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Julius and Mei both shot up, exclaiming their surprise and dissatisfaction in unison.

“What do you mean you can’t!?”

The magistrates looked to each other in mild confusion while Consular Gracci raised his arms to plead us with, “Ah—I believe you’re misunderstanding. We couldn’t possibly enter into a new alliance because our previous pact should still remain in place.”

I leaned back in my chair and let out a drawn out sigh.

Tugging on the hems of both Mei’s and Julius’ cloaks, I dragged them back.

“My apologies for our outburst. We find ourselves lacking in the deeper knowledge related to these kinds of things. If you say the alliance is in place, then I trust that it is… But is there some sort of formal document we may have a facsimile made of to take back with us to Tolin?”

The Consular frowned and adjusted himself to face Lord Fulvius, “Brother, you’ve brought the orb with you, yes?”

A short pause followed and Lord Fulvius stared forward with a blank look.

“Hmhmm,” He cleared his throat, “Of course, I’d never be so careless as to leave such an important device unattended on my desk. On an unrelated note, please excuse me for a brief recess as I must go grab something from my office upstairs.”

Consular Gracci rubbed his forehead aggressively as Lord Fulvius disappeared from the room in a flash.

I’d thought they looked similar before, but watching them here it became more obvious they also shared the same kind of awkward personalities, though Lord Fulvius didn’t allow it to show as blatantly at first.

After just a few minutes the forgetful magistrate returned and made his way back to his place next to Lady Sara. He shifted in place and produced a white orb with silver etching.

Rias gasped behind me, “An aetherline device?”

I strained my eyes to get a peek at the object as it was passed to Consular Gracci. Aside from the etching color, it looked almost identical to the Orb of Infrastructure we’d uncovered in Tolin. We’d passed ours on to Dori and Rias to look into, but they both came to the same conclusion—without an active aetherflux network running in the city, it was just a priceless paperweight.

The Consular held the orb in his lap, turning it so that its crescent moon crest faced upwards.

“Ingo initiae.”

He spoke the words in elvish but they didn’t auto-translate. Before I could take even a moment to ponder why, the device came to life. The silver lines that ran across the surface began to glow brightly and the orb lifted up into the air. Beams of light from the crest illuminated a display on a field of mist that began to form around the orb.

Consular Gracci swiped his hand ahead of him, causing many different windows to appear. He looked through them, dismissing them with another wave of his hand until he found the one he was looking for. The display expanded in size until the details were readable for us even across the room.

Projected onto the mist was a double-columned list of faction names and their statuses. Notably, the other elven factions were the first listed and then the noblebourne, dwarves, and finally human ones.

FACTIONS STATUS

SYLVAE IXI

Antagonistic 💀

SYLVAE V’ALEN

Co-belligerent ☆

SYLVAE NOX

Co-belligerent ☆

UNION OF HIGH NOBILITY

Hostile 💀

DWER’IN

Neutral

EMPIRE OF THE LIGHT

Alliance ★

KINGDOM OF RENA

Hostile 💀

MAARIN COMMONWEALTH

Neutral

“As you can see, the interfactional statuses of our government are recorded automatically. You should be able to see the same… though with everything you’ve been through, do your people have access to a faction orb?”

“I believe we’ve recovered one from Tolin, but we don’t have the means to get an… uh, aethernet, running.”

I heard my companions snicker to themselves as I almost fumbled the technical jargon. I shot Julius a critical glare, his posture straightened and the dirty smirk disappeared from his face.

Consular Gracci calmly continued without acknowledging my close fumble nor dramatics with Julius, “We have technicians that can assist you with getting one established quickly.”

“Our people would greatly appreciate that,” I responded, putting my professional attitude back in play, “I’m certain we have some soldiers who would be reassured to have their ability to communicate sped back up to the modern age.”

With the confusion cleared the meeting with the Aestori representatives moved forwards at breakneck speed.

Lord Fulvius and Lady Elin broke off with Hailey, Mei, and Rias to discuss the current status of our agricultural, labor, and general civilian undertakings. Lord Fulvius had been a minister in both the imperial court and Aestori central government in Aestor years ago, and was responsible for leading a series of reformation policies with the elven people. Lady Elin held a very high noble title and served as a sort of mayoral figure to the people of Umbraedomis, and had been keeping the city’s peace for the last four decades. With both of their assistance, a number of qualified individuals were to be allocated to travel along with us back to Tolin.

Julius and Lady Sara had their own melding of the minds around our military’s state and current deployable forces. From what knowledge I could gleam from the Consular, she used to hold a position of Archmagus in the imperial court—something akin to a chancellor who oversaw the many divisions of the imperial army.

While both of those conversations were going on, I was holding my own conference of sorts with Consular Gracci and Lord Adellin to hammer out the specifics of our reaffirmed alliance.

Aside from a mish-mash of politics, I was intrigued by the Lord-Magistrate’s intimate knowledge in the formation of the Empire. Because I wanted to know exactly what our commitments were to the Aestori, and vice-versa, he had provided a number of old record books and documents which seemed to predate the use of the aetherline devices.

