Silverfox,

As Venyon and Lady Demeter have already explained to you, when two
people are harvesting in a room at the same time, and it results in an
overharvest, BOTH PARTIES are mutually at fault. Ysbaddaden is
undoubtedly at fault, as you point out- and we recognize that. He has
been punished. However, you were also harvesting in that room at the
same time- and by virtue of that fact you are negligent too. I don't
care if the only way to be sure that another harvester is not going to
harvest at the same time as you is to make him go away before you start
harvesting. If that's the case, then you do it. I can think of at least
two other ways you could have prevented this even after you had started
harvesting. You took the step of stopping harvesting when you realized
what was happening, and that was good, but it was not sufficient.

Yes, this incident was unfortunate. Yes, it was an accident. But the law
does not excuse overharvesting offenses on this basis. One of the
purposes of overharvesting law is to deter future overharvests by
punishing and discouraging careless acts. If we forgive overharvests
that result from carelessness or accidents, the punishment no longer
serves as a deterrent.

Further, I apologize if you construed my message to mean that I wished
to ignore your opinion. The fact is, when I first heard of this incident
I was the only Hierophant in the realms. I was trying to get answers and
so I messaged you. But after I spoke to Venyon later, I realized that he
had already heard your side of the story, and had already made a
decision based on all the accounts of the event. On the basis of those
accounts, I agreed with him that the decision he made was correct. I do
not make or approve decisions when I don't have the full set of facts,
and I am sorry I gave you the impression that I did.

Justice does not require that we agree with you, merely that we listen
to your side of the story and give it due consideration- which we have
done. You are of course entitled to believe that our decision was wrong,
but there is a difference between us ignoring your complaints (we did
not) and us listening and then deciding not to excuse you from blame on
the basis of those complaints. I wouldn't go so far as to say you should
heartstop to prevent an overharvest, but you could have been reasonably
expected to take more care in that situation. You were fined, not
because Oakstone really gives a darn about how much money it has (I
wonder what people who make this accusation think we're using it for?),
but because it is our experience is that monetary fines help encourage
people to take the utmost care when harvesting, to avoid damaging
Nature.

Oakstone's judgement stands.

In the service of Nature,

Rhakshai Silvertongue
Hierophant, Oakstone

Penned by my hand on the 5th of Daedalan, in the year 344 AF.