"Oh, I'm sure I have some in here somewhere. Why, are you missing some?"

"My oh my.  Publicly admitting to breaking your own laws is not a good look on you; it removes the last vestige of ability to keep your bargains you could possibly have!  Why, if that got out...Everyone could turn on you, all at once!"

"Law is what you make of it, pedant, and any laws but Kyros's are beneath me. The Circle of Fifths only shapes the Chorus. I am sure plenty of people wish to turn on me. Far fewer dare to try. And what, pray tell, do you think happens to those who do, hmmm? I was feared by greater than you, long before I conducted a Chorus. Not all the coats would be turning in the same direction, as you conducted your experiments in treason."

....She cannot help but laugh.

It's a sharp laugh, a brittle laugh, but - that's just so blatantly incoherent that she can't ignore how incoherent it is.

"Perhaps try that again; I couldn't hear you over the sound of your blatant hypocrisy.  Though I did pick up on this most novel accusation of plotting treason at the end...which is quite an absurd claim, considering that I need only declare what I have already seen sufficient evidence to judge, in order to have all the grounds I'd need for your death to be perfectly justly adjudicated, under Kyros's Law and Tunon's precedent - which you just claimed to follow.

"So nice try, but you can't have your obedience to the Law both ways.  Either shit or get off the pot."

Tarkis is too stunned by the audacity of calling out an Archon to laugh with the sheer joy of seeing Nerat called out.

Sage Nested Clause? Just jaded enough that she barks a laugh before she clamps down on it.

Ashe is practicedly stone-faced. The Iron Marshal is feeling very glad her face is covered, because damn is that satisfying but bringing their conflict to the fore here does not seem that wise. Earthshaker Tula is terrified.

"You little pissant, you come in here as a sacrificial goat to the Edict you're delivering and presume to challenge me! To conspire with oathbreaking rebels to give them a reprieve to plot greater rebellion, to rob us of our-"

The Archon of Secrets halts abruptly, his body freezes for a moment as his bronze masks rotates, a new face turning to meet you, one frozen in a rictus of pain.

FIfth Eye, through the mask and relatively concealing uniform, is showing signs he is terrified.

The voice that comes out of the mask's mouth is completely different. Its speech is hurried, its tone male, young: "To rob me of life! I struggled as best I could, but I could not shield the legion's secrets! I'm sorry, father!"

Final Scream raps against the faceplate, and the voice cuts to silence, spinning to show Nerat's usual face. But the damage is done.

Graven Ashe is a big man. Taller than most, wider than even more. White-bearded and grandfatherly. You could be forgiven for assuming he had slowed down in his age.

He has not.

"You sick fuck!", he bellows, as he surges to his feet, clearing the table and landing in front of Ophelia with his hammer trailing behind him, swinging upward into a massive overhand blow.

Ophelia was preparing to delay Nerat when she expected he'd strike at her - but since Ashe has that covered, her go-to offensive spell of Lightning and Force, prepared to blast someone right out of the pavillion, slams into Fifth Eye instead.  She's not leaving Nerat's loyal minion to operate unobstructed!

"Lantry!  Drug them!"

Lantry has his quill out, and if he was writing in sepia that might even work. Unfortunately, today he is writing in cerulean, and unusual clarity of mind and lack of internal filters is not something he wants to bestow upon Fifth Eye right now. (Or ever, actually.)

So he goes for his reflex spell of defensive illusions

(Barik is sitting behind the Fatebinder, toward the Disfavored side. He is slowed down. He is quickly, however, alarmed, and starting to rise.)

Nerat raises Gentle Touch and Final Scream together to block!

-But it never connects. In a burst of swirling color emitting from Fifth Eye's hands, all three of the Scarlet Chorus delegation disappear.

Ashe's Peacemaker comes down with no resistance, and a burst of lightning and wind erupts from the dirt.

"Raaaggh! I will hunt you! You hear me, Nerat!"

