"Without going to war. That would imply assisting another nation would it not?" Montaug tapped his index finger on the table. "I feel inclined to inform you that the only people we can provide to assist you are those who believe that assisting you will Sanctify them. At the moment, well, the number isn't small, but it comes nowhere close to the portion of our people who call for war."

"It rests in the millions, you have informed me."

"Quite right, though from what I have been told the people have been more receptive to your call than initially projected."

"That is wonderful news, however that was not what I was talking about. We aren't the ones in desperate need of assistance here, though helping them will certainly help us." Diana was going to broach this subject carefully. She could see that the Holifanians had a reason to accept, but as always they had a multitude of other reasons to refuse.

"Are you suggesting we provide aid to a foreign nation? I trust you realize we are isolationists?"

"It is a nation that is unlikely to exist for much longer."

Montaug stared into her eyes, intently focused yet strangely distant. Perhaps he already thought it was pointless for her to continue on this effort. "Continue."

"You recall Donovan's sword instructor, correct?"

"Lady Strapper, yes? The one injured by that nameless one?"

"The very same." Diana nodded as she sipped her tea, it really was a soothing blend. "I am sure you are also aware that she is heir to the throne of her people?"

"I have received reports on the matter, yes."

"Were you ever curious as to why she was here?" Montaug raised an eyebrow, entirely unsure of where to start with his answer. What did she mean by that? "She is far poorer than most in attendance, is she not?"

"Well, that isn't too terribly rare. Many noble families send their child to the Sanctum with the last of their wealth as their last chance of retaining their nobility." Montaug's finger started tapping, his eyes closed in thought. ". . . no, that doesn't make sense. She is the princess of an isolated single planet nation, and she is quite strong at that. There should be no need for her to prove her worth to maintain her status."

Montaug's finger stopped tapping, he had caught on to an oddity. Something about Titanyana's presence here did not fit. She couldn't be here to make connections, not with the wealth at her disposal. Any nobility that caught wind of her impoverishment would distance themselves from a relationship with her as soon as possible. Alliances were out of the question along with that.

No matter which way he looked at it, the money used to send her to the academy would be better saved trying to improve the economic situation of her planet.

It was the most basic and obvious principle, even the greedy and stupid wouldn't use that money to send her to the academy. They would much rather spend that money on themselves. . . It just didn't add up. For a ruler, sending children to the Sanctum was often something done to help empty the coffers of a bloated treasury, aside from the benefits the child that attends receives that is. A ruler who is poor must have something to gain from sending their children, otherwise they wouldn't send them. But what?

What could possibly be important enough to send your child to the Sanctum with barely enough money to get by? Was that all they had?

Montaug paused his thought process, he was thinking about it wrong. This was obviously not a standard situation.

"So is the money worthless, or is the Sanctum priceless . . ." Montaug mumbled to himself as Diana sat quietly to the side. The fact he hadn't asked alluded to the fact he desired to figure this problem out for himself.

Those were the only two options that made any sort of sense.

If the money was worthless, then there was no point in hanging on to it. But that begged a few questions.

What was making the money worthless? Were they being embargoed? Did they have a barter economy? Did they have their own currency that wasn't accepted here?

What could be gained from throwing away that worthless money in stead of holding onto it and making it valuable? Rulers had advisors, and no sane advisor who wanted to keep their head would suggest that currency, a source of the crown's power, be made worthless. Perhaps removing Titanyana from the picture at home was a necessary step for some reason, keeping her away from a power struggle and therefore safe from assassination? Perhaps her distance would eliminate her ability to refuse a betrothal? Montaug didn't know enough about her Kingdom's laws to come to anything conclusive.

Perhaps it was less the case that money wasn't worthless now, but more that it would become worthless in the future?

Then there was the possibility that something here in the Sanctum was 'priceless'.

Truth be told, Montaug had no idea what that might be. There was so much here that pinning down exactly what someone would want was practically impossible . . . right? He might not be able to determine the precise reason, but from her actions it was clear that she was looking for something from someone else, someone more powerful than her. Titanyana had stayed behind at their first dinner to speak with the Arboreal Maiden, hadn't she? What did she ask for though?

