I tended first to the fire, coaxing the coals into a full blaze, before turning back to Dira. “I am not entirely sure it’s me you want to discuss your business with,” I said. “And not Kristos or Theodor.”
A smile played on her lips. “But why should we not, Sophie Balstrade, discuss matters of state? It is not our gowns that concerns you, is it?” She paused. “I would be willing to change into a suit if you’ve any lying about.”
“Fair enough,” I said. Dira was fully capable of representing her interests, and, I squared myself with a confidence I didn’t feel, I had to represent ours.
“I come with a proposal,” she said. “It concerns alliance.”
I gaped. “But the Allied States—they have only ever supported Galitha in maintaining peace, in neutrality.”
“That is true,” Dira replied. “But the Allied States are not interested in a military alliance. Not with the Reformists, not with the Royalists.”
“Then I’m afraid I don’t understand,” I said, glancing from Dira to the Pellian man and back again.
“I should make introductions,” Dira said, as though it were an afterthought, but she was too meticulous for that. “This is Artur Hysso, chancellor of the Pellian Chamber of Delegates.”
“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” I said, beginning to rise. He stood and bowed, holding a hand to indicate I should remain seated. Unsure of proper social protocol with foreign dignitaries, I complied.
“The chancellor is the position in government most akin to heading the Council of Nobles,” Dira explained. “Except that he is elected and does not report to any king.”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly feeling I’d committed a terrible breach of etiquette allowing him to bow to me, if he was, in effect, the most powerful man in his government.
“We are come to persuade you in considering alliance,” Hysso said, confident in the concepts but stumbling a bit on the pronunciation.
“We—we sent letters,” I said. “Months ago. Inquiring as to your… disposition. Yet at that time you were not inclined to help us.”
“In that time,” Dira supplied, “there have been some rather drastic changes in the state of Pellian affairs. One of the princes of the Allied States, in an effort to secure his own island’s and family’s fortunes in these… shifting times, has attempted a partial annex of Pellia.”
“Annexation of Pellia?” I asked. “Do you mean—that he’s conquered part of a foreign country?”
“Not in name. He has not attempted to change the governance or the title of the place, if that matters. But he has assumed control over certain… resources. Resources of a magical nature that it seems are becoming quite valuable, as the Galatine Civil War has revealed to us. The Pellians are not able to offer much resistance,” Dira added coolly.
I glanced at Artur Hysso, who did not react to this assessment of his nation. “Resources? Do you mean Pellian citizens?”
“I mean precisely that.”
“But the Allied States,” I pressed. “They’re permitting this?”
“They are willing to let Lairn Ani-Fyn make this gamble for them. They see the turning of the tide. For centuries—millennia!—magic is a superstition, a rumor. At best, an uncertain aid. And then this summer, it blazes like a meteor, like a comet portending disruption, alteration, rebirth even. Everything has changed.”
“Because of what I’ve done?” I asked, cold despite the roaring fire.
“Don’t oversell yourself. The Serafans have been influencing policy all along. What the Serafans did was possible for them only through secrecy. Without their secret?” She bit her lips into a thin line. “They have clearly decided that the better gamble now is to engage the full range of possibility in their magic. It is quite clear to us now that the Serafans’ casting can influence military engagements. Then we heard rumors that your gifts were not as… rudimentary and frail as we had been given to understand of casting.”
“Everything has changed.” Our war had fractured more than Galitha. It had shaken the foundations of every nation on the map.
“Yes. And also, no.” She leaned forward. “It is the changes we have not yet seen that we know might be the most influential. This may be only the beginning of what casting might do. The first man who honed a knife didn’t envision a line company in a bayonet charge.”
“The Equatorials came to Pellia. They first offered alliance, but the terms—” Hysso shook his head. “We will not allow our people to be so used. Not for another’s wars. But the Equatorials, they are more powerful than we. They did not need to ask. They are powerful enough, they can take.” His face drew taut. “And so they did.”
I began to understand, slowly, horrified. “This—this prince took Pellian people? To the Allied States? Without their consent?”
Dira’s mouth constricted as though she had tasted something sour. “He will not admit it. But there is no indication that they left Pellia willingly.” She swallowed. “Bondage is against all our traditions and ethics. Which is why the country looks the other way. But it feels necessary to match this new weapon of our potential enemies. Which is why the country allows it to continue.”
“But what does he expect the Pellians to do?” I asked. “They know traditional methods, traditional casting only—which is what you understood, a simple boost in fortune. One clay tablet at a time. Not the methods the Serafans use. Not what I’ve done.”
Dira watched me a long moment. “I wonder if any of us knows, to the full extent, what you have done,” she mused. I didn’t reply. “Ani-Fyn believes even the most rudimentary of casting is worth investing in. But he also believes, I am sure, that they can be trained to match the Serafans’ prowess.”
“If this continues,” Hysso added, “it will not be long before the Allied States simply conquer all of Pellia. We cannot stand against it alone.”
We couldn’t defend Pellia, I thought with silent desperation. Even if incursion by the Allied States was wrong, if they had engaged in slavery, an abomination of all our ethics. “I am not sure that we have the ability to offer what you need,” I began, readying myself for Hysso’s disappointment.
Dira smiled. “I think you have the ability to accept precisely what Pellia would like to offer. A conquered nation has no rights, can be made slaves. But a nation who willingly joins another?”
Hysso held up a hand. “We are independent, in the face of great nations like Galitha, like Serafe, for centuries. We are small, but we are proud. Yet a new Galitha—a democratic Galitha—could be a home for us. And in exchange, we will provide troops to serve in your army.”
I exhaled, thin and shaky. We needed men, needed them more than ever. And what better way to protect the Pellians from incursion by other, newly magic-hungry neighbors than by bringing them under our wing? Pellia could be a Galatine province, equal to the other Galatine provinces. With their men, we could pursue victory in Galitha City. With our influence, they could ward off new threats. The negotiations could begin immediately.
I had learned enough to ask one more question first. I turned to Dira. “Why are you brokering this alliance?”