"We understand she took two prisoners on the way in, intended as messengers. I assume for prompt use?"

"Indeed, to convey the notice of Kyros's Edict of Execution, and request that the Vendrien Guard acknowledge that they have received such notice, if they do not presently find it worth opening a discussion on coming to terms that would obviate it - given free rein, I would leave that offer open until the last possible moment.  As of now, my plans for a meeting depend heavily upon whether they find it worth trying the latter."

"'Until the ram touches the walls', my people said before Kyros. Earthshakers beginning their rituals is the same distinction; after that point, no surrender accepted."

"For once, some sense from General Grandfather. Just don't execute all my spies left inside this time, please."

"I shall convey this.  If there is nothing else to cover right now, I had best set myself to drafting the missive offering parley."

"We can discuss our war plans afterward. Iron Marshal, we have an officer's tent prepped for her, do we not? Please show her there."

Nerat nods.

Ophelia nods, and makes her way out.

...She flashes a quick "quiet for now" battle-sign to Verse before they head out - if whatever was going on in there comes up before she gets to scream into her bedroll - or if she's lucky, a pillow - until she is out of breath, she may just explode, literally.  Well.  No.  Only figuratively.  ...Who's this Iron Marshal, anyway?

Iron Marshal Erenyos is the daughter of a previous Iron Guard (the command staff of the Disfavored) and the current youngest of them. She's the formal second-in-command of the legion and the head of logistics.

"You've come a long way since you tagged along with Fatebinder Calio outside the Bastard City," she remarks, gesturing for her to follow over to the edge of the camp where a somewhat larger tent than most is placed.

"I can only do my best to be worth the trust I'm shown.  Apparently this keeps getting me promoted," she quips wryly.

"My thanks for walking me here, Marshal Erenyos.  I'm sure you're a busy woman.  If there's anything I can help with, even if it's small, please do let me know, though right now I rather desperately need to recover from my travels."  Or rather, her travails.  She is so very done with mediating between powerful people right now.  She therefore ducks into the tent with all due haste before more problems show up.

...There is a pillow here.  She is going to - do a small spell to brush off the travel dust - and bury her head between it and the blanket and scream.

This is not something she normally does, but at least it helps her deal with the fact that she is dealing with squabbling Archons and it is possible they will kill her personally if she fucks this up!

She proceeds to write down the necessary points of her letter to the Vendrien Guard - including the exact wording of the Edict of Execution, which she is not sure she'll share in its entirety but believes having more copies of is pretty important - before signalling Verse.  "Now you can tell me how badly I fucked that up.  Or whatever else was happening in there that I missed.

"...Frankly, I was halfway through to the other side of a panic the entire time I was in there.  Two bloody Archons.  Two of them!  Fighting!"

"Oh, you were scared. Good. You were hiding it a little too well, I wasn't sure whether to be impressed or terrified. You just dashed off another Edict like it was nothing, and then yelled at Archons to their faces. Does seem like you pulled it off, though."

She leaves out the thought that she was already considering herself a dead woman walking when she learned of the Edict, so her choices were 'be dead' or 'a miracle occurs', as a factor in her choice of what to say.

"Had to get their attention somehow.  Figured that'd do it.  ...I really wonder what's going to happen when we fulfill it.  That is not normally a thing one survives doing.  And - well, you remember where Cairn went, after Plainsgate.  I think there's probably something to that, though I've no idea what.  That's part of why I think Kyros did not intend this to be winnable; the Edict mentions a Spire in its conditions.  The thing Cairn - who thought he had a chance to win - made a beeline for, last Edict.  So why would Kyros want us anywhere near those, if they're powerful?  Surely I'm not trusted quite that far."

"If he was actually worried, why not put some other condition on it instead? I'm not the brains here, I can't second-guess Kyros, but that seems like a mistake too stupid for the Overlord to make, you know?"

"He thought I'd deliver it on time, I think.  And - you're cleverer than you think you are.  I'm glad of your perspective.

"...Every Edict in the records available to me, has had - an intrinsic element of dramatic irony.  I can't tell if that's Kyros's doing or the nature of the magic behind them, but...I'm not sure that they can realistically be that smart.  Still, we've set the cart before the horse just a bit to speculate now.  Is there anything else you want to talk about before I get to work on this letter?"

