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Post by spigurl on Jul 30, 2007 12:40:19 GMT -5
Caden sat silently throughout all of the exchange. Now, he really didn't want to be here. He realized it was more complicated in the city than he could imagine. There were very testy people sitting at this table. All of great power, so he didn't really see the point of him sitting there. Then, they started talking about needing facts and he realized his point. He had been in Scanra within the last five years, so he probably knew the situation there better than any of the people at the table. So caught up in their arguments, they probably forgot all about him.
The knight waited for a slight break in the conversation before hesitantly adding himself to the discussion. "I've been there," he said, "There are raids and killings. The people are ... upset, to put it mildly. And not with Tortall. With their own government." He paused, green eyes roaming the room. Unsure of how to expand, he simply added, "They believe the king isn't performing adequately." Caden stopped, sure if they wanted him to go on, they could ask their own questions.
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Post by Ali on Aug 10, 2007 14:04:45 GMT -5
"I've been there," he said, "There are raids and killings. The people are ... upset, to put it mildly. And not with Tortall. With their own government." He paused, green eyes roaming the room. Unsure of how to expand, he simply added, "They believe the king isn't performing adequately."
Kaitelanna looked over to the knight who spoke for the first time.
"This is very interesting, Sir Caden. Thank you for telling us this, but if that is so, how come the Scanrans have been raiding Tortall?"
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Post by Rainstorm Aria on Aug 13, 2007 11:29:07 GMT -5
"I've been there," he said, "There are raids and killings. The people are ... upset, to put it mildly. And not with Tortall. With their own government." He paused, green eyes roaming the room. Unsure of how to expand, he simply added, "They believe the king isn't performing adequately."
"This is very interesting, Sir Caden. Thank you for telling us this, but if that is so, how come the Scanrans have been raiding Tortall?"
Annikka glanced at Caden, who hadn't spoken before and looked intimidated. She felt slightly ashamed- she shouldn't have stepped in to try and mitigate the argument, she knew she was bad at it. But Queen Emeli looked amused, not angry, at the debate and Annikka guessed that if it amused her she wouldn't go to great lengths to try and stop it. She also though that Kaitelanna was being unfair. The knight's comment was valid and the explanation behind it obvious- at least to Annikka, who had dealt previously with men, women and children who were short of food. She was pretty sure that what Caden had meant to say but hadn't made clear was that while they were angry with their king, they were hungry, possibly due to the king's actions, and therefore raided for food, although she could be wrong.
With a stifled sigh, she recognised a meeting that was about to run long- and all the information seemed to her admittedly inexperienced eyes to be there, it was just that no-one was putting all the cards on the table- not even her. She suspected the straight dealing that her predecessor had imposed on the healers' meetings in order to improve efficiency wouldn't be welcomed here.
Annikka looked down at her papers again, running her eyes over information she was gloomily sure she'd have memorised by the end of the meeting, and waited for Caden to answer the question aimed at him.
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Post by spigurl on Aug 18, 2007 14:39:32 GMT -5
Caden silently wondered what the advisor's problem was. He didn't have to be here. He only came because he was requested to. The knight had no obligation at all. But he chose not to say anything and try to phrase his answer to her question.
Taking a deep breath, he added, "They feel they have no other choice. To raid Tortall, that is. They aren't getting the help they need from their king and their land is slowly perishing. I don't know if you have seen the countryside lately, but it's bad. Families are getting desperate. Tortall is close and well..." He shrugged, indicating that they knew the rest of the story.
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Post by alannatheknightess on Sept 29, 2007 11:26:28 GMT -5
Ani was barely listening to the converstaion anymore. All of this talk about why was all nice and well, but it was what they were going to do about it that mattered most.
"It isn't the why that I'm most worried about," Ani said suddenly. "More like what are we going to do about it. I have no qualms with attacking them, but since there has been no formal war response, these wayward Scanrans who aren't associated with their king are all fine and good to attack. But when the wrong person gets caught in a crossfire, we're all screwed over."
Honestly-- just send in troops and kill them all. Scanra was very weak compared to Tortall-- they would be home by next Beltaine.
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Post by Rainstorm Aria on Sept 29, 2007 11:45:20 GMT -5
"It isn't the why that I'm most worried about," Ani said suddenly. "More like what are we going to do about it. I have no qualms with attacking them, but since there has been no formal war response, these wayward Scanrans who aren't associated with their king are all fine and good to attack. But when the wrong person gets caught in a crossfire, we're all screwed over."