He is, in an absolute sense, calming down. This is probably not terribly reassuring to his audience.

Yeah, not in the slightest. Also it turns out that Sage Nested Clause has the same first combat reflex as Lantry.

Fuck, she knew she had forgotten something!

"Well.  Fuck.

"My apologies for the breach in decorum, Tarkis Demos.  I cannot say I was not expecting the Voices to be belligerent or at least counterproductive, but this was one of the worse scenarios, and Nerat escaping was...not as planned.

"Especially because now I'm going to have to figure out how to pin that disgrace to sapience down and pull his victims out, if at all possible.  And given that one successfully resurfaced, I - have been cursed with far too much hope that it's legitimately possible, to not try.

"Would you mind attesting that this happened, by the way?"

She is already drafting an urgent notice to Tunon (and Bleden Mark, though she suspects that he already knows.  He's bound to have been looking in on the entertainment.)

"...Priorities.  Peel away as many of the loosely-held gangs and any of his spies in our camps as best we can before he gets to them, possibly under general amnesty; there's precedent - ironically because of Scarlet Chorus policies.  This is blatant treason and I can at this point declare it so on my own recognizance - and we must spread the news far and wide, lest Nerat think he qualifies to gain from holding Ascension Hall.  I expect he's going to be quite erratic in his command, especially in the first few days where he's raging about my 'impudence' - and we will gain much by declaring that the conscripts can surrender if they deliver an honest accounting of their time."

Ophelia, in contrast to Ashe, has cut straight to business mode.  Having her 'what the fuck have I done?!' attack can wait.

"General Ashe, you're the master strategist; where would you deploy me to keep Nerat from trying to be cunning, in favor of doing stupid shit and overextending and such similar bad-general behavior?"

"We, ah, knew Nerat was unstable, but that was a shock. ...Sure, I'll write down that I was a witness. ...And to what I saw of that prisoner, assuming it was the son we had captive. Brennis, I think? He was in good health the day before the Chorus raid hit the site."

Ashe sags, drops his hammer.

"Brennix. That was his voice. I knew, but... had no proof."

He straightens. "Right. To business. If he has Eyes in his camp who can react to him from a distance, the camp will be readying to pack up and move within minutes, from others with more sense responding, if not Nerat or his Eyes themselves. We must assume that he does. The Disfavored can mobilize faster and move more quickly along the roads; putting pressure on them would force them to scatter rather than fortify at a new site. It is possible he will sacrifice many of his horde to delay us, but I believe the Chorus's numbers are currently relatively low. As long as they stay scattered, he will have little opportunity to try anything sophisticated."

(On the far side of the Disfavored camp, Verse was practicing throwing knives at a tree, incidentally near the small, simple but well-cared-for grave of the man whose voice just made all hell break loose. A parley is no place for her and she knows it.)

(She was, however, worrying about it.)

(So when she feels an echo of rapid-onset alarm and adrenaline from Barik, she ignores the knife she had in the air and takes off running.)

BE IT KNOWN:

That the FORMER ARCHON known as THE VOICES OF NERAT has forsworn himself NOT ONLY of KYROS'S LAW AND KYROS'S PEACE, but furthermore THE FORMER ARCHON'S OWN CODE OF LAW, in PLAIN VIEW before the Court's sworn representative;

That this forswearing was perceived by:

FATEBINDER OPHELIA VAUDELLE, her chronicler, LANTRY, and her RETINUE, including one VERSE of the SCARLET CHORUS,

GRAVEN ASHE, ARCHON OF WAR; his ADJUTANTS IRON MARSHAL ERENYOS and EARTHSHAKER TOLA; and others of the DISFAVORED including one BARIKONEN of the STONE SHIELDS,

TARKIS DEMOS, DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIVE of the VENDRIEN GUARD, and OTHERS PRESENT UPON THEIR BEHALF including the SAGE NESTED CLAUSE;

