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╩ 49 ╩
Minister Tavya had spent much of her life entrusting things to others. Her meals were acquired and cooked by others, her clothing chosen and stitched by others, her strategies picked an implemented by others, even her children raised and taught by others. To be a noble of Flin was to be perfectly confident in your servant’s prowess or at least in their fear of failure. Of the many old sayings of that land one of the oldest is “you can judge a craftsman by the quality of his tools.”
So it was, that today was one of the few times in a very long time that Tavya took matters directly into her own hands without relying on a servant’s talents. She had to know what the Proper wanted, why they seemed so intent upon securing the Fortress’s aid to give the impression of a unified front, yet, seemed so utterly unable to organize their own diverse factions. Secretly, she hoped to learn something of Polena and the Djaught’s fate, though just why she could not justify even to herself. Her source for learning such matters she chose carefully. He was a young minister called Kanadji and he had come to the Fortress only a few months ago, the younger of the two ministers serving the Djaught Mehethe. In truth, she had been priming him for such a talk for weeks, but had not yet chosen what she would try and extract from him until that very day.
They met to play Hunar and drink tea, both of them being coinsures of the drink. She was just pouring herself a second cup of the dark leafed Renal tea he had brought when she started her attack.
“What about nonaggression?”
They had talked now and then of politics before and he often brought the topic up just so, as if going back to something of little important. Kanadji smiled and wiped his mouth.
“In regards to whom, one might ask.”
“Why who else? The People’s Alliance. You will remember that they mean to make war on my people. They have quite often in the past and though we are at peace it is only a matter of decades, perhaps years before one of their Lords of the Legion gets a whim to try again. So what did you offer them? It’s a simple question and you don’t have to answer but…” She let it drop there and awaited his response. Kanadji was about ten years younger than her and she had noticed that he tended to show deference to his elders. She also had determined that he felt himself incredibly clever for meeting with a foreign dignitary like this and the few valueless secrets she traded him always seemed to strike his fancy. He sat up as he spoke to her and she could tell she had baited the hook well.
“The Right Hand of Edjin stands poised to move into the Dehali valley and secure Fortress Edgar’s vassals against any threat. The Alliance’s Fortress of Ledire is on the doorstep of Dehali, less than a week’s march. We have agreed not to consider that fortress to be a threat.”
“Ah, but that is common knowledge. Come now Kanadji, there must be more than that? I have seen how people have been scurrying about in the Westin parts of the Fortress. There is something else afoot to this non-aggression.”
“It was a fair price to pay for the Luminary, a shame she could not uphold her part of the bargain.”
“Doubly a shame now that she is lost.”
“Quite, but if we had her studies we would have an army,” he replied, his voice becoming stilted in the old speech. It was a sign of discomfort, or perhaps of a lie. Tavya pressed him.
“I understand that this war the Djaught wishes to bring is riding on Fiedjan’s proof of mandate, but could it not bring a mandate of arms?”
“You speak unclearly.” Kanadji replied, and Tavya felt like she was going to scream.
“I mean, you have a larger army. While you might not be able to break the Fortress, you could starve it by taking its lands. That would be an easy task.”
“We are not that kind of men, Minister, you must know that.”
Perhaps there had been something in the tea, perhaps she had not slept enough that last night for fear of assassins who had killed one of her knights that past week. Perhaps she could think of a thousand other excused. None of that mattered. Tavya found herself enraged at this young minister’s gall.
“But you are that kind of men. Your nation took much of the north, you tried to invade Free Westa, and you intend to again.”
“No, we have gone where we were called. We have not been called to take over the Edgarans.”
“But what is the difference? Either way you have come and taken what you wanted often when people native to the lands have told you not too. Let us not pretend.”
“They asked us to come and give aid and we have. That is all I will say Minister.”
There was no mistaking the anger in his voice but Tavya had to speak on.
“No, listen, answer me this, I have paid for it in speech and kindness. I know how a diplomat speaks in private and in public. We are in private. Here, you speak of the world like Hunar, like people are pieces on a board. Looking at the actions of your people and of the Alliance they are the same actions. You have invaded the north, they have invaded Free Westa along its eastern borders. They are invasions, however well justified they may be both of your people and their people invade other nations. Can you not say that is true?”
“No.” Kanadji raised his voice and rose from his chair, “I will not say it, and I will say no more of this!”
Tavya leaned back in her own chair, flustered and confused but realizing she had driven Kanadji almost to the point of leaving she quickly stammered an apology in the politest terms she could find.
