"Thank you, ma'am, happy to help. Good luck with the parley; safe to say you'll need it, and not just for the Oathbreakers."

"Frankly, I expect they'll be the least trouble.  Luck to you as well."  And now they will be heading back to the Disfavored camp.

The trip back will be uneventful, and the conversations mostly superficial. A cloth pavilion, mostly in blue, is being set up at a spot a lot like the one where Eb and her squad met them, but closer to the Disfavored camp. It's shaping up pretty well.

Ophelia will spend a bit of time observing this; she thinks she may assign her Vendrien Guard to the work, and the watch afterwards.

She (Variah Kel) is happy to help. The Disfavored don't enormously trust her, and they've done other treaty negotiations with formerly-Apex, but she'd still be helpful. Probably the section for the Guard should expect to accommodate about five people, they'll want to pick people who aren't very current on the strategic situation and so they won't send many people.

Then so shall it be.  She has some thoughts about the arrangement of the necessary features...

They're pretty receptive to her suggestions. Bitter Quip and a couple other Choirmen are here to represent the Chorus as well. It's shaping up fairly reasonably.

While she's making suggestions here, a bird comes for her individually. The missive is marked with Tunon's seal, and dated yesterday. It's not long.

Ophelia,

Word has reached this court that you have issued the Overlord's Edict to the Archons of War and Secrets. Know that we understand fully the weight of this burden and appreciate the loyalty you show in its declaration. Provided you survive to leave the valley, your service will be duly recognized.

As you navigate the idiosyncrasies and mutual antipathy of our Overlord's warmasters, remember that Kyros watches all with interest. Those who distinguish themselves, whether Fatebinder or Archon, have the opportunity to rise in the Overlord's esteem. Even now the northern courts whisper that the more successful of the two Archons will be granted rule over the whole of the peninsula. Similarly, your fortunes rest upon the decisions you make.

Choose wisely.

-Tunon the Adjudicator, Archon of Justice

Well.  That is just great news.  By which she means that the civil war really is inevitable if this policy is proclaimed.

"Alright, everyone," she says to her retinue; "I received a letter from Tunon.

"It was mostly a very polite way of saying, quote, 'We' are paying attention to your work, which is...not unsurprising, given the situation... but - Tunon does not usually bother to communicate rumors at court.

"And yet - it is whispered through the northern courts that control of the whole peninsula will be granted 'to the more successful Archon' of this campaign.  Which Tunon - or possibly Kyros through Tunon - felt was important enough to tell me.

"I do not like where this is going.  And yet, at the same time...

"It makes sense that Kyros would do this.  It is an appropriately overwhelming solution to an admittedly large problem.

"I don't think I want that to happen, is the thing.  To declare that to the victor go the spoils...it is - reasonable, from a certain point of view - and equally an absolutely terrible idea.  A waste of the lives spent in earning it - and much moreso of the lives spent on fighting over who ought to, afterwards.

"...I think I have a plan.  But I need to understand the leaders who will be discussing this with me, to make it happen - and I don't think I do, not enough.  I know the Archons' stories, somewhat - but not the rest of them.  I do not know the Vendrien Guard's leadership whatsoever.  You do."

Kel shrugs, "I'll help how I can, but I don't know them that well. There's the Three Captains and the Tidecaster. Plus the spellcasting Sages, but they're not really leading. Even the ones we trusted, unlike Lantry."

"There's Tarkis Arri, who's in command of the citadel, Matani Sybil, who's protecting the routes across her family's river, and Pelox Florian who was my commander here in the backwoods. One each from the major non-Crown families; everyone from House Vendrien who was left alive was exiled - a lot of them to Kyros's Court, I think, but it's still exile. The Captains are the only ones who dodged the surrender, but Florian and Arri brought in family to help - you returned Tarkis Demos already, and I think you saw Pelox Tyrel dead at Edgering. They're hotheads, like me, but all of them had years of combat leadership behind them before the Conquest started. Defense Against Azure, mostly, but also semi-authorized bandits from the Bastard City and some fights for control of the trade routes. Arri is the best strategist, but also the most stubborn; I bet she'll die rather than serve, even temporarily."

"If Matani and Pelox are both against her, will the Guard go with them? I concur, she's stubborn."

"Hard to say but... probably most of us. Them. They're pretty stubborn, though, it'll be hard. Everyone who's fighting now is pretty stubborn."