That the NATURE of the HIGH CRIME SO WITNESSED was that of BETRAYAL OF ALLIES and DEALING UNTO HIS ALLIES GRIEVOUS HARMS, in addition to NUMEROUS OTHER BREACHES PREVIOUSLY DOCUMENTED BY THE COURT,

That the VENDRIEN GUARD and the DISFAVORED, in ADDITION to the TESTIMONY OF THEIR EYES, have SO DETERMINED by their record of prisoners taken and returned that NERAT UNDERTOOK RAIDS UPON THE VENDRIEN GUARD NOT FOR THEIR TACTICAL VALUE, but instead TO OBTAIN OPPORTUNITIES TO CONSUME HIGHLY VALUED DISFAVORED IMPRISONED IN THOSE SITES,

THAT THIS WAS REVEALED BEFORE ALL PARTIES SIGNATORY BY THE DEVOTED EFFORT OF ONE BRENNIX OF THE DISFAVORED, WHO HAD BEEN CONSUMED BY THE VOICES OF NERAT,

That therefore NERAT IS HEREBY OUTLAWED, TO BE TREATED AS THE WOLVES ARE, and THE SCARLET CHORUS is offered ONE OPPORTUNITY TO SWEAR THEMSELVES AGAIN TO KYROS;

That the OPPORTUNITY TO SWEAR THEMSELVES AGAIN TO KYROS, with A CHOICE TO LAY DOWN ARMS and BECOME NORMAL CITIZENS once more OR BE REORGANIZED UNDER A NEW BANNER, with RESPECT PAID TO THOSE TRADITIONS OF THE SCARLET CHORUS THAT DO NOT THEMSELVES BREACH KYROS'S LAW, shall last UNTIL KYROS'S DAY OF THIS THE MONTH OF BLOOD for especially those members of the Chorus WITHIN VENDRIEN'S WELL,

That the OPPORTUNITY TO SWEAR THEMSELVES AGAIN TO KYROS for those members of the Chorus OUTSIDE OF VENDRIEN'S WELL shall last A FIST, FIVE DAYS, FROM THE PROCLAMATION OF THIS MESSAGE TO THEM, SHOULD THEY NOT RECEIVE THIS MESSAGE UNTIL AFTER THIS MONTH OF BLOOD HAS ENDED OR WITHIN ITS LAST FIVE DAYS;

THAT SHOULD NERAT HAVE ORGANIZED ANY OTHER GROUPS OR BODIES, A SIMILAR OPPORTUNITY IS EXTENDED UNTO THEM, OF THE SAME DURATION;

That ANY SWORN SERVANT OF KYROS is AUTHORIZED TO ACCEPT SUCH SURRENDER, should it then be COMMUNICATED TO THE COURT OF TUNON OR A REPRESENTATIVE THEREOF WITH ALL DUE HASTE,

That FURTHERMORE any members of the Scarlet Chorus TAKEN PRISONER BY THE VENDRIEN GUARD shall be offered such terms UPON THEIR LIBERATION, and the VENDRIEN GUARD is TRUSTED TO DISARM THOSE WHO WISH TO RETURN TO NONCOMBAT ACTIVITIES should they AGREE TO RETURN ANY IRON SO SEIZED,

That SHOULD NO ARCHON FROM WITHIN THE RANKS OF THE SCARLET CHORUS DESIRE TO ASSUME LEADERSHIP THEREOF, administration of the members of the Scarlet Chorus loyal to Kyros shall be undertaken by FATEBINDER OPHELIA VAUDELLE with the advice of VERSE and the consent of GRAVEN ASHE, ARCHON OF WAR.

SO DECLARED

UNDER THE AUTHORITY of TUNON, ARCHON OF JUSTICE and KYROS, OVERLORD OF THE EMPIRE,

by FATEBINDER OPHELIA VAUDELLE.

(She leaves room for signatures, as per usual.)

"Does anyone have objections to this -- Verse!  Nobody's hurt, regrettably including Nerat; he's proved his treason, though, so - fair game to kill him."