Hm, no, it will fall within...

375 days, actually.  If ever there was a time to slip through a loophole...it is when the lives of an entire province will be cut short if you don't.

So unfortunate it is, that her horse threw a shoe and she simply will not arrive at a sufficient place to proclaim this before the time that Kyros's Edict 'should' be pronounced.

(The way it allows her to gather more on-the-ground information as her travels slow is also appreciated.)

The Edict's wording is:

"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."

And if this is spoken, not on 3rd Smith's Day of Swords, but on 1st Warrior's Day of Blood? Well, Kyros did not specify the year, did he?

He probably won't be amused, but Tunon is unlikely to care. Still, best to hurry; he probably won't wait another year before issuing a new Edict.

Indeed.

It is thus that on First Warrior's Day of Blood that Ophelia Vaudelle's missive summoning the ranking representatives (in fact, the Archons themselves) of the Scarlet Chorus, Disfavored, and - oddly enough, under guarantee of truce, a single representative plenipotentiary of the 'Queen's Own Army' - is delivered.

Her Edict will be pronounced, in Kyros's name.  They shall attend to a meeting to discuss its ramifications.

(There is no 'or else'.  The woman who made an Archon known to be impervious bleed and suffer, as he chased her through miles upon miles of enemy-infested terrain, does not need an 'or else'.  She is the 'or else'.)

The Archons decline. Well, one of them does.

Graven Ashe insists on hearing the Edict in his command tent before any such meeting. The Archon of Secrets, as a trusted ally, may of course be present with what retinue he desires, as he is in ordinary planning sessions for the reconquest.

The Archon of War does provisionally grant that he will, as requested, appear at a diplomatic meeting under the blue flag with a representative of the enemy, at least a day thereafter, honoring the truce. But he is not willing to permit the enemy to react to the Edict as quickly as the Disfavored (and, probably, Scarlet Chorus), as a military matter.

The response from the Scarlet Chorus is not marked as from the hand of the Archon, and arrives at virtually the same time, but says that in light of the Archon of War's demands, the Archon of Secrets will be present at the command tent in the Disfavored camp near Edgering Ruins, at the convenience of Tunon's Fatebinder.

Very well.

When she actually crosses over through the pass into Edgering Ruins, there appears to be an attack in progress. Not a large one, but the Vendrien Guard were trying to break through and leave the valley, maybe hoping it wouldn't be particularly guarded.

Kyros's forces largely have it under control, but a familiar Scarlet Fury is currently outnumbered and looking a little hard-pressed. The combatants haven't noticed Ophelia's presence yet.

Ophelia is quite happy to both capture some members of the Vendrien Guard and help out an ally.  Where's the rest of Verse's squad, though?

Not here, apparently.

When a spell hits one of her opponents unexpectedly, Verse glances around and sees Ophelia.

"Boss! So you're the Fatebinder I was expecting. Good! I saved some Oathbreakers for you."

"You know, I don't know if they actually swore it?  Not much matter to my personal opinion though, Kyros sure thinks they did.  Sent me out here with an Edict."  She may be just a bit frustrated with that, judging by the extra...force in her Force spells.  "And I'm sure you remember last time we worked together.  I think this one's somehow worse."  There's two potentially traitorous Archons - well, no, if Nerat isn't scheming for itself she'll eat her hat, the question is which way Ashe's loyalty to his men falls - just to start!  And then the fucking Edict!

"I think I heard some of their leaders didn't, but I've definitely had some grunts recognize me and try to run."

There will only be two injured ones left in a moment, but if Ophelia wants them alive she will have to say so.

"Well that's quite possibly just naturally-occurring sense, you're a terror.  Leave them alive, would you?  We need messengers."

"True enough. And, if you insist." She switches from slicing open a thigh to mutilating a hand, then thumps the other survivor's head with a pommel to knock him out.

Ophelia will make quite sure they don't escape on her.  "You know me, I'm a soft touch when we're winning."

"Fortunately you're soft in an interesting way. So, an Edict? And worse? For us, or the locals?"

"Let's go with yes.  I'm sure you'll hear why shortly, even if you're not here for the meeting.  Are you, by the way?  Nerat's letter did mention a representative, but not whom."

"The Voices just told me to look for you here and be your escort. Keep you alive through the end of the war."

"Well, that's ...interesting of them to value so highly.  Not that I'm not glad of your presence, nonetheless.  ...Is your squad...?"

"Dead." There's a flicker of anguish before she gets her expression back under control.

"...My condolences.  They will be fondly remembered."

...If Verse would like a comforting gesture, Ophelia will most certainly make one.

"...I do have to run this meeting, and generally one ought not keep Archons waiting - but please do consider my time available to you, should you wish to spill your sorrows.  You're one of my people; I'd like to help, as best I can."

It is unlikely that she would like that.

"I... appreciate the offer, I guess. But no."

Does she look a little guilty for a moment? Maybe.

"It shouldn't be long from here. There's enough horde to send back for these prisoners."

...Oh dear.  She recognizes that; it's the funk she was in, after Plainsgate.

"It's not a time-limited offer.  ...And...  I think it would help."  She drifts closer, in their walk, murmuring - "It helped me, with more lives' guilt than this."  And then she drifts back to normal walking distance.  "Mm?  I was expecting to task the Disfavored to it, being as they should be keeping their camp in order."

"We both have people next to the pass. Most of the other passes as well. And the Disfavored have been pretty uncompromising when it comes to letting the Oathbreakers live. I'm not sure they've taken any prisoners in Vendrien's Well this year."

Well that prompts a low whistle of dismay.  "Then, yes, please do ask your people instead."

She nods, and leads the way down the hill.

Toward the bottom, there are signs of a fight, and some Disfavored as well as Chorus. Verse calls out to a Blood Chanter, "Hey, Blaze. Get some grunts and go retrieve the two prisoners up the hill for the Fatebinder and don't induct them. I'm bringing her to the Archons, but she wants them to carry a message back to the Oathbreaker leaders afterward."

"Fatebinder? Oh, the Stonemelter! That was good work you did in Azure. I'll get it done."

Ophelia nods.  "Much appreciated."

As they head further down the slope, some Disfavored notice them; a couple Stone Shields salute when they recognize Ophelia.

There's a captive, and another Blood Chanter is arguing over him with a Disfavored lieutenant.

"For an ordinary oathbreaker, I might consider it, but this was one of their leaders!" can be overheard.

Ophelia nods respectfully to the Stone Shields as well, hand clasped over her heart in a mirror to their salute.  (It just...feels right.)

"Lieutenant, Chanter; I'm due for a meeting with your commanders soon and shouldn't tarry, but your dispute is noted and will be resolved as I've the chance, should no agreement be reached.  In the meantime, perhaps considering the question of whether you can be forsworn of an oath you did not take will provide perspective; I'm given to understand that is the situation with most of the leadership of these forces.  Still, I may have use of this one, so do try to not dispose of him."

They acknowledge the attention, but it sounds like they go right back to arguing.

Pretty soon you're at the gates of the camp.

"Ho, Fatebinder! What's your business here?", one of the guards says. The other pointedly glares at Verse, as if to add "And hers?"

"I believe you should already know that I am expected, given that I made specific arrangements for this," she begins, "but as it is possible that Graven Ashe did not tell you, or indeed that you suspect I am not the person whose face I wear - I am here as regards a meeting scheduled with Kyros's Archons.  And if you don't know about that, then perhaps you'd best go find who does.

"Don't you worry about Verse, by the way.  She worked under me last campaign.  If I wanted her to happen to you, you wouldn't have seen her coming."

"Unless I felt like scaring you chumps."

"We were informed. We still check." But they stand aside, "The tent is in the back, past Ceveus on the training stand. Hard to miss."

She nods.  "That's good practice, honestly.  My apologies; stress is no excuse to disparage good procedure, even by implication."  She lets a hint of that show, pinching the bridge of her nose.  "The reward for managing to half-finish something that you shouldn't have been able to try is being assigned more impossible tasks, and I really can't recommend it.  May your watch be very boring, gentlemen."  She gives a nod of respect, and heads off.

They give her a relatively approving nod.

The command tent is, as expected, easy to find. Both because it's nicer than the other tents, and because none of the other tents contain raised voices. The Archons, it seems, are not able to plan in the same place without loudly bickering.

"My scouts have been counting the number of your 'recruits' who have fled out the edges of your camp and run right back to the oathbreakers. It is not a small number! Either you have failed to notice, or you have failed to stop them; the former is negligence, and the latter is treason!"

"Oh, and who would know better, hmm?", says an extremely smug voice, which sounds slightly echoy, "Perhaps someone who couldn't keep his most significant vassal from running off and cavorting with Beasts? And who loses his precious soldiers by the handful every time he actually sends them out to fight?"

"Only because we never have good intelligence or scouting, because that's supposed to be your responsibility and half your scouts are just trying to get us killed by the oathbreakers!"

From the tired looks of the guards outside the tent, they have been going on like this for some time and will keep doing so for even longer if nothing interrupts them.

There is a moment's pause, as Ophelia steels herself to enter the room full of people who will probably try to kill her at some point.  "...Must they discuss so loudly that the top of the Spire can hear them?  But I digress.  Once more unto the breach, once more we ride; may we come out alive on the other side."

She twitches the flap open, slips inside, and makes a very loudly understated ahem.

Now that she has their attention.

"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."

"I received the order to declare this Edict such that I would have proclaimed it twelve days ago, instead of now, had I made to declare it in line with the speed I usually travel.  You are welcome.

"Now.  Why in the ever-living fuck are you two so busy sniping at eachother when instead you could be winning.  Nerat, you know that Cairn was an avalanche that frankly it is amazing even the Archon of War could aim.  Ashe, killing everyone you suspect of working with the enemy will have them deciding to hang for a sheep as a lamb."

Well, she certainly has their attention now.

The scroll she read from glows blue-white, and then disintegrates into light that pulses outward, flooding under the tent's walls (and probably over the camp's).

When the word of Kyros is spoken, everyone listens.

Also, there's now a faint buzzing, which you can feel it in your back teeth. Crossing the pass, just before it closed, there was a moment of this, but now it's lasting.

Verse is looking scared, but also impressed. Not many people have the guts to backtalk an Archon like that. Most who do only manage it once.

Ashe is the first to respond, and nods with a grim face. "Eleven days would have been a very difficult prospect. Still, we shouldn't dally. And you are right to scold us; recriminations are not accomplishing anything. We must cross the Matani, and clear out the back-country base that we have not found."

"Now you're acting, are you? Well, we won't complain! We'd better make this quick, even with the unexpectedly long time window; if my ears are right, we won't be bringing in food or reinforcements all year."

Layered over that, coming for a direction Ophelia can't quite place, a similar voice whispers "Nice stunt you pulled, little law-dog. Not afraid of annoying the Overlord?". It's intuitively obvious that no one else can hear that.

The words taste like grave-dust and spilled blood.

She remembers Cairn, who reached for the Stone Sea's Spire even as he became a feature like the one he took his name from.

She thinks of the closure of the pass behind her.

She considers a hypothesis.

She doesn't like it.

"Before we plan a more conventional assault...  There is something that is - evident, to me.

"I think Kyros may have intended that we fail this task."

Does the buzzing in the back of her teeth shift any, as she paces?

"In fact, I believe it the most likely possibility, considering the last I saw of Cairn - a blunt instrument he was or is, but not an incompetent one."

Not that it matters too much right now.

"Averting that, and the consequences it would bring, is part of why I wished the reading of the Edict proper to be to the commanders of all three forces."

She has a plan to lay out.

"Because I'm tired of seeing the people get the worst of fights between gods.  And to have the Spire ceded willingly..."

