In addition to the legitimacy the Ostian representatives' presence imparted, the Council became a more united front in the face of external politicians. Between that and accepting the primacy of Oste's national laws, they handed Kestra a new Operations Template by the end of the third week of deliberations.
Kestra had a few quibbles that she put aside. She wasn't going to live in Sortalheim, after all, and they were things she could let lie as cultural differences. The major points about codifying fair laws against casual violence, theft, and property damage had been given lip service in the city before. Now, the legal code would put teeth to enforcing the local values.
Kestra, with coaching from the Yorgin, had pointed out that the creep toward restricting women's rights was antithetical to the customs of the higher realms, and a mark against the lower realms used to disparage them and leave them open to claims of barbarity, which in turn provided the kind of flimsy excuse less scrupulous associations of the higher realms liked to use to play with -- and rob resources from -- lower realm cities and nations. That earned a few squinty-eyed looks from the representatives of some of those higher realm associations along with nods of agreement from more honorable organization representatives, which had been enough to make the low council really consider.
Most of what Kestra did during the meetings come down to making everyone play nice together and raise questions that Inspri collated from all the books and scrolls and what-not the little inventory sprite got her hands one. She felt like a mix between a nanny and a secretarial aide, which was all work that Kestra very much did not want. There weren't enough explosions, and her own values leashed her from punching the more annoying people in the face.
The stand-out problem she had to be convinced to let be was that private slavery remained under this new template.
"Terms of indenture are standards throughout the Myriad Realms, and not just to pay off one's debts," she was told.
"It is far more compassionate to ensure criminals pay for their punishments than to burden their victims so much more that death becomes the standard sentencing," the Ostian representatives stated, making a subtle jab at Kestra's rise to City Lord.
Other reasons were also advanced, some people daring to say slaves deserved to be enslaved, or likening slaves to cattle. Those she shot back as examples of the moral decay that permitting private slavery produced. However, the first two, with the recognition that even in Moh limited enslavement for debts and crimes may not be common but was an accepted practice, were arguments she didn't have counters for.
In the end, she accepted that she could not realistically end slavery. She could, however, codify restrictive enough burdens to the owning of slaves -- and prohibit generational slavery -- to make slave owning an unappealing prospect. She even got the agreement of the Council that slavery as a criminal punishment should be institutionalized to the service of the city, or town or village, to prevent creating sentencing standards for the purpose of profiteering.
It took another three days of active arguing to get the Council on board with adding "slave" and "indentured servant" as two more resident categories.
"Slaves" were those enslaved for acts of sabotage against the Stone-tied government, which covered criminals and captured enemy soldiers. Slaves could only be owned by the Stone-tied government, which was then required to ensure they received shelter and food sufficient to keep them healthy, they were treated with basic decency, and while they could be forced to work and disciplined for unruly behavior, they could only be worked as hard as a free laborer, and only under the supervision of a government official. That made the Labor Guilds happy.
"Indentured Servants" were people who entered slavery via a contract in Sortalheim, usually to pay off debts, but sometimes to earn skills in larger households. With some restrictions about who could enter such contracts and how they could be worked, indentured servants had the same rights as city residents. The indenture contract could be owned and sold, but not the person, and the indentured servant had some rights to veto sales of their contract. They were always allowed to buy out their contracts of indenture, at which point they became regular city residents.
According to Graemire, the common term for the resident status of "slave" was "bound-slave", while a regular slave was more like a less well protected indentured servant -- one whose contract frequently had no termination clause.
To acquire an indenture contract under the template, one had to be a citizen, which was a higher tier of city resident. Citizens contributed more to the upkeep of the city and so had more benefits, like gaining access to the city's interface for the Reward Stand at certain donation milestones.
No one under the age of 16 was allowed to be a party to a contract of indenture, nor could anyone under that age inherit a debt. The owners of the contracts were required to provide adequate food, shelter, and livery for their indentured servants and the indentured servant's dependent children. Penalties for failure to provide such basic care could cause the owners to be in default of the contract, and ultimately end up with the contract being forfeited.
Moreover, Kestra noticed that the words she heard all tied up with "slavery" covered a wider spectrum of servitude than she was used to thinking of. Paying attention to the sounds one day and not the meaning the universal translation overwrote to her, she discovered that "servant", "indentured servant", "slave", "bound slave", and "serf" -- a term that had fallen out of local use as the practice wasn't in place around Sortalheim -- all shared the same base word, but had different inflections.
