Cheliax abolished halfling slavery today. He genuinely hadn't expected them to, not when it's such an easy wedge with Andoran. It makes it likelier that De Luna's read is right, that diplomatic rapproachment with Cheliax should have been a higher priority, that they could've bribed the Queen to end slavery a year and a half ago. Maybe that's what Cotonnet is here to speak of. 

(Whether or not that's what Cotonnet is here to speak of, he gets an appointment at his convenience the minute he asks for one. He and his wife are Andoran's only hope and Andoran knows it.)

"Are we speaking privately?" 

He asks even though they're alone, and he can't detect any sensors with his arcane sight. 

"As far as I know." Which would be less well than Elie, probably, but Andoran didn't make it this long by being careless about security, and Morgethai's special sanctums blanket his conference rooms.

"Good. Your men are in a holding cell in Westcrown, ostensibly on charges of attempting to manipulate the market in salt cod. I'm sure they'll be happy to learn that they didn't cost the Halflings of Cheliax their freedom today, despite all their best efforts. I don't want a public incident any more than you do – " and probably substantially less, judging from the general course of Andorani foreign policy – "but if the Queen of Cheliax is going to return them quietly, we need your assurance that this will not happen again." 

Oh no. 

What were they thinking  - this week, of all possible weeks, when it was most certain to be actively counterproductive -

He is genuinely and sincerely very angry, and not particularly attempting to hide it. "Who? What did they attempt to do?"

Sincere. Right. Codwin is one of the most charismatic men on the planet, and he won't forget it. 

"Your Eagle Knights tried to burn down every ship in Westcrown harbor to prevent the transport and sale of slaves out of the country in the days before abolition. This would have been unnecessary, as the ports were closed, but of course they're not interested in that sort of detail. Fortunately, they were apprehended. 

– And I will really find it much easier to have this conversation if you're not feigning ignorance."

That is even worse than he imagined. Not even on the high seas, where the law is unclear - not just the ships actively being loaded with slaves - the absolute peak of reckless, destructive, arrogant -

- he should have arrested Andira five years ago. He cannot do it one year in advance of an election she's expected to beat him in, not without shattering everything that both of them sincerely do believe in. 

"- Archmage, I did not know of this. I would never have countenanced it. If I had expected it I would have warned the Queen, and if necessary I would have attempted to stop them myself. I am very glad that you stopped them. We'll pay for any damages, obviously."

When Élie's in a good mood, he has a lot of respect for Codwin and everything he's managed to accomplish. The man's job is impossible. Élie himself is currently and actively in the process of failing at it. He'd like to think that's influencing his judgement less than the fact that the flower of Andoran took one look at his weak, stumbling experiment in Republicanism and decided to literally and figuratively light it on fire. 

"It doesn't make a difference to me if you told Marusek that you needed to be able to honestly say your hands were clean. I know you can't lie to me directly, but I can't believe that this happened in opposition to your wishes. The nation of Andoran exists, to your eternal credit, because you're perhaps the only man in the world who can talk Chelish dukes into acting like people, who can make them trust you – and now you want me to accept that own allies are going about committing acts of war against friendly neighbors without believing it would please you to have done so?

I know you must have had a reason for it. I don't know what you were trying to accomplish, but I suspect that if we both had full information we would find that we wanted the same thing, and I cannot help us get it if you will not talk to me."  

"Andira does not listen to me at all. Andira has not listened to me since Cheliax fell; the only reason she ever did was because I could sometimes, sometimes persuade her that the country would immediately be destroyed by Hell if she played her hand too recklessly. That is no longer true, and she does as she pleases. I did not want this. I cannot imagine she could have thought I wanted this. I have begged her to restrain the Knights from offering Cyprian the provocation he is quite plainly waiting for. I can guess, if you'd like, what she was thinking. It's that the convention was finally, finally to end slavery in Cheliax, against the will of the Queen, and so the whole thing got put on pause so the slavers could get a return on their investments. It's that it doesn't matter how much of a provocation she offers since Cyprian's busy right now anyway and will invade in the spring regardless. It's that the whole concept of 'property' seems to serve slavers much better than citizens.