So it was, that today was one of the few times in a very long time that Tavya took matters directly into her own hands without relying on a servant’s talents. She had to know what the Proper wanted, why they seemed so intent upon securing the Fortress’s aid to give the impression of a unified front, yet, seemed so utterly unable to organize their own diverse factions. Secretly, she hoped to learn something of Polena and the Djaught’s fate, though just why she could not justify even to herself. Her source for learning such matters she chose carefully. He was a young minister called Kanadji and he had come to the Fortress only a few months ago, the younger of the two ministers serving the Djaught Mehethe. In truth, she had been priming him for such a talk for weeks, but had not yet chosen what she would try and extract from him until that very day.
They met to play Hunar and drink tea, both of them being coinsures of the drink. She was just pouring herself a second cup of the dark leafed Renal tea he had brought when she started her attack.
“What about nonaggression?”
They had talked now and then of politics before and he often brought the topic up just so, as if going back to something of little important. Kanadji smiled and wiped his mouth.
“In regards to whom, one might ask.”
“Why who else? The People’s Alliance. You will remember that they mean to make war on my people. They have quite often in the past and though we are at peace it is only a matter of decades, perhaps years before one of their Lords of the Legion gets a whim to try again. So what did you offer them? It’s a simple question and you don’t have to answer but…” She let it drop there and awaited his response. Kanadji was about ten years younger than her and she had noticed that he tended to show deference to his elders. She also had determined that he felt himself incredibly clever for meeting with a foreign dignitary like this and the few valueless secrets she traded him always seemed to strike his fancy. He sat up as he spoke to her and she could tell she had baited the hook well.
“The Right Hand of Edjin stands poised to move into the Dehali valley and secure Fortress Edgar’s vassals against any threat. The Alliance’s Fortress of Ledire is on the doorstep of Dehali, less than a week’s march. We have agreed not to consider that fortress to be a threat.”
“Ah, but that is common knowledge. Come now Kanadji, there must be more than that? I have seen how people have been scurrying about in the Westin parts of the Fortress. There is something else afoot to this non-aggression.”
“It was a fair price to pay for the Luminary, a shame she could not uphold her part of the bargain.”
“Doubly a shame now that she is lost.”
“Quite, but if we had her studies we would have an army,” he replied, his voice becoming stilted in the old speech. It was a sign of discomfort, or perhaps of a lie. Tavya pressed him.
“I understand that this war the Djaught wishes to bring is riding on Fiedjan’s proof of mandate, but could it not bring a mandate of arms?”
“You speak unclearly.” Kanadji replied, and Tavya felt like she was going to scream.
“I mean, you have a larger army. While you might not be able to break the Fortress, you could starve it by taking its lands. That would be an easy task.”
“We are not that kind of men, Minister, you must know that.”
Perhaps there had been something in the tea, perhaps she had not slept enough that last night for fear of assassins who had killed one of her knights that past week. Perhaps she could think of a thousand other excused. None of that mattered. Tavya found herself enraged at this young minister’s gall.
“But you are that kind of men. Your nation took much of the north, you tried to invade Free Westa, and you intend to again.”
“No, we have gone where we were called. We have not been called to take over the Edgarans.”
“But what is the difference? Either way you have come and taken what you wanted often when people native to the lands have told you not too. Let us not pretend.”
“They asked us to come and give aid and we have. That is all I will say Minister.”
There was no mistaking the anger in his voice but Tavya had to speak on.
“No, listen, answer me this, I have paid for it in speech and kindness. I know how a diplomat speaks in private and in public. We are in private. Here, you speak of the world like Hunar, like people are pieces on a board. Looking at the actions of your people and of the Alliance they are the same actions. You have invaded the north, they have invaded Free Westa along its eastern borders. They are invasions, however well justified they may be both of your people and their people invade other nations. Can you not say that is true?”
“No.” Kanadji raised his voice and rose from his chair, “I will not say it, and I will say no more of this!”
Tavya leaned back in her own chair, flustered and confused but realizing she had driven Kanadji almost to the point of leaving she quickly stammered an apology in the politest terms she could find.
She spent most of the rest of that day in rumination and recrimination berating herself for so foiling her own aims. It had been such a long time she last took matters into her own hands that she had almost forgotten how to. The only thing of value she could find from her meeting was that Kanadji seemed to be a dedicated man. Truth was a rare thing in a diplomat, idealism much more so. That night, as she thought about it, she realized that the last time she had done so had been with Polena, on their first meeting when she had decided to come directly to the Luminary’s quarters. That was the source of her anger at Kanadji, but most of all, it was why she cared so much what had happened to her. She was not a piece on a Hunar board, not a rival to be controlled or avoided, not a servant to be ordered around like a riding horse. She was a person, an equal. “Despite her status” ,Tavya thought to herself alone in her bed that night, “despite Polena’s sick attractions, or her sycophantic devotion to her controlling government she cared about her. And the realization that she had led Polena quite likely to her death filled Tavya with a hollow sense of responsibility that she found both unfamiliar and unbearable.
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