"It is right to behave honorably and wrong to be dishonorable." He's clearly irritated, trying to shrug off the questions.

"...Is it, though?  And - how?  I know you're not a philosopher, but - if Honor was an Archon, what does Honor want?  What would the world it creates be?"

"...That is entirely too much thought to ask of someone I've barely met, no matter its potential relevance to anything.  We were trying to strategize for the upcoming diplomatic meeting; I got quite sidetracked.  My apologies."

He shrugs and nods. "I will admit that the General prefers to oversee his own people. Others, without our lineage and loyalty binding us together, might find it hard to meet his standards. The Governorship of the Tiers will be an honor, but an ill-fitting one."

"Making it sound like a sure thing that he'll be 'the more successful of the two', orehead? Sure, it'll be more orderly, but will there be anyone left in the fields the way you fight? I'd bet your half of the Tiers is all that wasteland everyone says Kyros doesn't want to rule before you're done."

"I'd rather see the Tiers given to Tunon.  I could even make a half-decent argument that Fatebinders have been the closest to succeeding in campaign goals that did not directly require Kyros's intercession, though I'll admit that I don't know what the campaign for Apex the first time looked like.  ...Really, I'm expecting it was a mess, especially after seeing you try to cooperate at the Bastard City.  Still, though, three Edicts at once?  One for a rogue Archon, who was also a stone-skinned giant - which is what we call 'a tough problem to solve conventionally' - though I still made him feel something in a way I really don't expect would have otherwise been done without me, and I think could have won had I started preparing the alchemical supplies sooner - and one against the Sages who withstood all lesser force and even blunted that, but - what was the campaign in Stalwart even doing!  I simply do not understand how matters came down to the only viable option being to declare an Edict!  ...Excuse me.  That's rather uncharitable.  It's true, but - a lot of my information is only that an Edict was declared 'because' there was a lot of Stalwart's army still running around doing shit that the Empire doesn't like, and one might expect that Kyros is blaming the - really, who names their bloodline regent, that is unqualifiedly a word - maybe they were there first, I wouldn't know.

"Regardless, it seems that Kyros blames them enough to premise the Edict on them and not - all Stalwart soldiers' banners being burned or lost to time, or something.

"I'm surprised that - if they're all holed up in, apparently, one fortress, and there's constant storms bad enough that their invocation was enough to forge artifacts under the pressure - well, I'm surprised there still is a last Regent of Stalwart.

"Seems like it'd be hard to get actual food in, long-term, without losing it to weather and spoilage.  Let alone Earthshakers and their indisputable suitedness to siege.

"...Anyway."  She sighs.  "Apparently I have political opinions somewhere underneath all of this; I'm somewhat surprised I do, to be honest.  But this isn't about what any of us want as much as it's about what we can get.  From anyone, for everyone.  And there's -

"There's things that I think everyone wants but no-one is getting, like prisoner exchanges.  The Vendrien Guard and the Disfavored both want to not be killed out of hand because the other side has no incentive to negotiate for their release, I should rather hope.

"And what I want to focus on getting a good picture of is - the stuff we can make happen by everyone agreeing they want to.  Stuff that can - build a foundation for this war not being to the last soul left.

"And what I'm ultimately asking for is advice on -

"How to get people out of their own way, a subject upon which I most certainly can't trust any of the people who will be present to answer honestly except perhaps Graven Ashe."  She makes a note: 'GrvAsh: good-faith conditions?'  "I don't know about you, but - I don't like wars.  An effort to make them the least violating thing they can be, to those who fight in them and those who carry on in the aftermath...

"I think it's pretty important.

"...I wish I'd been here the first time around, except then who knows what would have gotten fucked up in Lethian's Crossing.  Someone probably would have taken a bribe.  But I somehow doubt whichever Fatebinder was here that wasn't me, cared to negotiate much in a fight they were winning, and - no-one else could, Nerat for reasons of being Nerat, and Ashe because - honor has to be built.  Not - expected to organically arise.  Honor isn't a weed.  It is a climbing vine.  It needs structure.  And to look at vines that withered on the ground and say they never were honor...Well, they could well have been, had they had structure.  Goodness knows I don't think I'd be the person I am today were it not for my prior experience, and part of that is - what caused me to build my own conception of how to act...not necessarily honorably, but - in ways that don't make people regret asking for my help with their problems.  Which is important to do!  Striking a Fatebinder might be illegal, but that's cold comfort if you end up dead!

"...But I digress, yet again.

"The thing is mostly that - I need to figure out what's actually on the table for the various parties coming to it, so I can find where they overlap and prioritize this."

"Four," Lantry corrects absently, "The Edict of Tumult that did for Setting-Sun and made the three remaining Free Cities surrender. Five, now. Stalwart has a lot of weight of history behind them, and that comes with a number of artifacts. The Dauntless is certainly the most famous sword in the Tiers, maybe more than anything in the Northern Empire. There's a theory, hard to verify, that the fortress itself is an artifact to some degree - certainly it's just as storied as the sword, and has seen just as much war. I could bore you with the history of the titles, but it's scarcely younger than the Five Wives so who knows if there's anything there but legends."