She makes a soft hm noise.

"Well.  It would be useful, I think.  We now have an opportunity to win without fighting, for some value thereof.

"Kyros has painted us traitors.  Perhaps you intended to be traitorous prior to this decree; I surely wouldn't know - nor, in truth, do I wish to find unambiguous evidence thereof, at least while the gallows hangs over us all.  Fighting Cairn was quite enough.  I do not wish to be compelled by the oaths I have given and yet do hold to fight you, not for this reason.

"But now that it is Kyros that has insinuated your traitorous nature - and not yourselves - well, I daresay it would be positively appropriate for Nerat to take advantage of this to 'turn traitor', just as the particular nature of this Edict would bring your famed loyalty to your sworn soldiers, Ashe, in to the most pointed conflict that it has ever been placed with your oaths to Kyros.

"I propose, then, that we 'turn traitor', without necessarily turning traitor, and in this way claim the Spire - and with luck, the loyalty of the rebel forces themselves - to get this damnable Edict off our backs, and generally flip the board of the game we are playing, because it's a game that everyone, save perhaps - and only, I think, perhaps - Kyros themself, will lose."

And in response to the Archon of Secrets, she wryly murmurs - "I was already a dead woman walking the moment I saw this Edict's text.  There's not much worse that could be threatened while the Overlord would have use of me."

"I doubt the Overlord would be so wasteful. He surely intended to motivate us to action and make his displeasure known, not for us to fail."

"Oh, but what would he be wasting? An Archon of War fighting the last war the Overlord needs? My horde of killers, leaving alive all the spies I have elsewhere? No, no, the Stonemelter is at least half right - Kyros would be content with our failure."

"Regardless, I dislike any plan which parleys with the Oathbreakers. They broke one peace when it was convenient; they will break another, or an alliance, just as easily."

"I do have another reason to believe I was not intended to succeed.  However, it is far too speculative to be worth discussing at this point.

"As far as parley with the Oathbreakers, or the Queen's Own, or...mmm.  What does one call them if one doesn't wish to either suggest they are in active rebellion or completely incapable of keeping their word...

"I suppose I must figure that out later.

"Right now - yes, Ashe, you are probably correct that they will betray us.  If it is convenient - but only if it is convenient.  If they get something that they want, from it.

"Which is why we do not make it convenient to betray us.  We place ourselves over them, as both shield and container - much as we were walled in here (and did I mention that?) -and their incentives will align with ours by their very nature, even as we gently smother their rebellious fire beneath a blanket of peace and comfort.

"Of course, that is an objective much more easily said than accomplished - but need us they do, and in their heartlands' Spire, should they wish to not all die.

"I do suppose that did not stop them prior - but it was only their lives at stake, not those of the people they presumably revolted for.  This, we will have to investigate further - though I imagine you've some understanding of your opposite numbers, by now.  I'd like to hear of what you know, at least.

"I do expect that we will need to ready the option for a conventional assault.  But I prefer to win without fighting, and there is enough ambiguity in the law of Kyros to drive a cattle-herd's worth of bullshit through.  I simply see little to lose by trying.  Do you believe otherwise, Archons?"

"They call themselves the Vendrien Guard. Perhaps they think they would have won if they had saved some time the first time through. I like your twisty plans, Fatebinder, but you may be disappointed - their objectives are less humanitarian than you think. In fact, let's hear from one -" and the Voices's head twists and a different mask, that looks like a scream, reaches the front.

"We'll all die here," a completely different voice says, "Of course we know that, we're not fools, you tyrants will kill us all. We only took volunteers, and not like you, your 'voluntary' induction at the point of a blade to their neighbor's throats. But we already took more from you than you ever expected. The Tiers will rise! Our example will be seen! You crushed us divided, but we will unite - have united! Lapdogs of the Over-"

It cuts off, and the previous face turns back into place.

"You see the kind of madness we're dealing with," Ashe says, pointedly looking at Nerat even as the first mask takes its normal place.

Ophelia sighs.

There are many things she wishes she could say.  She cannot say them.  She will die, if she does, because the Archons must look loyal, no matter if they are, and these two in particular would not piss on eachother if they saw the other on fire.  They can't be drawn into her...

Really, she's not sure what it is she's doing, not that she's unsure of her actions.

Building a power base, she supposes.  Building a network of - people willing to put in the effort to do something better than this.

These Archons don't trust eachother.  They'll defect, despite the possibilities, in order to preserve their hides from the other.

She needs to solve that.

"Those who seem mad can still have wisdom; I've certainly seen some madness that was wisdom from a certain point of view - and wisdom that was madness in turn.  But aye, I don't think this is wise of the Vendrien Guard.  Not that they don't have a point about Kyros's gratuitously ironclad fist, from the Edicts I've personally observed, and the actions Tunon undertakes - but a rebellion, now?  And only here?  They moved too soon, and far too locally.  The Edicts are too fresh.  Even if everyone died 'heroically', here, and the bards spread it for a thousand miles or more...They couldn't inspire their revolution.

"The wounds are too fresh, the people too beaten by the lasting power supernal.  They're already doomed.  It becomes a matter of convincing them that this is true - that they must fade back, and wait, and see.

"See us making their lives better.  See Kyros, certain in the failure of this rebellion to last, become quiescent.  See the efforts of people to live good lives, and become attached to them.  I have a few ideas that might well work, to convince them on it.

"And perhaps they might strike still - but they'll lose more, if they do, and be more broken up besides.

"They haven't even seen the state of the Tiers they're trying to rouse, have they?  I've memories enough of the Stone Sea...And I know enough of what was happening, there, last I was present -" she looks, despite her iron control of her pose and expression, a bit worn and weary, as she speaks of this, as though the stone still grinds beneath her bones as she contemplates the cataclysmic upheaval she Spoke into being - "to tell them how stupid rebelling now is, from the perspective of the people trying to recover with the very harvest torn out from under them.  To tell them how much - whether or not they are happy under Kyros, how much Ashe's Earthshakers - and certainly not those of Cairn's cultists who remain, they're Beastfolk and they don't give a damn about gardening - are needed to fix things -- let alone the Vellum Citadel, or the Bladegrave.

"I was not personally present for those Edicts, but one does not imagine that the state of other Tiers is better.  Let alone the Bastard City - they're positively pleased Tunon's set up there, by all reports.

"And if their commander can understand that...then maybe this trouble can be resolved with less pain and suffering than any war I can imagine.  I've certainly subverted nominally ill-disposed forces with less actual leverage upon them, though this is hardly the same starting conditions as Lethian's Crossing was.

"If that doesn't work out...

"We'll need to take different steps.  Claim the Spire by force, by hook or by crook.

"But I would be remiss if I did not at least try.

"In the meantime, let's sit down, all of us, and draw up some more sensible policies about how we handle enemy forces and suspected enemy forces, shall we?  You two are going quite to extremes in that, based on my preliminary understanding of what's happening, in ways that are both harmful to our efforts and the Empire as a whole, and I'd much prefer that we stop having that problem.  I have a model here -" because she's needed it every time, she is so tired of reimplementing it - "that's usually simple enough that the average soldier gets it, and doesn't ruinously undermine or under-resource the civil administration - since somebody needs to be around and capable, afterwards, to get the harvest in.  ...While I'm on the subject of conscription, though, wasting conscripts by not giving or expecting from them even a modicum of training before they're thrown directly at the enemy is like using an unsharpened blade to stab someone - you'll cause damage, but it's not the sort you wanted to do.  Even worse when you try to stab someone with only a hilt, as Ashe is correctly noticing the Scarlet Chorus presently fails to avoid in the very broad - conscript-everybody-and-let-the-first-fight-sort-it-out - policy you operate.  It's an intelligence issue, too, that they get to wander around in our camps and leave," and I thought the Archon of Secrets would be better at keeping secrets than that!, she carefully doesn't say.  "Now I suppose it could be an elaborate double-bluff, but...Am I wrong that there aren't spies in that outflow?  Not to a significant level?"

"There are a number of spies in that outflow. Most of them even know they are spies. As for how we organize our Chorus: We have the Right of Privilege, as you well know. If you think you know all the tasks and goals which we devote our warriors to, or all the tasks Kyros has set us, you are much more the fool than you appear. My domain is an art and the Scarlet Chorus both a canvas and a brush."

One of the principal troubles with the Archon of Secrets is that he is clearly insane and probably always at least partially lying, which makes it very difficult to tell which things he says are true.

Ashe starts to retort, probably some complaint about the quality of intelligence supplied to him, but bites it back and says something else instead.

"My soldiers have reported seeing livery of Azure and Haven among the Oathbreakers, and the attire of the Sages. Few from Stalwart, but their Unbroken are still fighting my Disfavored in the ruins of their country. I would speculate that while your logic about the recency of the Edicts is sound, it convinces only most of the defeated. If a quarter harden their hearts and resolve and seek death rather than capitulation - that would suffice to produce the numbers we have faced in Vendrien's Well. And only a third of them traveling to once-Apex, at that."

She is going to hate this posting.  At least Ashe is sensible.

"Perhaps I've spent too much time dealing with the unsheathed knives you flourish, rather than considering the hand that moves them.  My apologies.  I do not often find that things I do not do myself get done.  Regardless, Nerat - while I do agree you paint a fine canvas - unless you've orders from Kyros themself to conceal something you've learned, secrets are meant to stab the enemy with.  Not to allow the enemy to stab your allies with.  We need better intelligence than we have - or better access to it - if we're planning to root out all of this - and if Ashe's supposition is correct, we'll need to.  If all the people standing here are the stubborn ones...Even if they can't win, and the reasonable ones take the option to defect - they'll bleed us for every inch we retake."

She continues:

"...No wonder there have been this many problems.  Determination sparks ingenuity and effort, and you both have left a massive flaw in your coordination to exploit.  Or more accurately, you have none to speak of.  That is stopping, even if I have to handle running every single message myself.  I would really rather not be doing that, but if I must, then I will.  The blatant failure in coordination is positively embarrassing."

Verse is shrinking into herself, and also shrinking back toward the door, like she's trying not to be noticed. It gets more pronounced every time Ophelia criticizes the Archons to their faces.

This is entirely reasonable of her.  Ophelia is acting under the assumption that Kyros is going to kill her anyway.

"Though, perhaps I should handle one small matter, before we start properly.  I have not had overmuch time to sort out some things that might need clarification with my guard, such as it is."  She is careful, as she turns to Verse, to keep Nerat in the corner of her eye, and perhaps pander to Ashe's protective streak whilst not snubbing him.  Taking a step in, towards him, while not quite turning her back directly, ought to do...

"Verse, if you believe you'd be better utilized on guard duty - or information gathering - outside, don't permit me to keep you here against advice," she murmurs, too soft for any but her guard to hear.  "You're meant to keep me safe in ways you can, not ways that are my responsibility as Fatebinder.  I'd say that hardly includes dealing with recalcitrant Archons, though goodness knows you've already performed admirably in that field."  By which she means Cairn.

She gives a faint, tight smile and shakes her head. "Don't mind me, boss." She is not going to explain in front of an angry Nerat.

"My soldiers have been trying to coordinate, but half the time his horde seems to take perverse joy in seeing us take losses! Last fist we tried to cross the Matani, and even with the Chorus losing plenty of their own, they were mocking us behind our backs."

"Maybe if you weren't so precious about every single funeral, it wouldn't be so mockable when you send your people into a trap we already warned you about. We told you the Matani was suspiciously under-guarded, but did you take caution?"

"You warned of no such thing! Your scouts reported that it was 'under-guarded', and if you thought that was suspicious none of you deigned to inform us! You may see this as a game, wagering your disloyal pathetic pawns against the chance of acquiring more, but I take my duty seriously!"

