Queen Herana preferred that we talk informally, just the two of us. As we walked through the gardens that surrounded the palace I talked with her about the growing discontent in the realm with King Gregorio and his policy of Debt Trap Diplomacy.

"There are concerns that this discontent could boil over into a wide ranging conflict, which, given how devastating the Great War was, makes it imperative that we exercise whatever options we have at our disposal to stop it preemptively," I said.

"I'm aware of the discontent that exists in the realm, but I don't see a large scale war as being the most likely outcome. You're familiar with the expression 'An army marches on its stomach'? They couldn't launch a large scale mobilization without our support."

"I think you're underestimating how much anger people are feeling; King Gregorio is using his leverage as a creditor to exert influence over affairs in their kingdoms that they're not comfortable losing control over; it's only a matter of time before they decide that they've had enough."

"The only ones that those people have to be angry at is themselves, if they hadn't done such a poor job of governing their kingdoms they wouldn't need to borrow so much and they wouldn't find themselves in this situation."

"Be that as it may, the threat of war is real, and chastising people over what they should and shouldn't have done is not going to stop it."

"Why are you taking such an interest in this? I would have thought that all of your focus would be directed toward fixing the mess that Esmeralda left behind."

"If the realm goes to war again no one will be spared; taking action to prevent another war is in all of our interests."

"How is it in my interest? I have no issues with King Gregorio or his kingdom."

"How long do you think it will be before King Gregorio sets his sights on your kingdom?"

"He wouldn't dare."

"I had a long talk with Prince Philip when I was there, he told me that his father's ambition was to eventually have the entire realm in his grasp."

"He would say that, what with his father overlooking him for the throne in favor of his younger brother Baron."

"You believe he said this to me for the purpose of stirring up trouble for his father?"

"That's the most logical explanation; save for a few minor flare ups the realm has been at peace for seven hundred years, now you would seek to disturb that peace because of the words of a jilted prince."

"It's not just him; in Kandalar and Volstaff they are ready to revolt and in Gronden and Menten they are deeply anxious, that's almost half the realm that's ready to go to war."

"Gronded and Menten are small, insignificant kingdoms; Kandalar is still on its knees from their disastrous invasion of Grunheim, and you're the one who killed King Anua and obliterated his army; if that's the coalition that's going to declare war on Dranii it's going to be a very short war."

"You're not taking into account the kingdoms that have no animosity toward Dranii but may decide to join the war because they believe that Dranii needs to be pushed back."

"And which kingdoms would you be talking about? Here in Theran we have a long history of avoiding conflict unless it is absolutely necessary that we get involved, and there's no reason for Erst with their navy to get involved, which just leaves you. Are you telling me that if these kingdoms should decide to start a war that you would have Aseron fight alongside them?"

"I might."

"Alegra, please listen to me," Herana stopped, turned to me and said, "Do not underestimate the seriousness of what you're talking about. If these kingdoms do start a war and you join them and you lose, your kingdom will be made to suffer for generations. You are young, and idealistic, I understand that you want to do what you can to make the realm a better place, but I would urge you to think of your kingdom and of your subjects before doing something rash and foolhardy."

"I am not underestimating the seriousness of all of this, however it seems to me that you are overestimating the strength of your alliance with Dranii that you formed seven hundred years ago in the aftermath of The Great War, an alliance that has never before been tested in the way that King Gregorio is intent on testing it. What will you do when he sets his sights on Theran?"

"As I have already said, it won't come to that."

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"Yes it will, and when it does you will have no one that you can call upon because he will have them all firmly under his thumb."

"So long as we are speaking in the hypothetical, allow me to pose a hypothetical of my own. If these kingdoms were to march against Dranii and you joined them and you found yourselves to be at a disadvantage, would you use your phoenix to bring a favorable end to the war?"

"Are you asking this because I didn't use Myra in the battle with Volstaff?"

"That's right, my understanding is that you didn't do so because you wanted all of the other kingdoms to know that your army was up to the task of defending its kingdom."

"That's correct."

"Again, admirable, but the truth is that it's going to be hard for you to find allies if you have an almighty weapon at your disposal that you're not willing to use when the need arises."

"Are you saying that if I promised to use Myra in battle, should it come to that, that you would agree to be my ally in this."

