[x] Greet the Governor of Hari-nat, his son, and the others when they arrive. They could have turned the tide of the battle, and they might well be feeling guilty--and secretly annoyed--that they helped only a little in the final victory.
[x] Write a letter to the Emperor, a letter ot court, and a letter to his father, explaining his actions and his victory. Now is the time to strike while the iron is hot, perhaps. The rumors and understanding of what happened here need to be shaped properly… and without humility, either. And with a good deal of self-justification. It's not impossibly vital, but it is definitely not a waste of time.
[x] Talk with Qing'lu, General of the South, about the politics and the political implications. He's probably the person whose opinion and actions matter most who is also present, being a major political player within the army in his own right. This is, or could be, his victory as well.
[X] Pray for the souls of the dead, and try to cleanse and purify oneself, even if you don't have a stream or a lake.
[X] Talk with Qing'lu, General of the South, about the politics and the political implications. He's probably the person whose opinion and actions matter most who is also present, being a major political player within the army in his own right. This is, or could be, his victory as well.
[X] Write a letter to the Emperor, a letter ot court, and a letter to his father, explaining his actions and his victory. Now is the time to strike while the iron is hot, perhaps. The rumors and understanding of what happened here need to be shaped properly… and without humility, either. And with a good deal of self-justification. It's not impossibly vital, but it is definitely not a waste of time.
Managing the reaction of the court to our victory is absolutely critical.
I feel the letter and Qing'lu might have some synergy, at least narratively.
[X] Pray for the souls of the dead, and try to cleanse and purify oneself, even if you don't have a stream or a lake.
We don't have a lake?
[X] Talk to Jun, and other generals. Try to check in with them and their reading of the men and the materials to make sure all is as it should be.
This I think is important. The wounded need to be cared of and Kialo will have to decide how to deal with the captured soldiers and Jinhai's supplies. There are a lot of things that could go wrong. We need to make sure that Kiralo and his generals are on the same page.
[X] Greet the Governor of Hari-nat, his son, and the others when they arrive. They could have turned the tide of the battle, and they might well be feeling guilty--and secretly annoyed--that they helped only a little in the final victory.
This is likely the most urgent of the political actions. Not greeting him will make Kiralo look impolite and in Csirit that's a bad thing.
There are a lot of other things that need to be done, like talking to Qing'lu and writing to the capital, but both of these can wait until tomorrow.
[X] Pray for the souls of the dead, and try to cleanse and purify oneself, even if you don't have a stream or a lake.
We don't have a lake?
[X] Talk to Jun, and other generals. Try to check in with them and their reading of the men and the materials to make sure all is as it should be.
This I think is important. The wounded need to be cared of and Kialo will have to decide how to deal with the captured soldiers and Jinhai's supplies. There are a lot of things that could go wrong. We need to make sure that Kiralo and his generals are on the same page.
[X] Greet the Governor of Hari-nat, his son, and the others when they arrive. They could have turned the tide of the battle, and they might well be feeling guilty--and secretly annoyed--that they helped only a little in the final victory.
This is likely the most urgent of the political actions. Not greeting him will make Kiralo look impolite and in Csirit that's a bad thing.
There are a lot of other things that need to be done, like talking to Qing'lu and writing to the capital, but both of these can wait until tomorrow.
[X] Talk with Qing'lu, General of the South, about the politics and the political implications. He's probably the person whose opinion and actions matter most who is also present, being a major political player within the army in his own right. This is, or could be, his victory as well.
[X] Write a letter to the Emperor, a letter ot court, and a letter to his father, explaining his actions and his victory. Now is the time to strike while the iron is hot, perhaps. The rumors and understanding of what happened here need to be shaped properly… and without humility, either. And with a good deal of self-justification. It's not impossibly vital, but it is definitely not a waste of time.
[X] Greet the Governor of Hari-nat, his son, and the others when they arrive. They could have turned the tide of the battle, and they might well be feeling guilty--and secretly annoyed--that they helped only a little in the final victory.
Adhoc vote count started by The Laurent on Aug 31, 2017 at 8:52 AM, finished with 3509 posts and 12 votes.
[X] Talk with Qing'lu, General of the South, about the politics and the political implications. He's probably the person whose opinion and actions matter most who is also present, being a major political player within the army in his own right. This is, or could be, his victory as well.
