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<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7338091" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p><strong>Negotiating with a General. Or: The return of the bastard</strong></p><p></p><p><em>Note: Seems I forgot to talk about the Halfling Earnest aka Deception in my last post. I must admit that I kind of tricked my players a bit by not using all english handouts. I loved the word-play with “the earnest lie deceives” which was meant to be played literally on Earnest (and which also reminded me of the great “Importance of being Earnest” play). But I know that sometimes english sayings or wordplays or even words with more than one meaning can be hard to get for non-natives (I suffer from this all the time as a player! Plus we had quite a discussion on the meaning of “alight” in one of Nevard's visions, so I'm a burned child when it comes to language) as long as you don't know the background (which I, in the case of WotBS, do know, as I am the DM). And so I tried to translate the name and the words of Darius' prophecy into German. Which is why Earnest became Ernest (Ernst would have been the alternative, but he would have stood out too much) and the phrase “the earnest lie decieves” became “die ernsthafte Lüge täuscht” with Deception being “Täuschung”. Seems like I got them this time <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> </em></p><p></p><p>Tinuviel teleports the party and the still invisible Gorquith to Seaquen. There they separate the rebel leader and the Inquistor and take Gorquith to Simeonne. The headmastress seems more than happy to see them all, and especially Gorquith, alive, even if they couldn't get their hands on the torch. She promises the Lord that he'd be more than welcome to join the anti-Leska-Alliance and that they'll hand him all the information they get out of Darius once they finish their interrogation. </p><p></p><p>Then they bring in Darius and try to explain what happened while he was sleeping. His emperor died and Leska seized control. She is basically in an all-out war with the rest of the world and some parts of the Ragesian army (Magdus and maybe Danava). So they ask him whether he'd be loyal to Coaltongue or whether he'd rather be on Leska's side which would mean trouble for him once they hand him back to Magdus. As Darius is quite the loyalist, he'd stick with Magdus and Coaltongue and says that he always got along well with “The old Dragon” he had been protecting and his “Best Man”. When they talk about Griiat and his atrocities, Darius explains that while he's no stranger to violence (but who isn't these days?), there are some inquisitors who enjoy torturing people and who take the writings of Guthwulf as some sort of bible. He doesn't really remember what he was writing down though, only images of a burning sky, an icy wind, fire and the dying scream of a large bird. And there were draconic eyes watching him from afar. </p><p></p><p>Simeonne seems satisfied with the info, and says that while Darius is a de facto prisoner, he should be treated well as he might remember something valuable. After all, he has to be transferred back to Magdus in a few days. Regarding the General, Simeonne asks the party to play envoy of Seaquen once again if the time arrives. Katrina, who's basically become Simeonne's secretary, and who's also wearing a brand-new anti-divination crown, offers to accompany them on their trip as she knows a bit of ragesian customs and they surely don't want to step on a general's toes. Cuin muses that Tinu might already have done that, but doesn't go into more detail. </p><p>After the meeting, Cuin'halar quickly moves to his room to take care for his gold dragon egg. He's read quite a bit about Dragons in the past, so he knows that he should probably keep it warm. He asks Tinuviel whether he may use his portable oven as soon as he realizes that “warm” might be quite a high temperature for a fire-based dragon. Both elves discuss how and why this egg could have come into being and what they are supposed to do with it. Cuin muses that it might be the crystallized essence of Syana that could or should be transferred to Trilla, but he can also sense some kind of life growing inside the egg, so maybe this is a reincarnated Syana. Or her child. </p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Note: Tinu originally commissioned the oven to recharge Toma's fire gem along the road. He really fears the burning sky, the little teleport-bunny. As expected, Cuin turned out to be quite a protective “dad” and decided to keep the egg a secret from anyone else. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p>Then Katrina knocks at their door and, as soon as she sees Tinuviel's face, she slaps him hard. “You bastard! You vile, evil, no-good idiot! You pitiful disgrace of a man!” she scolds him. Tinu takes a minute to grasp that Kat must have spoken to Torrent (who's her room-mate and also her friend) and she must have told his ex about “the kiss”. “Kat, I'm sorry. But you haven't seen what I have...” he tries to explain, but she doesn't let him finish. “You will make things right for Torrent or I swear that you'll pity the day you were born, you high-nosed Shahalesti!” she shouts before slamming the door in front of him. </p><p></p><p>“I totally earned that” Tinuviel sighs. “Yeah, you do”, Cuin'halar replies. Then Cuin tries to talk reason into Tinu. He says that while he could understand if his brother developed some hidden feelings for “the princess”, he should at least decide on his stance on Torrent. Especially after they just got their feelings sorted. After all she's their friend and even if Torrent seems to be the most mentally stable of them all, she has surely been hurt by Tinu's actions. So he should at least apologize and decide on their further relationship. </p><p></p><p>Tinu answers that it isn't that easy, as he does love Torrent, but he also knows that they will have no more than a few decades together as Torrent is a human and he is an elf. “So you're really planning to woo Shalosha in advance?” Cuin asks, eyebrow raised. “She'll need me. Calanis is a hornet's nest and she'll be the ruler of Shahalesti some day. She needs an ally she can trust. The world can't bear a second Shaaladel. Neither can it bear Shaaladel influencing Ragesian politics via Empress Shalosha”. Cuin laughs in return. “So you think that you, fifty-something, could be a political anchor for a woman double your age who was born and raised in Calanis? This is still about your vision of Magdus, isn't it?”