Of Oaths Enduring
Twenty-Fourth of the Second Month 294 AC
"The separation need not be so stark and neither would it have to endure forever," you argue after a moment's thought, mingling truth with pleasing hopes freely as one might stir honey into bitter remedies. "There will no doubt be rage and accusation for a beginning, but so long as Mardosh is allowed to grow and to change so too might those wounds begin to heal."
"What balm do you imagine finding for souls already passed through the doors of death?" one of the generals asks sharply while his lords was still deep in thought. "The more I hear of your plans the less pleasing they are to the ear."
"I must confess I too was stuck by such misfortune just now," Dany quips. She draws not laughter and it would be impossible to tell a smile among all the death grins, but still she presses on. "Mardosh is not a pile of stones but it is a people, and no matter where they are the soldiers of Mardosh will still bear their history and culture. Is it not that very culture you wish to preserve, the skills and knowledge of a city that has brought forth the finest warriors of the Sarnori?"
At this the Lord Protector nods thoughtfully so, sensing your chance you pick up the thread. "There is much that the Legion's victories against Sarnath, Kasath and Gornath and he who drove them could learn from the soldiers of Mardosh and the reverse I would also judge true."
Perhaps they will learn that the purpose of war is not to die for your cause and country, but to make the other bastards die for theirs, you think but do not say for the notion would be as alien as it would be insulting to even hint at now.
"Diplomacy is a great deal like alchemy, you have to get the timing right for the best result," you send to Waymar clearly, still the least satisfied with the notion of Gurtukul and his fellows walking free after the death they inflicted on their own people and then sought to hide under veil and compulsion.
"You haven't ever practiced alchemy in your life," your friend sends back, amused and distracted as you had hoped.
"So then you wish for more than allies then, clients?" The Lord Protector mused. "It is not unknown for Mardosh to bow to a High King or Queen, should they prove strong and wise in the ways of battle. You are not Sarnori, but then Sarnor of the tall helms and swift horses is gone, only tainted earth and crumbling stone remain. So let this be written and thus recalled. When Mardosh is again a city of the living and not the dead you shall have my oath that the city shall follow you in peace and war. In the interim we would be of course willing to speak with the officers of your Legion and judge how it was made different from the work of the Ghiscari of old."
Thus you depart the City of Soldiers once more with as fine an answer as you might have hoped for and now your eye turns north to Saath, alone of all the cities of the Tall Men to have endured whole and living into this age. Though you are reasonably certain you would be able to claim the city outright on the strength of your recent victory, how you present it and the nature of your visit will likely be key in preventing resentment.
How do you travel to Saath and with what message?
[] Sarnori reunification under the banner of the Imperium
[] Safety from the restless dead
[] Wealth and prosperity through trade
[] Write in
OOC: I thought about giving your guys a vote on where to go next, but those are kind of uninteresting to have overnight so I pushed through on a more relevant vote. 
