"As for the matter of peace, though...I do have something resembling a plan for that.  One that would actually leave the Vendrien Guard in perhaps a better position than you started."

She hadn't actually expected this meeting to happen, but she did mention that she had a half-formed plan to con the Guard into disbanding to Barik and Verse, and that in service of such she might shade the truth heavily, if opportunity arose.

"Well, that speaks well of you," she says, politely. Ophelia can still get the sense that at this point she'll believe it when she sees it. "I did hear of something like that during the Bastard Siege, though it's ...inconveniently... hard to verify." The sense that she doubts the 'in-' on that 'conveniently' is, again, obvious despite her polite etiquette. "They were always proud bastards, and not even pragmatic ones like the Sages, so your story does make sense. Tyrel was a large man, excellent with a blade. Darker than me but lighter than your Scarlet Fury, hair a little paler than bronze. He'll have gone down fighting rather than accept Chorus induction."

"My men nearby have most of a gang of Choirmen that got lost on patrol. Six can walk, five could fight; the last has mangled hands, though he'll probably recover. We'd trade the lot for the return of the captain."

"I will hear out your plan, though I doubt I or our command will find it convincing."

"Boss," Verse whispers, "Check what gang they are before agreeing. And whether their boss is alive. Most wouldn't be worth it."

...Ophelia thinks she might have seen a corpse of that description, and heard a tale told.  "I think Tyrel did go down fighting, if that's the case.  He took a man down with him from what I understand.  A Disfavored.  Took him hostage, leapt over a cliff rather than - I'm not sure what was offered, if anything was.

"I'm sorry for your loss, if this is so."  This is, somehow, genuine.

"As for the plan, such as it is...

"It depends on how much your command is willing to believe that the strategy they have was viable, but the timing and intelligence you had were shit.

"If your people are willing to disperse wider than they did before, to the places where Kyros's Archons reign in terror...

"They'll have a lot more people willing and furthermore able to revolt against hypothetical tyrannic parts of the regime, because Kyros, whatever flaws their ruling policy may or may not have, does tend to keep his people well-supplied in the basics, and not under active Edicts.  The Tiers... 

"They do not have that.  Not a single Tier has both the ability to revolt and the willingness to do so.

"Maybe, maybe, if I'd stopped Cairn, Azure would have been able to support a revolt - but I could not, though I tried.  That, at least, you should be able to verify yourselves.  That I tried to avoid deploying him, and wrung a commitment from the Earthshakers to fix his mess, even before.

"I expected it to take a year, without everything that happened.  And then Cairn decided he was a Beastfolk at heart, refused to even try to find a diplomatic solution, and tried to kill me and the city of Plainsgate, even as I tried what I could to stop the Edict from turning the land that was at the time Azure into dust."

She sighs.

"Maybe you'd find Lethian's Crossing more convincing as proof of my intentions, though; I did not have to salvage half the Bronze Brotherhood when Tunon - you know, the Archon of Law, who's my boss - threw them out."

"As for the trade you propose, I would need to be more sure of the value of those men before I can be confident Nerat won't eat or crucify me for daring to agree to this trade without him.  He wouldn't want to trade an ace for a two.  What gang are these people from, and is their boss alive?"

"Not a bad way to go. Thank you; I'll tell his family. For Tarkis - you, check if they said anything."

"As for that peace... We know who you are. You're the Stonemelter, and the Governor of the Crossing. You seem pretty decent... for a lackey of Kyros. You may even mean the offer sincerely. But I doubt you could protect most of us from a death sentence for breaking the Peace and Slandering the fucking name. Even if you could protect us from Nerat's gullet and the Disfavored's strong opinions on the subject of oaths."

None of that is false. However, when formerly outside the hierarchy, being sworn into it hides a lot of past sins. This is usually limited by Archons having strict requirements or unpleasant local laws, but Tunon's laws are the Laws of Kyros and no others. If she took them as vassals - even Archons would, by law, have to respect the claim.

Fantastic technicality. Would solve many problems.

But, especially from a power-politics perspective, it sounds completely insane. A Fatebinder is one of the more exalted roles a mortal can have, but it's not an Archon.

So, the question for Ophelia is: Can you convince them to take that technicality seriously?

"Mine is the power to judge all disputes of Kyros's Law, and no-one's the power to gainsay.  Not even the Archon of Justice who chose me.  It is debatable that even Kyros could, though as with most things to do with Kyros, the power flows from the point of the sword first and self-imposed stricture later.

"I might get killed for the affront, afterwards, by Bleden Mark or Tunon themself, but my judgement would still stand.  And Tunon is very much an Archon that will die on the hill of enforcing a judgement.

"So in a world where law matters, which, admittedly, is not my impression of Nerat but is my impression of Ashe -

"I could pass a judgement.  I'm not sure it would be worth the vellum it was written upon, in most circumstances, not if you wanted immediate relief.  But.

"I think Ashe would throw his legitimacy behind the claim I made to some extent if we were credibly anti-Nerat, which you are, because - you can't go torturing allies, and at this point, the only war the Archon of War has left to fight beyond this one - which the Edict of Execution means you have definitely lost even if no-one present here wins - is the one he fought Nerat in, hundreds of years ago.