"Gentlemen.  We will get nowhere by relitigating the past, nor sniping at eachothers' motives - so do either of you have ways this problem could be fixed in the future?  I do have my own thoughts, but I would prefer that you be able to find ways to not be at eachothers' throats on your own initiative, and this seems a reasonable trial of that.  What would you have changed?"

"I have attempted to deal with the Scarlet Chorus like an honest ally, and been punished for it repeatedly. I am not sure I would change anything."

"An honest ally who would rather burn down villages than allow them the chance to serve Kyros in the Chorus. If we 'punished' you, it was only by favoring the will of the Overlord over your expectations." You see the stubbornness we've had to deal with?

"I believe I would have devoted less forces to accompanying Disfavored attacks and more to controlling the back-country. Fewer arguments if we were fighting in different places."

"Recruiting future traitors is hardly the Overlord's will. But I will allow that dividing our attentions would perhaps have been wiser. If we planned for that and I accordingly had more scout units within Vendrien's Well rather than rely on those sworn to the Archon of Secrets to accomplish it."

"Creating future traitors is hardly the Overlord's will, either, which burning the Tiers to the ground would do.  Kyros's Peace must have meaning - and it is offered to even oathbreakers, when they have not broken it by wilfully causing the death of a sworn subject.  I have decided cases somewhat upon this general line before; I believe I have a copy of relevant previous decisions in my pack, should they be helpful to consult."

...I suppose that it's hardly my place to say that Kyros wishes to not cause massive destruction, though, given the Edicts laid upon last year's campaigns.  Perhaps there is something I know not about their method, but there has been so much lost in their enaction...

She shakes her head, clearing the recalled shock of the Edict of Stone away.

"To return to the dispute before me - you both have a point, Archons.

"Archon Nerat is correct to take action to preserve what need not be destroyed under Kyros's Law; Archon Ashe is correct that badly communicated intelligence is often worse than no intelligence.

"I have dealt with the latter problem in the past; in resolving it I have favored creating dedicated liaison positions at the middle level - an intelligence liaison from the Scarlet Chorus is attached to a line commander, while a scout group from the Disfavored - one that can keep up with the scouting tempo, and be subtle if at all possible - is attached to at least one gang operating in their area.  That wasn't a transfer; the person in charge of the group these liaisons were liaison to was not given Right of Destruction over them except for universal and unambiguous crimes, such as knowingly and wilfully breaching Kyros's Peace.  Duties assigned under liaison status were generally: In the case of the intelligence liaison, to know and communicate to the line commander the intelligence gathered upon their area of operations, and assist in exploiting it; in the case of the scout liaisons, to aid and aim the gathering of intelligence towards things that can be exploited by the forces available in the area."

Ugh. The Fatebinder is going to get smited if she keeps on nettling the Archons. Fuck it, she'll put herself forward a little.

"I don't think that will work, boss. We have people with that job; you maybe noticed Bitter Quip on our way in, here, and he's meant to talk to the Disfavored captains and provide information they can use in their plans, or request it from the Chorus. The Disfavored have someone in our camp, too - Sorry, General Ashe, I've forgotten his name-"

"Salveros."

"Thank you, sir," she says with slightly gritted teeth.

"Salveros has been in our camp two span now, I think? But most of the horde doesn't trust him, and it seems like he doesn't trust us, either, so very little information ever gets requested or volunteered. I think if someone does officially request it, it gets passed on? But that's about it."

She closes her eyes, pinches the bridge of her nose.

"And that isn't working, as we've seen.  Thank you, Verse, for your insight.

"...Blast it, I'm not sure what will fix that short of taking that duty upon myself.  Trust is hard to build, and easy to lose - and if it's already gone, we don't have the year to rebuild it we'd need, before the Edict takes effect.  Or rather, by the point that it's been restored, we would have created much more pressing problems such as, well, the Edict again.

"Given that that's - improbable - I think it makes more sense to isolate operations by - type, of a sort, and not region.  The Scarlet Chorus is better suited to outawe and overwhelm soft targets, while the Disfavored are best at breaking hard ones - we are agreed on that?  I think we should use that as our guideline, here, and - well, you've already been operating mostly independently.  This is more of the same, albeit possibly with better timing.  On a campaign policy level, sweeping the battlefield with the Chorus, ideally from ambush, and following that with bringing the Disfavored's hammer down upon those that didn't run, surrender, or die, seems - most correct, in that mold.

"I do want to try to achieve some sort of viable field coordination, but that seems like it's something to take up with individual commands on a small trial basis, rather than wasting your time, should I have your leave.

"...There's the question of when an assassination is the best route to take to our objective still in the air, and who would be best suited to accomplish those, but that...I believe is best tabled for now unless there are very promising - and immediately pressing - targets.  Those missions are generally quite unique, in my experience."

"Well, you are here, and you have shown yourself unexpectedly interesting in military planning. I think we should assume your presence at major operations, like the next attempt to cross the Matani. It will certainly aid communication, even if you don't have another trick like you used on Cairn."

"I agree, that would be a good use of the resource that is her presence. Unless you have a counterproposal, Fatebinder Ophelia?"

"I do think that I'd be best utilized on that task at this time; is there anything else that you'd like my attention on?"

"Very good, then. Your initial request wanted the presence of Vendrien Guard at this meeting; what is the current state of your plans for involving them? Obviously this would have to be under a blue flag, but they have not broken honor to that degree as of yet."

"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."

"If you insist, Fatebinder." Some of the others look annoyed; probably they were looking forward to watching the bloodthirsty induction rite.

"If they don't want him back enough to make it worth our while, you did capture him fair and square.  Right now, though, we're trying a different strategy.  ...And if the Disfavored come 'round to complain again, should that fall through, try telling them that stripping the man of his false honor and treating him like the average conscripted peasant is perhaps a worse humbling if it gets out.  The Vendrien Guard wants to martyr themselves.  It's a strategic mistake to let them.  ...Hm.  I should likely raise this matter to the Marshal.  Well.  May your battles be bloody; I'll get out of your hair."

She writes down 'Tarkis Demos - QO officer, noble?, check surrender terms re: Disfavored, oathbreakers' on her diptych of things that need doing.

Next!

The Marshal is looking for her. "Fatebinder! Since you're going to be playing an important role here, I think we should give you another bodyguard. I have just the man; he lost his unit in the Edict of Storms and we've been wasting him on training duty since then."

"Marshal Erenyos!  What a coincidence; I was hoping to speak with you on another matter.  I will be glad to have him, I'm sure.  He wishes to fight?"

"Yes. He'd much rather be back in the shieldwall, and I don't blame him, but - well, see for yourself; he's hard to fit in a regulation phalanx. Barik! Over here, I've found your new assignment."

Standing by the training field is - a walking suit of armor, the strangest suit Ophelia's ever seen. He's a mass of twisted metal, iron and bronze wrapping around each other. It's not clear where the joints are, though he seems to be able to move relatively easily.

Also, he smells. Of both human waste and lye, pretty strongly, like he's trying very hard to remove and cover up the unpleasant smells and failing.

He walks over. "Iron Marshal. Fatebinder."

Verse stifles a chuckle, with a "don't mind me" kind of expression.

Oh dear.  "Barik."  She will shake his hand, if it's offered; it's not like the waste gets up there.  Probably.  (She will also acknowledge a salute.)  "I'm Fatebinder Ophelia Vaudelle.  I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you if it weren't for the circumstances under which you're meeting me; please accept my condolences for your loss, instead."

She adds 'Alchemy research for Barik: smell reduction' and 'consult available Forgebound, ?Vellum expatriates? re: what the fuck is w/ Barik' to her planner.

He shakes the hand offered. "I have heard you proclaimed the Edict that has made us busy."

"She has. And she's going to be moving between our forces and the Chorus doing liason duty. I judged she needed a better escort than a single Scarlet Fury, and you are an excellent soldier. Detached duty is a better use of your talents than training, especially given your current state."

"Yes, Commander," he says, slightly resigned.

That doesn't seem quite like he's really willing, but she'll bring that up later, in private.

"Well, welcome aboard, Barik.  I'll want to get an idea of your skillset and how you fight, and run through some spars afterwards between ourselves; I try to avoid them, but I expect that we will end up in a fight sooner rather than later, and don't want any of us to trip over eachother when we do.  Before we start on that, though - 

"Marshal Erenyos, I've heard some things about what the Disfavored are doing with ranking prisoners, and if you have a moment I want to talk about ways to spook the horse the Vendrien Guard are hitched to, rather than spur it."

"We can discuss it, but I don't think our policy is going to change. I was all for allowing a peaceful surrender, but if they can't be trusted to keep to an oath, I don't see that we can reasonably leave them alive."

"I have been meaning to ask what they were sworn to, in particular.  Sometimes the words matter.

"...I don't think that executing them is a necessarily disproportionate response for their crimes, no matter how I might wish otherwise, given that they're surely breaching Kyros's Peace, and worse, knowingly - that's a death penalty for sure - but I've heard that many are quite keen on torture, and then death.  That plays into the Guard's narrative of the Overlord's brutal hands crushing the people. 

"If the message you want to send is that you will not work with oathbreakers - you may as well humiliate them further by refusing to deal with them at all, rather than bloody your hands with their deaths; let the Chorus erase their vaunted names and turn the Guard's penchant for figureheads against them - at least if I were planning the crier's speech.  But someone needs to show honor to the people, since the Vendrien Guard have claimed they are honorable, and - oddly enough - smallfolk don't much like torturers.

"I suppose, then, before I review the surrender terms, that my policy request is that if someone dies for being an oathbreaker - it should be quick and clean, and then you can mount their head on a pike.  I would also propose the option of exile - stripping them of name and title, becoming some other new person, then shipping them off...somewhere very far away, I suppose, since we've no land that's not our land left...but we're locked in here, so it's really rather moot."

"Tch. I don't like it. They could have fought us to the death honorably, and then we would have given them honorable deaths; to give them the same after they had terms of surrender accepted and then betrayed sits poorly with me, like it encourages every other army to give a false surrender and then a sneak attack, as they did. I don't think there was much room in the oath, either; it wasn't sophisticated, I believe it just went 'I surrender to Kyros and his laws, as my liege has before me. I pledge to lay down arms and not oppose the Overlord or the Overlord's Peace, and so to be accepted as his vassal and protected by that Peace.'"

"I somehow doubt you mount the heads of those who died honorable deaths on pikes.  But I do take your meaning; you say they are outlaws.  I think I cannot disagree, if that is what they swore to.  I suppose the question is whether you can consider an oath taken at swordpoint to be - valid, true, bearing upon your honor - and whether how you treat even an outlaw reflects on your personal merit.

"There's not a lot of precedent on that."

"Not most, but we have put ringleader's deaths on display in the past. As for oaths at swordpoint - the surrender was concluded under blue flag. They'd lost a lot of men and knew it, but the Queen and her high nobles signed the treaty. If the officers whose oaths of fealty bound them to follow didn't like it - well, they should have made like the three leaders of the Vendrien Guard; fled, or died trying. Those three, I will admit, broke no oaths to us or to Kyros. Just to their liege-women."

"We had two heads spiked at our camp in Stalwart," Barik confirms, "Unbroken leaders who we captured, executed once we concluded they weren't going to consider an exchange of prisoners. They died well."

Ophelia nods.

"Then as much as I don't like that the world is this way, I can hardly change it now.  Not without a vast change in circumstances.

"I do - hmm.  Wonder how you resolve conflicting oaths; if they consider themselves most bound by fealty to their smallholders, for example, that would - explain this behavior, somewhat.  Much like how many laws can - bend - in the service of Kyros's Peace."