She is wrong, of course. It is still my responsibility, of course. But she is absolutely not listening to me."

Oh, dear. He's not quite at the point of feeling sympathy for Codwin – imagine if his biggest political problem was that the opposing party was too enthusiastic about ending slavery – but nor does he envy him the experience of Andira Marusek. The bigger problem is that, if Codwin didn't order the attack, he can't actually gaurantee that it won't be repeated. The Eagle Knights will have less cause after today, but that's not the sort of thing he'd like to rely on. He wouldn't put it past them to develop an interest in orc slavery in Menador out of sheer spite. Nobody wants a war, but if Marusek really is deaf to reason – 

Actually, no. The bigger problem is – "Do you have intelligence that Cyprian is planning an invasion in the spring?"

Blink. 

"Only from the man himself. He asked Morgethai for help with the crusade for Razmiran. She asked for his word that Andoran would remain independent." He doesn't finish the explanation. He doesn't need to. Cotonnet knows Morgethai's not participating in the crusade for Razmiran.

"I meant to discuss the matter with you once the fighting for Razmiran is over, as I know you bound not to participate in that. I - have no desire to see you at odds with your allies, I know what a terrible risk that is. But Andoran will fight, and Cyprian I think underestimates us. ...not by so much he'd lose."

He hadn't known about that. 

It shouldn't surprise him: it's obvious enough that Cyprian wants Andoran, as a client if not an outright conquest. He probably wants the whole empire, with Varisia and the River Kingdoms thrown for dessert. But wanting isn't the same thing as taking – he should know – and he's never believed that Cyprian was the insatiable, nation-gobbling ogre of the Absalom press. He's a tyrant, certainly. But he's a tyrant who fancies himself a second Aspex, a hero, the father of his nation. He'd wait until Andoran was having some sort of crisis – some hope that they'd welcome him – a provocation, at least – or he might wait forever. 

And he'd spent the past year feeling so smug about how the devils just couldn't help but stab each other in the back the very first chance they got. 

"If that's his intention, he hasn't shared it with Cheliax. I'm sure he has plans – I doubt he has specific intentions. If I heard of such a thing I'd certainly try to prevent it."

"I am very relieved to hear it. It is, of course, very important to me to prevent the Eagle Knights from going around committing acts of war against our allies, but - they expect he'll find his excuse, sooner or later, probably sooner, and I think he must accept that too to have declined an archmage's aid over it.

I can conduct an investigation. If the men you took prisoner are in Andoran's military I can court-martial them. If they're not - and usually the ones who make trouble aren't - I am almost inclined to say 'perhaps they should just be prosecuted for sabotage', if they're in fact guilty of it. If you're very sure you can hold them. Andira did raids to free her people from Cheliax even when everyone involved was risking malediction over it. I don't really understand the current Chelish legal system, what'd they be facing for sabotage?"

"A fine proportional to the value of the goods they destroyed, or attempted to. In this case, the actual damage was fairly minor. The intended damage – but we don't want that to become public knowledge. ...I am not under the impression that this is going to deter their companions in the future." 

"No. They won't bother Cheliax once you've abolished slavery. I understand that it would be unwise as a matter of policy to let one be influenced into abolishing slavery by the possibility that people will commit foolish acts of war until you do, but - I am separately willing to offer the Queen or the Convention nearly whatever resources at Andoran's disposal they demand in exchange for abolishing it, as I should have done eighteen months ago, and intended to make that offer before I learned of this situation at all. 

The bigger problem is that - I can't arrest Andira. I am sure she did not break any Andorani law; she almost never does. And even if she stops going after Cheliax, this suggests a catastrophic lack of good judgment, on top of the already known lack of restraint. Cyprian can probably just - make some kind of promise of protection of Taldor's shipping and then he has it. And - this persuades me more firmly that she should not be in power, but she is very popular and I believe likely to win the next election."

"Nearly all slavery in Cheliax is halfing slavery. And most of the rest is orcs in Menador, which – let me put it this way: the primary champion of that institution in the Convention is a Menadorian orc, probably because he realizes that if they abolish the institution they'll just start killing all the orcs who come over the mountains instead of leaving the women and children alive. I don't think it should be allowed to continue forever, but when we end it I want it to be because we had a better idea. I don't know what you can offer us to change that calculus, and I don't understand what changed in the past eighteen months to make you want to offer it, but I am reasonably confident that the government of Cheliax has no desire to provoke a war with Andoran on behalf of Cyprian." 