"My thoughts exactly," Emeli said, who had arrived at a similar conclusion moments previously. She flicked through the stack of paper, searching for a heading, a paragraph, or even a footnote would do on possible political motives. She found no such thing, and experienced momentary irritation. Although she'd hardly expect the Head Healer or Lord Provost to come up with political cause-and-effect beforehand, such might be expected of Lady Livana or indeed Lady Kaitelanna. Or any royal advisor, really, discounting those who actually had serious internal affairs to handle that weren't involved with this particular area. She put the papers aside. "Apart from Sir Laken's helpful information on the subject of personal motives, could there be any... wider organisation? Any way that the quite justly unhappy people doing the raiding could be controlled and directed to provoke us to take up the challenge? Are these raids hitting Galla?"
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Post by spigurl on Oct 2, 2007 21:40:55 GMT -5
"More like what are we going to do about it. I have no qualms with attacking them, but since there has been no formal war response, these wayward Scanrans who aren't associated with their king are all fine and good to attack. But when the wrong person gets caught in a crossfire, we're all screwed over."
This was the first sensible thing the princess had said all afternoon. When the queen seconded that, Noah was pleased. "Excellent," he said aloud. Now let's get on with it. More like you get on with it. I don't deal with international affairs.
He began to subtly stack all of his papers. They were mostly stacked anyway, but he wanted to leave. Something had been decided. It was time for this to be over.
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Post by Rainstorm Aria on Oct 3, 2007 14:56:14 GMT -5
"Excellent,"
Annikka noticed that the Lord Provost was stacking his papers, as if getting up to leave, and as the papers shifted she caught sight of a heading reading Crimes In Order Of Most Common In The Lower City, and chewed on the inside of her lip to stop herself grinning at the apparent effort that had been made to look busy. She herself was guilty of having about six times the necessary paperwork in front of her, but since the meeting had been called so abruptly she'd had very little idea of what was going to be discussed and had thus resorted to taking everything she could possibly need.
Caden had managed to answer his question simply and creditably, given the fact that he obviously didn't want to be present, and neither Lady Kaitelanna nor Princess Ani had raised objections, which was a thing of wonder and suggested to Annikka hope for this meeting yet. Princess Anitha had even moved the meeting forward by mentioning the lack of any war response.
Annikka was no expert on war. She only ever dealt with the aftermath, the whole saving-lives part. She knew a lot about how a ward should be constructed, laid out and maintained, but had to confess ignorance on the subject of patrol patterns. And so -patiently, even if she was actually devoting a certain amount of her brain-power to who she might delegate the (boring) creation of the duty healer roster for ward three over the next month- she waited for someone more informed to say something pertinent.
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Post by Ali on Oct 21, 2007 11:50:31 GMT -5
"It isn't the why that I'm most worried about," Ani said suddenly. "More like what are we going to do about it. I have no qualms with attacking them, but since there has been no formal war response, these wayward Scanrans who aren't associated with their king are all fine and good to attack. But when the wrong person gets caught in a crossfire, we're all screwed over."
"Excellent."
Kaitelanna nodded; it was all she could think of doing. She really wondered where this was going - if it would go anywhere at all.
"Well," Kaitelanna said, breaking the short, though sudden silence. "What do we do then? Attack these easily defeated Scanrans? Wait for their next raid and capture the attackers?"
This was a sort of rhetorical question, though Kaitelanna wasn't sure of what anyone would say. This wasn't her decision anyways, so she'd have to wait for someone more suited to giving a solution to speak up again.
She took note of the fact that the Lord Provost was stacking his papers.
"Or maybe we should reconvene at a later time since some of us seem to have other things to do. Or not think of a solution at all, and just forget this whole thing, naming it a trivial matter of the upmost unimportance."
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Post by Rainstorm Aria on Oct 21, 2007 16:08:27 GMT -5
Emeli shot the Lord Provost as discreet a mildly reproving glance as possible, and silently hoped that one of the more sensible, less carping of her advisors wouldn't excuse himself. Of course, he was in his job because he was very good at it, and ought to be doing it- but this conference was quite important. She was carrying on one diplomatic embassy, and might have to deal on aggressive diplomatic terms with Scanra; she needed common sense around the conference table. And no-one had answered her questions. She had hoped Lady Livana, at least, might have had something to say on those subjects.
"Well," Kaitelanna said, breaking the short, though sudden silence. "What do we do then? Attack these easily defeated Scanrans? Wait for their next raid and capture the attackers?"
