“These environmental spells are much like the forestallments, aren’t they?” he asked. “They represent a direction in which you would have preferred not to take the craft, but you had to follow thePon Q’tar ’s lead to ensure the survival of the Vigors.”
Mashiro nodded. “Well done,” he said. “Please continue.”
“Before the war started, what we now call Eutracia and Parthalon were part of this world,” Tristan added. “The Tolenkas didn’t exist, nor did the Sea of Whispers. The lands encompassing Eutracia and Parthalon were one and the same. Once loosed, the dark environmental magic produced devastating and unexpected side effects. The Tolenkas suddenly arose and the land mass separated, creating the Sea of Whispers. Since then these environmental and seismic arts have been abandoned by both sides because their far-reaching effects might kill their users as easily as the enemy. But the formulas were held in reserve by each side, in case the other should try such madness again.”
Tristan looked at Mashiro. “ThePon Q’tar plans to resurrect these ancient arts, don’t they?” he asked. “The only reason why they abandoned them at all was because they knew that you could retaliate in kind. But with Vespasian among them, they know that if they imbue these gifts into his blood, Shashida will be defeated once and for all. Nothing could stand against the lethal combination of his blood quality and those dark arts.”
“Well done,” Hoshi said. “But there remains much that you don’t know. Long ago, a treaty was signed between Rustannica and Shashida that outlawed environmental spells by both sides. Until now thePon Q’tar has kept its word. EveryInkai you see here took part in the negotiations, and at first we had hoped for an outright end to the war. We were rebuffed on that score, but thePon Q’tar did agree to ban the nature spells because they realized that more than anything else, those particularly powerful craft devices could mean their defeat. Gracchus and I were the treaty’s chief architects, and it was signed in the no-man’s land that is the Borderlands. EveryInkai andPon Q’tar member signed the document. Many of those people are still alive. The Borderlands Treaty has survived the test of time, but we fear that thePon Q’tar is about to violate it.”
“How long ago was the treaty signed?” Tyranny asked.
“One hundred and fifty-one centuries past,” Hoshi answered. “Each side agreed to never use this terrible kind of magic again. But two unique occurrences have intersected in time to tempt thePon Q’tar into rethinking their position. One is the depletion of the Rustannican treasury, and the other is the birth and coming to manhood of Vespasian Augustus I. Had either of these events occurred separately, thePon Q’tar mightn’t feel so emboldened yet also so deeply threatened at the same time. If the banned spells are used by Vespasian, he will summon unheard-of power. We have no wish to reply in kind, but if we are to survive, it seems we must fight back with a weapon of equal ferocity. Our use of such spells was stopped, but our research into their workings was not. Surely thePon Q’tar has been doing similar, if not superior, study. In the entire world only theJin’Sai ’s blood and Vespasian’s are strong enough to accept these advanced but untried spells without dying. But the stakes might rise even higher than that. If Vespasian uses these gifts improperly, it could mean more than the destruction of Shashida. It could cause the vaporization of the entire planet.”
Tristan sat quietly for a moment. “And you wish me to become a weapon like Vespasian, an ultimate destroyer of worlds,” he said. “I thought that my mission was to be one of peace.”
“That was our wish as well,” Mashiro said, “and so we agreed to the Envoys’ plan. But as we have said, that prospect is dead. We asked for none of this, Jin’Sai. Now it seems that if we are to find a lasting peace, there is but one way. As I said, while thePon Q’tar fights to destroy the Vigors, we fight to saveboth sides of the craft. Not to resist Vespasian and thePon Q’tar would mean the end of Shashida. With our civilization gone, thePon Q’tar could turn their full efforts toward finding a way across the Tolenkas to your side of the world. One day they will eventually succeed, or perhaps Vespasian might use his banned spells to do it for them. No matter how it happens, your sister and her meager forces will never stop them. Their next step would be to destroy the Vigors Orb, just as Wulfgar twice tried to do and failed. But thePon Q’tar will not fail. With the Vigors destroyed, the world will plunge into a craftless, endless chaos from which it will never recover. The many gifts of peace, order, and balance that the craft provides will be no more, and barbarism will forever reign. ThePon Q’tar embrace a frame of mind in which madness is their only muse.”
