, followed by another two more of the fancily-uniformed soldiers, followed by larger numbers of more plainly-dressed flunkies. The fancily dressed flunky in the front right is yelling "Make way! Make way for the great Lord Imperial, Marthan Ljudimoir, Gentleman of the Imperial Bedchamber and Duke of Tormantyn!" over and over again while the other fancily-dressed flunkies are just giving everyone else superior looks.

They are met by the highest-ranking nobleman in the army, Colonel Tion, who counts as a count if you ignore the part where the empire dispossessed his entire family when they conquered Tozoa Province, who the fancily-dressed flunkies will ignore completely until he directs his request to the fancily-dressed soldier who passes it up to the fancily-dressed flunky on the front left who passes it up to the person in the ridiculously fancy palanquin, who passes the request down to the fancily-dressed flunky on the front left who passes it on to the fancily-dressed soldier who passes it on to Colonel Tion, who attempts an explanation, which is ignored by the fancily-dressed flunky until it is given to the soldier who gives it to the flunky who gives it to -

You get the idea.

This procedure will take half an hour before anything occurs other than Colonel Tion's face growing steadily redder.

Is Iomedae involved in this at all?

- yeah, she will go check that out. 

Also, she doesn't know if this place's god is Asmodeus but she really really does not think much of Him.

Iomedae has been offered titles, in Taldor, and declined them, because they'd involve an oath of fealty to the leadership of Taldor, which is not the kind of thing she would seriously contemplate making. She does not announce herself, just goes to watch the whole elaborate procession and maybe read some minds to orient to what in the world this is supposed to mean.

- So "Count" Tion's great-grandmother was in fact the daughter of a butcher. (That he was a very successful butcher, master of a butcher's guild, is beside the point. He was a butcher, ritually unclean.) This means that even aside from Tion being in exile, he's sesnaesetti, someone with one-sixteenth tainted blood. This means that for any nobleman to treat him as an equal, if it got back to his superiors in Ithik (and it would get out, slaves gossip), would be a political disaster for him.

(This is a gendered him; Ithik is very clear about having different male and female pronouns, and if there was a situation where it was ever correct for someone to use a male pronoun about a woman, that person would appeal to the Emperor and the Emperor would invent a new word and everyone - that is, everyone the court knew about - would instantly adopt it or face decapitation.)

So to preserve his standing back home, Marthan Ljudimoir needs to make it very clear that he isn't negotiating with a slave. He's negotiating with General Orestan in mindspeech, of course; he can't be called out on that, and mind-gifts are perfectly acceptable for a man, and nobody knows what Orestan's true birth is so the Emperor has chosen to believe he's the king's third son who is widely believed to have died of fever as a child, someone who is beneath the Emperor in the imperial hierarchy of course but not unspeakably far down, and therefore not very far below a Duke at all, so a duke can speak to him face to face. But he needs to show the flag for the sake of his countrymen back home and so an army of barbarians don't think he's some kind of debased savage. They'll learn the proper way to do things when temples of Atet open up here, and then we'll see if they remain defiant in their savagery or learn from the greater dignity of Ithikan customs, recognize their secondary place, and properly adapt themselves into a properly subordinate uncle-nephew relationship.

....she thinks that this is not, actually, the work of Asmodeus. She DOES NOT LIKE IT ALL THAT MUCH BETTER.

She's still not going to identify herself. It's much better if her enemies continue to be confused about what they're up against.

After half an hour, Ljudimoir and his minions head over to the grandest house in town (the thirty minutes was, apparently, so Orestan could clear them out -)

Bribe them to move out for the day and give them enough time to take their valued possessions.

( - apparently the Marshal thought Ljudimoir would bring a tent, but it isn't really worth it for one day, since he'll be moving on to Oris's "capital" tomorrow.) There he can properly convert it to a nobleman's residence for the night, while he explains the most recent imperial benevolences towards savage Oris.

Joy.

Oh, good, she is not anywhere near the most annoying ally the Marshal is dealing with! It's always good to not be someone's most annoying ally.

:I assume Ithik's not going to condescend to give you any choice over what help you receive, but the thing I really want for this battle is to loan the armor to someone else so I can come in flying and rumor can have it there's at least two of us, and it'll work better with some powerful shields on them to give them a chance.:

:They will not. I can put one of my Adepts in the armor, if you want them to think you can also throw magic?:

:...won't they have a hard time doing arcane spellcasting in armor?:

:... No? It just doesn't help much if you already have mage-shields.:

:Huh. Then yes, we should do that, and I'll give them some of the magic items that'll affect their survivability more than mine, and we can fly in together and sow some confusion.:

Her Mindspeech is slightly less crisp and formal, now that they know each other a bit better, and does carry in its undertones that she loves war, and hates this war, and is thinking hard about how to win it. They need to dismantle every single one of these canal gate-locations, for one thing, and they should assume it'll only be a few weeks before the Empire realizes this is their biggest problem. 

