Intermission II, Part III: Reunion

By Archcanon Tholer Saryoni, Patriarch of the Tribunal Temple

Odros,

Your words move me, Odros, but that is of no surprise to you, is it? You always had that pull about you and I have always been willing to hear you out, even now, when you ask me to betray everything I have devoted to since you exiled me at the Red Mountain, but I will not refuse you, not as you refused me, Odros. That is the difference between us. I stood behind you always and you stood behind me when it was convenient, but discarded of me once it ceased to be. So know that I will help you, but know that it is not out of any misguided sense of loyalty or friendship but out of necessity.

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I will make arrangements and I will disappear into the night, just as I did back then, but when all is said and done, know that we are not friends and do not appeal to such notions again or you may find they do not work as they once did. I will meet you in three weeks’ time at Hassour and I trust that I will face no opposition from Fovon or the others.

If there is even an ounce of doubt about their intentions towards me, I will leave at once and I will have Hassour razed to the ground and the heads of every cultist put on pikes as a warning to those who would follow in their path.

Do not betray me as you did before, Odros. I trust your words are honest, but I also trust that things change and you were willing to sacrifice me once and I very much believe that has not changed, but as I said, if you should make that mistake again, there will be consequences. Against my better judgment, I have stayed the Ordinators and to a lesser extent, the Buoyant Armigers, because I believe what happened in the City Below was not the fault of the House, but know this, Odros, I am the hand that holds the leash of the dogs of war, and should anything to that hand, the dogs will rip and tear and mangle anything they get ahold of. I ask you to weigh that heavily as you decide what actions to take at Hassour, Odros. You will not wrong me as you did before—I swear this to you.

­-Tholer