"I can make the Eagle Knights guard the border with Menador and figure out something better themselves.

The thing that has changed is that when I attended the wedding of Her Majesty Aspexia III and Cyprian, and when I initially conveyed Andoran's request that she contemplate abolition which was refused, I believed that she and Cyprian meant to reunite the Empire, and would not entertain abolition until slavery in Cheliax had served precisely the purpose that in this last week it served. And yet I have not been met with a declaration of war, or even the precursors to one, so I now believe that is not their aim, in which case it is worth offering whatever it is that will lay this particular evil to rest. 

The people of Cheliax need aid. I would like to provide it to them. But the aid would be taken in taxes from the people of Andoran, and the people of Andoran do not want their strength to flow to a monarchy that retains slavery, even if it will buy the souls of that monarch's subjects. But when I observed this to De Luna he said he thought Cheliax would accept a sufficient bribe."

"....I believe that her Majesty, a Galtan, was primarily thinking of her profound desire for peace between the peoples of Cheliax and Galt." Which is true, as it happens. Catherine had intended to marry Cyprian well before any of them knew about Alfirin. 

He's annoyed. He's not really trying not to sound annoyed, not that it would matter, because Codwin's ability to read his emotions certainly surpasses his own ability to conceal them. This is the second time in less than a week (sidereal) that he's learned that someone he liked and respected was doing something absurdly wasteful through some combination of total incomprehension of his motives and mulish unwillingness to just ask. He's tempted to blame Iomedae, but then there's that time Shawil decided to kidnap him to Axis for a lecture on not taking over the world on absolutely no provocation. Not to mention the whole quivering populace ready to declare him a tyrant. Is it something in his face? He prides himself on the fact that he's really never less than completely straightforward with his allies. He's not asking for credit, here – it's simply how he prefers to carry himself in the world – but he's really running out of ideas for what he can do to earn some benefit of the doubt. 

"Cyprian rejected Andorani independence even in exchange for an archmage's aid with the most important war he'll ever fight. I do not think we misread his understanding of what the marriage means, though I would of course be enormously relieved to learn that it is not his wife's, and I never believed it was yours."

Yeah, he doesn't have an innocent explanation for that. 

"Of course we all knew that he had ambitions. I hadn't imagined he intended to go after Andoran, though. Not with the River Kingdoms unconquered, or even Taldor – he fancies himself a liberator, I think. And he's not stupid." 

"He's not. But - the Empire, reunited. To a certain kind of person - the kind of person who reads a lot of histories, or imagines himself in a lot of histories - it has an appeal that more River Kingdoms never will. And a port on the Inner Sea, and - I think it's not too hard to bend ones thoughts around until one expects to be greeted as a liberator even in Andoran. At least Andira's Andoran, and - she may well win the next election. 

I don't think he'll do it, with you and Naima and Morgethai opposed."

Well, yes, but that's what he'd thought the situation was now. 

"What, exactly, are you asking me to do?"

"I think that if you and the Archmage Naima have intentions around what you'd do if Cyprian invades, it is a good idea to communicate those, certainly to Cyprian and possibly fully publicly, so that Cyprian cannot deceive himself about it. I think that if Cheliax doesn't intend to invade then I need to meet with the Queen and ask her what she is trying to accomplish. ...do you believe that, if she gave her word as to her intentions, I would be right to rely on it?"

"Publically, Cyprian has no intentions towards Andoran, which would make declaring my intention to defend Andoran from him diplomatically complicated. Privately, I could go through his foreign minister, though she'll certainly deny it. I didn't think it was particularly unclear what the Queen is trying to accomplish, but since you're confused it does seem that you should meet. I'll vouch for her word on this. 

But, personally – I'm Galtan, too. If you were asked to commit to murdering men of Andoran to protect a foreign power, would you do it?" 