[X] Greet the Governor of Hari-nat, his son, and the others when they arrive. They could have turned the tide of the battle, and they might well be feeling guilty--and secretly annoyed--that they helped only a little in the final victory.
[X] Write a letter to the Emperor, a letter ot court, and a letter to his father, explaining his actions and his victory. Now is the time to strike while the iron is hot, perhaps. The rumors and understanding of what happened here need to be shaped properly… and without humility, either. And with a good deal of self-justification. It's not impossibly vital, but it is definitely not a waste of time.
[X] Meet with Ayila. She did something great and terrible and astounding, and more than that, in the end he'll owe her quite a lot, and she will have to move on, eventually, for this was meant to be a side-journey at most for her. It won't be immediately, because she wanted and needed his help, but…
The souls of the dead, it was said, sink like stones in the waters. Or they wash like pebbles in a river into the ocean.
Was there any more noble act than to be a fisherman, an old poet once asked; he was a lecherous, brilliant monk whose name would be echoed down long after Kiralo was dust, of that he was sure
Fish the rivers of souls, and down eventually one comes to the bottom of the ocean, like the dregs of a cup of rice wine, to the part where the Ten Judges reached out a hand and catch the falling stones and judge them. They turn it over, again and again.
But they are not the only ones worth worshipping. The Gods, and there are many, are wise and they work through the world and there are Gods of everything… except Death, with is a special preserve of Judges.
In this underworld, Kiralo understands, there was no judicial torture. The truth was too obvious, and too easy to obtain. He knelt by the waters and wondered at the deaths.
They will be tallied, for the chroniclers. They will say in their pat way, that roughly a quarter of a million fighting men gathered--and of course they will gloss over Ayila--and by the end, around twenty-thousand lie dead. Probably a little less, but it was hard to count bodies, and what mattered was that the lion's share of them were from the pretender's army.
The doctors were doing all they could for both sides, and there was the danger of disease, now that so many people were together. And the chroniclers will say, with approval, that if Jinhai had not surrendered, the deaths would have been ten, or maybe even twenty, thousand more before it was all done.
Kiralo could have picked up their brushes and snapped them, angrily. More fools, they, that they couldn't feel in the air? Ten thousand more? What a joke. Twenty thousand more? Maybe. But he would not have been surprised if even more than that were killed in the slaughter.
Who can control an army when it has an enemy that has stung them with their back to the lakes. People would have leapt into the water and drowned. It would have taken all his will and strength to save what he could. The worst part of any fight was always when it all broke apart.
Kiralo was not alone, and perhaps he would never be again. He would rise with servants at his beck and call now, and sleep with guards at his doors. Privacy was now a relative matter. A fish did not think too deeply of the water it swam in: he was surrounded by four guards, a clerk, and a priest who stood off, not wanting to interrupt.
The clerk was there, the scribe, in case he suddenly had some divine inspiration, in case he wanted at once to order some murder or some mercy.
Ready to record his words. Ready to make empty words into solid speech. It was a tiring sort of fact, but his words were only going to mean more and more as long as he had any power at all.
But he dismissed them, as a man learned to dismiss boredom, and focus on the Gods. He called them up one by one.
Lao-Ya, the God of fields and farmers, balding and vast, powerful and brooding and thoughtful, kneeling over the dust and the dirt and making from it crops.
Many Gods of War. Kiralo sometimes wondered at that. But what is there to wonder. War was dangerous and powerful work, and the Gods had much to govern.
But there are a dozen other Gods, each taking their share of the work for farmers and crops. Every crop has a God, and regions have their spirits as well. He prays to these along with the everything else. For there are many people dragged from the field, and many farmers who died here. Not that many, in some absolute sense--over a hundred million souls in the Empire--but still.
He finds something, half an hour into praying. Some measure of peace, some measure of understanding. The time washes away slowly, and it feels as if he were closer to understanding something. His knees hurt, and his armor aches, but that doesn't matter either. What matters is that he feels as if he were almost clean. Almost, for he needs a change of clothes, he needs to go from a warrior to a man of peace, in some small way.
He will have to study war for the rest of his life, and Kiralo remembered Jinhai's words about the Sea-Raiders.
But now, he must turn his mind and focus, and now that he has done this, he can think. He can breathe.
There will be other battles, but there are also rites, and rituals, and careful letters and even more careful words. He stretches his life out, and like a tailor fitting for a robe, measures it all. He is twenty and six, he has lived healthily and well. He might yet die before he reaches thirty, but if not, he'll probably have the full length of his life, for better or worse.