She did not like the implications of that, nor the helplessness she felt on realizing this was a part of the larger society she would have to come to terms with. Ultimately, she wasn't a conqueror eager, or even willing, to rule the world.
As part of her negotiations with the Sortalheim Council, she footed the bill for compensating the city's current slave owners for the loss of their slaves when those who had been enslaved for criminal acts were confiscated.
She made arrangement with the trade houses to create what someone had termed emancipation packs, which she also funded. These packs contained four consumable skill scrolls, ten silvers, food enough to feed one adult for a month, and a Low Novice storage ring to hold it all. The first skill scroll was for Cooking, the second for Farming. The other two skill scrolls were for random crafts such as Woodworking, Smithing, Pottery, Alchemy, Calligraphy, and Tailoring. These skill scrolls were of such a basic nature that they mostly just ensured the people would form the skills when they applied the knowledge gained from them, but it was still considered a major boon to the newly emancipated.
Kestra put it forward that any owners of sold-slaves who had been recorded during the Plaza Slave Trials, as the first two days of Kestra's term as City Lord were being called, could receive ten silvers from Kestra for their slaves. There were a lot of people who took her up on that, and those were the first slaves to receive her emancipation packs.
That, at least, made accepting the Sortalheim Council's template easier to bear.
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Kestra input the last of the preliminary changes to Sortalheim's City Stone. She had had Inspri double check her for any errors to her intended entries, and followed the sprite's directions to find and fix the ones she caught. Now, the sprite ran a final check.
«All good,» Inspri reported.
Kestra accepted the changes and turned on Sortalheim's new Legal Code.
Then she pulled out the slim volume Inspri had collated, and two jade-sealed crates. They were the product of nearly thirty days of wrangling meetings and just as many nights of dreaming beside her World Seed. If not for Graemire's companionship, Kestra might have killed someone out of sheer frustration.
"I invoke the City Lord's access to submit proposed changes to the Myriad Realms," she intoned, kneeling to one side of the City Stone with a hand braced upon it.
♦•♦•♦ Invocation Successful ♦•♦•♦
State your proposal.
♦•♦•♦ ▲▼▲ ♦•♦•♦
So far so good.
"I have two separate proposals," Kestra stated. "One relates to the operations of the City Stone interfaces, and one to the cleansing of befouled lands."
The air around her became so thick with weighted attention she had to pause to make sure she was breathing.
"The first, the city interfacing change I propose is the creation of a new operational template for the City Stones in low mana lands. All the details I and my servitor have compiled for how that would work within the existing city interfacing are contained in this document, given freely to the Myriad Realms. A prototype of the new style of soul-bound citizen tokens needed for the template is contained in this box, also given freely to the Myriad Realms."
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Kestra had wanted to include something like the Noble's Covenant from Moh, the requirement for a city lord to not steal the prosperity of the city's populace, but the Divines had warned that it would doom her proposal. Few, if any, existing city lords would subject themselves to that oath.
Tiered citizenship, on the other hand, could become a nice political bargaining chip. That made it far more likely to be adopted by the existing city lords, and therefore more likely the Myriad Realms would add it to the City Stone interfacing. The fact that the proposal outlined ways in which the city lords would be responsible for providing the mana and resources needed to enact citizenship should also aid in its adoption, at least in Graemire and Ralouf's opinions.
The indicated document and box blipped off to wherever the Myriad Realms decided they needed to go.
♦•♦•♦ Proposal of New Operational Template Received ♦•♦•♦
Review of the detailed plan and accompanying token prototype is underway and a determination will be provided once the review has completed.
Please continue.
♦•♦•♦ ▲▼▲ ♦•♦•♦
That last line was both reassuring and kind of frightening, but Kestra pressed on.
"For the last proposal, I haven't got enough information to form a solid plan. It is more of a proposed collaboration, I suppose. In one of my personal realms, I have bound into my soul a World Seed. It was given to me during the tribulation where I formed my realms, while I yet lived in the world of my birth. It is small, but it experienced significant growth since I put an anchor in the blighting, ah, befoulment caused by the Divine Elemental Nicada.