Tristan quietly looked around the table. The War of Attrition is indeed aeons old, he realized. And after all this time, things are about to change radically. Vespasian will be the catalyst of this seismic shift in the craft, and it falls to me to try to stop him.
“There can be but one way that you are so well informed,” Wigg suggested. After taking another sip of umake he set the cup back on the table, then placed his hands into opposite robe sleeves.
“You’ve placed a spy in their midst, haven’t you?” he asked. “Given the quality of your information, this must be a person of some importance in Rustannica. And brave, too, considering the heinous things we have heard about the place. You have my compliments. Inserting a spy into the upper reaches of the Rustannican power elite was surely no easy feat. I suspect that doing so took a very long time, and that this asset is of immense value to you.”
“You are correct,” Haru replied. “Her name is Julia Idaeus. Not only is she the reigning Femiculi, she is also a member of the League of Whispers. The League is a secret society in Rustannica made up entirely of Shashidan mystics who feign loyalty to the empire and adopt Rustannican names. Unknown to thePon Q’tar, two of the Priory’s many Sisters are League members. After gaining the post of Femiculi, Julia was able to influence thePon Q’tar into unknowingly accepting another League woman into the sisterhood. Her name is Agrippina Sertorius.”
“How did the League come about?” Tyranny asked.
“During the early days of the war, the Borderlands did not exist, and it was far easier to enter Rustannica than now,” Midori answered. “We asked for volunteers of right-leaning endowed blood to go and live in Rustannica with the understanding that they could never return home. Tens of thousands of loyal Shashidan men and women offered to join the newly forming League. The selection process was rigorous. So as to constantly disguise his or her blood, each volunteer had to be an expert mystic. In the end, more than two thousand were chosen.” Renjiro took another sip of umake and looked around the table.
“After being trained in certain specialized gifts, they were secretly inserted into Rustannica by way of azure portals,” he added. “To avoid being seen, they were sent to sparsely populated areas, then told to make their way to the cities and begin Rustannican lives. Because they had endowed blood and large sums of gold were transported with them, they soon became well-respected krithians. This part of the ruse was needed because only krithians can rise to positions of power in Rustannica. Most are acquainted with at least some of their fellow League members. If not, they can identify one another by way of whispered code phrases that have remained largely unchanged for aeons. Despite their wealth and status, their lives are difficult, and they live in constant fear of being found out. Each member carries a death forestallment in his or her blood that allows for instantaneous suicide without need of a physical weapon. We could not grant them time enchantments for fear of drawing undue attention their way. To avoid the adulteration of their right-leaning blood and to maintain the survival of the League, they can only marry other League members. Finding a mate is often difficult, but they manage. To help in that regard, many marriages are secretly arranged at childhood.”
“Do you mean to say that the League members now living in Rustannica were all born there?” Tristan asked. “They must have been, because so much time has passed. It would also follow that your spies are many generations removed from the people you first sent there, and that those first League members are long dead, and that your current spies have never seen home.”
“That’s right,” Mashiro answered. “When children of right-leaning blood are born to two League members, they are raised by them. On reaching a responsible age they are secretly taught our customs and beliefs as well as those of Rustannica. In this way it was hoped that some of them might reach stations of prominence in the Rustannican hierarchy. Because League children are born there, their Rustannican heritage is not questioned, and there is no limit to how high they might rise. Long ago one League member rose to the rank of Heretic, but he was unknowingly killed in battle by our troops.”
“But now there is Julia Idaeus, the Priory Femiculi,” Renjiro said. “Julia rose from humble beginnings and never took a husband or lover so that she might keep her virginity and apply for Priory membership. To our delight she was accepted, then worked hard and sacrificed much to become the reigning Femiculi. She is the first and only League member to become a voting member of the Suffragat, and her loyalty to Shashida is unshakable. Vespasian unwittingly made a great mistake when he ordered that Julia be a member of the committee responsible for devising the war plan. Julia is not only conversant with the entire scheme, but she also travels with