"Well, when they weren't rising in rebellion, our plan was to maintain a garrison large enough to discourage idiots and let Tunon's people resolve the complicated questions. Unfortunately, there were substantially more rebels than we were told" - she throws a brief sidelong glance at Verse and Bitter Quip "- and the garrison wasn't large enough to hold. We've been lenient to any civilians not supporting the Oathbreakers, as far as I'm aware."

"That's good.

"I meant to say that - I'm wondering if some of the lords may have 'risen' because they expected that otherwise their fiefs and people would have suffered for it.  Though I'd hardly know the circumstances of who declared when how."

"Then they shouldn't have taken the new oaths. Now they have; they can either go to Tunon for resolution or kneel like they swore they would." Her voice is intensely contemptuous, in a way that it hasn't been even for discussing the Oathbreakers.

"Honor is not mine to judge, Marshal; only the law in its plain letter.  And the question was of honor; is of honor still.

"...I feel as though the problem is that they may have been - and would be - in fact materially prevented from going to Tunon," she replies, mildly, "by the rebellion's forces coercing them, especially any parts of it that have assassins, and that if they now continue to be so barred from requesting judgement by both sides, then.  Well.  That seems like a problem has occurred, somewhere in the present process.

"I wrote a paper, the once, on judgement of those who were significantly under the power of another at the time they committed a criminal act.  I think that if you make this a question of law, I would apply the 'surrender to Kyros's Peace at first opportunity, and there will be no stain accrued for a coerced or unknowing act' doctrine I wrote then, to the situation of 'all of my neighbors have forsworn Kyros and will kill me if I don't say that I will fight with them' now, and be quite wroth over any who were denied the benefit of civilization because of it.  Though we tread on heavily hypothetical - nigh-illusionary - ground, without an example of such in evidence.  I don't imagine anyone's tried, even if they knew of this."

A thought hits her.

"...Was there even a Fatebinder assigned to this province, before?  Tunon's Court is rather busy; he doesn't - can't - ride circuit.  Perhaps that would have helped."

"We had one here to supervise the surrender itself; I forget his name, middle-aged man with a spear, used illusion magic and some lightning when we had a Bane attack. I don't think we've had anyone stationed here for more than a fist besides that. Some passing through, naturally, since this was pacified ground and a good central road, but if there have been any since the oathbreakers started their rebellion, they didn't make themselves known to the Iron Guard."

"...Pagolo, possibly; I don't believe I've ever met the man but I have heard of him.  Anyway.  Can't change the past, as far as I know, so I believe that's all I have for the moment; I may have something related to my original inquiry - but properly refined - for you overmorrow, once I've a sense for some relevant things.  I believe tomorrow I will visit the Scarlet Chorus's encampment, should there be no news from our opponents."

"That seems reasonable. If you're likely to be heading out into the backcountry, Ceveus the Younger may have some things worth keeping an eye out for; I believe we're short some Earthshakers we expected to arrive last fist. And our smith here, Isotanis, may have some surplus iron kit he could sell. Beyond that - I'll get someone planning a location outside camp to meet under truce."

"My thanks, Marshal."

'Investigate missing Earthshakers?' goes on her to-do list.

As does 'Find/make dicta re: surrender and not die'.

If she wanders over toward the forge (not forge-bound, this is just for repairs and working iron), there is a random Chorus guy arguing with a Stone Shield.

"Hey, I'm not saying I understand how everything here works, yet, I'm just asking, since we're allies, for my falx back."

"I took that trophy while you were an Oathbreaker, I'm not giving it back just because you're supposedly on our side now."

"...If you two want my opinion, I do believe I have one."

Holder sets a price not to exceed three times the item's production cost but can't refuse to sell, she thinks.

"Fatebinder! Yes, I'd accept your decision. Definitely better than arguing with this conscript."

"Sure, I'll tell my side and you tell yours and then the Fatebinder judges? That's fair."

"That is basically how it goes; I may ask clarificatory questions, and I in particular make a habit of explicitly stating when I make an official ruling, rather than a preliminary opinion, because I prefer to give people a chance to respond to me - other Fatebinders might not.  Not that I expect you'll see any other than myself for the next year or so."

"Sure. So, I was fighting with the Guard - a fist ago or so, and we fought the Disfavored, and he beat me, fair and square. Knocked me out, but I lived, so good luck for me. Only I woke up and my family falx was gone. It's been ours - was ours? - for three, probably five generations. And, you know, fair, beat me up and took a trophy. But then a day later the Chorus comes by, and they find what's left of my unit, who are all pretty beat, and say we're conscripted. And, sure, that's fair, too, I was certainly already thinking that joining Kyros's side was looking like a better idea every day, so I went along with it. And the induction rite was two nights ago, ten of us and I got one of the nine knives, so I'm in the Chorus, and they said 'Go get yourself a decent weapon!', not the stupid stone knife that only gets used for induction anyway. And I thought You know what's a really decent weapon, my family falx, and now the guy who has it is my ally, so I came over here to ask for it back. And that's it right there."

She nods.  "So noted.  And your side of the story?", she directs to the Stone Shield.

"Basically accurate. He was a rebel and an oathbreaker when I took the trophy, and the right of battle trophies is well-established. Sure, it's good that he's a new man who fights for Kyros, but it doesn't belong to him, it belonged to the man he used to be and now it belongs to me."

Some legal principles that might matter here:

- War trophies are indeed established practice, especially among the Disfavored, though there aren't strong precedents that they are universal rights.

- Graven Ashe has a decree on proper rationing which considers weapons left idle to be a minor misuse of resources

- The obligation to assist an ally does exist, again not as a universal right, but wouldn't obligate him to give him this weapon if he has (or can quickly get) another

- The Court has the right to take and keep artifacts of conquered peoples for display, though usually this is restricted to things like culturally-significant banners and crowns.

Also, the Scarlet Chorus is about strength and would generally look down on him for wanting a Fatebinder to give him a weapon rather than taking or making one by his own effort.

And, in fact, Verse is snorting a little at him, off to the side.

"...Well.  This sounds like the sort of thing I'm going to get a lot of; this means I'm going to want to properly set out the logic.

"You," she gestures to the Stone Shield, "have primary claim to the weapon by right of spoils.  But just as swearing yourself to Kyros's Peace does not clean your slate of every crime, so too does it not break every bond - not under Kyros's Law; the Archon of Secrets can do what it wants when tending to its own affairs, as per bloody usual.  He has some right to his heritage, no matter that it is your trophy.

"I think, therefore, that I am going to ask that you," the Stone Shield, "name a price, within some number multiple of the price to commission an equivalent falx - which you will consult a professional that is not either party's friend, upon, if the number's challenged - and if you," the new conscript, "are willing to pay that price, ownership reverts to you when you pay it - and a similar debt will accrue if it 'goes missing' into your possession.  Otherwise, stop bothering him about it.  And this is of course a trade within your circles, so you do not need a permit to do it.  Do either of you wish to respond to this before I issue a formal ruling?"

"I didn't really keep my rings when I was conscripted. How long does the price to buy it back last?"

The Stone Shield smirks. "No, Fatebinder."

"Lasts indefinitely; only changes if the both of you agree, or you challenge the price and it's too far over market value - well, the multiple thereof - when appraised.  Anything else?"

"No, I accept that judgment, ma'am."

"Technically you have no choice whether to accept, and you do not have any appeal, according to the way Fatebinders work - when we are doing our jobs, we are speaking with an Archon's voice - but - well.  I don't like to leave resentment in my wake.  Let me just..."

Write this down.

BE IT KNOWN:

That before the Court is a matter in which a soldier conscripted by one Archon wished to invoke the duty to aid allies to compel the return of specific property seized as spoils by a soldier of another before the first was conscripted;

That this Fatebinder of the Court expects to encounter many similar incidents over her tenure;

That this Fatebinder, in the interest of time and predictability, shall set forth her logic in this case as it will usually follow in other cases, such that cases of the same fact pattern may be resolved without needing her close attention.

BE IT KNOWN:

That the Court only judges this as a matter of interpretation of Kyros's Law, and not as a matter of the law of any particular Archon; 

That the Court considers this matter as primarily a question of property rights, not a matter of duties owed, and explicitly denies the claim that duty to aid allies can compel production of a specific object without specific need of that object, examples of such need including being best skilled in its use such that an equivalently useful object is otherwise unavailable, or the object having specific properties needed to complete a duly-assigned task;

That the Court is not, in issuing this judgement, waiving or limiting its right to claim and display items of conquered peoples;

BE IT KNOWN:

That the Court has previously judged that if you are outside Kyros's Peace, and enter within it, certain crimes - but not all crimes - are null;

That if not all crimes are null outside of Kyros's Peace, so too not all rights should be;

That claim to ownership of specific identifiable objects is a right that is not nullified for those that exist outside of Kyros's Peace;

BE IT KNOWN:

That the Court thusly ORDERS that a price be set by its present holder for the return of one (1) heirloom bronze falx, not to exceed the cost of three (3) times the price in materials and labor of creating a similarly complex falx;

That the Court stipulates that this price, once offered before a credible witness, is fixed at the value so offered or the cost of producing an equivalent item in materials and labor, whichever is higher, unless the present holder of the item so waives the price floor;

That the Court stipulates that the price in materials and labor may be established by consulting licensed wrights of the appropriate sort of item that neither party has an ongoing relationship of business, friendship, animosity, or other pursuits with;

That the Court stipulates that such a consultation must either be witnessed by either a credible witness or the other party, or given in writing with signature, to be valid;

That the Court stipulates that each party has the right to invoke such review once per calendar year, or by consent of both parties;

That the Court stipulates that there shall be at least one such appraisal before the trade is consummated, except if this is waived by the present holder of the item;

BE IT KNOWN IN ADDITION:

That if possession of such an item is transferred to another party by trade, whether within or without the immediate circle, the right to buy it back is still extant, but the new holder may set a new price consistent with these rules;

That if the item is outside of the possession of a person sworn to Kyros's Peace for a consecutive set of days larger than one month, (on the twenty-seventh day,) the original owner's claim will regain primacy should it not return to the possession of its prior holder immediately upon re-entering the possession of persons sworn to Kyros's Peace;

That if the item is stolen, and ends up in the possession of its original owner before the twenty-seventh day, the original owner shall either swear truthfully and verifiably that it is not by their hand or the hand of their allies that the theft occurred, or immediately incur a debt of the price so offered;

That had this item been a generic (but in some way recognizable) example of its kind, the Court would have set its price-multiple cap at four times the cost of production, an increase by one;

That should this item prove to have artifact properties, the price-multiple cap will be increased by two and the holder may set a new price once;

That should both of those conditions have held, the Court would have applied both increases to a total multiple of six.

SO WRITTEN AND SO JUDGED

Upon this the FIRST day of the month of BLOOD,

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

By the hand of FATEBINDER OPHELIA VAUDELLE,

 

As so authorized by TUNON, the ARCHON OF JUSTICE.

"Right."  She shakes out her hand, stamps the papers with her seal, and returns the absurd contraption by which she made a second copy of the scroll as she wrote it to her pack.

"I'll need to take these to a scribe to be copied; I will need some for the criers, because I don't want half a dozen of you tracking me down over this if you can sort these cases out on your own.  Each of you should get a copy of the decision if you want one, I will send one of the canonical copies to Tunon's Court, and I will keep one myself for my reference.  What have you decided to charge him?"

"Half an iron seems fair."

She nods, makes a note.

"So witnessed.  Good luck, you," she says to the new guy.

He nods, and heads off, probably back to the Chorus camp.