"Not happily. It would matter, to me, what they were doing, and what they believed they were doing. I have tried quite hard not to execute men of Andoran for their vigorous activities aggravating foreign powers, but perhaps by this I condemn more of their kin. 

If I thought I would prevent a war to promise to stop it, I think I would do that, and sometimes of course I would be wrong that my promise would prevent it."

"I don't know Cyprian. I wouldn't have guessed he'd refuse to give his assurance to Morgethai. It would be foolish of him to risk a war where I'm on the other side, and he's no fool, but he has the advantage here in one respect – some of his advisors know me. And they'll know that I don't want to fight."  

"I don't want to fight either. No one eager for this war has any comprehension of how horrendous it would be. But even if I counsel surrender - I will lose that vote."

"I could honestly promise to defend Andoran against an unprovoked invasion. But it won't be unprovoked."  

"It won't. I - if everyone knows the precise extent to which we have your protection, and Cheliax doesn't have slavery, maybe Andira would tone it down. She did somewhat when it was Hell at stake. But - Cheliax does still have slavery and it won't take very long for someone to turn up an escaped slave from Menador with a gut-churningly awful story about what was perfectly legally done to her, I have no doubt there are hundreds such."

"It is not in my power to abolish slavery in Cheliax. The decision is theirs. I can't – I can go back on that, but I won't. I can convey privately to Cyprian that I know he's preparing for an invasion, and and my wife and I won't look kindly on it – and I can protect any country I please from an unbidden attack by a foreign power – and I can ensure that a provocation against Cheliax doesn't spill over into a war with Galt, if it comes to that – 

– but that's not what you're asking for. You want me to commit, in public, to the murder of my countrymen and the ruin of my home if Andoran gives Cyprian a good enough excuse." 

"What? No! Morgethai's not even going to do that, and she could do it herself if she were willing to."

Oh, that's not fair. 

"I can't imagine what else you were implying. I'm afraid you'll have to explain it in words of few syllables." 

"No one is going to burn Galt, no matter what Cyprian does, because that would be an atrocity and none of the people with the power to do it are willing to do it, and they are right not to be. Morgethai intends, if Cyprian invades, to support Andoran in defending itself, without burning Isarn and in fact without doing anything in Galt, unless some of the other puppet states revolt in which case she might aid them. She will not do that by killing Galtans, because that is not even a good use of a powerful wizard if they're not willing to burn enemy cities and she isn't; powerful wizards are really useful for supply, logistics, communications, and trying to assassinate Cyprian himself.

I think that whatever it is that you decide to do, it is a good idea to convey it and a better idea to say it publicly than to convey it privately. Andoran's parliament makes Andoran's decisions, and they will make different ones depending what you are committed to. If you are committed to preventing a provocation against Cheliax from spilling over into a war with Galt, but not a provocation against Galt, then I think you should make that fact public, as people will make different decisions if they know it.

I am not asking you to commit to ruining Galt. Please do not do that. That would be terrible, we already have the means to do it, and we aren't going to." 

"If I commit to fighting against Galt in a war, how do you think Galtans will see it?"

"As an enormous betrayal, probably. They all know that it is a Galtan revolutionary who took down the Thrunes in the end. It is very important to them, that it was a Galtan revolutionary who took down the Thrunes in the end. And they do not see their country as - a threat to peace or freedom in Avistan. And I think the restoration of the Empire feels to many people like it has the air of inevitability, right now, like almost all the pieces have fallen out of the sky and into place."

"And if I make this commitment, before Cyprian has made any public provocation – "

"Archmage Cotonnet - I just want to be sure that we are - imagining the same sort of thing, here, because Morgethai and I have been speaking of this war for months now - what we'd be willing to do, what we absolutely wouldn't - and you were surprised by this war five minutes ago. You and I, as you observed at the start of this conversation, want the same thing. We do not want a war. We are not willing to destroy Galt to win one. I am trying to convey to you as much as I can about the diplomatic situation and about Andorani politics, because I think when you have that context you'll be able to do things that work better to achieve your desired results in Andoran. 