"The anchor in the befoulment is holding open a conduit through which my World Seed is eating the corrupting aspects of the warped mana. Receiving the Harmonious title gives me reason to believe that this is a state of affairs that pleases the Myriad Realms, and so I crafted a new iteration of such a conduit, which is contained in this remaining box.
"I, and the World Seed I contain, cannot handle befoulment of that degree on my own, but this anchor could be dropped into a place of befoulment as a quick response while the Myriad Realms moves to place a dungeon to take over the work of cleansing.
"If this is an agreeable offer, what I would ask in return is a monitor, to ensure that I and my World Seed are not warped from too much exposure to befoulment. With that caution in place, I feel that the growth my World Seed experiences from cleaning up befoulment would be sufficient compensation for the act.
"I would appreciate if, at the time the current blight-eating anchor has served sufficient purpose for the Myriad Realms, that it be returned to me for me to study, at which point I would turn over the second of the new iteration of blight-eating anchors I have already made.
"On the other hand, if I have misunderstood, and it would better please the Myriad Realms for my existing blight-eating anchor to be removed, I humbly request that I be so informed that I may recall it right now."
♦•♦•♦ Amended Proposal of Collaboration ♦•♦•♦
Kestra Boom-Smiter the Harmonious provides one or more portable "blight-eating" conduit anchor(s) for rapid deployment into newly formed or expanded befoulments of the land.
This conduit anchor(s) will be used by the nascent World Seed bound in the soul of Kestra Boom-Smiter to remove befouled mana with the aim of containing befoulment while the Agents of the Myriad Realms place appropriate long-term measures to cleanse the befoulment.
The Agents of the Myriad Realms will provide an entity to monitor and prevent Kestra Boom-Smiter and/or the World Seed absorbed into the soul of Kestra Boom-Smiter from sustaining befoulment deprivations.
The Agents of the Myriad Realms are responsible for all aspects regarding the emplacement of the "blight-eating" conduit anchor, including mana expenditure.
The Agents of the Myriad Realms are responsible for the maintenance and conduct of the monitor tasked with preventing Kestra Boom-Smiter and/or the World Seed absorbed into the soul of Kestra Boom-Smiter from sustaining befoulment deprivations.
Mana and matter reclaimed by the World Seed bound in the soul of Kestra Boom-Smiter shall become the property of said World Seed.
Amendments:
- Existing anchor must remain as-is to ensure proper monitoring of potential befoulment deprivations.
Do you accept these amendments?
YES / NO
♦•♦•♦ ▲▼▲ ♦•♦•♦
"Yes," Kestra said. "I, ah, also don't know enough about World Seeds, so if the monitor you provide also helps me to not cause harm to the Myriad Realms, I would really appreciate that."
♦•♦•♦ Proposal Accepted with Amendments ♦•♦•♦
Appropriate monitor is being created and will be delivered via existing anchor-conduit upon formation.
♦•♦•♦ ▲▼▲ ♦•♦•♦
"Great!" Kestra said, popping out the second one of her anchors. "Seeing as the original one is going to remain as-is, and you're helping with me not becoming Warped, here's the second of the new anchors I made. If there's ways I can improve them to our mutual prosperity, I would be happy for your critiques."
Both of the anchors blipped out the way of her City Stone proposal texts.
She took a moment to gather herself, then rose and stretched. She had done what she could for now to sort out Sortalheim. There was just the last three of the unjustly enslaved to see to.
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During all of the wrangling over creating the new legal code and operational template, Kestra may have been stuck in Sortalheim ensuring the changes in its governance transitioned smoothly, but not all of those Ramakith Ard had unjustly enslaved had been there. Thirty had been scattered throughout his lands, and one had been sold to a traveler. When Yorgin convinced Vostler and Ralouf that he was as recovered as he would get, the Divine Creatures had gone off to buy up all the slaves and free them.
The Divines were happy to progress on their quest, and the Elementals took Yorgin and Ralouf's assurances that Kestra's way of dealing with things was good enough.
By the time the Divines had returned, Kestra had also worked out plans with Tami and Puck to help the transmigrator slaves transition to life in the Myriad Realms by sponsoring a new village closer to the tracts of wilderness Graemire had spent his cultivation to make. That area was now called the Azure Wilds, and the new village was Azure Village.