'Help', obviously, that was definitely what she asked for, but why. What could possibly be happening in her kingdom to devalue money to the extent it could be thrown away for the barest smidgeon of support of a chance of support from other people, powerful people?

He could only imagine the answer was an impending collapse of the state, but why?

Diana could see that he had come to a conclusion, he only lacked the information to give a concrete answer. "Her star is dying."

"What?" Montaug wanted Diana to repeat what she had said, not because he didn't hear her, but because he didn't believe it.

"Her star is dying." Diana set down her teacup. "Five years, give or take, is the timetable her people have. After that, her planet won't be able to sustain life anymore."

". . . Is that even possible?"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Apparently the Great Csillacra believes it is a possibility, they should have sent a ship to verify some days ago." Montaug was silent, still not entirely willing to believe her at her word. This was just too strange. A star? Dying? How could that be possible? "Regardless, they need help to evacuate as many of their billion people as possible, and we have volunteered to take in their refugees as our own citizens."

Montaug started tapping his heel again, his gaze far more intense this time around. "Are you certain that is a good idea? Taking refugees with disregard to the political and cultural problems never ends well."

"It may be unbecoming of someone of my stature to say this, but I cannot be bothered to care about such frivolities. You do remember what happened to my own people, right?" Diana was unconcerned with appearing weak or 'unqueenly'. Her reasons for taking them in were ultimately irrelevant, it would not change the Montaug's position. "I am unwilling to let a catastrophe similar to that which happened to my own people happen without exhausting every resource at my disposal to mitigate the damage. You are a resource at my disposal, are you not?"

Montaug's heel stopped tapping, and he sighed. "Yes, yes I am indeed one of your limited resources. If, and this is a very weighty if, what Lady Strapper says is true, then I can practically guarantee that those searching for Sanctity will flock to their aid. However I must warn you that the number of ships that can safely carry people over long distances is somewhat limited, meaning that there is a hard upper limit to the assistance we can provide that is entirely dependent on their proximity."

"I understand."

Montaug finally picked up his cup of tea, moderately displeased to find that it was lukewarm. "It won't be enough."

"I'm sorry? I didn't quite catch that."

"It won't be enough. None of this is going to be enough." He was irritated, that emotion at least being evident in his actions. He wanted to remain calm, but a monumental amount of pressure was building behind him. "It won't be enough for the Theocracy, it won't be enough for the Nekh, it won't be enough for you."

Montaug understood that the number of people required to crew a few hundred galleys was not even close to enough to diminish the unrest building in his country. Even if the crew of the galley was replaced after each voyage to maximize the number of chances for Sanctity, the number would hardly scratch the surface. The vast number of support staff and exports might be able to make a dent, but he couldn't count on the people believing that to be sufficient.

He also understood that the number of Nekh they could ferry to the Terran's new home planet was not particularly large either, at least not in comparison to the total. A few hundred thousand was likely their limit. No ruler or people would be happy with not even a full percent of their kin being saved from disaster, much less failing to reach a tenth of a percent.

This, in turn, meant that the increase in population that the Terrans could expect was similarly minimal. A few hundred thousand was nothing to scoff at, particularly when your starting value is precisely two, however it would still leave them at a massive population disadvantage in comparison to everybody else.

This was undoubtedly a stop-gap measure. An action designed to limit the damage while they tried to work something else out. Well it was a stop-gap solution for the Holifanians and the Terrans, for the Nekh it was the best they were likely to receive. It would buy the Holifanian Theocracy time to find an outlet for the unrest in their nation, and it would increase the initial margin of expansion that the Terrans could handle before becoming limited by population. These were both problems that would have to be solved in full eventually.

Montaug sipped his tea as his eyes stared vacantly off into the distance. "Was this what you came here for?"

"It was." Diana put her cup down, finished with the tea inside. "However I do not believe that we are done talking about the subject."

"You wish to do more?" Montaug shot her a sideways glance. "You know I was not joking when I said the help we could offer was limited, right? It would take four years at minimum to build a ship capable of those sorts of long range journeys. That doesn't exactly give us enough time to expand our operation."