Isotanis the smith seems to be having a quiet, slightly heated conversation with an Iron Walker over that way, past the (fairly small) prison cage. Back the other way, an unusually tall Iron Guard is up on a platform, talking with an Earthshaker below him - that might be Ceveus.

She's inclined to snoop on the heated conversation; talking to Ceveus and the Earthshaker...

Hm.  Okay, actually, people going missing is pretty important and she expects that most of the Disfavored aren't giving enough of a damn after Cairn happened.

"If either of you want to snoop on the heated discussion over there that'd be great; I think it might need a Fatebinder - but I know loyal people vanishing into thin air needs a commander to respond, and I've been asked to help with that."

"I can listen to Isotanis, Fatebinder." Well, he can try, at least. He's not exactly good at subtlety.

"If you want; don't just do it because I asked, do it because you think you can or that failing would be worth it.  Worst comes to worst you can just tell him I wanted to know what was going on, anyway."

And Ophelia heads to Ceveus.

"I haven't heard anything, Ceveus", says the (fairly junior) Earthshaker.

"It's been half a span! Nothing?"

"Nothing. Not even a bird."

"The missing Earthshakers are still missing, I presume."

"Fatebinder!", says Ceveus, "Yes. We sent a bird to Radix Ironcore three fists ago ordering all Earthshakers not already deployed to Vendrien's Well. I don't know if you were tracking how they organized themselves after we - or, well, you, wasn't it? - dealt with Cairn, but he's been their leader; Iron Guard and Chief Earthshaker. They're based in the Stone Sea, near the remains of Cairn, and we got a confirmation back from them after a few days, but they should have reached the valley in a fist or less, and we've heard nothing, not even scout sightings."

"Wouldn't help that most are deployed, if my last few projects are still going - trying to unfucken the province after the Edict happened to it.  My money's on Beastfolk ambush, though; Cairn had a - cult.  And, y'know, if they pissed off the wrong tribe - could've been big trouble.  They certainly have the tactics to pull it off, if they're motivated to for some reason.

"Couldn't say what might've gotten them if they made it here."

"They had the Beasts under control as of the last time Radix gave us a general situation report, I think, but they could have returned, they are crafty savages. Last we heard, they were making for a pass to the south-east. We can't spare a patrol, but you're likely to be traveling around, right? You might have the opportunity."

"One of them got through my guards and wards; I really doubt they're as 'under control' as Radix thinks.  I'll keep my eyes open, though.  Which pass was it?"

Into her notebook this goes!

Some directions are given; his map isn't good, but he has landmarks and the approximate angle relative to the Mountain Spire's shadow at noon. (It's like an enormous sundial. Useful, that.)

She takes this down as well, vaguely wondering if the principle replicates.  She imagines somebody must have tried by now.

"I'll let you know what, if anything, I find, Ceveus."

With the quest logged in her book, she is going to go see what's up with the argument over there!  If it's still happening.

It quieted down when Barik approached. He shrugged and said he was listening because the Fatebinder was interested, and Isotanis nodded and said she could ask, but he still didn't want it overheard.

Barik ambled back in Ophelia's direction and will pass this on. Though actually the Iron Walker who was talking, Euryton, left pretty soon after he did, so who knows what that means.

She'll visit Isotanis herself, then.

"Seemed like you were having a spot of bother, there."

"We have," he says quietly, "And, actually, it's Court business. Shipments of Forge-Bound iron have turned up underweight, and the last one went missing entirely. I've been behind on making armor and repairs for a span now; we've tried to keep it under wraps to avoid hurting morale, but at this point it's not going to last. Command has reports of the Oathbreakers with a suspicious number of iron weapons, too much to be battlefield spoils."

"...Bloody hell.  Alright, I am going to look into that with priority; who's shipping it?"

"Direct from Lethian's Crossing, but that doesn't narrow it down much, they've got a half-dozen shipping concerns - or, I don't really need to tell you, do I, you were their governor. The Forge-Iron Guard should be supervising the loading on the river, but when it comes off the water and onto carts, I don't think they do. We do mark our crates, though; see this one. Looks accidental, but distinctive." There's a pattern that looks like three small claws cut into a corner, with a fourth scratch on a diagonal.

"Yeah, but if it was a specific one of those I could have started there.  Narrows things down a bit.  So I will want to know who's been hired for this, to work my way down the chain to where someone's been stealing from Kyros.  And myself, for that matter, though Lethian's Crossing is not my official concern anymore."

That goes in her priority slot: 'Forge-Iron theft on last mile to Dsfv; check SC, IG.'

"It probably would be easier to start looking from that end, but as I heard that's not an option until we fulfill the Edict. From this end - you could check with the Marshal, she might have records of who made deliveries, but all I remember is that the faces driving the carts haven't been very consistent. Probably they're taking the lowest bidder for their drovers."

"Birds can fly where they please, still, I believe.  I will check with the Marshal, though."

"Thank you. It hasn't had large effects on equipment quality yet, but I'll have to resort to bronze replacements if it keeps up."

Alright, to the Marshal to get the names of the shipping company, and then to the birds, after a short stop to get the decree transcribed for later replication.  (Never rely on a single point of failure.)  She has messages to send.

Dear Calio,

I regret that I do not write with pleasant news, above and beyond the bit where I am dealing with two Archons having a snit and their forces following their lead; it seems that someone has been stealing from the Court's shipments of iron to the front!  As I cannot track this down from the Lethian end, being trapped inside Vendrien's Well until something about the present situation changes, I thought I might prevail upon you to shake loose what information may be found within the records of the shipping concerns of the Crossing, and so on down, if you have the time.  I'm told that the Iron Guard were hiring on random drovers from whoever was available for the last miles of transport; I believe that's likely where the theft happened, and will be pursuing that on my end but would like you to do so on yours, if you've the time.  Please tell them that I did not hire them to make sure the iron made it most of the way to its destination.

The shipments were arriving underweight; I'll transcribed the amount that should have arrived, vs. the amount that did, with the shipping information.

Additionally, whoever did it managed to steal the most recent shipment sent to the Disfavored in its entirety, which suggests that they knew before I did that the valley would close - at least, I would not have risked such audacity had I not known that the opportunity to steal Forge-Bound iron was drawing to a close.  And since so much of it is ending up in Vendrien hands...I am concerned.

The crates in question would have borne the Disfavored's mark somewhere, which I have reproduced below.

[Ophelia here retranscribes the mark, actual size, and the various suppliers, shipment sizes, and results.]

I here leave off this scroll to speak to the Scarlet Chorus and determine if they have experienced similar supply shrinkages.

...She needs to actually do that; damn.  Alright.

She'll wait on sending the scroll with her judgement on to Tunon's Court to be archived for now, then.

"Unfortunately, we didn't record who was carrying the last legs until we noticed there was a problem. The ones we have recorded had the Jade Marmots, the Visitors of Prosperity, the Yellow Moguls, the Hand-Over-Quill, and the Linked Rings. Marmots, Quill, and Rings had three shipments each, the others only one each. The only shipment since we started tracking that came in completely up to expectations was from the Marmots, but that might be chance. The rest have been short anywhere from a third to a twentieth. We think the two before we tracked were each short a fifth, and I asked Pentibor, who's been following us for two years with a trade license, and his memory was that those were probably the Moguls and the Rings."

"...I may have to have words for whoever had the Iron Guard not doing the lading, if it occurred consistently like that.  It might have been the docks.  Where were the shipments unloaded, if you know?"

"I think it was 'Hotchiss Knee'? Down the river from Lethian's, up one of the tributaries that joins it downstream, then unloaded onto Ironhaul Trail before the stream gets too small to float a barge of metal. The Crossing merchants negotiated for who made those pickups and who hired the bargemen, though the Forge-Iron Guard supervised them and gave approval once there wasn't a direct Court representative in place."

She nods.  "Thank you; I'll begin my search there.  ...I might like to borrow a bit of muscle to loom ominously at people when I do so, if you've a few men to spare; sometimes an iron fist will get what a silver tongue cannot.  ...That, and I do expect that whoever took the metal will object to our presence."

"If you have some specific suspicions I can definitely give you a larger escort temporarily. I suspect Barik and a Scarlet Fury are plenty intimidating for anyone who isn't a hardened criminal, though."

"She's got us there, scrap-man."

"Did Nerat pick you as an escort specifically because he knew it would be me you'd be inflicted on? --My apologies, Iron Marshal. I'll do my best."

"Unfortunately, I can't say Nerat wanted to annoy you specifically, Barik; Verse and I worked together on the whole...Cairn...thing.  I expect this was his idea of a friendly gesture.

"...You do have a point, Marshal; 'A Fatebinder, a Scarlet Fury, and an Iron Walker walk into a bar' sounds like a jester's quip; you never see all three together.  Sells the way we're all pissed off about this, for sure."

"I have not earned that rank."

"You have. You do not hold that rank because you are currently not capable of carrying out the standard duties of an Iron Walker or wearing the standard uniform. Should you be stripped of the relic the Edict trapped you in, you will be given Iron Walker armor the minute Isotanis has refit it to you, and he will have a suit ready the hour he hears of it, because he knows it, and I know it, and I don't think there's a single Iron Guard who doesn't know it. The only soldier in this camp who doesn't know it is one particularly stubborn man named Barikonen."

...Ophelia pats Barik's shoulder, carefully.  "Trust me, you are in very august company when you doubt yourself.  You will be in even more rarified company should you overcome the doubts you have, and claim what you have earned by your own merit.

"...Perhaps we should give him a title, if the promotion is unavailable for technical reasons," she asides to the Marshal, sotto voce but not too quiet for anyone to hear.

"If you judge it useful to claim you have an Iron Walker as one of your retinue, I can declare him an Iron Walker without reservation."

"Commander, I do not wish that promotion. Please do not give it to me before I can uphold it properly."

"...If the Fatebinder considers it your duty, you have no right to refuse. But if she doesn't... 'Iron Cliff Barikonen' seems adequate."

He slowly nods and turns to Ophelia.

"...Thank you, but...I think I must decline this, Iron Marshal.  To force a man into a role he would die inside to take is a horror; I will not do that to him.  And as much as I appreciate this, I have known Barik for a day and know he is no Iron Cliff.  That said...Barikonen," she intones the name, and what comes after, like a prophecy, a curse, "You need a place like a fish needs water."

"If you do not find one yourself, one may well be made for you."

"I can see it now; Stormgraven Barikonen, sole survivor, the Lone Stone Shield who has endured so much, forever set apart - 

"Would your phalanx want that?  Ask that of you?

"...I didn't think so."

Her voice is oddly gentle, now, as she continues speaking.

"I think, Marshal Erenyos, that it may be best if we return to the question of whither and how to promote this man, as he has rightly earned, at a later date.

"Barik, take some time to yourself to think.  And not to self-recriminate; it helps no-one.  I will not have it occurring under my command any more than I will tolerate it from myself.

"Verse, with me, if you would."

Barik reacts... approximately in slow motion, moreso than usual. Like he is spending too much effort on understanding and processing what she just said to pay attention to things outside of his head. But he manages a nod before she leaves.

She follows, looking unimpressed.

"He wasn't much of a thinker even before he got wrapped in that outfit, you know. You might overheat his brain."

"He needed a kick in the pants.  He still needs to be freed from the weight of his phalanx's graves.  ...And that is, I think, rather unfortunately literal.  Where else could that metal have come from?  Where else could his phalanx have gone?  They were lost in the reading of the Edict of Storms, which made the Bladegrave.  ...Which is odd, now that I think about it; did - I believe it was Nunoval, if I recall correctly - not warn them?

"I agree that he's not an impressive thinker - but that's not what I pushed him for.  That's not how I see him growing.

