King Anwell: "Who is planning on meeting with the Ambassador tomorrow morning?"

Souriin: "I wish to be present for the discussions with the Ambassador, in order to temper Damalanthas’ sometimes fiery countenance".

Euvgeni: "The Province of Outreach does not wish to sound over-bearing, but any negotiations with the elven nation will have an influence on the relations between the Outreach Council and Rotan’s King. I feel it is in Outreach’s interests to participate as an active member in the negotiations."

King Anwell: "Very well. Damalanthas, Souriin and Euvgeni are the negotiating team. Just don’t commit Rotan to anything significant without asking me first. Please? Any thoughts on your negotiating tactics?"

Euvgeni: "Who all is in favour of kicking the elves out of Rotan?"

Euvgeni: "No-one? All right then, we negotiate them under the table. Do I make myself clear?"

King Anwell: "Yes, um... well. Moving right along, I hope that you will learn enough from the elven ambassador to make another visit to the blight worthwhile. Not only would finding a way to remove the blight bring safety to our people, but it would be powerful knowledge to "share" with our neighbours. I also grow concerned that our unusual elven visitor grows very restless. I feel it would be amiss to neglect his expertise in the matter. When do you plan to revisit the Blight?"

Tekuna: "My preference would be to deal with situation in Pirs first, and then the Blight. The Blight can probably wait, but if it takes us too long, our window of opportunity might pass."

King Anwell: "‘Window of opportunity’?" <raised eyebrow>

Tekuna mutters something about buzzwords...

Owen looks wistfully into the open sky above the palace gardens and shifts slightly, bearing out the king’s comments on restlessness.

Damalanthas: "I am in for some vengeance and political upheaval. I say that we [editor’s note: this next portion has been rephrased in the interests of public decency] deal politely but firmly with Wanwier. Then we can restart the process on his elven fopship."

King Anwell: "Perhaps. Is the situation in Pirs that unstable? It can’t wait another week while you try to make some more headway with the Blight?"

A page (one who, until recently worked in the palace, but now seems to be spending more time on the premises of the Rotan Merchant’s Alliance) enters the room and passes round some light snacks and some mead and fruit juice. On his way out, he surreptitiously slips Tekuna a note.

Tekuna unravels the note and reads:

My pigeons have just returned from Pirs. Most of them, anyway. I’ll send the bill for replacements to the palace, as usual. I have some quite disturbing items of news. First, my sources have confirmed that wagons are being stockpiled in the south of the city, but they have been unable to fathom quite why. There is no apparent troop build-up in the city, but several large (seemingly unrelated) private gatherings are scheduled for the 15th of Distromer. My sources have also noticed a huge increase in the number of robberies of valuable goods and magical items in Pirs over the last two weeks, often under strange circumstances.

Perhaps the most significant news is that some members of the Scarlet Ring discovered the body of Frowen Drall yesterday evening. Frowen Drall was Wanwier’s trusted second-in-command. There are two very disturbing parts to this news. The first is the nature of the body. Frowen Drall is now apparently a stone statue, lodged in part of the city sewers. The second and most disturbing part of this news is that Drall has appeared several times in public since the discovery of his body.

This is starting to look very strange.

Annaline.

Joranth arrives in the gardens, looking quite tired from his continuous work on the city fortifications. He also has a slightly haunted look about him.

King Anwell: "Evening Joranth, we were just discussing plans for the next few days. Do you think that it makes more sense to deal with the situation in Pirs first, or take Owen to investigate the Blight?"

Joranth: "Well, next to finding the wretched staff, my next highest priority is to help in the destruction of Wanwier, I think that he needs a lesson... Hey, perhaps we could all go and look for the staff first?"

Silence.

Damalanthas looks at the ceiling. Souriin coughs.

King Anwell: "Well... um..."

More silence. Tekuna cleans a fingernail. Euvgeni scratches his nose.

King Anwell <louder this time>: "Well, we haven’t heard from Owen yet. Perhaps we could get his thoughts on the Blight? Damus, would you be kind enough to translate?"

Owen, silent until now, speaks.

Owen <translated>: "The blight is a big problem, but is something which has been building over many years. I believe that its effect has been very subtle. I view it as a bookshelf slowly tilting. Pirs and the elves are individual books, which are just closer to the edge, and about to fall – they need to be shoved back to give us time to begin to stabilise the entire shelf. If left unchecked, they add their moment to the entire tilting action before going off the edge."

The King’s Fool breaks into applause, startling everyone.

King Anwell: "Well spoken my friend. I think that settles things then. Damalanthas, Souriin and Euvgeni, you will meet with His Eminence Veros Paithen tomorrow morning. As soon as possible after that, you will all head off to give Rotan’s warmest greetings to the nation of Pirs. How will you all be getting there, and do you need any support from our forces here?"