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A large leather bound volume caught my eye, as its title bore a name I’d heard recently, THE STRIFELANDS-EDENDRY DEFENSE TREATY. I recalled the long-winded speech by Lady Aisling back in Tolin where she’d brought up this treaty name to assure us that if we were really the inheritors of the Empire, that the Aestori people would aid us.

I lifted the book up and held it out towards the two elves, “I’d like to know about this treaty, and what it means for our people.”

Lord Adellin looked up and smiled, “That document is the legislative birth of the Empire. Before our people signed that treaty we were our own sovereign people living peacefully in a forest far away from the machinations of the rest of the world. At that time we had little communication with the humans and dwarves living nearby.”

“What changed? Something drastic must have occurred for our two peoples to come together.”

“It certainly did. Fueled by some sort of prejudicial hatred towards elves, the Kingdom of Rena—though at the time they were newly formed and were calling themselves ‘Reven Natori’—launched an attack on our people. In the far past they were a tribe of nomads who had unfavorable run-ins with the elves of the Vale.”

I cocked my head in confusion, “Aren’t the forests of V’alen on the other side of the Strifelands? Why would they attack the Aestori who lived in an opposite direction?”

“It’s possible they heard rumors of treasure from human merchants who traveled the area, and figured we would be an easy target. In that time our people weren’t warriors and we had no standing military. We were a feudal society that was led by a small number of noble families who lorded over a number of fiefdoms. Large concentrations of wealth were gathered in relatively few places. A perfect target for a fledgling nation looking to expand to rival their neighboring nation, the Alliance of Van’Ixia.”

Lord Adellin took the book from my hands and flipped through it. Once he’d found the page he was looking for he turned it back round and held it out for me.

The page detailed a list of names, which continued on for several pages. There were thousands of entries, and when I looked back at a word scrawled along the top of each page before the names, I realized what the meaning of this record was.

Casualties.

With a somber look he pulled the book back and flipped through more pages, searching for something else. Finding the right page, Lord Adellin turned the book around once more for me to see. Rows of signatures alongside wax stamped crests filled the sheet.

“These are the seals of the great archnoble houses of the Aestori who came together to sign the treaty and formally assimilate with the people who defended us against an enemy they had no reason to. The names of those who fell in battle to protect us are preserved in these pages. Without their sacrifice, none of us would be here today. So when you ask what sort of commitments you have to our people, you’ve got it backwards.”

Consular Gracci nodded in agreement with Lord Adellin’s statement and reaffirmed in his owns the same sentiment.

About three hours had passed and my companions had wrapped up their own discussions. I was in the middle of reviewing a detailed journal from an Aestori Magistrix from the start of the war with the demonic invaders, so I sent them all back to the Inn so they could grab something to eat and not wait for me.

Hailey tried to guilt trip me into letting her stick around with me, but I reversed it back on her by saying I would be worried about Rias if she didn’t go back with the group.

I knew my sister would be fine with just Julius and Mei, but I wanted to meet with the tribunal members alone to get their unreserved thoughts about reuniting with the Empire.

Once my companions had departed I asked the Aestori leaders to sit down with me once more.

“I’d like to hear each of your unfiltered feelings. I’ll even go first to break the ice,” I leaned forward in my seat and placed my chin over-top my interlaced fingers, “Ever since we received Lady Aisling and Lady Viane in Tolin, our people have been on edge. We haven’t been completely sure of your motivations and some of the events leading up to us arriving in this city, as well as some of the things that have happened after we got here, have raised some concern. After meeting with you though I feel more at ease, but I also know that from the outside perspective we look like a battered group of refugees begging for aid.”

The five elves sat silently. I tried to read any emotions or thoughts from their expressions, but they had the steel-faced resolve of typical politicians.

Lady Sara finally broke the tension with a lighthearted chuckle, “You’re not the first Empress I’ve had the pleasure to speak with candidly, but you are the first one to admit they’re begging for help. I’ve been against the formation of the Tribunal and the provisional government since day one. All we’ve done in the past forty some years is fail repeatedly at replicating the old imperial governing body—”

“—Lady Sara!”

Lady Elin jumped up from her seat, shattering her calm and reserved front she’d been wearing the last few hours.

“Hush, Elin. We’ve done all that needs to be done to validate Empress Airis’ claim as ruler over the Empire. There is no reason to hide behind false niceties anymore. Our people are sworn to her, and it’s our responsibility to uphold that allegiance.”

Lord Adellin cleared his throat and took hold of the awkward pause created by the friction between the two ladies. “Regarding the odd events surrounding your arrival… I assume you’re talking about the armed response at the gates?”

I nodded my head, “Yes. Lady Aisling seemed unsure of the situation. We had encountered another officer on our way in through the forest, who’d mentioned he was dispatched after a ‘strange magicka signature’ had been sensed in the woods. He reported our impending arrival to the forces at the gate, but it seemed like his message was ignored or not disseminated through the garrison as intended.”