"Unfortunately, the military commanders, who might best be able to answer that question, are absent," Emeli said, "due, I understand, on the regular army commander's part to a few minor incidents involving hill shamans." She glanced out of the window. It was a lovely day. "The commander of the King's Own I believe to be unreachable, but somewhere in the city's environs. Irritating."
"Or maybe we should reconvene at a later time since some of us seem to have other things to do. Or not think of a solution at all, and just forget this whole thing, naming it a trivial matter of the upmost unimportance."
"Reconvening sounds best to me," Emeli said, thankful, although she didn't let it show in her voice, for the opening Lady Kaitelanna had given her. "Unimportant I think this issue is not, but we are achieving nothing useful."
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Post by Ali on Nov 4, 2007 18:26:03 GMT -5
"Reconvening sounds best to me," Emeli said, thankful, although she didn't let it show in her voice, for the opening Lady Kaitelanna had given her. "Unimportant I think this issue is not, but we are achieving nothing useful."
Kaitelanna nodded, glad that her response had been agreed with.
"Well, then...let us reconvene...later this week?" she asked, hoping that they could just say yes and that they could finally leave.
She walked back towards her seat and straightened her pile of papers out, hinting at the fact that she was ready to go.
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Post by Rainstorm Aria on Nov 5, 2007 16:20:01 GMT -5
"Unfortunately, the military commanders, who might best be able to answer that question, are absent," Emeli said, "due, I understand, on the regular army commander's part to a few minor incidents involving hill shamans." She glanced out of the window. It was a lovely day. "The commander of the King's Own I believe to be unreachable, but somewhere in the city's environs. Irritating."
Annikka's eyes narrowed slightly and she frowned a little in irritation. What had the purpose of this been if no-one useful could turn up? She didn't blame them for wanting to skive off, but it was very annoying.
"Well, then...let us reconvene...later this week?"
Annikka stifled a sigh of relief. Goddess be thanked, time to go already! She neatened her papers and got ready to go, waiting for Emeli to give the word and vaguely wondering if she could possibly delegate rota-creating. She didn't rise to go yet, though, not particularly wanting a reprimand. She wondered if the Provost was grinning inside at the fact that everyone had suddenly followed his lead- well, everyone gets bored at conferences, she supposed, especially useless ones where half the people who are supposed to be there are absent -because it looked like he was.
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Post by spigurl on Nov 5, 2007 22:31:13 GMT -5
(*grins* I didn't even realize that there were most posts here.)
Noah laughed inwardly at how the others followed him. Of course they all wanted to leave. Some, he was sure, because they weren't adequately prepared for a meeting such as this one. Whyever not was not his problem. Noah, on the other hand, had perfectly good reasons to not be included in this small gathering of people who actually believed it was important. As the queen told of the military leaders' absence, the provost shook his head slightly. This was a military matter, after all. Why weren't they involved? Being held up in the city was no excuse. It was a handy one though, useful for getting out of tough situations.
The provost stifled a sigh when the advisor opened her mouth again. It was obvious that these words were directed at him. Noah didn't particularly care.
"Reconvening sounds best to me," the queen said agreeing.
"A wonderful suggestion, your majesty," Noah replied. "Perhaps next time we may all come better informed." The comment wasn't directly pointed at anybody, but the man knew that the others would know who he had meant. Looking to the queen, Noah couldn't wait to be excused. He could finally get back to his real job.
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Post by Rainstorm Aria on Nov 7, 2007 15:26:01 GMT -5
Emeli's sharp eyes noticed the slight twitch of expression on Noah Callum's face, and she almost frowned, but hoped Noah Callum could keep his amusement at having sparked a mass (if extremely courteous) exodus in until he was a long way from possibly offendable ears. There had been quite enough sniping, and in Annikka haMinch's case -was that girl blessed with no self-preservation instinct, or just incapable of leaving anyone to suffer?- attempted peacekeeping already today.
She rose herself, leaving the papers on the table in front of her, aware that a servant would take them to her study later, and smiled graciously at all present. "Lady Kaitelanna, if you could arrange a more convenient time and send messengers to all those you believe should attend, I would be most grateful. Thank you all for your presence on such regrettably short notice." She nodded regally, and swept out. Oh, Mithros be blessed. That was an excersise in uselessness.
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Post by Rainstorm Aria on Nov 18, 2007 7:41:08 GMT -5
(OOC: Closed?)
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