She makes a soft 'tch' sound.  "Of course he does.  He's a Sage.  I shall clearly have to confiscate the forbidden knowledge in his head; it's my duty as a Fatebinder.  Except I can hardly do that without having him around, hm?  What do you say, harmless old man?"

"Ex-Sage, ex, I insist. Though all of us are, these days. Can't run the School when our schoolhouse is sitting on a volcano. But, well, a Fatebinder... sounds better than Chorus hospitality, for certain. I'm --at your disposal."

"I'll suppose I could deprive them all of a chase," Fifth Eye says, waving to the camp around him, "But he's in our custody - why should I release him to yours?"

"Let's be honest, he wouldn't get more than five steps away from the pole.  If it's a chase you're wanting to throw to them, you're not throwing him.  He's useless to you.  Me, I could actually use a dedicated scribe; I need enough things copied as it is.  Besides; there is precedent on the subject, and while this is murkier, in a sense, than as was decided in the matter of captured Beastmen that the Chorus wished to conscript...

"You benefitted from the decision I rendered in that matter, to wit, that:"

A brief moment to turn a scroll to the appropriate section.

"'[...] said conscripts have been duly conscripted and sworn to Kyros, and shall therefore only be destroyed by Kyros or those to whom the Overlord's command of them is duly delegated.

[...] the peoples of Azure, and many others, are not uniformly free to choose their actions, and breaches less severe than [of Kyros's Peace], when undertaken at the orders of one who has the power and intention to Destroy another, will accrue penalty not to the one who undertakes or feigns to undertake the action, but to the one that has so ordered it, and that the surrender to forces of Kyros and swearing to Kyros's Peace shall be a remedy to any such stain upon the tool so used.'

"And he has sworn not to you, but to me.  We all saw him do it just now."

"Oh, very well, take him. Drat, I was hoping we could have you stand as his champions in a trial." Which would, obviously, be trial by combat.

He grabs a serrated blade and cuts through the knot of rope holding Lantry up.

"Thank you, Fatebinder! I doubt this would have ended well for me. I won't claim to be sharp with a sword, but my sigil-work has kept me alive and hidden for decades of fieldwork, so I at least won't slow you down."

"Unfortunately, I can hardly champion someone in a trial; I'm the judge, now aren't I?"  She allows herself a wry chuckle.  "Your people did see me fight, somewhat; that will have to suffice for now."

"I do what I can, mysterious harmless old man.  Let us adjoin somewhere less conspicuous."

"Oh, but you stand for all roles in the Court! Have you not delivered us an Edict as executioner? Don't stay away too long, Court sparrow - we might have use of you with this other Oathbreaker soon."

"Happily, Fatebinder. Especially if it's out of the sight of Nerat's Eye, there. I admit I'd underrated how unsettling they could be from reading reports."

"I am hardly Bleden Mark, nor would I want to be.  But we'll see, Fifth Eye."  Let's go not here.

"Tent for you over here, Fatebinder!", calls one of a pair standing by a large but (like most present) ugly and messy tent over to the southeast corner.

But no one's blocking the way back out to the empty grass, and there were some rocks they could sit on there, just as easily.

...She will at least examine it.  Who knows what pleasant or unpleasant surprises await within.  But she thinks that after she is done looking over the place, she'll take advantage of the sunlight and the rocks to write her letters home somewhere a bit less...

Eau de Nerat.

And some more pedestrian unpleasant eaus. It's clean inside, has bunks for six, enough room to stand even close to the edges. It's not nice.

The field outside is colder, and underdefended. It is superior in most other respects.

"I assume an officer of Tunon's Court doesn't actually need scribal work. So what can I do for you, Fatebinder? Sage-trained scribe, sigil-mage, and historian Lantry, at your service."

"You would think, but I may actually ask you to lend a quill on occasion; the ability to spend less time writing the same thing thrice is useful when you want more copies of something in a tearing hurry.  So are you a spy for the rebels or Nerat?  ...Actually, if you're a spy for anybody it's definitely Nerat; he'd have eaten you otherwise, you're not that good at hiding things.  Unless that ink's better at hiding secrets than it should be from the Archon of Secrets, which...

"You know, I have no idea how the fuck his thing works.  It's 'eat people and take their knowledge', that happened to the Wild Wrath despite my best efforts, but like.  He pulled one out once and believed the words subsequently spoken to be convincing evidence of what the Vendrien Guard wanted to do, at me.  So are the people he consumes still in there?  Is it just their state at the time that he steals?  I don't know!

"I guess he'd be a horrible Archon of Secrets if I did, though.

"Fatebinder Ophelia Vaudelle; it's a pleasure to meet you, Lantry."

She has an illusion up.  It blurs lips and sound.

