Missive from Arbiter El Endande To Council

Storm Season Fourth Quarter Second Day of Duty

Continue your efforts to locate Greyslan Amberglass. But understand, as he is a creature of our establishment, the determining of his activities is our responsibility. You are to ensure his condition, and determine if he is able to return to council. Only if you find that is not the case are you cleared to investigate the circumstances of his activity in your prevue.

As for your concerns over your obligations and adaptation to the normal ebb and flow of the writs of balance and the changed from year to year, you can be assured we take all into account when we issue the writs and terms. As long as they are followed, you have no worries about your obligations and the work you do to maintain and enforce the rules of wizardry. We thank you for your concern, understanding it is a reflection of your sense of duty.

The young margrave eyed me with some apprehension, took a long draught from his own goblet.

“You believe this will fool an arbiter?” he asked, masking the apprehension he must have felt.

I nodded. I knew the class well. I had trained enough of them in the early years. But, I too had my worries.

“The strength of your will and agreements will be tested here,” I warned him. “Ensure she focuses on me and my own acts. I am here to ensure you and your land’s endurance. Understand that. Do not drink too much, that will interfere with the enchantment I have provided you.”

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He nodded slowly. Then turned to the doors as the sounds of the arbiters approach echoed from beyond them.

The tall Arbiter of the High Southlands strode in through the opened doors as though she was the lord of the keep, holding a hand up to silence the Margrave’s guards. She was perfectly within her rights, for each of the Councils thirty-nine arbiters wielded some political power. It was one of the compromises the Thirteen had made with Council in order to assure the peace between the common and arcane following the Riven War.

The exercise of arcane power was restricted and meted out by a right of action, and the appropriate expression of all spell casting was guarded and restrained by the arbiters set out to all the lands. No land would be provisioned more than what would appropriately be allotted to their neighbors. Both Council and the thirteen great lords wanted to ensure wielders of magic would not turn their powers on the kingdoms once the threat from the Overworld and Underworld had passed. We all agreed on the compromise of balance and containment, and not the least, to distinguish the Greater and Lesser Kingdoms we stood to protect from the Empire to the South that knew little restraint and whose peoples often paid the price for such lack.

Council chosen arbiters were the most committed of the collegiate. However, they were still men and women, and could be influenced in a limited manner. I had not personally trained nor did I know this arbiter well, but the Keith did.

Akela El Endande cut an imposing figure. As tall as I was, she wore her Arbiter’s Tabard with the posture of a disciplined soldier, her copper colored hair tied back in a long braid behind her strong, even sever face. She was not a young woman, and bore the severity of her lifelong devotion to her high position in the collegiate. While her skin was nearly white in its paleness, as opposed to the Buerlander’s ruddy complexions, there was strength in her expression, and here penetrating and unflinching pale blue eyes. She had not left a strong impression at the council gatherings where we had met briefly. She had been an ambitious graduate of her college, as well as young for her position. She had grown to be a powerful wizard. I took in a breath, waited for her to speak. Overcoming her was not going to be as trivial as I had hoped.