"If Kyros wished to preserve the Unbroken and turn them to an army that served the Overlord, his choice of condition was good," Barik says. "Maric, our master of scouts, says that the Unbroken wish their Regent dead as passionately as any Disfavored, and probably more. And I will admit that of all the rebels, they fought with the most skill and honor. In time, they could become a peer to us." He glares accusingly at Verse, daring her to comment.

She just snorts at that whole part of the discussion.

"Well, I like war. I volunteered, remember? But if you want to favor the horde over the Furies, no one's going to be surprised. ...I think the Voices have been trying to get their hooks into whatever's left of local governance everywhere in the Tiers. Either by destroying them with us, or by - whatever it is he does to get spies everywhere, blackmailing and bribing. Probably he has people inside the Vendrien Guard, but who knows where or who."

"I don't want to leave the Furies hanging out to dry, either.  There are - assassinations I would order.  I'd have tried to do that to Cairn if it had been at all feasible.  I just...want to have rules to this, that aren't just 'everything goes'.  'Everything goes' is a bad sort of rule, because some people go to far more everything.  And certainly while war is not meant to be fair - it ought not be this...irrecoverable breakdown.  Which it is, because almost everything is going."  And then something snaps into place behind her eyes, hard and cold, as she almost growls, quietly, that "...If the Voices have been messing with my people I will have to have words."

(She melts back to normal quite swiftly afterwards, but she seriously meant what she said, and probably then some more on top of that.)

"I'm sure he has agents everywhere he can reach. I don't think he can reach the Disfavored, and he'd be... foolish, to try to subvert the children of Tunon. I think he may very well be that foolish, however."

"Oh, yeah, they definitely are. They'll have tried. Dunno if they succeeded, though. I hear the Court has a pretty good spymaster - Fatebinder of Balance, is the title?"

"Beyond that: I can't speak for the General. But while I doubt he'd compromise for the officers who broke their oaths of peace, like that returned hostage Tarkis, I think to save our lives he might compromise. Occupy Ascension Hall again, let the ringleaders live under supervision, release the rank and file. Perhaps a ritual punishment - loss of a finger for each common soldier and loss of a hand for the ringleaders, so that they can be known for what they were."

"Calio is good at her job of finding the security flaws, and I at mine of not making it worth the effort to exploit them, I think; I don't believe he'd succeed at compromising anyone I saw to power.  I speak more out of - it being an affront to me that he'd think to try.  They're my people.  Not his."  This is a quiet thing, almost wrenched from her lips for all its softness, as if she is not sure she should admit it.  And then Barik speaks again, and she is back to business.

"Thank you, Barik, for offering your thoughts.  That's - good news, I think, insofar as it leads to ending this without further blood needlessly spilled.  Ritual punishments are - something I think I can sell to both sides, given a chance, and perhaps some discretion as to the ritual punishment's nature.  I've occasionally seen to a branding, before.  And I'd be quite willing to keep the ringleaders under my close personal supervision, to prevent their doing something else this stupid yet again."

"They might take it. A hard sell if most of their subordinates - a lot of them cousins - will be executed for oathbreaking. ...Hmm, Sage, who do you think they'll even send to the parley?"

"Ex-Sage- oh, what the hell, no one but Kyros cares. Well, do they have a promise of armistice? If not, the Tidecaster and Matani will stay in place. Tarkis Arri won't want to expose herself to Nerat. Pelox, maybe likewise... Someone beneath them, with a good sense of them as people and what they'll consider accepting, but not much important recent strategic information. You said you returned Tarkis Demos? That's Arri's brother, if I remember the cousins right. Might be he'll be back."

"Oh, that would make sense. Well, if you can get Sybil, Florian, and Demos, he can probably talk Arri around if anyone can. Assuming you can convince him."

She nods.  "We'll see what we can do.  I could not offer an armistice, as I do not actually speak for the Archons - merely with them - and I'm not actually sure Nerat would honor it anyway, so - I suppose we'll operate on the assumption it's most likely to be Demos.  He's - not a bad option, all things considered.  He would know most of what is to be known about me from my less public actions, since my arrival, and - it cuts both ways, but I think it will be a help.  I did spare him being initiated while in custody.  Even if it was with...I was more focused on the shorter term of not having someone brutalized in front of me - because I failed to intercede, when he was in my sphere of concern at any point - than with an eye for diplomatic impact, when I interceded, there, and who knows what that will make them think.  I believe the language I used was - hardly flattering.  Like merchant concerns, buying and selling lives...

"...I suppose we'll find out, soon enough.  No point in fretting."

She's going to anyway, she thinks.

"Anyway.  I hesitate to even ask, he's just so...awful to think about thinking like, but - Verse, do you have a read on Nerat's - anything, really?  What he might want out of this?  I - really, I expect he's going to be the most trouble out of everyone present.  The bloody chorus he likes to cultivate...

"I can't imagine he wants the show to stop."