One thing he could not fault his father on was his ability to fill his days with work. Perhaps he should match this, to some extent.
Time can be made for poetry, it can be made for riding horses… he already has a full day, but if he were going to step up and become more powerful within the Emperor's service? Then that is what he'd have to do.
So he considers this sort of wisdom he has gotten, and he very briefly bathes with heated water, and dresses well. Dress the right colors. No hints of silver here, though a general of Imperial rank has the right to it, but at the moment there is no man there who could tell him how much. So, like many he resorts to grey, or colors close to the imperial in order to ease ambiguities.
Sometimes it has mattered. Grey and a too-deep forest green, layers and layers of the robes, his hair unpinned and then repinned by his servants in a more elaborate, courtly style, with of course the golden ornament there. He looks at himself in a glass mirror that is, somehow, found for him in time, and nods.
He looks like any lordling ever, except for the quiver at his back and the sword at his belt--and for the latter, who was to say what lordlings sometimes wore, when not in the Imperial presence?
Qing'lu, of no Lineage, of no family at all, had had far fewer connections. He looked like no lordling at all, and he never would, but of the members of the Council of Generals, he was the one that Kiralo felt like he understood the most: and that understanding wasn't support, on either side, necessarily.
The man was not in armor, and he looked darkly at Kiralo. "So, we have won. Kuojah has won."
Cs-Kuojah, Kiralo does not correct. Instead he smiled, trying to be as blank and careful as possible, imagining in his head the dead and the dying, the logistics still waiting to be done. There was a lot to do.
"I have won as well," Kiralo said, quietly.
"That you have. Perhaps you shall break the curse of the Envoy." Qing'lu crossed his hands behind his back. "You'll be happy to know that Cs-Chao of Lineage Hao is alive, and has been won over by the Rassit in full. He tells me that you said that if the Wind-Dancers come to Csirit, everything changes, and that you seem to have been right. If they are staying?"
"They are, at least for a time, and so am I." Kiralo wants them to stay here, he can think of a thousand things they could be doing instead of going back to be mercenaries. Csirit needs them, and yet he knew the moment he sent them in that some would want to leave if he had them stay here. Plenty liked money, but others liked freedom, and still others loved the Southlands far too much.
He'd do what he could.
"Very good. Now is the moment to reform the army. Each victory might in some other time give credibility to the argument that the army is sufficient, but now? With you pushing? And your father knows it, knows that there are things long past fighting. I expect he will compromise with you. He will send for you. He will ask not only want you want, but more importantly what you need. Perhaps you will be made a gentlemen as he was not." Qing'lu shrugged, leaning in a little, his eyes dark and hard, like little beetles. "I am too old for such affectations, and so was he by the time he was powerful enough. He could have reached out and grabbed some title, to further soften his poor scholarly origin… but he didn't. And yet he uses status as a club." Qing'lu's expression was hateful. "He keeps others up to the standards of the nobles and make no mistake."
Kiralo could not imagine himself a landed gentleman. Aiding in tax collection, receiving rents and portions of the rice (for what peasant had money)? It was a rural life that he didn't care for, and if he was to own the taxation and use of lands, he would rather be just any landowner.
Though there were words for absentee landowners… such as figures of importance in the court.
Kiralo nodded. "You've won a great victory too, in coming here. We all have. Jinhai is defeated, and for the moment his poison is pulled from the body."
Qing'lu nodded. "Do you think on the future? Your father is old, and you will yet live to play a role in the Emperor's marriage and his choice of concubines, mistresses… all the many ranks of women who matter at least as much as his Empress. The old Emperor, you know, was distractable. He drank and hunted, but he was startlingly chaste, leaving women to sit and wait all day while he prayed and drank and did his Imperial duty. And it was his duty, but I wonder, if there was another son, how different the world would be."
Kiralo tensed, but nodded. "True. I am not a matchmaker."
"Some would say otherwise."
Ah, yes, his relatives.
"And there is your own marriage to attend to."
Kiralo didn't wince, but he wanted to. "There is time yet, and more importantly, I do not want to marry yet."
If he could not marry for love (and who but peasants could anyways?), and he would not, and could not, then it was best to marry for advantage, but with someone who he didn't hate, and who neither hated him or--even worse--felt something like love for him. It was what he expected to do in one way or another.