"The Archons have been fighting since pretty much the first day of the Conquest. I think I heard Ashe still has a grudge from before he knelt to Kyros, and the Voices wish the Archon of War was still Blood Ruin. It'd take a miracle to get them not to hate each other now, I think. But nah, writing it seems more important."

"Well.  That's going to go horribly wrong very soon, once Ashe has nothing left to fight but the war Kyros interrupted.  What joy.

"And by 'what joy' I mean 'I am going to have to deal with this, and I am not looking forward to it in the slightest', but...well, at least that problem can and will wait until we're not all facing the specter of execution by force of Edict.

"It's probably safe enough for you to leave me here right now that you can go - mingle, or chat with Bitter Quip or something, if you want to.  I'm going to be writing this letter for a while."

(And thus she turns her attention to the task of composing a diplomatic letter to the Vendrien Guard.)

The letter is, in the end, simpler than some of her judicial writings.

It's sealed, with the Fatebinder's scales in blue wax.

It's addressed "Vendrien Guard High Command - Diplomatic Communication"

On the inside, it reads:

The following is an official communication from the joint forces of the Empire's Disfavored and Scarlet Chorus, under their respective Archons, giving notice of the declaration of an Edict and of a consequent invitation to parley; it is also in part the word of Kyros, the Overlord, as conveyed to and through the Fatebinder who pens this notice.

BE IT KNOWN:

That upon the 10th of Swords, an Edict was given to Fatebinder Ophelia Vaudelle, with the intent that she deliver it unto the Archons of War and Secrets;

That upon the 1st of Blood, Ophelia Vaudelle did so declare Kyros's Edict of Execution to Kyros's Archons of War and Secrets, the General known as Graven Ashe and the entity known as the Voices of Nerat;

That the text of the Edict is as follows;

Those who defy Our just and lawful Order are traitors to Our Empire. Those who fail in their duty to bring justice to traitors are, in Our eyes, equally treasonous. Let Our armies prove their good faith by retaking Vendrien's Well from those who defy Our Will. Unless Our representative holds the Hall of Ascension on Our Day of Swords, all in the valley of Vendrien's Well shall perish.

That a representative, and ideally a representative plenipotentiary, of the Vendrien Guard is invited under a blue flag, with a party of no more than a fist, to discuss matters pursuant to said Edict.

BE IT FURTHER KNOWN:

That it is the consensus of the Archons of War and Secrets that surrender shall be accepted by their forces "until the ram touches the walls";

That it is the consensus of the Archons previously named that Earthshakers beginning their breaching rituals is substantially similar to the setting of a ram;

That other matters may yet require adjudication by this Fatebinder, and she would like to know if there is any similar policy in force for the army known as the Vendrien Guard.

SO WRITTEN AND SO JUDGED

Upon this the FIRST day of the month of BLOOD,

in the year FOUR-HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE by Kyros's TRUE RECKONING,

By the hand of FATEBINDER OPHELIA VAUDELLE.

 

As so authorized by KYROS the OVERLORD, through

TUNON the ARCHON OF JUSTICE,

GRAVEN ASHE the ARCHON OF WAR, and

THE VOICES OF NERAT the ARCHON OF SECRETS.

Her Fatebinder's Seal is marked upon the document as well.

...She does not normally claim to by authorized by Kyros, merely Tunon.

She does not normally speak Edicts.

The scrolls - she made two for the Vendrien Guard, for redundancy (plus her draft/master copy), plus a copy of only the dicta (to be re-transcribed and given to the criers) - continue:

The following is a personal communication from Ophelia Vaudelle, Fatebinder of Tunon's Court, who has tasked herself with diplomatic efforts by the consent of both Archons in command.

Dear Command of the Vendrien Guard,

My apologies that I am incapable of greeting you with the proper formalities, whosoever reads this, but the time spent to inquire with you directly trades off against lives.

I write to you on this 1st Day of Blood, 431 TR, in the hopes that I can persuade you that spilling yours will come to naught.  It is a profound irony, I'm sure.

Allow me to open with this: Kyros tried to kill the entire Tier.  When this Edict was issued to me, my speed of travel meant that I would arrive and presumably deliver it on the 15th of Swords.

Quite obviously, I did not - and that was not only to save my own skin.

