Threads 363-Maps 4

“Perhaps!” Ling Qi raised her voice in a gap where she could manage without overriding anyone else. “I was misunderstood. Might it be possible for White Sky-affiliated tribes specifically to make use of peaks along the edge of our region? I feel this would be beneficial. It provides the Polar Nation another benefit to offer tribes. It provides us security. Guaranteed tribes would be incentivized to keep their less trustworthy fellows out of this territory. We might even provide a mechanism by which they might report hostile movements to us.”

“We come back to the issue of identification then,” Cao Chun said. “How do we discern which barbarian is a vassal and which is a raider before it is too late?”

“Something for our experts to discern. Surely the craftsmen of your empire and our own nation may come up with a satisfactory arrangement?” Jaromila asked.

“There are ways to mark things and people which are not easily falsified.” The gravely accented voice of one of the White Sky experts spoke up. “But the more sure, the more invasive.”

“There is a limit to what my people will accept,” Ilsur said flatly.

Cao Chun opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again, looking as if he had bitten into something sour. “There is a limit to the methods the empire will employ on this.”

Wang Lian considered Ling Qi across the table as people bickered back and forth. Ling Qi bowed her head a little, silently asking for support.

“It seems to me,” Wang Lian mused, “that we have a good opportunity to test this. It will be many years before there are civilians at the border, or even near it. The ones residing in these valleys and along these roads will be soldiers, professional work crews, and those unfortunates sentenced to hard labor for their crimes. A small band of peaks may be used then. I know that the mountains from this vale over to this pass are considered good lands among the cloud tribes as they can support many herds.”

Several noble representatives shot Wang Lian surprised looks as she traced a region on the map, the area where the headwaters of the river Jing flowed. It was the primary water way of the Emerald Seas.

Ilsur looked her up and down, wariness on his features. “It is. You propose a… trial then. Testing our ability to keep our word?”

“Easy to promise what lies across the province from you,” Luo Jie said.

“The Wang will accept moving the western claim line north in exchange for moving the eastern line south, filling out the headwaters. Would this be acceptable?”

“It may be,” Khadne said slowly. “The eastern peoples have little interest in the mountains, but the west…”

“The Twisted Pines would be amenable to this,” Dzintara said. “However, if we speak of neutral areas and divisions, the White Sky would be more comfortable if there were to be a band leading this embassy which is not fully administered by either of us. Shared fortifications or none, as a sign of trust, that we may both come to this place in safety.”

“Implying that you would not be safe under our security,” Cao Chun scoffed.

“Shall you walk along a road guarded by our runestones alone?” Dzintara retorted. “Do not lie. You would, as you people say, ‘spit blood’ at the notion.”

“An arrangement such as is had here with your stones guarding the south and our formations engineering guarding the north is more than sufficient.”

“This is straying. Return to this notion of allowing a region where tribes may operate,” Xia Ren said harshly.

Dzintara glanced back at the gnarled tree-woman standing behind them and grimaced. “Yes. This matter should be handled first. If we are guaranteed that we will be responsible for only sworn tribes, I do not object. it is not dissimilar from our own oaths, so the infrastructure should be applicable here…”

“No. Not you. Explain your thinking.”

Ah, Ling Qi really did not like being the center of the general’s attention again.

“Establishing infrastructure and methods for communication greatly benefits our people. The complaint is that tribes move too much to keep their deals, no? I have been told that the cloud tribes compete just as fiercely with each other as they do us. Establishing that certain privileged tribes may access good grazing territory unmolested if they are willing to abide peaceably with us incentivizes cooperation. We have tried simple conquest and colonization for countless centuries to little effect. A new approach must be attempted.”

She hated to lay it out so baldly like that—it was impolitic, to say the least—but there was no squirming under the general’s eyes. The woman would merely call out any half-truths out of politeness. There was also the matter that the Twelve Stars Confederation, so far as she knew, operated out of the east. She was sure Wang Lian knew, and that was why Luo Jie had not objected too much.

“That is the reason I am here at all. You treat us as one, but we are not.” Ilsur raised his chin up defiantly as the general’s gaze fell on him, even as sweat broke out on his brow. “I am not so foolish as to think you lowlanders are being kind. You wish to drive us out or browbeat the tribes that will cling to every tenet of old ways unto death? That is the way of life. Leaders fall. Tribes merge and split.”

“If I may, the river Jing’s headwaters will be a highly patrolled region regardless, given its spiritual and material importance. It is suitable for a trial attempt,” Xia Lin supported. “It will also serve to stress test the dispute resolution panel. And it is not impossible for tribes to come together, as our own history shows.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The Xia had been a hill tribe once until they, and two other surviving tribes, had turned on their neighbors during the Xi’s conquest in exchange for leniency. It was a risky point to bring up to the woman who had purged those old practices and turned the tribe into a fully integrated imperial clan.

“A trial then. I will accept this, in light of other negotiations,” Xia Ren said after a long moment.