This post is for all of you who have been posting to try to get Shallam
to ally with Ashtan and Mhaldor and all them folks against the Vertani.

Stop it. You're wasting your time, your effort, and your gold.

Shallam and only Shallam will decide whether Shallam is going to go to
war. The same argument made a hundred different ways doesn't make it
stronger. It has been made -very- clear, correct me if I'm wrong, that
Ashtan and Mhaldor wish to add Shallam to their alliance against the
Vertani. Quite a number of Shallamese agree with you. But Shallam as a
whole has not made her decision yet, and writing pages and pages of
posts to read through is not speeding the process up, I assure you.

-Tommy a'Bertal, Vizier of Shallam

Penned by my hand on the 3rd of Mayan, in the year 385 AF.