And she can find him, inspecting a map of the Matani River and its remaining bridges.

"Fatebinder. Any news?"

"Not of especial relevance.  I was hoping I might have a moment of your time to discuss the upcoming parley, and get a - better sense of what you have, what you want, and possibilities to use the former to get the latter."

"Certainly. Completing the Conquest is of course the primary objective, but as I see it, demonstrating the futility and failure of rising in rebellion after surrender is nearly as important. A land which rebels is not just a failed conquest, but one which can cause other rebellions if it is not crushed decisively and such that the rebels regret their actions. A task that presently seems further from our grasp than simple victory."

"Hm."

"If I might speak freely?"

He gestures for Barik and her other retinue to step away, and they do (Verse with a little hesitation first).

"You may."

Ophelia gives Verse a nod, as well.  She expected this; honestly, she was planning on doing it herself.

"...Our strategic objective is not to crush the rebellion.  It is to end the rebellion.  Crushing it is one of the means by which this can be accomplished, but - not the only one, I think.  The Vendrien Guard...

"I wasn't here for the initial conquest; I was posted in Lethian's Crossing.  I imagine you know that already, but it's - a reminder that I am speculating, though I've had the occasion to ask people who might know.

"I think the Vendrien Guard, those members of it that aren't as - stubbornly against all possible compromise, as I've heard Tarkis Arri to be...

"They've just...accepted their death is inevitable by the nature of their existence, of - having ever held arms - and they've committed to making Kyros pay dearly for it.

"Which is - why I want to offer them a better option.  Something like the offer you once received, if on a smaller scale.

"People don't often want to die.

"People don't often like seeing their friends and family die, either.

"And...

"It's important to care about that.

"I think that crushing this rebellion plants seeds of future discontent amongst those who are left behind, in a way co-opting them would prevent.  I asked one of the Guard's line troops what they thought the Guard would do if they won - as impossible as that is - and they didn't profess ambitions beyond the Tiers living peacefully.  I...really do want to see that.  And...I suppose the question is, would you like to?  Because I think we can, with a bit of effort.  And perhaps a willingness to throw Nerat under a cart, but I don't think even his army likes their Archon, let alone yourself."

"To leave breach of oath unpunished galls me, and I think that principle, not preference. They had the choice not to be punished for having held arms - the surrender came after much bloodshed, but it was generous in its forgiveness. To crush them may create discontent, but it also creates fear; to leave them partially successful removes that fear from all nearby - the Sages, the Unbroken, the beasts of the Stone Sea. I have always known Kyros's way to be leading with fear and following with prosperity, so that when the fear fades, loyalty is already there."

"It may have been generous in what you believed it offered, but I don't know if they understood that something was offered at all.  The terms of the surrender oath did not affirmatively commit anyone of Kyros's Empire to any actions that I know of."

This is not going in the right direction.

"...The Stone Sea isn't going to give a damn about anything that is not - personally beating their leadership up, sir.  It's an odd way to think, but it's how beastfolk do.  I saw enough of them, investigating what the bloody fuck Cairn was up to, to be rather confident in that conclusion.  ...I wish he'd been willing to cooperate, or that I'd pitched it better, or - something.  Viridian did not deserve to be punished for Cairn's...Cairn-ness.

"And the Sages...the Sages blunted an Edict.  If any remain, I expect them to be bitter, not scared.  At least, as their primary motivation for action.

"I can't speak to the Unbroken; I'm still trying to figure out why that situation needed an Edict instead of a siege or an assassin.

"Regardless...I am not proposing that this breach of oath go unmarked.  Just that - to pursue it to the final sanction, if I am correct in thinking that it's possible to get them to cooperate with something else, is going to be painful, bloody, and not worth what you'd be spending on it.

"Lives are precious and irreplaceable, and - perhaps I am 'too soft', but I think that's true of even the enemy's lives.  I know that the rule of Kyros is fear - but...hope can inspire loyalty you would never otherwise receive.  And I think that - there's hope we can find.  For everyone in this valley, to - work alongside one another and make the Tiers someplace people want to live.  That's what I want to get out of this.  It's what I've been trying to accomplish in every post I've worked.  And sometimes, that's meant extending even a bitten hand."

"The siege of Sentinel Stand was attempted, and was proving ineffective despite our best efforts; Stalwart's reputation for defiance is on that front well-deserved. Their regent's doubly so, damn him. On the other two fronts, your points have merit."

He sighs. "My responsibility is toward Kyros and then my legion, not to the others in this valley. I do not desire their destruction for its own sake. But glory, and upholding the code by which I organize them, are - as I suspect you have already intuited - not of purely cosmetic importance. Compromise would save lives, including of my own, and I do see the value in that. And in giving the masses a better chance... they are many of them fine people I would have gladly fought for had they been in the Northern Kingdom a century ago instead of in the Tiers today. But that is not my duty, here. To bring them to serve under Kyros is."

"To bring them to serve under Kyros," she says, softly, the words uttered with a careful and solemn lightness, like a soldier inspecting her weapon before a battle begins.

"I do believe I can accomplish this.

"You are, I imagine, at least somewhat aware of the way in which swearing to an Archon's service can absolve one of crimes committed even after swearing to the Peace, though I do not imagine you've done such personally.

"I am also a duly-invested official of Kyros's Empire, in that sense.

"I can, therefore, take the Vendrien Guard into my service, under the Edict's looming threat, fulfill your obligation to make of them servants of Kyros, and take a tighter hand upon the reins than was last used, such that they would not be both able and willing to rebel again.

"Would that be - narratively consonant, Archon Ashe?"

"You would be risking much, to make such a guarantee as a mere Fatebinder, servant to an Archon even if a fairly direct one."