"Oh, mostly I'm a spy for the future; if I don't write it down, how will they ever know? All previous engagements ended when Fatebinder Rhogalus delivered the latest Edict of Fire."

"Y'know, I had not expected to be prescient when I told Sirin to not let them burn the place down without me.  I was joking!

"But then...Edicts, everywhere.  I tried to avert the Edict of Stone, but Cairn had - gathered too much momentum, by the time I deployed anything that could hurt him, rather than slow him down, and it just wasn't enough."

"Ah, yes, the Stonemelter. It was a good attempt, as I heard it; more mercy than the Firestarter or Stormcaller tried to give, but - also with much more reason to. It wasn't Azure defying Kyros."

She shakes her head, sadly.  "It was not.  And yet they pay the price for it."

"I wonder if I'd have had the spleen to avoid being the Firestarter.  I can certainly see the loophole I could use, if I had been there.  Because certainly we cannot have Kyros thinking that Forbidden Knowledge is going everywhere...but so much else was lost in the flames, I am sure.

"On the other hand, if I'd dared then, I'm not sure if I'd be here to dare now, and this situation needs more daring.

"Knowledge can be restored and handed down to others, so long as the minds that contain it live, but we've yet to have an Archon raise the dead.  Not even Ashe's Aegis can protect against everything."

"I overheard some, but I have been, as I said, well out of my right mind. It's an Edict of Death you've delivered?"

"Unless a loyal servant of Kyros commands Ascension Hall by Kyros's Day of Swords, all in the valley die."

"Well, that's probably not as long a deadline as it sounds, is it? And yet longer than intended. I'd give you insight into the Oathbreaker strategy, but there isn't any to speak of. Hold the Matani, by some means they were very confident in, and - last as long as they can before they die valiantly."

"Oh yes, if I'd come as fast as I could and spoken the Edict when I arrived...

"Eleven days, instead of three-hundred sixty-four.

"I didn't do that.  I couldn't do that.  I'm hoping to turn this around without having to do this."

"...I met their Tidecaller.  One imagines she is the Vendrien Guard's strategy for the Matani."

"And lest Barik's words give an impression in error...It's not 'a loyal servant of Kyros'.  It's specifically me, at least how I've read the Edict's words.  I was chosen as Kyros's representative, in this matter, and the wording is specifically about the - or, I suppose it could be 'a', but it was singular - representative of Kyros holding Ascension Hall.

"A lot to put on my shoulders, that, but also - oddly useful, assuming I'm right about it.

"Perhaps I should put the word out that it would be a Very Bad Idea to kill me right now, just in case.  I'm not sure anyone but Nerat noticed.  ...Well I'm not sure Nerat noticed, but I doubt the directive to 'not fuck with me' came from someone else and there surely was a reason it came down.

"...Oh, bloody hell, Kyros planned this.  If Spires are power sources and Kyros wants either War and Secrets dead or me to interact with a Spire - and Calio said there was something resembling a plan, at the highest levels - fucking -- Well.

"At least I'm not going to be the worst possible Archonlike figure available when Ashe and Nerat kick off their long-delayed rematch."

"Oh, there's one left on land? Yes, that would do it. I heard all the leftovers were killed in a duel with the Blood Chanters. I can't imagine why she'd leave the river... Oh, I'll think about it later, maybe write it into the part of the Chronicle that doesn't get released for a good few years."

"It doesn't do to underestimate the Overlord's plans, as I tried to tell the other Sages hundreds of times over the last decade... but trying to grasp their goals is usually either trivial or a fool's errand, and I think this is the latter. Still, I'd be absolutely delighted to document everything that happens in your wake, Fatebinder Ophelia."

"And while Chroniclers generally try to stay out of affecting events... I think if I'm going to be near you I'd best be on guard for violence, so I might as well assist. I'm best with Healing, Illusion, and Preservation - that's largely a modified sigil of Vigor, it's sort of the 'house style' of the late School of Ink and Quill. Probably the only reason any of the Library is left Burning, unprotected it would be ashes."

"Well, I rather assume she was looking for me; I've no idea what her original plan was, but I offered parley yesterday, after proclaiming the Edict, and this very morning she came out of the woods to do a prisoner exchange."

And then, Lantry starts talking about his Sigils.

"...Oh dear, we do have far too much in common.  I've picked up a bit of Lightning, for moments when I need the punch, and Force, because it's just generally useful, but I too have been spending much of my time on Healing, Vigor, and Illusions.  ...I imagine I could pick up Emotion in a hurry if I needed to, but I don't think that Sirin likes doing that any more than I would - and I didn't think to copy Frost or Fire's introductory texts when I was last at Court.  Bother.  Well.  Another item for my letter to Calio, then."