"His ability to endure impressed me.  He'd have been well within his rights to die with the rest of the unit whose ghosts still haunt him - and yet, he didn't.  He clings to life with a tenacity I've yet to see rivalled, no matter how many of his troubles are self-inflicted expressions of grief.  I think he'll rise to overcoming them the same way he rose to surviving the Storm, given a good incentive.

"...Which reminds me - while I know that trying to sheathe your wit entirely is tilting at Spires - please consider whether you'd appreciate someone making a 'jest' about your comrades before you make a quip about what remains of his?  You two...have this in common."

"If he can't take it, that's his problem," she says dismissively. "I don't beat myself up and it was much more my fault than his, there's no way he was there without orders."

"...The things we are given no choice in often hurt the most."

She blinks away the thoughts of grinding stone.  Of having not been quite enough, no matter that she tried - of not even this, but having failed herself in the moment.  She could have armed Seeking-Sheath, and the other hand-picked javelineers, with a glass-tipped spear, full of the acid that made her the Stonemelter, when the pitch failed to truly hinder Cairn and she reached for more desperate measures.  She didn't, because she did not recognize that it was a time to dare desperately lest the challenge swell before her to something insurmountable.  She didn't have enough of the acid to truly harm Cairn, rather than merely hurt him, when she did deploy it, betraying her own philosophy that when one strikes to kill one should be all of sure, quick, and kind.

You are already snuffing out a life, no matter how nasty, brutish, and short.  There is no reason to be cruel when you do.

But she digresses.

"That said...that is a thought for another time.

"What I'd like to ask you to consider, in this, is...

"There is a sort of person you are.

"You care about your sisters.  Sisters in battle, if not sisters by blood.  I couldn't spend that long with only you to watch and not see it.

"Do you want to be the sort of person that means you need the armor you've grown around your grief, now that they've been taken from you?  Even if it hurts someone you blame?

"Do you think the fire of anger will cleanse you?  You are no Forge-Bound - the fire you seek to harness only burns what it touches; it leaves only ash behind.

"Do you want to be the sort of person who will never have sisters again?"

She growls, "I'll keep the damn fire until I find the ones who killed them and rake them over the coals. And when that's done, maybe then I'll think about pointless abstract questions about who I am."

She's a little rattled, in a way she doesn't have practice hiding, though she's done a decent job trying.

Oh, there it is, the passion, stoking a roaring blaze - "Have you ever known me to do something without a point?"  (Her expression, in this moment, conveys volumes.  Sadness, worry, pride.)

Now, to forge something with it.

"But to more directly address what you've said...

"I am not saying to snuff that fire out, but to bank and mind it - to be careful what you let it feed upon.  To be careful that you burn only bridges you want burned.

"Is Barik one of those?"

The question is dropped with a curious lightness, given the subject matter.  Not a lack of taking it seriously, no - but the presence of absence of weight, like she had asked 'will you be wearing the red dress or the blue dress to the ball?'.  The ball, of course, being serious - but not the dresses.  They are equally valid choices, is what her tone conveys.

"Oh, I burnt that one years ago. Somewhere between the insults, the shooting down his letters from home when I was bored, and the blackmail."

"My, that sounds like quite a tale.

"But the question was not if you thought you had burnt that bridge - it was if you wanted to.  Did you?"

"I mean, why not burn it? He was just some Northerner; I didn't know him from any other Disfavored before I asked someone to read me the name on the message I'd shot down. Trying to blackmail him was just a way to pass the time before we got sent back into the war."

"I don't really do things I don't want to. Or think much about what I want. It's never felt complicated."

Ophelia - blinks.

"Usually one uses resources such as blackmailable secrets to achieve a goal, though I suppose 'entertaining oneself' is not not a goal, in the end.

"I must admit, though, that the idea of not questioning why I want what I want is incredibly foreign to me.  I wonder what you'd find, if you looked."

"I guess there was a time I bothered to think about that. Back when I was a farmer's daughter and perpetually bored and frustrated. But then I realized that I felt alive the few times I'd gotten into fights, and the Chorus was passing nearby, and I never looked back because I have what I want. Blood. Risk. Respect, fear, whatever you call the two of them together. And my people, who don't expect me to be anything I'm not."

"...The thing that is respect and fear commingled - I would call it power."

It is after a pause that she continues, as if the answer to the question was dragged out before she thought of the rest of what she wanted to say.

"So if the Chorus doesn't expect you to be what you're not - what would you say you are?"

She looks at Ophelia like she's a little stupid. "A born killer."

Ophelia gives a little shrug at the 'are you stupid' look.

"I thought you'd say something like that, but there's a difference between guessing what someone will say and hearing someone say something in their own words.

"Is a born killer the whole of what you want to be?"

She says it, again, like it doesn't matter what the answer is.  (Though part of her hopes that it's 'no'.)

"What else would I want? Tried being a gang boss, it got old fast. Crimson Spear? Nah, I'd rather keep a little distance from Nerat. An Archon? That's an ambition that just gets you killed. I can do what I'm good at, I enjoy it, and very few people can order me around. That's plenty."

Ophelia nods.  "I suppose the question I really meant to ask is if you had - anything else you liked doing.  Something you'd do if you were struck by a curse that left you unable to pursue battle.  A hobby, or - starting a family, or something.  Not that I expect you to be inclined to the latter.  You'd be bored to tears halfway through pregnancy."

"Nothing's ever appealed. Training others isn't bad, but I don't love it. I might try to hunt game and sell it. But - honestly I'd probably take six span trying and then off myself."

"...taking my Fatebinder hat off...that sounds like the sort of thing one gives one's friends a comforting gesture about, if it comes up, but I don't know how you feel about - touch, in full generality."

"Not a fan of hugs. Hand on the shoulder's fine, if you want. But don't worry about me. I found the thing I'm meant for; losing it would still be better than never having found it."

She nods.  "I wish there was something more than that that sang to you, regardless.  If the war ended tomorrow, and the Archons didn't explode like I'm sure we all know is going to happen - it would seem a waste of you, to send you off to die alone.  No matter what Nerat is inevitably planning, you're - a boon companion.

"I've heard there's some places that have fighting rings.  I don't know if that'd work for you, but it's worth mentioning, in case the Chorus ends up being disbanded, for whatever reason.  And there is always mercenary work, though it feels a bit - petty - for you.  Not that I believe you'd care how grand the combat was, just that it was - but at some point it's hardly battle."

"Yeah, I've heard of the gladiators, one of the Spears used to be one, real old-timer. Seeking thought she might try to run one of their training outfits, if we ran out of war to fight."

And there is the hand on her friend's shoulder, warm and supportive.  "That would have been a sight to see, a hundred little hers; did she tell you she speared Cairn in the back of the throat?

"I wish I'd thought of the tricks to hurt him soon enough to get - probably the Forge-Bound - to make a brace of javelins with vials on the end.  I almost think it would have worked.  His insides weren't as hard as his outsides, and the catapult mostly hit his outsides.  But if wishes were fishes...Well.  Unfortunately, they aren't, and time only goes forwards."

"You'd have had to share the title with her. She'd probably have stuck with Seeking, though, it suited her better. You probably didn't see her too much off duty, she was ravenous for everything the way her spears were hungry for blood. Damn I miss them."

"If it had meant a victory for places that weren't just Plainsgate, I'd have gladly made that trade.  If anything, that title...I imagine you know how I felt, the first time I heard it.

"But this isn't about me.

"...Honestly, I miss them too, for all that I didn't know them as well.  ...Do you have - anything to remember them by?  Favorite foods, places you held close...inherited wisdom, funny stories to pass on?  I've...heard it said, before, that someone is not truly dead, so long as their name is still spoken.  That - we carry bits of the lost with us, in our memories.  And sharing them - can help."

At 'anything to remember them by', her expression suddenly curdles. "Eugh", she whispers, rapidly turning away.

"-- ..."

Oh dear.  That's not good.

"...something happened, huh?  I - you should not speak of it, if you don't wish to.  But if it would help, I will keep it in strictest confidence should you speak."

Her voice is small and slightly shaky. "I had a closer bond to them than most Furies do to their sisters. From the first time we fought as a gang. And - when they died, it snapped back on me. Like a cut rope, hauling the other end straight into my head."

Ophelia emits a soft 'oh'.

"And you know of only one entity that does something like that, and I don't imagine you like them."

Her hand is still there, reassuringly present, rubbing the small of Verse's back like she's heard sometimes helps with those who sick up.

"You aren't them, Verse.  You did not rip the faces from their bodies, do not wear them as masks, do not speak through them as puppets."

"If anything, I am more reminded of Oathbound.  They work in small units, swearing - well, an oath - that allows them instinctual communion in battle - and strengthens the survivors, should one die an untimely death.  I've not asked if it brings their memories, too, to the survivors.  ...I could, if it would help."

"...Yeah. Yeah, that would help. Last year I would have said Nerat was the scariest thing I'd ever seen. Being Nerat... turns out, that's even worse. But, hey, I can nearly spear a punk like Seeking could, so I'm coming out ahead, right?" She laughs bitterly.

"Even if you steal his powers - you will not be him.  You are you, and you will always be you, no matter what happens.  ...I will definitely ask around, though, about this."

"That's less reassuring when my head's feeling crowded, even if it's just my sisters doing the crowding. And... they died because I missed my steps of the dance, but -  it was, kind of, Barik's fault I was distracted. I can feel him a little. It doesn't really make sense. He's my half-brother, though. That's what I was blackmailing him about, they care so much about lineage and knowing his father cheated on his mother with a Tierswoman would be scurrilous gossip."

That isn't a good sign, no, but she doesn't mention it.  She needs to do more research.

"...It does feel like - it's bonds, that matter.

"...can you feel me, any?"

She closes her eyes and tilts her head.

"No. Good."

She's a little bit torn about how good that is or isn't, really, but she doesn't let it show.  Even if she'd rather not die if her body does, she doesn't want her continuation to be at Verse's expense.

"That's good, I think; at the very least it's useful knowledge.  ...Let me know if you notice anything else unusual, okay?  I - want to help."

"I appreciate it. I - haven't told anyone else. I think the thing with Barik goes both ways, but it's subtle, I'm not sure he's even noticed."

"Your secret is safe with me, until you choose to release it.  ...Do you want me to try and find out if Barik has noticed?  I could probably ask him something like if he's noticed anything else weird since he ended up in - that, other than the way that nothing about it makes any sense whatsoever."

"I'd guess if we're getting into fights while escorting you, it will get a lot more noticeable. If he hasn't mentioned it in a span, maybe then it's worth asking."

She nods.  "We will certainly see. 

"...You know, if your concern is that you're becoming like Nerat - what would you like to be Exarch of, instead of Secrets?"

"'Exarch?' Like, proto-Archon? I mean, War, obviously. Or Shadows, except how if you start to take the Mark's spot, he definitely comes and kills you."

She nods, both in affirmation and because those answers are not surprising.  "I wonder if he'd be interested in an apprentice.  ...I'm not going to ask him, but it's a funny thought."

"What's he like? You've got to meet him sometimes in the Court, right?"

"I've ever had the - experience - of speaking to the man.  He's - rather like you, come to think of it, if you were a hundred times more pessimistic.  Thinks everyone's an asshole, including himself.  Really blunt; not one for formalities at all.  Likes doing the bloody work.  I don't think he likes me whatsoever; I'm too - bright-hearted."

"Huh. I should try talking to him, if I'm ever at the Court."

"It probably is worth a try, especially if you end up sticking around in my retinue after this is over.  I'm sure Tunon will want my report to be given in person."