“There is a…” Lord Adellin paused mid thought as if looking for the right word, “Factional divide, in our militarized forces. Many of our high-ranking people were caught up in a power struggle after we lost contact with the Empire. Three major factions were formed. The Stellae Prolaetoris, the Astral Knights who are lead by Lady Aisling and Lady Elin. The Stellae Praecantoris, Astral Mages, of which Lady Sara holds a high-ranking position in. And finally, the Sylvae Caetos, the Forest Guardians, who have no representation in the provisional government—though that is purely their fault as they’ve repeatedly declined invitations to join.”

“Captain Arden, the one we had the run in with, mentioned he was in the Forest Guardian Core. But why would they refuse to have any members participate within the Tribunal?”

Lord Fulvius leaned forwards in his seat, “Their Patriarch, a shrewd man called Dailyn, is representing an ancient house of archnobles that have opposed imperial reforms for centuries. He has a misguided view of how things used to be and believes our people should ‘reclaim our individualism’. It’s a load of nonsense, but unfortunately there are enough imbeciles that follow him that it has caused us many issues. Such as your problematic encounter upon arriving.”

“It’s not so simple,” Lord Adellin interjected, “There is a divide within our city, that much is true. But it can’t be quantified as easily as us versus them. Dailyn’s singularia view is but one of many new ideologies spreading through our city and… Oh, my apologies Lady Sara. I’ll yield the floor back to you.”

Lady Sara had stood from her seat and was staring daggers at both Fulvius and Adellin as they were speaking, the latter must have finally felt some unease.

“As I was saying, we’re failing to keep our society moving forwards in a meaningful way without splintering back into factions. Dailyn’s politics seek to bring back those ancient noble houses that existed before our people formed ties with the Vanixians. His backer’s are House Opimius, who would love nothing more to see oppressive classism return in stride.”

The former Archmagus gracefully strode across the room and pulled one of the chairs next to me aside, adjusting its placement back about five feet. She turned and sat, crossing her legs in an elegant but intimidating way.

“Except for the young Consular here, the rest of us have experienced a few hundred years of life. And every one of them, save for the last four decades, has been alongside the Empire. Humans, dwarves, elves… It made no difference who had a majority representation in the senate, House Vanixi and the Imperial Family always ensured our people were treated fairly. Emperor Alexandros and Prince Theodin were good men and I placed my trust in the both of them when I agreed to stay on as magus for His Majesty.” She looked to me and lowered her head, “So I choose to honor my sworn allegiances and stand by your side should you want me.”

Lady Sara’s declaration happened so suddenly that I was at a loss for words. I quickly glanced back at the others across the room but found their expressions hard to read once again.

“I gladly accept your assistance. Though I’m not sure what sort of duties you performed for the emperors of old, I know your knowledge and expertise will be a boon for us.”

With a wide smile she leapt up from her seat and strode confidently across the room towards the door. “Fantastic. I’ll make arrangements for someone to handle my responsibilities here and prepare to depart the city with you, once you’ve finished your visit. By your leave, Empress.”

A flicker of black cloth disappeared through the doorway before anyone in the room could react. Turning my attention to the remaining four, I could finally see proper cracks in their façade.

“Uhhh,” Lord Fulvius started, “I suppose I’ll just come out and say it as well then. I’d also like to place my support behind you. It may not mean much but I have the backing of a popular political movement that I’ve been leading for some time, dating back to when our people were living in Aestor. With my backing, the majority of the population in the city should have very few issues with us re-assimilating with the Empire.”

Consular Gracci seemed to relax at his brother’s statement, letting his shoulders drop noticeably.

“I’m glad to see you share my desire as well. It should be safe to say that the whole of House Sempronia will back you, my Empress.”

The two mops of white hair bounced around as they nodded their heads in agreement, identical grins showing on their faces.

Unlike Lady Sara, both of them stated they would remain in Umbraedomis to manage the transition of power.

Lord Fulvius expressed a desire to issue a public announcement to the people, but Consular Gracci and Lady Elin calmed him. We would wait to make any major announcements to their civilian population until we had a resolution to the Renaultian threat.

Lord Adellin expressed his support, though he warned me of the turbulence that would arise from the singularia movement and its leader, Dailyn. Though he assured me that I likely wouldn’t see anything as dramatic as the stand-off we almost witnessed at the gates to the city.

This left Lady Elin as the last one who hadn’t given me her own thoughts of the current situation.

I considered leaving well enough alone and wrapping up this meeting, as there would be plenty of time to circle back and speak with her, but Consular Gracci probed her for her thoughts once more and she gave in.

“My sister has placed her trust in you already. So much so, that she went and ignored my advice to keep a distance from this mess and sent one of our champions and raid detachments to escort you here today. I’ve no reason to go against her trust, so the Stellae Prolaetoris are at your service, Empress.”