"Oh, I wasn't suggesting you only do the Chronicle, just that of everything we did it probably had the best reputation. Even letter translation was a racket, I'm certain Sages interfered with several attempts to have noble families teach the scripts of neighboring areas, to keep us indispensable. And, well, the whole School fucked off to the edge of the map with their Archon, I don't know the one who stayed but I can predict she's stubborn and ornery, or she'd have left with them. Doubt she's going to stick around to refound the school, and if she did she'll probably hate anything that smells even faintly of employing some old Sages."

"The Tidecasters hated the Sages and the feeling was largely mutual. Two centuries and more of rivalry as the major guilds of magic will do that."

"We'll see; stubborn and ornery, pointed in the right direction, can accomplish a lot of things."

They will, however, be seeing that no earlier than tomorrow.

Ophelia,

Tunon's time in the Bastard City is already growing long, and holding court in a single place inhibits his ability to resolve conflicts between Archons in other parts of the Empire. While you're right that he's a far better ruler than the Voices of Nerat and better in most contexts than Graven Ashe, I think he would prefer not to take control of the Tiers unless directly ordered. But rule through a group of Fatebinders might be feasible; I suppose we'll have to see how the rumors translate into reality. I suppose they'd technically allow Sirin or our Headsman, but neither would really be in the running. I suspect that abysmal governance may have been the expected pretext to eliminate whichever of them that proved more troublesome before this Edict proved necessary, but that is useless speculation.

I hope the parley goes well; they came to the blue table once, with less weight of metal bearing down on them than now. None of the reports of what they hope to achieve have made much sense; maybe you'll understand soon what their aims are. It should at least shed some light on the subject.

Good fortune,
Calio

Governor Ophelia,

The word is that you face an argument of armies and Archons worse than it ever got in your time in the Crossing. I wish you the best of luck and skill in resolving the matter without an unnecessarily high body count; I'd wager you'll need both.

Master Ulantis and Fatebinder Calio tasked me with giving you an abbreviated summary of the major shipments from and through Lethian's Crossing to Vendrien's Well; it's on the back of this sheet, and covers the next. We haven't noticed anything arriving light, and I have records back to the beginning of this push last fall confirming that. I had some of the men ask what caravan guards are currently in town whether they'd seen anything off, and they confirmed; it's being stolen on the water and arriving to the pass in roughly the state it is delivered in. Also, it seems to almost entirely be targeting shipments for the war effort; six men reported thirty incidents, eighteen of them iron and seven others supplies bound for the Chorus. All of substantial market value, but we're only a fifth of what passes down the river.

I'm told the local nobility used to guard the river, and we'd lapsed because the bandits had the fear of Kyros in them and stopped causing trouble. We'll look into where that was and if we can garrison it.

With respect and thanks,

Forge-Captain Welby

Ah, Welby.  That brings back fond memories.

They're mostly fond because she didn't have this many bloody problems in them!, but fond they are, nonetheless.

Say, that's an odd bit of ink bleed on Calio's letter...

Perhaps it merits closer inspection.  With, say, a light, held close to the back.

Unsurprisingly, there's another message on the same parchment, with ink that shows up near a candle and turns dark black:

Hey kid,

Nice trick with the sealed desk. Wouldn't usually work, but you'd been having such fascinating conversations, you already had my attention. And acquiring friends I might even like? Well, wouldn't have guessed.

The current mess is not for me to solve; the big guy has made that quite clear. The aftermath, though, well, you'll surely be seeing me then. If you live.

Try not to make things too boring with the parley.

It's not signed. It doesn't really need to be.

Indeed it really does not.

Well.  At least this one's nominally on her side.  Theoretically.  She hopes.

She allows herself a slight shudder of disquiet.

Then -

Mask of calm on, robes brushed, bronzed brooch of scales pinned to her lapel...

Well, no, first she pens her replies.

Forge-Captain Welby,

No, no, I should thank you.  A lot of this I was able to find some sources on my end to corroborate - I imagine Sniggler Dagos will be quite annoyed with himself for missing the shrinkage as the reason his prices went up - but that it was specifically the war effort targeted - you are the only person and organization who both could and would be trustworthy in investigating to determine that, short of another Fatebinder, who would not have your ability to do so.

You've done good work; I'm a bit stuck in Vendrien's Well at the moment, or I'd make a priority of commending you in person.  This is twice, now, that you've put in extra or extraordinary effort to do something very important; I still remember your arrival at the Crossing with Raetommon on your heels, and you didn't have to go and find the caravan guards to ask, either.

I'm actually hoping to convince the Vendrien Guard to knock it off, because they won't get what they want this way, but even if the material ends up back in our hands without our having to go fetch it, knowing where the pain spots for river shipping are is going to pay long-term dividends.  Especially if the Guard turns; there's a Tidecaster, still, and maybe there will be more, eventually.

We're going to have a lot of Earthshakers idle after the war's over, too; I figure they might start figuring out how to do Earth-shaping.

With fond regards,

-- Fatebinder Ophelia Vaudelle

Governor Emeritus, Lethian's Crossing

Mark,

You will be entirely unsurprised who I stole your mini-me from.  ...And damn, I really should have asked if you knew anything I didn't about Nerat in my last letter.  If the parley and so on doesn't end with green and flamey taking a swing at somebody, and probably me, I may as well owe you a bronze.  Safe travels.  Here's hoping I live long enough to need to avoid being your concern.

