Meeting at the light

[Nephrite]

Moore stays seated, but speaks up. "I say this to you, with the greatest respect: pride doomed Eblis for more years than most can count. Use your pride to better yourself and the efreet, and do not let the poison of the Serpent dilute your empire and their achievements."

[Anastasia]

"Completely," The Sultan says. "Not merely on Fire."

Moore gets a long glance at that, but no immediate reply.

Missed your reply when I posted this, page turnover, so it's a little short. More in the next.

[Corwin]

"You will achieve that result if you put a moratorium on efreet raiding parties and slave caravans for the next three days," Seira calmly responds.

[Anastasia]

"Very well," The Grand Sultan agrees after a moment.

"Then we will agree to the same," Barachiel agrees, "It is done."

At this the Grand Sultan rises from his seat, "Then we are done here."

[Corwin]

"We are," Seira agrees, rising to her feet as well and seeming her usual self once more. "Thank you for accepting this invitation to come here and try to resolve the war. We shall await your answer."

[Nephrite]

"Thank you." Moore echoes.

He will see the Sultan outside of Hope's Landing unless he just chooses to teleport off himself from here.

[Anastasia]

"Take him, Moore, then return by yourself," Barachiel says, as...

Going to a brief topic on your board, Moore.

Once they are gone, "Leave us," Barachiel says, "Save for Seira."

Donald gets up and pats your shoulders, "Good talk," he says, "I thought you did fine."

[Corwin]

"Truth is among the most powerful things in Creation," Seira tells Donald with a grin. "Thanks. When you spoke up it made me sound all the more reasonable."

[Anastasia]

A knowing grin back as he goes off along with all of them.

"Erathaol requested Moore be present for our conversations after," Barachiel explains, "He's an ongoing project of his."

[Corwin]

"I think having him around makes sense, given he had been part of this from the very start," Seira responds, though as with the Sultan she decides to be direct. "I don't believe the Sultan will act. He's panicked, so I expect some grand gambit and a fifty-fifty chance he contacts the Hells or makes a run for it with his treasures. In light of that, I would like to request you to contact the Khan right now and ask for an audience for us. Let's show him respect by going to him to meet him, while displaying confidence in our power by being willing to head into enemy territory. Our situation on Earth is far more in our favor, and the only reason we are at war is because the efreet called on their alliance. Besides, if we manage to settle that front and free up all the xorn, that's one more thing to pressure the Sultan."

[Anastasia]

Barachiel is quiet at that mulling them over.

As Moore returns, he begins. "Then the question is, what are we willing to offer the dao?" Barachiel says, "We cannot let them off harshly if we wish to remove them from the war. I dislike letting them off, but I could accept ensuring better conditions for the xorn and further isolating the efreet. What is your position?""

[Nephrite]

This is entirely a curiosity to see if there's anything Moore might be able to add from a different perspective, but what's Mineral's relation with the dao? I am guessing "bad."

Take 10 for 105 for K:P if that tells him anything specific.

[Anastasia]

About the same as everyone else: A general sort of neutrality as long as you don't come thieving. Most dao know better and can get wealth elsewhere.

There's more relative diplomacy between them and most others with Mineral, but they are Earth natives so this isn't a huge surprise.

[Nephrite]

"All I could offer to help with that is somehow to help them with something when it comes to Mineral." Moore says as he comes back.

[Corwin]

"Our terms are the abolition of slavery, which mostly means freeing the xorn. Their benefit is getting out of this war they were pushed into, and avoiding Earth tilting further in our favor the way Fire had been. To the best of my knowledge, the dao have only suffered losses in the war thus far, in lives, treasure and ground." Seira purses her lips. "We could offer a token amount for every freed slave as a one-time offer to soothe their pride, I suppose. Since our goals are the freedom of all sapients and further pressure and isolation of the Sultan, the mere opening of this negotiations channel could be sufficient to advance them."

Seira taps her lips in thought. "I have an in with the xorn so we could offer protection from them, but that might be too much for any dao's pride to accept."