"I will if you want me. Nerat's order was - 'Keep her from getting killed unless she does something extremely stupid. Stick with her even if I do something publicly to suggest otherwise.' Not 'until the Edict is done', just 'keep her alive'."

"Wow.  That is a concerning amount of investment he has in me.  Regardless, I'm glad you're around, even if it means Nerat thinks I'm interesting."

"Who knows why the Voices do anything? Well, probably he hopes you have some worthwhile secrets. That's usually involved. I assume."

"If I do, I certainly don't know them.  Let me know what you find out, eh?"

"I'll surprise you," she says dryly.

Ophelia grins.  "Good to hear you're feeling better."

She smiles back. "So, what's next? Let Barik have thinking time... do we just wait until tomorrow morning?"

"I think I'll check in on him, and maybe we can check in with the Chorus's liaison to ask if they've been having supply shortages too, afterwards, but if Barik is still processing, I do think -"

She's going to stick her head out and check the time first, actually.

Sunset's probably two hours away.

"We'd best not march at night, yeah, especially not with him still acclimating."

"Asking Quip's a good idea. Not that he'll have heard, if it's subtle shipments being a little short rather than going missing; I doubt anyone's tracking the details except maybe Sniggler Dagos. He's the main merchant for the Chorus camp here, and I think he ends up managing a lot of the supply lines because nobody else can be arsed to bother. And of course Nerat might just be stealing, in which case - well, he's probably already noticed you're looking."

"Quite, if nothing else because I bet he'd want you to tell him about my noticing.  Regardless, let's get on that."

"Yeah, he did tell me to watch. If there's anything you really don't want me to report - well, I hope he can't use me as an Eye, so tell me and I'll probably agree."

Ophelia nods.  "I figure he must already know that I have some plans to defend myself against him should it come to that, much as I do against Ashe, but I imagine you do agree he shouldn't get to know the specifics."

Verse nods.

Back near the center of camp, the Marshal has taken a seat at a table with several scrolls (they have unit dispositions and reports) overlooking the training area. Barik is in a corner with a training dummy, methodically eviscerating it.

"Marshal.  My apologies for dumping him back on you with so little warning; I was not the authority he presently needs to listen to, deep in his bones.  ...How's he been handling things?"  She's - quiet, concerned.

"This is usually what serious thinking looks like, if I know him. Really, that goes for most of our soldiers. Whether he's going in a positive direction - I couldn't say. You rubbed his face in some unpleasant truths, and he's not one to run away from it, but he hasn't been well since the Edict. I don't think he'll break. But most people already would have."

"Of course he hasn't been well, he's grieving.  And he's stuck in armor full of his own shit, which certainly wouldn't help.  ...Dare I ask why his phalanx was out in the storm to begin with?  If it's not my business, it's not my business, but it could matter."

"Trying to retrieve prisoners from Sentinel Stand before it was blocked off. They knew the danger."

"...Was there...coordination with the Fatebinder reading the Edict...about that?  I can't imagine Nunoval wouldn't have been willing to hold off a bit for a military objective; that's his whole point...though second-guessing this probably does none of us any good."

"He consulted us. It was judged counterproductive to delay the Edict. We would have made attempts up until the last moments regardless. We take retrieving our lost soldiers very seriously."

She nods.  "I respect that."

"Anyway.  I suppose it's better to let him get the thinking out of his system?  If so, I'm going to see if the Chorus has told their liaison whether anything's been going missing under suspicious circumstances.  Unless there's something else that you'd like to speak with me about."

"One of their merchants has traded us iron ingots for finished bronze weapons regularly over the last year, and I don't think the amount has varied much. The even balance you prescribed as governor at work. Sniggler Dagos is his name. It hasn't gone up, either, or else I'd suspect Chorus theft. Well, suspect it more."

Ophelia allows herself a snrt.

"I mostly expect this to be the rebels; I'm told they've had an unusual amount of iron arms - but I certainly haven't ruled anything out.  What I'm wondering is if they've had something important to them vanishing into thin air.  If I were the rebels, I'd certainly be taking advantage of any supply lines my enemies allowed to go improperly guarded, especially if it's something that's important to my enemies.  It deals a double blow."

"True enough. Good luck tracking it down."

"Thank you, Marshal.  I hope I won't need luck for this; we already have enough problems that we need it for."

Now wherever is that liaison, anyway?

Back near Ceveus, Bitter Quip is standing around, visibly unoccupied.

"Fatebinder! And sister Verse. Enlivening my afternoon, are you?"

"So it seems.  There anything you want to gossip about, then, or shall I get to what brings me here?"

"Fifth Eye mentioned some investigation you might be better able to follow up than our own or Disfavored? But better to ask him in person, so go ahead."

"Well, I'll add that to the list.  Anyway - you guys been having any supply issues, that you know of?  Stuff coming in short, stuff going missing in transit?"

"Well, food's always iffy, it would be very convenient if Cairn would give up and die already so we could use the Azure farmlands properly. Within the Well, I hear we probably can't last more than three span cut off. But unexpected supply problems? Not that I've heard about, though it probably wouldn't make its way to me unless it was very noticeable."

"Yeah, I did what I can on that front.  All I can hope is that my people are following through on that without me; hopefully it'll push the Sea back.  I'll talk to Fifth Eye about whatever else is going on tomorrow."

"I'm sure we'll all appreciate it. Much like the extra time you got us by not showing up quickly. You've done pretty well by us this conquest, Fatebinder, and we haven't forgotten."

"All I can do is my best, with this many lives in my hands."

She adds "check in on Reclamation Project" and "Fifth Eye meeting about investigation of something" to her planner.

"A noble sentiment. I'm sure you will." He's maybe slightly dubious about noble sentiments, but he is adequately concealing it.

She nods.  She is far more than adequate at seeing the heart of man, but really, getting into trying to make her actions speak louder than her words...  It's too much philosophy to casually drop on someone.

"I hope I'll be able to prove it, soon enough.  Goodness knows there's plenty of work that needs doing.  Have a pleasant rest of your evening, Bitter Quip.  Or a morose one, if your taste trends that way."

He snorts, and watches her go amiably.

And go she does, although she has a letter to pen before she sleeps.

Prime Earthshaker Radix Ironcore,

It is with concern and regret that I write to inform you that the Earthshakers you dispatched to aid the campaign in Vendrien's Well have not yet reached us, nor have any other messages.  I will most certainly be bending my efforts to their recovery, if at all possible.

How goes reclaiming Viridian from the Stone Sea?  I would hope that there has been progress made in shaping the land so the territory matches the map.

Speaking of which, do mind the Beastfolk, lest they decide your head is better off your shoulders.  Goodness knows they tried to kill me.

I am presently invested in my current posting, but there are many things I can do from here, should they prove helpful in making preferable outcomes happen.  Do let me know what will be useful.

Sincerely,

— Fatebinder Ophelia Vaudelle

Governor Emeritus, Azure & Viridian

Duly-Acclaimed Representative of Kyros's Interest in the Vendrien Insurgency

An appropriate mixture of veiled threats if he is skiving and genuine concern if he is not, she thinks.

The best part is that the last bit - which would get oh-so-many who dared try this strategy executed for taking the Overlord's name in vain - is even straightforwardly true.

She did read Kyros's Edict, after all.

It has been...

A day.

It feels like it has been a week.  Feuding Archons, a war within a war, and then the theft of something of hers! - though she's no Archon of Greed.  Still, she...is perhaps more irked that the iron she managed was stolen than that the iron was stolen at all.  Barik's troubles, Verse's troubles...Nerat being entirely too invested in her wellbeing...

Anyway, the iron theft is irking her beyond all proportion, so she turns her thoughts back to it.

Really, if she turned against Kyros, she'd do the same exact thing for the same tactical reasons.  Not that she's necessarily planning any such thing, of course.  And she wouldn't be doing it for Queen and country.  Romantics, the lot of them, and that's never won wars.  No, she'd do it because...

Ah.  That's why.  If they don't move at the first moment they decide to act, they won't move ever, paralyzed by indecision - and someone cast the signal-spell.  Even if it wasn't really a good time.

She's going to have to talk fast to have any hope of turning this around, not that she didn't already know she needed to do that.

Anyway.

She reviews her diptych.  Certain things did not make it in there that maybe should have.  Maybe shouldn't have, though; secrets are secrets and best kept where prying eyes can't see.

On the other hand, she might be able to solve that problem with another.

If she asks around about the Oathbound in the context of Barik's armor, which doesn't not make sense to consider, then the questions she wants to ask on Verse's behalf would be easy to slip in.

That settles it; into the log it goes.

Priority:

- Track Iron Shipments
-- SC Quartermaster
-- Vendrien?  Prisoners?  Nerat?
-- Letter to Calio, finish & send
-- Track from/to offload point?

- Incoming VG; Diplomatic Stance?
-- SC says no exchanges?  What if Tarkis Demos.
-- Dsfv: No really can you stop killing them actually
-- Edict: How much is everyone willing to annoy K?

Development:

- Inquire re: Oathbound
-- Spontaneous formation?
-- Consequences of bond breaking?
--- Resilience?  Memories?  Life-force?  Bonds?

- Martial/Training:
-- Work on combined arms maneuvers V+B
-- Prototype mixed formation fighting
--- Use javelineer Disfavored forms as basis?
--- MINGLE TROOPS for bonding purposes

Fatebinding:

- Fifth Eye requesting investigation, unknown
- Missing Earthshakers from Viridian: where/why?
- Copies of decree on property disputes for SC
- Find test case for surrendering enemies
- Whose law has primacy anyway?
-- Seriously consider asking Tunon for advice.

It's not looking likely to let up. But her provided tent has space for a squad of bedrolls, so she and Verse (Barik's still elsewhere) can at least get uninterrupted, relatively comfortable sleep.

No one has business to bring to her attention, when she gets up, though there are a few nods of greeting.

She'll return those nods of greeting, and track down Barik.

He is rising a little later than her, but by the time breakfast is acquired, he's up and (with practiced difficulty) eating his own.

"Fatebinder," he nods, when she's approaching.

" ", she says, as she abruptly realizes that she doesn't have a script for this.

"Barikonen.  I believe I may owe you an apology for what transpired yesterday.  I spoke with good intentions, but that does not excuse the hardship caused.  Are you - feeling any better?"

He pauses a moment, choosing his words. "I am no worse."

She nods.  "Tend to yourself as best you can; the mind is as much a weapon as the body."

She lets a few moments pass, unremarked.

"I've some errands to run in the Scarlet Chorus's camp, today."

She lets the statement trail off, an answer in need of a question.  Perhaps even several questions at once.

"I will accompany you, if you desire it."

"I would appreciate that."

He nods. Finishes the food in front on him. "Shall we be off, then?"

"If there's no other things that need tending to."

She's ready to go; is Verse?

Yeah, she's good. Barely needling Barik, even.

Then off they march to the Scarlet Chorus's campsite.

Actually they're going to be interrupted about halfway there. At a bend in the road, a big blue flag is hanging from a tree.

There's a single soldier in Vendrien Guard uniform standing beneath it, watching the road. He waves to someone out of sight when he sees the Fatebinder coming, then stands at attention until she's closer.

When she gets a little closer, Ophelia will see that an unfamiliar mage - her outfit looks like it was made from sailcloth and rigging, so presumably a Tidecaster - is standing on a large flat rock in a clearing just off the bend. A couple more Guards are just behind her.

"Good day to you, fellow travelers."

"Fatebinder. In accordance with ancient customs north and south, I offer and request a delay of blade."

