To Elysian Priestess, Keturah, Sa'Rithven-Lighthawk

I believe you speak with the authority of your Church.
Greetings to you. I regret that your one and only
attempt at communication has been this condemnatory missive.
I shall endeavour to shed what light I can.

+ We have not continuously told you, or anybody in Sapience,
of any desire to bring you, or anybody else, within the
fold. It may be desirable, it may not, as my earlier
writings have already covered. In either case, I know
we have not mentioned it continuously. Indeed, we have
mentioned it hardly at all, if ever.

+ Your people of the Seleucarian empire were clearly able
to wield the force necessary to create empire. Surely
that alone does not make a group evil, as you seem to
imply. Of course we have power, as do you all. By body
count alone, one must conclude that Sapience has far
more power than we.

+ What beliefs are our actions 'in direct opposition to?'
Surely you have some responsibility to explain that.
How else can we decide if we wish to alter our ways?

+ Yes, what we destroyed was a few buildings, and killed
a very few people. And we have apologised repeatedly
for even that. And we have offered proposals to move
ahead towards some form of rebuilding.

+ I do not say that your deaths are insignificant exactly,
though I suppose that term works too (in comparison
with ours). I simply boggle at some sort of sophistry
which allows so many of your people to express extremes
of outrage over the (far fewer) 'deaths' of Achaeans
while conveniently ignoring the (far more numerous)
deaths of Vertani, deaths that are FAR MORE SERIOUS
in their nature. You want to go on about how you hold
life in reverence? Great. Apparently it matters which
life.

+ You splice in an odd statement "You would oppress where
we would set free." Oh? How so. Who have we oppressed?
Overlook, if you would, the Theran question here, as
I believe I cover it quite fully in other posts, and
both above and below, herein.

+ Remove Vertani soldiers from villages that freely
petitioned for membership in the Empire? Whatever for?
We came at their request, indeed, at their insistence.

+ We are not welcome? By some, no. By others, yes.
Achaeans are so fond of telling us that they do not
act as one. Doubtless you also hold this view.
This, we most clearly do know. Some do not welcome
us. Others do. As there is not a single voice either
inviting or expelling, and no single voice of
authority (as you so often remind us) then we are
surely not obliged to listen on this matter.

+ Remove signs of force? What an odd requirement. Do
your members of the church - some sort of holy warriors
and some sort of priests - do they have weapons?
Pardon the uncertainty as to terms: what about an
armoury, or a weapons room, an archery range, or
jousting grounds? Are these not also "signs of force?"
Whyever should we remove all signs of force, when
all of your cities and guilds appear to display
them quite proudly? Surely you would not propose
that we alone must do this, if the multiplicity of
your own peoples rather revel in their own 'signs
of force.'

We'd be glad to start anew!

We invite you to contribute to the plans for at least
some structure in Thera. Or to help broker peace with
the warring factions. To bring the voice of reason
and calm and a willingness to find a way towards
peace.

I offer another initiative: we commit to a negotiated
removal of our fortress in Thera after the
reconstruction project is complete. That fortress'
reason for being should be astonishingly clear to
all who have witnessed the perfidy of the Ashtanian
assassins who held out the hope of truce while at
the same time carrying out the murder of one in
disguise as myself. When we are done there, and our
workers no longer toil to rebuild in Thera, we commit
to negotiating the removal of the Fortress.

Penned by my hand on the 7th of Miraman, in the year 386 AF.