Vizier Tanaar,

As happens all too often when the Crown deals with the Light, words do
not match actions. Only a few short years from the time when Archprelate
Rho Evensong had the temerity to stand at our crossroads before our
assembled citizenry and boldly claim that Hashani devotionists would
have nothing to fear from his Church - that they would be unaffected and
undisturbed by his leadership - once again, we face aggression and
mistruth from those who preach peace and honesty.

You claim that your proclamation is not aggressive and yet a citizen of
ours has already been declared an enemy of your city merely for passing
through the rivers and fields far outside your walls. And he is not
alone; Hashani are well used to arbitrary declarations of criminal
status from a state that left the tenets of justice behind long before
Lady Miramar's departure from your walls.

Are our magi then to be barred from the Peshwar Delta and denied the
right to pearl there? Do you "reserve the right" to fall upon our
peaceful fishers and those who hunt eagles on the plains?

If this proclamation were to be used defensively, that is one thing. But
your claims that this is not an act of aggression are nothing but Church
double-speak. This -is- an act of aggression, which seeks to deny
territory and free passage to those who have committed no crime but to
disagree with the teachings of the Church.

You may claim that this is not a land-grab or an annexation but naming
it, does not make it so. If you seek to control entrance and egress; if
you apply your laws and defend the territory from intruders, both
peaceful and otherwise - what else can it be?

It had been hoped that the collective insanity of Archprelate Rho's
leadership of the Church having passed, that calmer, more consensual,
and more effective leadership may be forthcoming - that the chasm dug
between Crown and Church by the Archprelate may have been bridged. On
current evidence, and although we have not yet heard from the Sultana
herself, we have little choice but to regard this as the policies of
that lunatic Archprelate spreading, like a disease, to the Jewel itself.

In service to the Crown,
Saltaern Sioraiocht, Seneschal.

Penned by my hand on the 2nd of Scarlatan, in the year 481 AF.