"And in accordance with those ancient customs, north and south, my hand is stayed; I abide by this truce, as will those with me.  I am Fatebinder Ophelia Vaudelle; with me I have Barik of the Disfavored and Verse of the Scarlet Chorus, though as we were not expecting you, these are not their representatives, and I can only bind myself to terms.  Do introduce yourself, if you would?"

She bows slightly in acknowledgement. "Tidecaster Eb of the Vendrien Guard. I am not in command of my army either, but there are matters we might discuss."

"If it were not for the circumstances, it would be a great pleasure; magic has always fascinated me.  What might those matters be?"

She favors Eb with an equal bow; she expects the woman to either not notice, or appreciate the message.

"As is our custom, we are ready to kill to defend our lands, but we kill only in fair battle, we don't slay our prisoners. We know this isn't Kyros's way, but we ask anyway. A few of my kin have gone missing, and though they may have perished, I inquire in the hope they still live. If Captain Tarkis Demos is alive, we would negotiate for his release."

"As it happens, he is.  If there are other names...

"I certainly think the Archon of War would be more willing to consider ordering your people preferentially kept alive should they surrender to the Disfavored if his people who surrendered were reliably and regularly returned to him; the problem is that his forces do not trust the Vendrien Guard's words.  Kyros's Law is fairly unambiguous about what should happen to those who breach its Peace, so I've little recourse to affect that myself.  The Archon of Secrets is...not someone I can reliably predict, but I see no reason Nerat would not be open to prisoner exchanges, except in the way that it prefers everyone to be made grist for its Chorus.  If your people refuse to cooperate with initiation...  The problem is that I quite expect anyone you hope to trade back to be treated poorly in the interim.

"That is, of course, the situation if we remain at war.  I have certain precedents that could be leveraged to protect the members of the Vendrien Guard if we find ourselves in a peace, however unlikely this must seem.

"I know you do not trust me, but this course of action is not going to produce the results your command seeks.  I've seen much of the Tiers, and they are in no shape to rise."

"Is he," she says, obviously quite surprised, "In whose care? And what of my cousin, Pelox Tyrel?"

"Nerat might exchange prisoners, if he didn't devour them like he tried to do to the remaining elders of my School, and to the Wild Wrath. And when he sent them back, they would be half spies and broken men. The Disfavored - even against the Unbroken, who they barely insulted at all, they still took and tortured prisoners."

To the talk of peace, she just shakes her head slightly, without a real response.

"Presently in the Chorus's hands - but in my care, in that I have claimed - and, so it seems, correctly - that he was 'worth preserving for trade', to them.  I rather thought you might want him back well, and not - of the Chorus."  Her next lines are quieter, meant for Eb's ears alone.  "Between you and me...I think there is not a person present here who does not revolt from Nerat's methods.  The Wild Wrath...If you heard of the commotion" - fire everywhere, desperately thrown illusions shimmering to distract and distort, Vigor throbbing in her heartbeat like a drum as she dodged what she could not distract, and thank goodness she learned how to tumble - "a short while before everything started happening all at once, that was me, exiting the building after I tried to get them to not meet him, and instead bargain with me as the next best thing to an Archon, that would actually stick to her terms.  It...did not really work.  They - were too prideful to listen.

"I don't know if I've seen a Pelox Tyrel, unfortunately, let alone had the chance to intervene in his disposition as a prisoner.

"If you've a description it is possible I could put a name to a face, though given that I arrived only yesterday, I can't say I expect to recognize him."

"As for the matter of peace, though...I do have something resembling a plan for that.  One that would actually leave the Vendrien Guard in perhaps a better position than you started."

She hadn't actually expected this meeting to happen, but she did mention that she had a half-formed plan to con the Guard into disbanding to Barik and Verse, and that in service of such she might shade the truth heavily, if opportunity arose.

"Well, that speaks well of you," she says, politely. Ophelia can still get the sense that at this point she'll believe it when she sees it. "I did hear of something like that during the Bastard Siege, though it's ...inconveniently... hard to verify." The sense that she doubts the 'in-' on that 'conveniently' is, again, obvious despite her polite etiquette. "They were always proud bastards, and not even pragmatic ones like the Sages, so your story does make sense. Tyrel was a large man, excellent with a blade. Darker than me but lighter than your Scarlet Fury, hair a little paler than bronze. He'll have gone down fighting rather than accept Chorus induction."

"My men nearby have most of a gang of Choirmen that got lost on patrol. Six can walk, five could fight; the last has mangled hands, though he'll probably recover. We'd trade the lot for the return of the captain."

"I will hear out your plan, though I doubt I or our command will find it convincing."

"Boss," Verse whispers, "Check what gang they are before agreeing. And whether their boss is alive. Most wouldn't be worth it."

...Ophelia thinks she might have seen a corpse of that description, and heard a tale told.  "I think Tyrel did go down fighting, if that's the case.  He took a man down with him from what I understand.  A Disfavored.  Took him hostage, leapt over a cliff rather than - I'm not sure what was offered, if anything was.

"I'm sorry for your loss, if this is so."  This is, somehow, genuine.

"As for the plan, such as it is...

"It depends on how much your command is willing to believe that the strategy they have was viable, but the timing and intelligence you had were shit.

"If your people are willing to disperse wider than they did before, to the places where Kyros's Archons reign in terror...

"They'll have a lot more people willing and furthermore able to revolt against hypothetical tyrannic parts of the regime, because Kyros, whatever flaws their ruling policy may or may not have, does tend to keep his people well-supplied in the basics, and not under active Edicts.  The Tiers... 

"They do not have that.  Not a single Tier has both the ability to revolt and the willingness to do so.

"Maybe, maybe, if I'd stopped Cairn, Azure would have been able to support a revolt - but I could not, though I tried.  That, at least, you should be able to verify yourselves.  That I tried to avoid deploying him, and wrung a commitment from the Earthshakers to fix his mess, even before.

"I expected it to take a year, without everything that happened.  And then Cairn decided he was a Beastfolk at heart, refused to even try to find a diplomatic solution, and tried to kill me and the city of Plainsgate, even as I tried what I could to stop the Edict from turning the land that was at the time Azure into dust."

She sighs.

"Maybe you'd find Lethian's Crossing more convincing as proof of my intentions, though; I did not have to salvage half the Bronze Brotherhood when Tunon - you know, the Archon of Law, who's my boss - threw them out."

"As for the trade you propose, I would need to be more sure of the value of those men before I can be confident Nerat won't eat or crucify me for daring to agree to this trade without him.  He wouldn't want to trade an ace for a two.  What gang are these people from, and is their boss alive?"

"Not a bad way to go. Thank you; I'll tell his family. For Tarkis - you, check if they said anything."

"As for that peace... We know who you are. You're the Stonemelter, and the Governor of the Crossing. You seem pretty decent... for a lackey of Kyros. You may even mean the offer sincerely. But I doubt you could protect most of us from a death sentence for breaking the Peace and Slandering the fucking name. Even if you could protect us from Nerat's gullet and the Disfavored's strong opinions on the subject of oaths."

None of that is false. However, when formerly outside the hierarchy, being sworn into it hides a lot of past sins. This is usually limited by Archons having strict requirements or unpleasant local laws, but Tunon's laws are the Laws of Kyros and no others. If she took them as vassals - even Archons would, by law, have to respect the claim.

Fantastic technicality. Would solve many problems.

But, especially from a power-politics perspective, it sounds completely insane. A Fatebinder is one of the more exalted roles a mortal can have, but it's not an Archon.

So, the question for Ophelia is: Can you convince them to take that technicality seriously?

"Mine is the power to judge all disputes of Kyros's Law, and no-one's the power to gainsay.  Not even the Archon of Justice who chose me.  It is debatable that even Kyros could, though as with most things to do with Kyros, the power flows from the point of the sword first and self-imposed stricture later.

"I might get killed for the affront, afterwards, by Bleden Mark or Tunon themself, but my judgement would still stand.  And Tunon is very much an Archon that will die on the hill of enforcing a judgement.

"So in a world where law matters, which, admittedly, is not my impression of Nerat but is my impression of Ashe -

"I could pass a judgement.  I'm not sure it would be worth the vellum it was written upon, in most circumstances, not if you wanted immediate relief.  But.

"I think Ashe would throw his legitimacy behind the claim I made to some extent if we were credibly anti-Nerat, which you are, because - you can't go torturing allies, and at this point, the only war the Archon of War has left to fight beyond this one - which the Edict of Execution means you have definitely lost even if no-one present here wins - is the one he fought Nerat in, hundreds of years ago.

"I think Tunon would have no choice but to honor my actions, because the laws I am exploiting in this scheme were written by Tunon because Kyros wished them so and - he does not disrespect his laws.

"I think the Disfavored would have no loopholes through which to try torturing people if you swore yourselves as vassals to me; even those who've spurned the Peace still have the option to seek absolution in service to the Empire.  ...I think that precedent was set by Ashe himself, even.

"Which is to say, just as there was some amnesty in the having been conquered parts of this, there is also amnesty in entering the service of someone who is officially a representative of the Empire, and I am indeed one of those, as a Fatebinder.  ...Perhaps two of those, even, by the time we're through with this.  There are many strange things happening with this Edict.

"I also think that the opportunity to play kingmaker in the war between Ashe and Nerat that is, at this point, absolutely inevitable when the Edict of Execution is lifted, is something the Vendrien Guard needs badly if they want any hope of overthrowing Kyros or even making people outside the Tiers notice their existence."

"Well, that's a better argument than I expected you to come up with, I'll give you that. I think I can safely promise we'll give it some thought."

One of the other guardsmen returns and mutters something.

"Ah. The gang we captured called their leader 'Hauls-For-Shit'. He's dead."

"The Lazy Malkins, then. Not useless, but the Voices would still probably be annoyed if you made the trade."

"...A moment to confer on this, if you would?"

And then, with a baffle of Illusion up, she asks Verse "If it would annoy the Voices somewhat, now's probably the safest time to pull the trick, no matter the position I just expressed - we need the Guard's goodwill to pull this and this is the cheapest way to buy some; what I need to know is how much the Voices' opinion sways the gangs in this matter and what they'd tend to think.  I'm pretty sure that this is going to turn into 'everyone vs. Nerat' in short order; what I want to know is whether it's worth trying to steal the forces of the Chorus by being a better employer in this way, or what they're looking for.  I know I've earned a bit of favor with the Archon of Song in - not precisely analogous, but still related circumstances."

"Against Nerat? Scary prospect, but... I'm with you. I think this won't move the gangs either way. I doubt you'll peel off much of the Chorus without beating them in battle; people who don't think like that, 'strongest wins, join their side', either don't last long or get demoted to slave. Sirin was never much of a Chorus woman that way. Or most other ways."

Barik clearly doesn't approve, but he's willing to stay quiet about it.

"...Then the question is how to present this as strength.  Thank you for your insight.  Anything else either of you want to say before I bring the baffle down?  Barik, I want to hear your objections."

"You know them, Fatebinder. They spat on the last agreement they made with Kyros's representatives. I see no reason they wouldn't do the same to yours. You are likely right that the General would respect such a claim, and that Nerat will not. But the 'strong opinions on the subject of oaths' she mocks are simply honor, and they have none."

"Which is why I do not appeal to their honor, but to their goals and needs.

"It's trickier than being able to trust their word, but it's not impossible to align someone's incentives such that even a chaotic people will do what you want.  I did much the same to form the Forge-Iron Guard, albeit under much less pressing circumstances.  If this is successful enough to peel off half the Vendrien Guard, I think we win outright - and given that their best alternative is 'everybody dies', and they know that - I expect there will be many looking for a lifeline.  Does that make more sense?"

He shrugs. "If you think it best."

She nods.  "Thank you for your honest concerns."

She drops the illusion.

"We'll make the trade."