As always, I can safely rely on public posts to repeatedly verify
and substantiate my earlier claims. For that, if nothing else, I
thank you, Celestia.

At no time did I, nor any Vertani, claim that our combatants were
innocent. That should dispose of that odd complaint.

We count among the innocent: Vertani workers, Vertani scouts, and
Vertani priests. That is, the innocent of ours.

We have repeatedly noted that our soldiers die and never return.
Then we highlight that this is different than for your people.
We do not complain that we never return. That is how it is for us.
We simply highlight the difference, and use it to pose the question:
"If it's bad that our forces have killed, innocents and others,
and these innocents and others return - how much worse must it be
by your own standards, for the killing of our innocents and others,
who never return?"

We are unsure of the full meaning of the term 'novices' - presumably
you mean that full citizens of your cities, cities which have
declared war on us - that these citizens are somehow not really
part of the war, and should be protected or exempted. This is a new
thought, if so. Perhaps we should consider it, as its implications
are far-reaching. But we are not aware of any of your organisations
declaring war 'for all of our citizens, except these certain ones
we don't think should be involved.' Be sure that any deaths during
raids, by our Vertani forces against Ashtan and Mhaldor, were
deaths of citizens of those cities.

YOu ask "How many people completely uninvolved in this mess were
killed in your raids...?" The answer should be obvious: none. For
your cities declared war. And all citizens were involved. Of course
if you had seriously wanted to protect or exempt certain groups of
your citizens, you could easily have done so by arranging their
temporary withdrawal from citizenship. This was not done - but you
can hardly blame us for that.

In your frantic, urgent scramblings to find anything and everything
by which you may lodge another claim, or frame another accusation,
I urge you once again to pause and consider. Find the approach that
may benefit us all.

We still seek it.

Penned by my hand on the 25th of Daedalan, in the year 386 AF.