Kestra had bargained with the other transmigrators that wanted to not be in Sortalheim to spend at least two months putting together Azure Village while they figured out what they wanted to do, or calmed down from the injuries done them during their enslavements.
Of the transmigrators, only Laura -- the angry woman -- refused to speak of what had been done to her and refused to let go of her murderous rage against the unnamed people she planned to kill.
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The room Kestra had taken for her office was comfortable more than opulent. Her desk was to one side, but most of her time in the room was spent in the conversation chairs.
Laura was the first of her appointments since updating the City Stone, and dealing with the woman's implacable stubbornness was one of the (many) reasons Kestra had grown to really appreciate the tea addiction of this world. Holding the cups gave her something to do with her hands, and pausing to sip provided her a moment to bite back the urge to throw her cup at the other woman.
When the slave was shown in, the first thing Laura said was, "Fuck no! I am going to kill those fuckers!"
Kestra had the orb already out. It stayed inert, as it did for a lot of impassioned prophesies. Now, if Laura said she intended to kill "those fuckers", that was a present reality the orb responded to.
"Sit, please. I've had enough time from everything else going on to consider what you're going through, and I need what Tami calls a 'sounding board'."
That was apparently enough off whatever script Laura had for this meeting to make the woman blink. She watched Kestra with deep suspicion as she settled into the indicated seat.
Kestra handed her a cup of tea. "Going through all the traditional semi-laws with the Council unearthed some interesting finds, like there are codified laws regarding formal fights known as duels. Are you familiar with this idea? It's not something I was exposed to before." Her orb's golden glow was also something Kestra had come to appreciate.
"I've heard of dueling," Laura agreed, still suspicious.
"There are a number of grievances from the way Ramakith Ard ran this city, and you are not the only one more interested in vengeance than justice." Kestra narrowed her eyes when Laura opened her mouth, probably to protest Kestra's word choice. A quick pointing at the orb closed the angry woman's mouth. "The rules of these duels under Sortalheim's laws are as follows: participants must be of the Age of Maturity. That is 23 years by the measure of this realm. Participants must be at least level 5. There are Duels of Avarice, Duels of Honor, and Duels of Vendetta.
"There is an Office of Duels in Sortalheim. It's currently more of a ceremonial posting, but I've already warned the current appointee to prepare to actually work or hand over the position to someone who will. All of the duels not directly overseen by the Heavens that take place in Sortalheim's territory must be scheduled in advance and overseen by the Office of Duels.
"A Duel of Avarice may be refused, cannot end in lasting harm to either participant, and both participants must deposit what they're offering up as forfeiture on loss with an official of the city's Office of Duels.
"Duels of Honor may also be refused, and there is a required mediation session just before the scheduled duel. It is a closed session. So long as no law of the city is broken or conspired to be broken in the session, the mediator may only address the validity of claims made by the participants about what happened during the session. This is enforced by a Heavenly oath.
"And the final kind is the Duel of Vendetta. These require the challenger to swear before the Heavens that they have just cause to seek bloody retribution against the challenged, and that nothing but the blood of the challenged will satisfy that retribution. If the Heavens deem you have lied when you make this oath, then you will be punished with vicious prejudice."
Kestra paused to let that sink in. Laura had her tea cup up in front of her face, her attention quite fixed on Kestra now.
Kestra continued, satisfied that the warning had been well delivered. "If the challenged is past the Age of Maturity, level 5 or higher, and physically healthy at the time of the challenge, they will be brought to the dueling field, at which point they will be notified that they have been issued a verified challenge to a Duel of Vendetta.
"Both participants will be stripped of the clothes and equipment they came with, and provided white dueling clothes and weapons of their choosing from the armory of the Office of Duels. At that point, they fight until one surrenders. The forfeiture of a Duel of Vendetta is one's life, either as a corpse or as the bound-slave of the winner."
That called for another pause for emphasis. Laura's gaze had hooded, and she took a contemplative sip of her tea. When the tea cup came down, Kestra asked, "With this avenue of legal redress open to you, will you swear to follow the laws of Sortalheim in exchange for me freeing you from your enslavement and Heavenly oaths to me?"
Laura thought a bit, then nodded. "Yes."
They handled the details. Kestra had one less unjust slave to free.