I don't actually know the bounds of the commitments it would be a good idea for you to make. I don't know what you can do! I don't know half the constraints you're under! If you tell me a specific commitment you're considering, I can describe what parts of it I'd publicize and what I'd backchannel and how I'd expect it to land in Andoran, but - I do not have some specific commitment in mind here, I don't know what you should do, and I am worried that to the extent you do have a commitment in mind it's one that I would absolutely not recommend to you -"

His head is starting to hurt. 

"Earlier today – I think – I made the mistake of assuming that the things a representative of the Church of Iomedae request of me represented anything close to what they actually wanted. It has made my life enormously more complicated and I'd prefer not to repeat it. I don't know what you've discussed with Morgethai. I do know, because you've said so, that you expect Cyprian to invade, and that if he does, you expect him to win. From this I have cleverly deduced that you would like it if I committed to Andoran's defense. I cannot see how I am to defend Andoran from a Galtan invasion without, at minimum, killing thousands of Galtan soldiers. If Cyprian cannot be dissuaded, he will die, and there will be another civil war. I don't know what you want me to say in public, or who you want me to say it to, but we presumably both realize that Cyprian refusing to back down is a real possibility, and can venture an educated guess or two as to what would happen in the aftermath. It might be worth it, at that. All I ask – please – is that we try to talk about it like rational adults instead of your trying to manage me into something you consider an acceptable outcome." 

"Archmage, I know that a year ago you and your friends did something that risked Rovagug's release, killed several archdevils for good, didn't kill Asmodeus but we had to ask the Goddess whether it did, and left you unable to intervene in Mephistopheles' takeover of Razmiran. It would be grossly irresponsible for me, or for Lastwall, to tell you what we want you to do! It is our obligation, as your allies, to tell you what is going on, what we expect to happen, what we expect would happen if you responded in various ways, so that you can make those decisions informed as far as it's in our power to inform you. But when I'm doing that, it's not in an effort to secretly steer you into doing something in particular, because I have absolutely no idea what constraints you're under, what the stakes are of your various commitments, or which ones you are even allowed to make. I am telling you what I expect to happen. I do not have suggestions for you. I cannot have useful suggestions for you. This isn't indirection, it's ignorance."

"If you consider yourself my ally, you could have told me about any of this months ago. I don't know why you chose to wait until I brought the issue to you, but I doubt it's because you respect my time too much to bother me about it." 

"I thought that you knew because I thought that the Queen of Cheliax told you."

"The Queen of Cheliax does not know! Well, she knows now, because I just told her – did it not occur to you to check? You thought we were allies, and we knew about a plan to conquer your country, and this wasn't worth asking for a clarification?" 

"It did not occur to me to check immediately. I don't have a - diplomatic representative to you. Felandriel and I were planning to speak to you and the Archmage Naima at some point this winter."

Yep. Pounding headache. 

"You know where I live. I don't make myself difficult to contact. This week I have recieved thirty seven different requests for political intervention of some sort and I'm not even sure all the involved parties are literate. Coincidentally, I also learned this week that when the Church of Iomedae requested my help retaking Drezen over a year ago it was because they wanted to reassign personnel to prepare for a potential war with Cheliax and not a blatant bribe. And also that, contrary to popular belief, Lastwall and the Reclamation armies aren't actually independent institutions when it comes to staffing decisions. Incidentally, when I asked de Luna about that, he also said it was because his Church respected my judgement too much to dream of trying to explain any of their decisions. 

I told him then what I'm telling you now – I don't make better choices when I have no idea what my ostensible allies are trying to achieve, or what resources they can bring to bear,  or what they need my help with and what they can do on their own. I've spent the past eighteen months acting under the assumption that the govenrment of Lastwall was indifferent to the project of rebuilding Cheliax! This is obviously my fault as much as anyone's for not asking, but the fact that nobody told me didn't help. I would have made very different decisions had I known. I will make a much less embarrassing show of accomplishing what should be our shared goals if I know what they are and what you want from me. I'm not a God. Talking to me is cheap. If I can't fulfill your request because of secret divine nonsense, then simply I won't. You shouldn't worry about that. But, short of that – if we are actually on the same side, then naturally I want to take your wishes into account before making major political commitments. What else are friends for?"  