I read the Edict of Stone.  I consider it the greatest failure of my career to have been forced to the necessity of so doing, for the havoc it has wrought upon the peoples of Viridian or the Stone Sea, previously land known as Azure, is absolutely beyond the pale.

I want to find a solution to this Edict where nobody dies, not a single soul who hasn't decided that they value what they'll buy with it - in a truly informed manner - more than the life they're spending.

And in that vein, I wish to inform you that the Tiers you are exhorting to rise up are in absolutely no condition to do so.  The peoples of Azure, refugees in their homeland, are desperately trying to deal with their much-diminished harvest while the ground quakes beneath them and stone spears from the earth.  The Vellum Citadel is still on fire.  I haven't the slightest understanding of what is happening with what many are calling the Bladegrave, but it is clearly desperate as well.

It is not that these places do not want to rise up - though I suppose I have some hope that I have done well enough by the people of what is now Viridian in my tenure there that they would follow me, if not an arbitrary face of Kyros's regime - it is that if they did, they would be without recourse to avoid a slow and lingering death.

I want things that are not that.  We cannot turn ourselves to fixing the Tiers' problems while this Edict hangs over our heads.

Please keep this in mind, as you consider what to do about this letter.

(And if you wish to know of Haven, I can - regrettably, I'm sure you will believe - report that its peoples are in fact genuinely happy under Tunon, if the example of the Bastard City holds.  Given my experience in Lethian's Crossing, I think it will.)

 

Sincerely,

Ophelia Vaudelle

Fatebinder of Tunon's Court, 427 TR - continuing

Governor Emeritus of Lethian's Crossing, 429-430 TR

Governor Emeritus of Azure, Viridian, and what came to be known as the Stone Sea, 430-431 TR

Diplomatic Representative of the Combined Armies of the Overlord in Apex, 431 TR - continuing

Someone brings down the two captive 'messengers' and explains to them why they're still alive. They look at the scrolls; one takes the sealed scroll, and the other slowly tries to puzzle through the open one. His expression stays fairly grim, but not entirely.

"We'll bring these to the captains," he says eventually, "And I think I heard you requested a blue flag representative sent, about the Edict?"

"Yes, to discuss what those of us under it want to do about it.  We'll all be better off if we agree on how to deal with this together, at least for the people who are just trying to live their lives - rather than continuing to fight while we all try to handle it separately.  Kyros decided to kill all of us, every single person in the valley - not just the traitors to the Empire that Kyros says exist in your forces and ours; everyone, down to the newborn babes.  And...I can't do that.  Cannot just let it happen.  So we will, hopefully, parley, and if we cannot come to a settlement then maybe we will at least arrange to evacuate noncombatants before Kyros's Day of Swords."

"Appreciated," he says, not sounding confident he believes her, "We'll bring the message."

They hurry out of camp, and the one with the sealed message heads downhill, towards the Matani River (and probably past that to Ascension Hall itself). The other one heads along a ring road, at least until he gets to some trees that will hide his movements.

Around them, the Disfavored camp has become more active; word has passed of the Edict, and while the deadline isn't near, it's still spurring people to more action.

Speaking of more action, though, there are matters she does need to attend to - the dispute over a prisoner, she recalls from earlier; what else requires judgement?

If she heads back up to the pass-watching mini-camp, she'll find him tied to a post in the custody of Mocking Blaze and the other Blood Chanter. (They won the argument by the timeless logic of 'finders keepers'.)

"Ho, Fatebinder," calls Blaze, "You have a use for this idiot, or can we induct him?"

"Well, I'm wondering what was up with the dispute over him earlier, actually.  Care to tell?"

"Not too complicated. This is Tarkis Demos, one of the members of the Apex ruling families and an officer of the Queen's Own blah blah blah. He swore to the surrender, then joined his cousins in rebellion. The Disfavored said he was a leader and forsworn, and wanted to crucify him as an example to the others rather than let us conscript him. We were the ones to capture him, so he backed off."

"Seems pretty fair, honestly.  I'd have to check the specific terms of the surrender to determine whether there's grounds to say he's particularly forsworn of it in the first place, really - but in the meantime, don't do anything that'll get him killed; I'm sure that if they know we have him, they'll want him back, and we do intend to parley with them soonish."