Threads 353 Summit 5

“I thought I understood this until I came here and witnessed it.”

“I agree, but I do not find their methods completely heterodox after spending longer on it,” Dzintara said in response to the priestess. “It is possible to recombine different paths. More than that, Emissary Ling Qi’s words and intentions are matched.”

Ling Qi gave the other woman a surprised, but grateful, glance. Dzintara merely regarded her stonily under her woven headscarf.

“She may,” the older woman reluctantly allowed. “But their walking god is down among these mountains. Every seer in ten thousand leagues can feel her, burning their eyes and deafening their ears. How is this to be taken as peaceful intentions?”

“It is a threat, but not for you,” Ling Qi said. The duchess was here to oversee the war. “Emissary Jaromila must have told you of the Twelve Stars’ titan.”

“That creature was certainly some type of demon,” Jaromila said. “As unsettling as the elders of this Argent Peak Sect were, they could not compare to that foul crumbling star.”

“I have heard this, yes,” the priestess said. “And the portents are bad here. It is true that the Sibiar once allied and mingled with your ancestors…”

It was gratifying to hear that plainly accepted.

“But this whole situation is difficult. Divination is too uncertain here.”

But it was, of course, only ever a foot in the door.

“Divination is a useful tool, but those of us who are still here cannot expect to know everything that is coming. I fear overreliance on future telling.”

“It is not to be treated as the whole truth, only an aid,” Dzintara said. “Still, I understand this discomfort. It is difficult to see peace among all the fires burning here.”

“This is why it is our duty to enact so,” Jaromila said.

“It is,” the priestess agreed. Eyeing Ling Qi, she seemed to come to a conclusion. “You say all these concerns are in good faith. Very well. So are ours. It is not enough for there to be judges alone. Judges can only hear the evidence brought before them, though a good one can see lies for what they are. Most disputes, I imagine, will be about the nomads. There are not yet enough of us in contact. Therefore, your soldiers and our soldiers will need to collaborate as they do here. There must be many eyes to see that there are no lies spread in the ears of judges.”

“I’m not sure that’s possible along the whole border,” Ling Qi replied. “There are simply too many commands.”

“I agree,” Dzintara said. “Perhaps an agreement for sharing duties on outposts that follow designated routes?”

Ling Qi hid a grimace, glancing toward the rough edges of the construction here. That would be a harder sell to the Emerald Seas clans, too.

“I do think an investigative force attached to the judicial one is worth pursuing. I think that the Hierarchy could spare a crow or two on retainer…?” Jaromila asked leadingly.

“Possible. Perhaps I am overestimating how many claims there will be that ‘our’ tribes are making trouble,” the old priestess said.

“So this force would mostly be for distant claims, those that occur well away from here?” Ling Qi wondered. “I’m sure there are more hurdles than I am thinking of, but if we are constructing this from the ground up…”

“Outposts through which all legitimate traffic must travel would do more to remove the problem,” Dzintara proposed. “If you are outside approved routes, then you have forfeited our protection.”

Jaromila gave the younger woman a slightly sour look. “A degree of variation is necessary to survive, migrating in the Wall where the valleys and passes might change from decade to decade. Also, shall the Axemother’s temples open their coffers to chain checkpoints across a continent and man each one?”

It was a surprising show of friction. The White Sky were usually careful to hide such disagreements.

Dzintara flashed sharpened iron fangs at Jaromila. “No, I was not proposing that. I only suggested mutually manned outposts where the routes are likely to cross dangerously close to these northerners and their itchy blade grips. We cannot just grant those who come to us license to continue doing whatever they want.”

“And that is not what I am proposing,” Jaromila said coolly. “Apologies, Emissary Ling Qi, this is untoward of us. I do think pushing an investigative force will be good for everyone.”

Dzintara followed up. “And it is the opinion of the temples that we should minimize the need for it, but we will not oppose its existence. Correct, priestess?”

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“That is accurate. To answer Emissary Jaromila’s question, the Hierarchy can both spare a crow and open its coffers to a point,” the old woman said pointedly.

Ling Qi mulled over what she had heard. The glimpse at the foreigners’ own internal friction was a useful insight… It seemed that they weren’t totally united on their approach to the cloud tribes either. Was Jaromila using this to raise that issue in her own confederation’s regard? Gaining control of the tribes in the mountains would be more important, if this succeeded.