--Vaudelle

Calio,

It's not themselves they care about; they want to spark revolts elsewhere in the Empire.

Which is absurd, because their audience is a bit busy trying to not die of Edict side-effects, but no-one accused them of being reasonable.  Whatever happens next, if it's not a victory of peace (or somebody finally ringing Nerat's bell, as an outside guess), I'd keep it quiet, play down its importance - lest they succeed.

--Fatebinder Ophelia Vaudelle

Alright.  Now she can be dressed in her formal robes, at the parley pavillion.

The pavilion looks fairly good, given the circumstances and short notice. It has a stone table, not perfectly flat but about ten feet across, clearly raised by Earthshaker, with roof and curtains of blue everywhere the eye would first settle on, and bleached white in between. (This may have been all the blue flags in the camp, stitched to the cheaper white on short notice.) There are ten chairs sitting at the table, three groups of three with two of the center chairs being unusually large, and one sitting alone between the two large-chair groups.

The Disfavored are more in evidence than anyone else, unsurprisingly, but most of them are backing away, because Graven Ashe has approached to take his seat (on the side closest to camp, naturally). The Iron Marshal is speaking with him, and an Earthshaker (Tola, the one she met speaking with Ceveus) is seated on his left. His chair and the two next to him have purple cloth with white accents on the backs.

About a fifth of the circle clockwise from him is the single chair, midway between two of the sets of chairs and directly opposite the third. It has black cloth with yellow trim.

Another fifth clockwise from there sits three chairs with red cloth trimmed in black, of which only the left-most is filled. Bitter Quip is presently assuring the General that Nerat and his party are on the way and will be here within the hour, and that he is merely holding the seat to ensure any questions of procedure can be directed to him and show the Scarlet Chorus is intending to be present.

The third set of chairs, for the lack of official heraldry, merely have pale blue marking them.

Behind every set of chairs at the table, even the lone one in Tunon's colors, is space for a number of other chairs, people not part of negotiations but with useful information or similar. In the space where these chairs might be extended to the left and right of the Vendrien Guard seat are lower, ordinary wood tables with simple tablecloths and further chairs. A quiet discussion might not carry to the main table, unless someone had uncannily sharp senses.

This is good.

She strides in, Lantry in her wake as the dedicated scribe of the meeting.  "General Ashe.  Marshal Erenyos, Earthshaker Tola.  Bitter Quip.  This is Lantry, a chronicler and historian; I've asked him here primarily to take notes, though I do not intend to disregard his knowledge."

"Ah yes, one of the 'hired quills' we found. I'm glad you've chosen a better side to work for, Sage Lantry. The Voices were displeased there weren't more of your school interested."

"Ex-Sage, please, I may still be a chronicler but I did not stand with the School's decisions." Is he touching the remark about Nerat? Hell no.

The Iron Marshal nods, but steps away - not everything is ready, it seems.

Soon after, a Crescent Runner in the direction of the forest shakes a spear. "Incoming, sirs!," he calls.

The incoming are, apparently, Vendrien Guard. One large man in moderately-polished bronze armor, three scouts, and a Sage in yellow.

"Greetings, Archon, Fatebinder, Blood Chanter," says Tarkis Demos as he gets closer, "I will be representing the Vendrien Guard for this parley. I apologize that none of our leaders could attend." He's standing near the seat for him but hasn't yet pulled it out or sat.

"It makes sense enough that you would not risk it; I, for one, am glad that your command was willing to send someone at all.  Having heard what I've heard of what the original goals of this rebellion are - if I was in Tarkis Arri's shoes, trying to make her same decisions, I would not have considered this worth attending."  That's not quite true; if she were Tarkis Arri and in sole command, she'd have attended this to blow it up - but Tarkis Arri is not in sole command.  "I suppose we'd best wait for the Voices to arrive before full introductions, but I'd be remiss to not introduce myself properly in the meantime.  Fatebinder Ophelia Vaudelle, previously Governor of Azure, Viridian, and - much to my regret, what's now known as the Stone Sea.  Prior to that post, I administered Lethian's Crossing; I hope I might repeat some of my successes there in this venue."

"I have heard of much of that; the Crossing seemed quite happy with you. Also, thank you for arranging my release, both on my behalf and on my sister's. She was... pleasantly surprised." He takes his seat, with the Sage sitting to his right.

"I can only do my duty to the best of my ability; it is often said that Kyros does not wish to rule over a blasted wasteland, and I am quite certain that neither do I."

"I've never understood that saying. Kyros only acts directly through Edicts, and all of them make wastelands, as far as I've ever heard. Though perhaps this one will just add a lot of spontaneous fertilizer to the soil."

"To be honest, having read them, I'm as bemused as you are.  At least this one we can break before it strikes, unlike Cairn."

There is a small flash of light from the direction of the south road, and when it clears, there is The Voices of Nerat, Fifth Eye and a Crimson Spear in light armor flanking him. He strides forward to his seat, and Bitter Quip quickly rises and steps back to the chairs behind him.

"I see that we're a little late to this tea party, aren't we? Oh, well, at least we didn't delay anything important."

People who hate this and grit their teeth:

• Tarkis Demos
• the entire rest of the Vendrien's Guard delegation

• Lantry

• Barik

• Graven Ashe


• Earthshaker Tola


• Iron Marshal Erenyos