Codwin actually has no idea how anyone could have not known the crusade was to free up forces for the invasion? Wasn't it very openly advertised as such? But - communication is always much much harder than you expect it to be and in directions you didn't expect it to be. "I apologize. We should have contacted you as soon as Cyprian refused Morgethai, even though we thought you already knew. I have been attempting to redress that in this conversation by telling you all of the options as I see them, and what I think will happen if you take them. I found it alarming when you proposed burning Galtan cities.  I will share more options now that I am feeling more reassured none of them will inspire you to burn any cities. I do not know which of them you should take, though if you would like me to wildly guess, I can.

I believe that Cyprian intends to find a provocation between now and springtime and invade then, or next year if he doesn't have a good enough one this year. I think when he does that Morgethai will probably try to assassinate him. I understand it's a painful situation to contemplate intervening in and I understand that a likely consequence if she succeeds is a civil war in Galt."

Everyone knows that when you ask for an obvious bribe you have to come up with some polite verbiage about how it's really good and noble and necessary, and everyone knows to ignore it, and even if you're charmingly optimistic and check back six months later you'd notice that Lastwall isn't preparing for anything to do with Cheliax, Lastwall swears up and down that the Reclamation is an entirely independent entity and nothing to do with us, why would we bother to explain that that's all a polite fiction to the single living person who probably cares the most about it. Wasn't this man raised Chelish? 

"I wasn't aware that I did propose burning Galtan cities. I meant that if I kill Cyprian my country will collapse into civil war, and if you're right I may have to. Do you have any intelligence on what he's really after? It matters if it's just an inner sea port or the right to say he's conquered everywhere that Aspex ruled. Do you have contacts in the Galtan foreign ministry?" 

"Yes. If it's important to your decisionmaking you can speak with them." He does not need to tell Cotonnet this puts them at risk. "We think he cares both about an Inner Sea port and about the reunification of the Empire, and wouldn't be wholly satisfied with just a port but it might distract him a while. He will probably go for Absalom, eventually, just because no one's ever done it, and you'd want Andoran if you were doing that. We believe Megane would like him to stick to River Kingdoms, he knows of course that the Church would like that - the other wild card is whether Taldor's succession war kicks off in the next year..."

"I can tell Megane privately that I'll interven if he attacks Andoran on a sufficiently thin pretext. I don't trust her to keep it private, but nobody else trusts her either, so she can do with that what she likes. He won't be satisfied the the River Kingdoms, I think. The poor man had himself all set up for a glorious victory in Cheliax. Taldor's better than Andoran on that front – easier to sell in Galt, and Aspex himself never managed it. Besides, they might invite him in." 

"I am sure that somebody in Taldor will invite him in. 

The other thing you could conceivably do it talk to the Eagle Knights yourself. They hero-worship you, obviously. They might listen to you where they won't listen to me."

"Really? I'd rather assumed they think I'm a vile monarchist traitor to the cause of liberty. ...Thought it would also surprise me if the Eagle Knights as a body have a uniform opinion on anything except the practice of chattel slavery." 

" - that's fair enough. But I would expect the ones who think you're a monarchist are few and far between. You're what they all wanted to grow up to be. What most of them die young along the way to becoming, and it's really not because I don't mind pirates that I didn't rein them in, it's that we needed thousands of hopeful teenage wizards to die for one to eventually be an archmage and free Cheliax. And you're the one who did it. 

That doesn't mean they'll listen to you, but - they listened to me for a while. They are not wholly incapable of it."

"I don't think you needed an archmage to free Cheliax." 

To close the Worldwound, yes; to orchestrate a coup in Hell, certainly. But Cheliax itself? Cyprian could probably do it. If not for the fact that Asmodeus was prepared to fight harder than any of them could reasonably expect, it would be a sure thing. Even now, he thinks it's probably true. Asmodeus needed a nation on the material, but not, strictly, that one. The war would have been horrible – bloody – drawn-out – worse in every concievable way – but – 

"I'm not a humble man. I know what I did, and I know how much worse things would have been if I wasn't there to do it. It's just that I've spent a lot of time thinking about this over the years. We were all very wary of creating archmages in Galt – or powerful adventurers, really, I don't think any of us aimed that high. Too easy for them to become tyrants. Instead we'd have the Army of the Republic, and it would be modern and egalitarian and only kill about two in three conscripts – and then, we got the tyrant anyway. The thing is, I'm not even sure it was the wrong choice. I don't think anyone should want to be me when they grow up. I didn't want to be me! They should be trying to build something that makes  me unnecessary."  