:I like this plan. You can make other people fly?:

(His mindspeech continues to carry the undertones that he is supremely confident, has a plan to win everything, and there is no difficulty that can slow him down for more than ten minutes or so.)

Once they take the capital she's going to make a dedicated effort to figure out if his confidence was warranted without her but it does seem pretty warranted now so she'll let it pass.

:Well, not exactly, but I can carry them while I fly, and we'll be diving fast enough I doubt anyone on the ground will know the difference.: She has in fact practiced slowing out of a dive in a way that doesn't kill a civilian in your grasp, with potato-sacks to represent civilians. ...can anyone Gate us up in the air so I don't have to waste a significant share of the duration of the flight spell getting the altitude?:

:Yes, though you'll both come under fire when you do that.:

His fundamental plan, if they don't screw up or hide in a city, is to have Iomedae blast a hole in the enemy lines, then follow it up with quite a lot of mages and heavy cavalry, break them in half, and smash whichever the smaller half is, then the larger half. This would not be a great plan without Iomedae, but they have Iomedae, so. (And, indeed, his previous plan was 'wait for them to screw up, such as by letting him use Farsight on a written battle plan', and he still expects to do some version of that but it's useful to have a backup.)

Iomedae is very good at blasting holes in enemy lines! She will become way less impressive half an hour into the fighting when both of her Greater Angelic Aspect uses wear off, especially if she's handed off the armor and protection that goes with it, but you can do a lot in half an hour when you don't get tired and your sword moves very fast and you can fly. 

Altarrin has a thousand things on his mind right now, and arguably it is not a good use of his time to personally reply to the letter sent by the "Knights of Ozem." But it's not like anyone else is going to. And it's only going to take him half a candlemark, probably. 

(After which he'll hand it to his lieutenant to whom he's delegated keeping track of all his spies presently in Oris, both within Governor Vanaren's forces and not, and one way or another it should reach the rebel forces within two to seven days. He is not planning to personally keep very close track of that.) 

To the Knights of Ozem

The Empire appreciates the care and effort which caused this letter to be written and to reach us. It is a rare occurrence, for an order such as yours to open with such a clear and concise diplomatic message, including an explanation of your order's goals and why you believe they can be achieved. 

To return the favor, and make very clear on what basis and with what information the Empire is currently reasoning: 

The Knights of Ozem are unknown to us, as is your god Aroden. The Empire's reach is not infinite, and it is possible that your religion has existed for centuries without our knowledge, but from our vantage point it is more plausible that the letter received from the "Knights of Ozem" is a deliberate ruse. This is of course not a useful starting point for any kind of diplomatic negotiation, and so from here on, this letter will assume that your order is entirely sincere in your claims. 

Based on the letter we have received, the people in your temple order may share much of the Empire's understanding of how cities and countries ought be run such that their citizens will have opportunities and flourish. It would, all else being equal, be in our interests to work together. 

That being said, in our extensive experience, it is almost never workable to negotiate agreements with those who serve gods. 

We understand that you think otherwise. This is of course always true, but it sounds as though you believe that your god, Aroden, values the cause of civilization and human flourishing, and is on your side in this war, and is an entity that can make agreements and will keep them.

The Empire has had many dealings with gods and their followers. Our conclusion has been that while specific mortals who follow gods, and even temple orders as institutions, are often reasonable and share many of the Empire's goals and values, and might under different conditions be worth negotiating with, this has never been the case with the gods.

The gods rarely communicate at all with mortals, and approximately never communicate Their explicit intents or goals. In the Empire's experience, which is likely much longer than your order's known history with Aroden, the gods are neither pursuing the goal of a flourishing civilization, nor even capable of understanding what it would mean. 

It remains the case that Aroden is unknown to the Empire, and if your order has evidence to offer that He is different, we are prepared to listen. 

He'll include a few different suggestions for where and how to send replies, at the end. It probably won't matter very much, it's likely to take a few days before anyone sees this letter at all and even then he's not really expecting a reply let alone a reply with major decision-relevant information. 

...but it's cheap and it might end up being very useful, or at least very informative. 

He finishes the letter, and hands it off, and returns to his other work. 

It does not, alas, arrive before the battle begins.

- Because in the wee hours of the morning Samien is woken by one of the Marshal's mages, blinks, passes a message on to Real Orestan, Real Orestan throws his sight, and hits first Samien and then every one of his officers with a psychic yell.