"I think Tunon would have no choice but to honor my actions, because the laws I am exploiting in this scheme were written by Tunon because Kyros wished them so and - he does not disrespect his laws.

"I think the Disfavored would have no loopholes through which to try torturing people if you swore yourselves as vassals to me; even those who've spurned the Peace still have the option to seek absolution in service to the Empire.  ...I think that precedent was set by Ashe himself, even.

"Which is to say, just as there was some amnesty in the having been conquered parts of this, there is also amnesty in entering the service of someone who is officially a representative of the Empire, and I am indeed one of those, as a Fatebinder.  ...Perhaps two of those, even, by the time we're through with this.  There are many strange things happening with this Edict.

"I also think that the opportunity to play kingmaker in the war between Ashe and Nerat that is, at this point, absolutely inevitable when the Edict of Execution is lifted, is something the Vendrien Guard needs badly if they want any hope of overthrowing Kyros or even making people outside the Tiers notice their existence."

"Well, that's a better argument than I expected you to come up with, I'll give you that. I think I can safely promise we'll give it some thought."

One of the other guardsmen returns and mutters something.

"Ah. The gang we captured called their leader 'Hauls-For-Shit'. He's dead."

"The Lazy Malkins, then. Not useless, but the Voices would still probably be annoyed if you made the trade."

"...A moment to confer on this, if you would?"

And then, with a baffle of Illusion up, she asks Verse "If it would annoy the Voices somewhat, now's probably the safest time to pull the trick, no matter the position I just expressed - we need the Guard's goodwill to pull this and this is the cheapest way to buy some; what I need to know is how much the Voices' opinion sways the gangs in this matter and what they'd tend to think.  I'm pretty sure that this is going to turn into 'everyone vs. Nerat' in short order; what I want to know is whether it's worth trying to steal the forces of the Chorus by being a better employer in this way, or what they're looking for.  I know I've earned a bit of favor with the Archon of Song in - not precisely analogous, but still related circumstances."

"Against Nerat? Scary prospect, but... I'm with you. I think this won't move the gangs either way. I doubt you'll peel off much of the Chorus without beating them in battle; people who don't think like that, 'strongest wins, join their side', either don't last long or get demoted to slave. Sirin was never much of a Chorus woman that way. Or most other ways."

Barik clearly doesn't approve, but he's willing to stay quiet about it.

"...Then the question is how to present this as strength.  Thank you for your insight.  Anything else either of you want to say before I bring the baffle down?  Barik, I want to hear your objections."

"You know them, Fatebinder. They spat on the last agreement they made with Kyros's representatives. I see no reason they wouldn't do the same to yours. You are likely right that the General would respect such a claim, and that Nerat will not. But the 'strong opinions on the subject of oaths' she mocks are simply honor, and they have none."

"Which is why I do not appeal to their honor, but to their goals and needs.

"It's trickier than being able to trust their word, but it's not impossible to align someone's incentives such that even a chaotic people will do what you want.  I did much the same to form the Forge-Iron Guard, albeit under much less pressing circumstances.  If this is successful enough to peel off half the Vendrien Guard, I think we win outright - and given that their best alternative is 'everybody dies', and they know that - I expect there will be many looking for a lifeline.  Does that make more sense?"

He shrugs. "If you think it best."

She nods.  "Thank you for your honest concerns."

She drops the illusion.

"We'll make the trade."

"Glad to hear it. We have ours close by, but I assume you don't have Tarkis within a half-hour's march. When and where would you suggest? At the same parley you've already suggested, with the Archons?"

"We do not have Tarkis within a half-hour's march, no."

Well.  Unless she runs for it with Vigor; she's gotten to a quadruple pace then - but she'd crash, hard, afterwards, and she can't afford that outcome.  Or her "dualcast Vigor and Force to amplify her movements twice in different ways" idea suddenly coheres into a spell; that would suffice.

"That said, he isn't so far as to be more than a day's march from here; I could theoretically divert from my planned travel to fetch him now, and then present the return of your captured prisoners as a fait accompli."

"Rather than let the Voices have a vote? Far be it from me to prevent you. I'd travel with you, bringing our prisoners openly, except that I suspect I would be coming within bow-shot of the Disfavored camp to do so. I personally swore no oaths and so broke none, but not all my men can say the same, and the distinction is largely lost on them in any case."

She eyes Barik as she trails off. While his armor is unrecognizable and his story not (yet?) notorious, his shield is recognizable as Disfavored standard.

"You would be travelling under a blue flag, should your concern about this be true, and both yourselves and the Disfavored respect that, and - respect that you respect that, is my understanding."

"If you can swear that they will respect the flag, I will trust your word on it. We have been expecting that they will, but not assuming it, if you follow my meaning. Tunon's reputation for strictness, we were willing to assume held."

She muses, casting her thoughts back to the meeting...

"The specific words Graven Ashe used to describe the situation, when I brought up the matter of parley, were 'Obviously this would have to be under a blue flag, but they have not broken honor to that degree as of yet'.  I would tend to read that as his similarly expecting you to honor this, but being equally unwilling to assume.

"...I really must wonder if he ever dealt with this issue from the other side when he was young; I know his legend is of a similar fading and counterstrike."

"I do not believe he ever surrendered, until the final parley where he was made Archon."