Codwin thinks that in fact they needed an archmage. Possibly not a party of four of them, but he does not think it could have be done with just Morgethai. "Well, unfortunately for you the Eagle Knights will absolutely not listen to you about whether they should be you when they grow up. That is the kind of thing where they don't listen at all."

"It's ridiculous. I've already done things that can only be done by being me. I want the same thing they do, if what they want is liberty for all reasoning beings, and being me is quite visibly not helping me get it." 

"- you aren't approaching the convention how I would have done it but I think it is in fact a meaningful and important exercise of liberty by reasoning beings."

" – I hope it is. Maybe. But if it's succeeding, it's not because I'm an archmage – and now that I am an archmage, I can't help but think how little it matters for any of the real work still left to us." 

"I don't know. I suspect new republics need archmages, as a factual matter. I hope I'm wrong and I don't think they will need it in the long run. But republicanism is very threatening - setting aside the pirates, I don't think the typical noble in Taldor is actually worried about the pirates, they're worried about a social order they're not at the top of. You don't have to run things - you probably shouldn't - but I think it matters a great deal whether anyone thinks they have to follow the rules they're writing down."

"In other words, I'm useful because they fear me. Nobody who loves freedom should want that for themselves." 

"I find that dwelling on the motives of Asmodeans is not useful and is often actively misleading. Yes, even when they are doing all of the right things they are doing them for the wrong reasons. Yes, if they were not afraid - of the law, of damnation, of you - they would be continuing in all their favorite atrocities and in a dozen they don't even like. So what? They'll choose their work, and choose their marriages, and choose how they spend their leisure time. They will complain of their government, and write satires, and flee the country in protest. That is freedom, and it matters to me because I love freedom. We're not mindreading them to learn if they're truly free in their hearts, and I think it is the same error to elevate it in importance when we otherwise manage to detect it."

"I was talking about your Eagle Knights. Well – not your Eagle Knights. But I'll speak to them. And Catherine. And Naima." 

"The Eagle Knights have their own idiosyncratic approach to being powerful and not feared," says Codwin, in the tone of one who has mixed feelings about that approach.

"They're not feared? I think that would surprise a great many people. But then – if their allies don't fear them, maybe they have something to teach me." 

"They're very popular in Andoran, that's half the problem. I would be very interested in what you make of one another."

There's a tavern called the Eyrie, in Augustana; it's built into a cliff face overseeing the water and while there's a service entrance on the ground floor patrons have to get there by flying, or being very good at scaling walls. There's a Teleport Trap up; it has been the site of many assassination attempts. It's hard to convince the bartender to break out the good stuff but the good stuff is very, very good.

"- travel passes have been abolished, though of course the evil nobles are still enforcing it. So you can more or less ignore the checkpoints. I made an official note explaining the legal situation."

"This just says 'travel passes are Asmodean; are you?'"

"Betcha it'll be sufficient."

"I want one of those."

A man walks into a bar. (No one saw him fly up – he could have a way around the teleport trap, or he might just have been invisible and mind blanked). He'd like a glass of brandy, as he's taking no chances on Andorean wine. He's not making any particular effort to disguise himself. 

Wait just one second.

"The brandy's on me."

"Now now, that could be a Cotonnet impersonator."

"Which is all the more reason to get him drunk. The brandy's on me and make it a double."

"That's not even a thing."

"You could whip a hilariously large mug out of your back pocket. I'm sure you have one."

"Sir, would you like a normal brandy or twice as much brandy in a hilariously large mug?"

Good lord, he thought they at least knew how to drink in Andoran. 

"That depends. I don't suppose you serve a Fontaine-Terrail?"

"Should be in the back."

"The stuff in the back only comes out for victories and funerals. Which is this?"

"You can't just ask people if this is a funeral, Treason."

He named himself treason? 

"Bring it out, then – if my friend there doesn't object."

"Not at all. - Ragathiel. Nice to meet you."

