Concord of the Spheres Part Fifteen
Eighteenth Day of the Fifth Month 293 AC
The further offer to exchange lore of your respective worlds and peoples to the benefit of all sides is easily accepted, a subtle sign of trust even from the cautious earth genies. Hopefully one day that lore will be safe to share not only with Scholarum students, but with bureaucrats, officers, and merchants. For the moment you can at least take pride in the foundations you have laid.
First come the mournful guard of the Peerless Empire moving as one with their legs half submerged into the fused stone at the center of Rooke's Shallow, carrying a square slab of flawless jade some twenty feet across. They settle it upon a pillar raised from the humble bedrock of the Stepstones, by the Sultana herself, with a solemn declaration of the fellowship and alliance made this day.
When she had said her part and stepped back from the pedestal half-a-dozen phoenixes, Velen among them, fly around it in a whirlwind of flame, the heat of their bodies fusing the stone until the jade plaque seems to have grown there, a testament to unity. And, you must admit, to the Shaitan alchemists who prepared the stone to merge through the fire of a phoenix's body which is hardly enough to soften gold.
The mummery of lordship is little different no matter how high or how far one might look...
The hiss of salt water striking the cooling stone brings your attention back to the ceremony, Breath-Taker solemn in speaking for his people in this hour. By the end of it most look to him with respect or even outright appreciation, though there had at first been some discontent over the choosing of a priest as the triton delegate. Only the Sultan and Sultana kept their peace, knowing the vital role the Merling King is to serve in your battle against the Brazen Throne.
No sooner had the old priest too stepped back among his honor guard that the Lord of Armun Kelisk raises his hand in a dramatic motion, calling upon the heavens to bless this hour. And bless it they do, not with gentle wind or soothing rain, but a bolt, a column of lightning bright as the heart of the sun that carves the provisions of the treaty into the gleaming jade, each stroke perfect as though wrought from a master sculptor's hand.
Thus it is that you in turn step forth. For all that your nature is kin to flame that is not your gift for this conference, you speak of peace and understanding that has been wrought here, of a world that will forever lie balanced between all elements and of the sorrow you feel to be planning war in what should have been a joyous day for all. You speak of hope that the madness and depravity of the Brazen Throne will be undone, and that some day the children of Earth, Air, Sea,
and Flame shall all come together in peace around this same monument.
"Yet I do not come here with only hope in my heart, honored friends and allies," you finish your speech. "I come with the certainty that together we can
make it so."
With the final words you lay your hands upon the stone and speak words of wishcraft,
calling on seeds already set in the soil beside the plinth to rise, grow, and bloom. Vines snake up the plinth to frame the oathstone as sweet-smelling jasmine flowers, unlike any that have ever seen the light of day, open up to the sun. A flower is a small thing and by its nature fragile, but you will work to see that these now tender shoots will endure through long ages of the world.
Gained Oathstone of Renewal
Concord of the Spheres Signed
Thus do your guests otherwordly depart, into the depths of the earth or the veil behind the clouds, leaving you to ferry vassals and allies from other lands to their homes, perhaps with a few more words for them also?
What do you do next?
[] Address some of the departing guests
-[] Write in
[] Move on to Sins of the Past (Wildfire Removal)
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: Nothing quite like a declaration that you will forge lasting lasting peace come what may to get people in the mood for war. Also before anyone asks, no the vines are not magical just a bit of horticultural wishcraft with help from the Lotus Leshy for the added symbolism.
