Speaker,

You may use what words you wish to describe the nature of your agreement, but truth is not what we wish it to be. The Tsol'aa King decided to reject the offered peace from Cyrene to run and hide under your skirts.

As a city with no formal alliances anywhere, Cyrene has reached out to the Aalen with offers of trade and protection for centuries. As a student of history, I have read the missives from a dozen Ambassadors that have attempted to sway the royal Tsol'aa to treat with the city. In all cases, they were met with either silence or a vague notion that the Aalen would stand on its own and needed no one else.

So you must forgive my continued surprise that some few short years after Cyrene gave up and rejected that stance in favor of Theocracy, they now treat openly and eagerly submit to the 'protection' of Eleusis.

I will continue to protect the Aalen. I will continue to walk the woods for fires. I will continue to raise my strength against those that would threaten the people there. Though no pact has been made, I will honor my pledge made to protect those that reside under our banners. Perhaps in time, the Tsol'aa will recognize that the safety they seek rests closer to home than the Village.

Penned by my hand on the 6th of Ero, in the year 994 AF.