"I would be.  Did the Earthbinders perchance report to you what Cairn did, as the stone overtook him?"

"He fled, returning to the place he had gathered his Beasts. I understand the Earthshakers are still there, in numbers, examining his remains."

"He fled...all the way from Plainsgate, to a Spire.  The scouts that followed in his trail reported that he was prostrate before it, kneeling in supplication."

"...I don't think Cairn's resting place is coincidental.  He thought he knew something, or he would not have tried to seize this opportunity.  He was a blunt instrument - but he wasn't stupid.  And here Kyros is, all but ordering me to claim a Spire myself.

"I do not wish to count my chickens before they have hatched, but...one might almost suspect that the Overlord has plans for me.  More...directly, than the usual sort.  Goodness knows why, but...I feel that something approaches its culmination, and I still feel the buzz in my teeth that resonated with the Edict's words.

"I say this to you because I trust you will not betray me with it - because I think we can be allies."

She looks into the middle distance, as she continues.

"We certainly have common cause against Nerat, at the very least.  My Verse despises him, and I expect so does Lantry; there's...clearly a story, to the way I found him tied up in the Chorus's camp, claiming no remaining obligations.

"But - I expect we have more common ground than that, and I truly respect you, as a person.  The people that give a damn are few and far between, and to loft yourself to the heights of power on the strength of your loyalty..."

She closes her eyes for a moment.  "I may find some of the principles you hold to to be too - confining, to adopt myself, but the foundation you built them upon, of - mutual trust, of sharing burdens, of building eachother up and fiercely defending one another - is - one I, too, hope to build something great from."

"Hmm. You're an insightful young woman, Ophelia. Perhaps dangerously so; the Overlord prefers to be the one shaping the paths ahead of us, and takes unkindly to those who try to take their own reins. Your logic... has leaps, but I cannot deny they seem likely to follow."

"However, I think you may overestimate the gaps between the Voices and the Chorus. Nerat is canny: he keeps power through fear, and justified fear; not even my aegis can shield those who he sends down his gullet, and none know when he is and isn't watching. They will not break loose without a tremendous display of strength. And not, I think, one I delivered. It would give me great joy to end that monster, but that would need both legal and practical opportunities to arise."

"I have made no secret of the sort of person I am.  If Kyros then chose me for this...I can only conclude that she has judged me the least offensive option of those available to her.

"I've filed a brief with the Court, on the legal end.  There's quite a many crimes Nerat's laws permit, and if the letter is enforceable, it's hardly dead - though I do not wish to move without Tunon, on that front.  It would be a bit arrogant of me.

"On the practical end...

"...You speak of your Aegis being no defense against his - consumption of minds - as if you've experience with it.

"If Nerat is the Archon of Secrets...Every bit of knowledge shared of how he works is, in a sense, a blow dealt.  And I've certain insights into - related matters, whose provenance I will be concealing out of respect for the privacy of the source, but perhaps...

"Perhaps your information and my information can be put together in a way that allows that blow to be struck."

"I cannot prove it. It would be a clear violation of Kyros's Peace, to take any of my soldiers, and if he has acted on the knowledge they knew, he has kept it concealed. But a number of isolated incidents where one of the Disfavored was lost alone, Scarlet Chorus forces moved nearby at around the same time, and no body was ever found, exist. And... it is a loosely-kept secret that I can feel that which my soldiers feel. Several of those lost I sensed extreme distress before I lost them. Including - may I ask you not to speak of this to any outside my legion or, as necessary, the Court of Tunon? Prohibiting even your own retinue."

"I will not reveal the specific details of what you are about to tell me, save should I be compelled by Tunon or Kyros, or released by you.  I may wish to act on the generalities of it, but I will not reveal my source or any confidential information."

He nods. "Including my youngest son, Brennix. He was a prisoner of the Vendrien Guard early in this rebellion, and refused" - Ashe smiles faintly, sad but proud - "to be released before the soldiers he commanded. My prisoner trades were not complete when the site holding him was hit by the Scarlet Chorus. They claimed he was nowhere to be found, and the Disfavored liberated could not contradict them, but I am sure he was alive, and that he died in terror not long after. He made me prouder than any of my children since Blood Ruin killed Ashelryn, and even if I could forgive all the others, I would have Nerat's heads for it."

"So would I."

"...I am sorry for your loss."

...Would he like a comforting gesture.

He shakes his head when she starts to offer, though from his expression he appreciates it.

"I knew Nerat was a monster before, and I had not forgiven him for the role he played in the bloody conquest of my homeland. But I could work with him at Kyros's order. As you saw when you arrived, that is... no longer entirely true."

"Quite.  I've not even evidence that he would have wilfully sabotaged and infiltrated my operations in particular, but the informed prospect that he does so without even considering it necessary to ask me is already enough to consider him more an enemy than in any way an ally of mine.  Knowing that he seeks to hurt you in direct contravention of Kyros's Law, and through your children...

"I'll nail him to the wall.

"...I expect that the Vendrien Guard would be quite willing to corroborate that your son was alive and well in their care; they take pride in their treatment of prisoners of war, judging from my few interactions with them on the subject."

"Ironic, considering of his few rules one is for the protection of children. But it says nothing about families, does it? If you speak to Captain Pelox, take his oath of evidence; he negotiated the rest honorably and I have no reason to doubt his word, he was one of the three to evade the oath."

"Beyond that, the only things I know are a suspicion that not all his Eyes know their status. He has been known to act on knowledge those he took particular interest in have learned, before they had the chance to communicate it to him. Other spies watching his favored are a possibility, of course, but you might take care that anything crucial stays out of your Verse's sight. Though, of course, where the Archon of Secrets is concerned, a double-bluff is always equally possible."