"You would have to be, to fight -" she gestures around, just sort of...at everything, in general, "this.  It's - almost impossible.  If it weren't for what I know, what I try to be, and what I expect to happen as a result of what I know, I'd say it would be flatly impossible for anything resembling the Vendrien Guard to continue to exist - let alone accomplish things they want.  But - I don't know what the Vendrien Guard wants, from rebelling.  Not - in the sense of -

"If the Vendrien Guard had the Tiers to themselves, what would that actually look like?"

"Like it was before. But - maybe not united against Kyros, but setting grudges aside."

"I don't think I can get you the ability to tell Kyros to sod off, not all by myself.  Recognition of your traditional governance - insofar as it's possible, I think I could.  ...I wish I had.  It's not like either Archon has half a clue on how to run a city, let alone a state.

"I will grant that Graven Ashe is at least not going to run any given thing into the ground, his honor won't permit him wilful mismanagement, but...the problem is that he assumes that all who have not been with him, all who can't by default hold to incredibly stringent codes of honorable behavior and harsh discipline, are against him.  And that's asking for trouble, when you need to work on a broad scale like an entire kingdom.  There just aren't enough people like that.  Not to staff the Tiers entire.  Especially not if they must be born, and not made.  Which, honestly, is a good leader's duty to do - to hone all who are willing to follow, into the people they'd like to lead - and to see leading.  To build something that will last, far from their watchful eyes.

"I don't even know where to begin when I think about how horrifyingly absurd the policies of the Scarlet Chorus would be as applied to proper governance, but it would be an utter disaster.  Gangs led by strength of arms alone are not a healthy unit of social organization!  Let alone a way to make sure the harvest comes in on time!

"The only thing I see as positive is that they allow even the most fucked-over and fucked-up to join and find ways to hone themselves.

"It's not really good that the selves they're encouraged to better are the most violent ones, but it's better than not giving anyone who's ever broken a law options other than death.

"And lest you think I'm a partisan of my own Archon - Tunon also has that problem, albeit moderated somewhat.  The judgement he laid upon the Bastard City says as much.

"The merchant houses were destroyed, rather than seized and used for the good of the people; admittedly, much of what we recovered from the ruins was not useful, but some was."

"Most of them were no great loss, especially in the eyes of the Tiers. Our helpful drover mentioned how corrupt and criminal some of the merchant companies are that are left, but the Bastard City was by all accounts worse, with no rule of law to speak of. The city's been happy under Tunon's rule, as I hear, and I'd wager they'd be less so if he'd had more mercy on the merchant barons. There's something to be said for local rule and something else against the strictness of the Law of Kyros, but Tunon seems a fine governor."

"Yes.  I quite agree that it was right that they be absolutely, totally, and finally abolished, and I've seen the happiness of the people.  But it's still...

"The problem I have with Edicts.

"There were people in some of those warehouses that had nothing but a menial job, and it should not have been held against them that they worked there, having had nothing better.  Much as the Edicts spoken over the past few years punish the people for sins they had no say in."

"They could have rebelled, sought better masters. There is always a choice to be honorable."

"When the choice is your honor or your life, and possibly not just yours, but of all the lives dependent upon you - what would you choose?"

She waits for Barik to start thinking.  Delivers her insight.

"Graven Ashe bent his knee to Kyros for his legion, as a victor against the analogue of a single merchant baron.  What could he have done in defeat?"

"I doubt the analogy. They had many enemies less vile, no weaker than their own. But even so - better to die than dishonor yourself and your family name. An honorable life is better than an honorable death, but either is better than living in shame."

"And you expect someone who was not born to honor, to derive this from - what, exactly?"

"They had the concept. If they did not value it according to its worth, that is their failing."

"The people who valued honor above life have all already died.  If any remain, this war tasks you with stamping them out.  What is honor, when it compels you to destroy itself?

"But - perhaps a different example; this is not...mm, where I wanted to look.

"Is it honorable to take from a corrupt lord the means of fostering the growth of future honor?"

"I doubt the possibility. Compromise in matters of honor rarely works out better than sacrificing it entirely, pedantry aside."

"I can't disagree, but I feel like...there's something that I'm trying to point at, that still hasn't been communicated.

"Do you believe that honor is a synonym of rightness?"