"Yeah, definitely not. They also don't want them to stop, though, and they're probably trapped in here just as much as the rest of us. Beyond that... sorry, boss, I don't know any better than you."

"Thank you, nonetheless.  Knowing what we do and do not know is important."

Alright, she's going to write down 'find ritual punishment VG could possibly like' and 'Nerat interfering with local governments' and 'talk to Ashe before parley starts; pitch with saving his forces' lives' in her planner.

"Anyone else see something I ought to consider?"

"Exile like the family Vendrien might be an option. That's all I've got."

"I'll certainly be putting it on the table.  Thank you."

"If that's all, then - I suppose we must consider this strategy session adjourned.  I expect overmorrow to be busy, though I can't say I'm sure why.  We should be sure to be ready to face it, when it comes.  Let's get some rest."

She dreams of weaving intangible things, into a tapestry of fate.

In the morning, there's a letter from the Court.

Ophelia,

Appreciating your thorough verdicts as usual. I don't think Tunon has examined them yet, but I'm sure he'll be pleased. As you've presumably already seen, he sees no issue with your delay of delivery, which is more than can be said for others; I don't think I need to warn you not to push your luck too far.

You'll hear from Master Ulantis in the Crossing about their records of outgoing shipments, most likely tomorrow. My guess is night-time theft on the water; the Forge-Bound Iron Guard have been principally guarding the production and its surroundings, and letting the merchants and their hired mercenaries cover the transport. Tunon's flag flying on the cargo ought to be protective in Haven, and the one contract I found on vellum here specified that guards were mandatory in Vendrien's Well. Haven resistance to Kyros was light north of the Free Cities, but locals could know hidden routes for filching off the river and shipping it behind our backs; there certainly was crime along that route before.

Your thoughts on the Voices and their egregious code of local law come as no surprise. I've observed myself that the 'Circle of Fifths' that governs the Chorus is the most extreme form of a common problem - Archon's laws for their domain which conflict with Kyros's greater Law. Nerat's first law is quite blatant - Bring glory to the Archon of Secrets, Kyros’ loyal general with no mention made of obeying Kyros herself. But many Archons have similar prescriptions which require obedience to themselves first and Kyros second. The consensus for problems of this nature, particularly where they permit violations of Kyros's Law, is that it is an offense on the part of the Archon, but of unclear severity. Kyros's ignorance of such offenses is, of course, impossible, so any possible judgment is in abeyance until the Overlord or Tunon decides it is time to punish and end it.

In that vein, I should remind you of one of the older principles pertaining specifically to Fatebinders: the prohibition on dead letters, or as I tend to call it the Law of Politics. Anything Tunon may judge, a Fatebinder may judge, but this does not extend infinitely. A crime in progress which is observed and yet allowed to continue is bad; a crime officially judged illegal but unable to be stopped is worse. Kyros's Law abhors an unenforced judgment; it undermines the decisive nature of the Right of Adjudication, to have judgments which are delivered but are not final. Archons commit crimes, as you well know, but it is not the place of Fatebinders to declare and judge those crimes, because we do not have the power to enforce those judgements. If Graven Ashe or, much more likely, the Voices of Nerat, has been committing crimes against Kyros's Law during the Conquest, collect all evidence you can find and then bring it before Tunon for judgment; he, not we, is capable of correcting the situation.

On less official terms: Be careful. The Scarlet Chorus was one of the armies which subdued Ashe before he was Graven and his followers Disfavored. He's never forgotten it, nor has Nerat. These grudges run deep, and without the tight deadline, they may not bend to cooperate; they may even be dangerously uncoordinated. Keep your eyes open, and get an escort who are personally loyal if you can.

Fortune favor you,

Fatebinder Calio

This is her plan.

Fatebinder Calio,

My thanks for your letter; it is a confirmation of much of what I already suspected.  As for the prohibition on dead letters, this is indeed why I sent what I sent to the Court, for its review, instead of attempting to proclaim something by my own writ - beyond stopping the single case I personally observed, at least.  (...My plans here, such as they are, are turning more and more upon there being no-one who actually likes Nerat.  Not even most of his army.  Thusly, I must lay the groundwork to prosecute him on both fronts, for it would be abnegation of my obligations to Kyros's Law otherwise.  I'm sure you understand what I mean.)

I do have plans to keep the armies in the field from tripping over themselves, should that be necessary - though perhaps I should be more concerned about 'tripping', than legitimate failures in coordination.  I hope they will not be needed, nonetheless.  I've extended a parley to the Vendrien Guard and hope to shift them to a more productive purpose thereby.

Incidentally, if rumor has it that the Tiers will go to the Archon whose forces have been most successful in prosecuting this campaign, how do you suppose the actions of Fatebinders would weight the balance?  I dare hope that we've been busy; my assessment is that Tunon would be a better Archon to rule here than either Ashe or Nerat, though between the latter I'd prefer Ashe.  He at least is predictable.

Yours,

--Ophelia Vaudelle

Her response on the wing, she awaits any other business - and when none finds her, she looks for Graven Ashe.