"It would make me more amenable to your proposal, yes. So tell me, are you willing to single-handedly incinerate an entire army to save the soldiers that are fighting for you?"

"I was willing to do it when we were fighting back the Volstaff invasion, fortunately Uther's battle tactics and command of the army meant I didn't have to, but if I had to I would have, and I wouldn't have hesitated for a second."

"Good; now, why don't you tell me what it is you have in mind for preventing this war that you believe is inevitable."

We continued our walk through the palace gardens and I explained to her my proposal for how we might loosen the stranglehold that Dranii had on these kingdoms that were threatening to revolt. The primary issue that needed addressing was debt relief. Kandalar was the worst affected by Dranii's predatory borrowing; their inability to repay even the interest on the amount that King Gregorio had agreed to borrow them following their disastrous Grunheim campaign meant that their indebtedness to Dranii kept increasing and as it increased so did the number of administrators and merchants sent by King Gregorio to Kandalar to take over the management of their affairs and ownership of their resources. It was the same with Volstaff, who, after having their army decimated by us, were powerless to defend themselves against the march of Dranii troops into their kingdom. My proposal to Queen Herana was that we formulate a payment plan for servicing their debt for them so that they could expel the Dranii merchants and administrators and retake full control of their kingdoms; once they had done this they could begin to contribute to the servicing of their debt and once their economies had recovered they could take over the responsibility of their debt.

"I'm surprised at how much you want to help these kingdoms; Volstaff tried to do to Aseron what's being done to them by Dranii, and I know how you feel about what Kandalar did to the dwarves."

"It's not about these kingdoms, it's about the realm."

"What you are proposing is going to require enormous funds; say we do help them, what will we be getting out of it?"

"What we get out of it is not having to deal with a big war in the near future, and in exchange for assisting them with their debt we get them to agree to whatever measures we propose to put in place to prevent them from being bad actors in the future."

"What kind of measures?"

"We place monitors in Kandalar and Volstaff that will let us know if they're planning anything malicious, and if it's established that they are then they are made to face the consequences for it; we cease assisting them with their debt and you stop exporting grain to them."

"There is one big problem with all of this: in both Kandalar and Volstaff the Overseers have yet to select new leaders; who would we be entering into these agreements with?"

"I'll speak with Elias and ask him to speak with the Overseers on Mt Edrugar and find out from them how close they are to selecting new rulers."

"You have that kind of relationship with your Overseer?"

"Yes, Elias and I are very close; are you not close with your Overseer?"

"I can't remember when was the last time I saw him, which I've always chosen to look at as a sign that I'm doing a good job as queen, running the kingdom so well that divine intervention isn't required."

I was about to tell her that Elias had nothing but positive things to say about the job that I was doing as queen and he came to see me often. The Overseers it seemed were all unique and most likely this affected the kind of rulers that they selected for their kingdoms. I was interested to know more about this and made a mental note to ask Elias about it when I returned to Aseron.

"If these kingdoms are open to accepting our offer in exchange for agreeing to our terms, you could make the return of Grunheim to the dwarves one of the conditions that they would have to meet."

I had thought about this already, and I had so far failed to make a decision on whether to ask for the return of Grunheim.

"I know why you offered the dwarves safe haven, I've seen their engineering capabilities, they can be very useful to you in your efforts to rebuild your kingdom, but that's only if they are in your kingdom," Herana said to me, with a glint in her eye and a knowing smile. She was testing me, and for the sake of securing her support I gave her the answer that she was looking for.

"I think the issue of Grunheim...will need to be resolved at a later date."

The smile on her face widened, and I knew that I had succeeded in obtaining her support for my proposal. Over the next three days we ironed out the finer details of the plan and we discussed possible responses should King Gregorio choose to retaliate against us. Our trip to Theran had been a tremendous success and with a plan in place for averting a large scale war I could return to Aseron and focus on the issues in my own kingdom.

"The other rulers fear you because of your firebird, but what I see now is that it is your intelligence and level headedness that they should really fear," Herana said to me as we were leaving.

"They have no reason to fear me at all, peace is the only thing I want," I said as I mounted Myra.

"There's an old saying: 'Those who desire peace must prepare for war'. King Gregorio is not going to take this lying down, make sure that you are ready for the chaos that is to come."