His father had married increasingly prominent women, and his daughters had made increasingly high marriages. Aia had married Shan: prosperous merchant, but little else. Meilin married a Xissand noble, Song married a cousin of the Governor of Hari-Su.
Kiralo does not want to marry any more than he has to, so he'd rather wait until he was established. Thirties, perhaps. Then he would marry, have a son or two, and some number of daughters, and then they could leave each other alone.
Was it something out of some play? In a way, yes, but no play anyone wanted to read.
"Ah yes. Well, the time will come when you are back at court. When that time comes, know I'm an ally for the horses, if nothing else."
Kiralo nodded. "Can you talk to your fellows, the rest of the Council? Sound them out. I have had some thoughts."
"About?"
"Armies and politics and economics. I've thought about many things, including the necessity of cannons."
"Horses and cannons. Interesting." Qing'lu smiled. "Cs-Juae must be speaking in your ear."
Kiralo said, quietly, "I listen to all men. Talk to me, and I will hear you." It was a statement that means precisely nothing, bounded by nothing, defined by nothing, promising nothing. Listen, he'll listen all day to whatever anyone wants to say.
But he was not his father's, or Juae's, not anyone's but the Emperor's, and that was complicated by his Emperor's current youth.
"And do not talk to you and you will not hear." Qing'lu looked at Kiralo shrewdly. "You wax every day, though to what and where, I do not know."
Qing'lu knew him, had watched him work at courtly politics. But not as closely as he might have liked.
The man on horseback.
Kiralo didn't smile, because a mask that came down at any slight pressure was no mask at all, but he was pleased.
*******
The army came on, and the numbers increased once again. Now well over a quarter million people, and many of them fresh, ready to join in with the looting of the dead--which can be reduced but not ended--and the tending of the living.
It was actually some time after noon when they arrived, a little later than they expected, clearly.
Governor Baoling was well turned out, dressed in the finest robes. Clearly not a commander in any sense. He was a big man, tall and impressive, and one could see his son in him.
His son looked less ragged, his beard now more carefully cared for as he paced the room in armor. "We came too late," Hiro said, quietly. "We could have done more. I wanted to go along with the Rassit, in the advance group, but father feared that I would be taken hostage."
"You came when we called," Kiralo said, uncertainly. "We won't forget this. I am sure of that."
Hiro looked at him. He had gone north, he had gone far north, and it had been talking to him that had gotten Hari-Nat to get involved. Now he wanted his payout, no doubt. He wanted what he had felt he needed, a chance to explore north again. With Imperial support.
But all Kiralo could promise was that they'd pay attention. That they'd try.
"Thank you," the Governor said, though Hiro's eyes were skeptical, curious. He wanted to know more, and yet his father seemed ready to accept any hint that things were going well.
"Please, stay, there is dinner," Kiralo offers. "And we can discuss things."
"Your plans, included?" Hiro asked.
"I will announce those tomorrow," Kiralo said, blandly, aware that Hiro wanted quite a lot form him.
Kiralo would give it to him, but the topics which flitted from one to the other, then and at dinner and then following him into sleep, were topics he'd be wrestling with for a while. His plans, his father's plans, what was to be done with the armies and the bonuses, the awards and the plots and schemes?
And what about your father's reforms, or rather, the ones that the Emperor declared he was going to enact? What do those involve?
It could not be known yet. It would take time yet to be seen.
And Kiralo… Kiralo would be.
Where, exactly?
Pick A Choice
[] Kiralo should head with some portion of the army to occupy Basrat and deal with the Prince's heresy and treason in his home province. He can send suggestions and, temporarily and hopefully approved with Imperial writ, as to who it is that will be in charge of whatever portion of the Imperial force,s to be decided subsequently, that will be going to Hari-Os.
[] It is time to return to court, with captive in tow, in order to influence things from there. Leave someone else in charge of both processes, but with a strong letter of intent and what protection can be done to his promise. No doubt he could appoint, and then suggest a permanent appointment, whoever he chooses to lead the army into Hari-Os.
[] Hari-Os is his matter, and his alone. He will go to see to it, and hope the court looks after itself, at least for a little while longer.
[X] It is time to return to court, with captive in tow, in order to influence things from there. Leave someone else in charge of both processes, but with a strong letter of intent and what protection can be done to his promise. No doubt he could appoint, and then suggest a permanent appointment, whoever he chooses to lead the army into Hari-Os.