"I was told that the shipbuilding takes a long period of time, but even with your technology?"

"The ship isn't the hard part, Lady Helmsguard." Montaug sipped his tea. "In fact if we just wanted to construct the hulls then we could pump them out on the level of thousands per day. It is getting those hulls to float away from planets and travel between stars that is difficult. It takes even longer to make the hull pull people towards it and retain a breathable atmosphere."

"A pity." Diana, whose hopes had risen for a mere moment, crashed back down once she learned that there couldn't be any shortcuts. "We don't have that problem. Supposedly we can complete one ship every twenty to thirty days with a single production line running at maximum efficiency."

Montaug looked at her funny, not believing her. At least he didn't believe her at first. The Arboreal Maiden herself had claimed their industrial capabilities to far outstrip theirs. "How much?"

"Pardon?"

"What do you need, and how much?"

"I don't follow."

Montaug wanted to shake his head. He couldn't tell if she was being endearingly ignorant or if she seriously didn't understand the implication. "For one production line, how much of which materials will you be needing every thirty days?"

Diana squinted her eyes, before widening in realization. "Oh!"

The biggest problem that the Holifanians faced in assisting with the evacuation was the range of their ships, and they lacked the means to make ships quickly. The biggest problem the Terrans faced was industrial capacity and a lack of resources. The Holifanians did not struggle for those resources, and the Terrans were close enough to where distance was not an issue, literally on the border.

If the Holifanians could provide the materiel to construct ships, then the Terrans could set up as many production lines as they could feed. Of course that assumed that they didn't request materials the Holifanians could not provide, but steel? The makings for steel could marched into their foundries ad infinitum.

"Oh! Oh I don't know! I hadn't even considered that. I can, um, shit Arc call . . . no you can answer the question yourself. Hey Arc?" She began to mumble and grumble as she pulled the tablet out of her handbag.

"Yes Diana?"

"For the Trawler, um, how much of which materials would you need every month to build them at maximum efficiency?"

"Why do you need them?" The list had appeared on screen, Arc unable to refuse her request, but it was still curious.

- - - - -

Montaug looked down at the list he had written with a modicum of apprehension. This was an absolutely massive sum of materiel.

"Is this really only for a single ship?" He was understandably incredulous, the actual battleship he had shown earlier used less steel than what she had just listed as 'need'. "Won't it be too heavy to get off of a planet?"

Diana stared at him like he was stupid for a moment or two before correcting herself. "Of course it will. Donovan and Arc designed it themselves."

Montaug looked down at the list, then back up to her. He decided that pushing the issue would not yield any meaningful results. "Well, I will have a talk with the Bishops and see what can be done about this. I should warn you that silicon and cobalt are probably going to be tough asks given the fact that we don't produce much of either."

"That is fine, Arc can pick up the slack if he only has to search for one or two scarcer resources that we don't need as much of. You being able to take care of the bulk means that he doesn't have to."

"Very well." Montaug set his sheet of paper to the side as he pursed his lips. "You know there is one more method that we can use to increase the number of ships to convoy the Nekh, not that I believe you will like it."

Diana stopped herself from packing everything away. "Do tell."

More finger tapping on the table. "Do you recall the dinner we had with the Arboreal Maiden, oh, two weeks ago?"

"How could I forget?"

"Hm. Would you happen to recall a certain trio of . . . trouble makers . . . that were mentioned?"

"The Jaka- Jakobi brothers? They are operating out of our new home system, right?"

"Yes, the Jakobi Brothers. I have recently received word that they arrived, safely, and are taking a break on the small base we have set up." Montaug really didn't want anything to do with them. "Do you recall their occupation?"

"Intelligence officers right?"

If Montaug had a drink in his mouth he would have spit it all over the room, manners be damned. 'Intelligence Officer' was a title that belonged nowhere near those three idiots. Hell, 'intelligence' should not be said in the same sentence as any of those morons unless it was somehow denoting the lack of it.

"You know what, I'll discard the polite approach for today Lady Helmsguard, so tell me."

Montaug put both elbows on the table and looked directly into her eyes.

"What are your thoughts on piracy?"