Hingar, I am not going to assume that your statement saying that I do
not really wish an answer is your way of avoiding needing to answer.
However, I still do not quite feel the question was answered, and yes, I
do thank you for taking the time to answer questions in the face of so
many. Discussions and the exchange of information is so much more
preferable to killing each other, so it is admirable that you have not
become annoyed and impatient with the questions, questions, questions
that are being sent your way, and instead choose to answer them so
graciously, even in the face of hostility. Permit me, with your patient
understanding, to attempt to gain clarification on your reply.

The question was - why, in the face of immediate danger, did you remain?
Why would you continue to subject your people to such dangers as they
have encountered here? If your purpose was exploration, well you'd
received a bit of information by then, but are the lives of your people
worth it, just to learn a little more about us? If your purpose for
staying was to gain revenge on those first few who wronged you, why then
did you not take your retaliation and depart? Why bring more people just
to risk having them die, and then point fingers at us saying we are all
responsible for that? We did not bring more Vertani here where it was
possible that they might be killed, your people did that. Instead of
packing up and leaving us to our own devices, you brought MORE Vertani
here to kill, and to die. Will you not at least accept that a lot of the
responsibility for the deaths of your own people lies within your own
ranks?

Achaeans may have caused the deaths of some of your people, but it was
you who refused to leave us in peace, and kept coming with more of your
people who were vulnerable to death. You say it is not your way to flee
in the face of danger, which is admirable, but is it not also your
responsibility to minimize the danger to your own? Is some show of
bravado worth the lives of Vertani who would never know life again? YOU
knew they would never live again, and yet you continue to cast the
responsibility at us for that fact? You point a finger at us, saying
we're the ones who killed them. This may be true, some Achaeans did, but
for every one finger you point, there are several more pointing back at
yourself.

It is not your place to tell us how to live. Do not misinderstand me, I
do nto speak out of bile or hostility or irrational rage as you seem to
have suggested. I am speaking from simple sincerity and honesty. No we
do not all agree on what is the best way to go about things, but even if
not a single Achaean could agree with another on how to go about our
lives, that is still our argument to make, not yours. We do not have the
option to pack up and go home. THIS is our home, and we will deal with
our own issues in a manner that WE see fit. It's admirable and kind of
you to offer suggestions, but in the end, we are responsible for our own
problems, you can continue to be responsible for your own people in your
own home.

I will reiterate my question. Why did you not leave when the 'risks'
were realized? And to add to that the second question, will you at least
admit that quite a bit of the responsibility for what happened to your
people lie among yourselves?

Once again I await your patient and hopefully enlightening reply.

Sincerely (and quite calmly, I assure you)

Oenone Atreide
Achaean

Penned by my hand on the 8th of Daedalan, in the year 386 AF.