Strike while the iron is hot. The court will move as soon as they learn, so we must race the news.
Defeating the Sea-Raiders and cleansing Basrat are both important tasks and we should make sure they aren't left to fester for years after this. But.... that's not exactly the task of the Envoy, is it? We have to deal with the entire Empire and that would be harder if we have to concentrate on one of those two tasks.
Currently leaning on going back to court. I'm sure we can find atleast two competent people to take care of this for us. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.
[X] It is time to return to court, with captive in tow, in order to influence things from there. Leave someone else in charge of both processes, but with a strong letter of intent and what protection can be done to his promise. No doubt he could appoint, and then suggest a permanent appointment, whoever he chooses to lead the army into Hari-Os.
If we sent letters, we probably could have avoided coming back for a little while yet. As is, I ageee, we gotta go handle things, before others decide they care more for flower arrangements than our victory, or something.
[X] It is time to return to court, with captive in tow, in order to influence things from there. Leave someone else in charge of both processes, but with a strong letter of intent and what protection can be done to his promise. No doubt he could appoint, and then suggest a permanent appointment, whoever he chooses to lead the army into Hari-Os.
Kiralo can't keep fighting all the battles himself. Also, while, AFAIR, there wasn't any explicit limit to his assignment as head of the army, it was clearly the intention that he got the job to vanquish Kiralo. If he now takes the army and goes to fight other battles, people at court might well get suspicious and wonder whether he will ever relinquish control. I know I would.
So I think we should go back to the capital and politics.
[X] It is time to return to court, with captive in tow, in order to influence things from there. Leave someone else in charge of both processes, but with a strong letter of intent and what protection can be done to his promise. No doubt he could appoint, and then suggest a permanent appointment, whoever he chooses to lead the army into Hari-Os.
Kiralo can't keep fighting all the battles himself. Also, while, AFAIR, there wasn't any explicit limit to his assignment as head of the army, it was clearly the intention that he got the job to vanquish Kiralo. If he now takes the army and goes to fight other battles, people at court might well get suspicious and wonder whether he will ever relinquish control. I know I would.
So I think we should go back to the capital and politics.
[X] It is time to return to court, with captive in tow, in order to influence things from there. Leave someone else in charge of both processes, but with a strong letter of intent and what protection can be done to his promise. No doubt he could appoint, and then suggest a permanent appointment, whoever he chooses to lead the army into Hari-Os.
"To vanquish your enemies, you must first vanquish your own desires." *nods*
[X] It is time to return to court, with captive in tow, in order to influence things from there. Leave someone else in charge of both processes, but with a strong letter of intent and what protection can be done to his promise. No doubt he could appoint, and then suggest a permanent appointment, whoever he chooses to lead the army into Hari-Os.
[X] It is time to return to court, with captive in tow, in order to influence things from there. Leave someone else in charge of both processes, but with a strong letter of intent and what protection can be done to his promise. No doubt he could appoint, and then suggest a permanent appointment, whoever he chooses to lead the army into Hari-Os.
[X] It is time to return to court, with captive in tow, in order to influence things from there. Leave someone else in charge of both processes, but with a strong letter of intent and what protection can be done to his promise. No doubt he could appoint, and then suggest a permanent appointment, whoever he chooses to lead the army into Hari-Os.
[X] It is time to return to court, with captive in tow, in order to influence things from there. Leave someone else in charge of both processes, but with a strong letter of intent and what protection can be done to his promise. No doubt he could appoint, and then suggest a permanent appointment, whoever he chooses to lead the army into Hari-Os.
Giving our generals a chance to lead is important.
[X] It is time to return to court, with captive in tow, in order to influence things from there. Leave someone else in charge of both processes, but with a strong letter of intent and what protection can be done to his promise. No doubt he could appoint, and then suggest a permanent appointment, whoever he chooses to lead the army into Hari-Os.
[1] "What were you planning? You had to know that we were closing in, and yet you fought. And yet other people paid the price for your actions. How can you…"
[2] "It has been so strange, to fight against you for an entire year without seeing you here and now, plain. And now you come here to negotiate. Do you have some sort of plan, or…"
[1] "What were you planning? You had to know that we were closing in, and yet you fought. And yet other people paid the price for your actions. How can you…"
[2] "It has been so strange, to fight against you for an entire year without seeing you here and now, plain. And now you come here to negotiate. Do you have some sort of plan, or…"