"Ragathiel? How interesting – I know someone else by that name. Are you always in the habit of buying drinks for strangers?" 

"Not at all, but your face I've seen before. Or perhaps you have a twin, like Liberty does."

"The bane of my existence," says Liberty solemnly. "He keeps doing crimes."

He remembers being young and drunk with revolution. At least, he thought he did. He doesn't think he was ever so pleased with himself, so delighted by his own unseriousness.  

"You ought to speak with him before someone tries to arrest you in his stead. Fortunately, I suffer from no such inconvenience." 

"Then you are no stranger, and are hosting the constitutional convention in Cheliax, and so I am pleased to buy you a drink. And if you claim that face falsely then I am still pleased to buy you a drink as I would rather fight you drunk."

"No fighting in the Eyrie."

"Don't listen to him, he's got a sign he hangs over the "Eyrie" sign for when someone really has it coming."

"I don't want to fight anyone, drunk or sober. I just came to talk." 

"I want to fight quite a few people but I really doubt you're one of them."

"Wouldn't be much of a fight."

"You wound me."

"Someone has to."

"Talk about what? With someone in particular?"

"With all of you, about some friends of yours. Or perhaps their twins." 

"Round for the table, Josef? Apparently we've got friends, or twins, who pissed off an archmage."

"You may have heard by now that today the Chelish constitutional convention voted to abolish halfling slavery. Personally, I feel very relieved, not least because those friends of your almost managed to prevent it. That would have been a tragedy – don't you agree?"

" - with the Mage's Decrees? That was for after it passed, to make it harder for people to claim they hadn't heard about it, and make sure slaves found out the same time as their masters and couldn't be steered into signing contracts that are nearly as bad."

"It was attempted arson at Westcrown harbor. Which was, incidentally, already closed." 

"The ports were closed to stop everyone exporting their slaves, right? Pretty stupid to try to burn a slaver ship once it's already been stopped. Or were they getting away despite the ban?"

"No one was going anywhere. I agree that it was stupid. I'm here because I want to make sure stupid things like that don't happen again." 

"I think Cheliax keeping all the slaves enslaved after the Thrunes fled was pretty stupid."

"And now the people of Cheliax have voted to free them. What do you think about that?" 

"Voted to end halfling slavery."

"It's definitely a whole lot better than having halfling slavery. But I wouldn't find it the slightest defense of slavery that a Republican vote chose it, and given that I don't really see the merit of letting it fall to a Republican vote."

Smug little bullies. 

"You have a plan to free all the remaining slaves of Cheliax yourself, then! I'm delighted to hear it. Please explain it to me, sparing no detail, and particularly not why you haven't implemented such a brilliant stroke in Taldor and Qadira." 

"If I conquered Taldor and Qadira I would issue a decree that no man is a slave, nor in servitude other than he chose as an adult for fair pay. I'd have a time enforcing it, naturally, but as we've seen today the Eagle Knights are very happy to promulgate decrees once they are made. Also if Marta said that she was gonna call herself the Queen of Taldor now I'd stab her."

"You'd try."

"I'd poison her."

She beams at him. "You'd succeed."

He doesn't have to explain himself to these people. They're ignorant, and what's worse, proud of their ignorance, they have no patriotism and no notion of what it means for a people to be free other than that they themselves should be perfectly unencumbered to play hero wherever and however they like. He doesn't like them. On the other hand: he's only just finished to Codwin about how nobody ever explains themselves to him. 

" – I came here because I wanted to convince you to stop doing things that are likely to worsen the lot of slaves still remaining in Cheliax, weaken whatever Cheliax has of Republican governance, and risk war between Cheliax and Andoran. I don't know if you're really interested in why I acted as I did, and I expect you won't understand it. But I'll try, if you're willing to listen." 

" - are you getting the impression we're not listening, because we're disagreeing? That's how listening works, round here. We'll shut up and listen if you want but it wouldn't be because we figure we'll learn more about how to help the slaves in Cheliax that way."

"I'd much rather you kept talking and considered possibly changing your mind." 

"You got it. Is there some really good reason Cheliax didn't free its slaves as soon as the Thrune government collapsed?"