</p><p></p><p>Tinuviel sighs and looks very unhappy. Cuin explains that he's in a similar situation right now with Lady Timor and he doesn't know what to do witht the fact that she's a human. But he decided that he wouldn't let dark thoughts cloud what could become a wonderful relationship and neither should a young, passionate elf like Tinu. “Thinking of grief is for old men” he says and sends Tinu off to Torrent. </p><p></p><p>There he sincerely apologizes for kissing Shalosha in front of her. Tinu tries to explain what he saw in his vision, so he establishes a mental link between himself and Torrent and shows her the full vision. Torrent says that she understands his motives, but thinks that it would be wiser to talk to Shalosha without embarrassing her (and Torrent) in front of her troops and her potential ally. She says that she doesn't know enough about this Magdus guy to judge whether the vission is a genuine warning of a potential abuser or just a bad dream. She says that she'll forgive him this time, but he needs to make up his mind regarding his feelings for Shalosha as he was the one who wished for a “real” relationship. </p><p></p><p>Tinuviel returns to Cuin and says that everything will be alright. Although he's still worried about a potential marriage between Shalosha and Magdus. Cuin tries to tell him that he saw no signs of any “potential marriage” between these two besides Tinuviel's vision, so he'd better calm down a bit. He has to agree though that the prospect of such a union would be troublesome indeed. Shalosha, despite her high self-esteem and prowess, is still the daughter of Shaaladel and doing his bidding. So even if she wanted to stabilize the relations between Ragesia and Shahalesti by marrying Magdus, this could easily lead to Shaaladel dictating ragesian politics via Shalosha. Also, as they both assume that Shalosha is the last thing that keeps Shaaladel from becoming a total megalomaniac dictator, having her in Ragos would turn things worse for all non-Shahalesti in the country. So Tinu suggests that he could write an honest letter to his cousin to explain all this to her. And Cuin can for once agree to this plan. </p><p></p><p>A few days later, the meeting with Magdus and Shalosha is scheduled in the ragesian encampment. On their way to the command tent they briefly meet Shalosha and Tinuviel asks her to not marry Magdus as this will make things worse. Shalosha's turning away from him in response and she looks as if she's somehow afraid.</p><p></p><p>They enter Magdus' tent alongside his Second General Octavia who formally introduces the two parties and then leaves. The general puts a small, beautifully decorated book aside and places it close to the portrait of an older woman. He then addresses the Seaquenian emissaries by saying that he asked Princess Shalosha of Shahalesti to join them later as he needs to make something clear: The Princess is his honored guest and therefore he cannot allow anyone to harass or hurt her. Even if they are family. He adds that he can understand the passionate character of a young person though, which is why he can put aside past transgressions if they are not to be repeated. </p><p>Tinuviel doesn't seem to understand Magdus' intentions, so he turns quite sour and replies that a free citizen of Gate Pass won't take orders from a Ragesian General. </p><p></p><p>The General's voice turns a bit more intense as he says “Careful now, lad. I bear no ill will against you yet. But you forced yourself on my guest against her will and I, as both a host and as a man of honor, cannot let you do this again. Also, I promised the Lady her safety and I intend to keep this promise.” </p><p></p><p><em>Note: I was really amused to let Magdus turn this into a role-reversal as it was Shalosha's self-proclaimed "savior" Tinuviel who was being a manipulative creep just to keep her away from Magdus and to hide his secrets. As for the General? He was really married to his job till this day.</em></p><p></p><p>“What a great way to start negotiations...” Cuin'halar sighs as Tinuviel bit by bit understands that Magdus sees his kiss as an offense against Shalosha. Cuin says that if they are now about to make things clear, he'd like to bring up the issue of the Ragesians who are harassing innocent Sindairese as they had to put down a patrol who tried to kill a farmer and enslave his family. He tells Magdus about the incident who stays pretty cool and even says that they did nothing wrong by “punishing” his patrol, as they went against his orders. Feeding an army is one thing. Terrorizing people is on a different level.</p><p></p><p>Then Princess Shalosha enters the tent, accompanied by her loyal bodyguard Rihalles. She asks the Solei Palantis officer to leave her though as she wishes to have a private talk with the General and the emissaries. </p><p></p><p>Magdus starts the talk by bringing up the issue of Darius. He says that he's glad they honored their agreement and brought the Inquisitor back. As a sign of goodwill he says he will order the release of four Seaquenian spies who got caught while they were sniveling around his encampment. They are barely more than kids anyway and were treated well, he assures. </p><p></p><p><em>Note: I found that the fate of the team who was sent to Sindaire wasn't mentioned anywhere in adventure 6, so I assumed they could be prisoners of the Ragesians. </em></p><p></p><p>They then talk about the murderers of his Emperor and the Torch. Cuin says that they didn't find the artifact and don't know where it is, but they did find an image of the assassins in the Dark Pyre. Shalosha adds that she had her mages examine the Pyre who brought her images of three people: One Half-elf and two others who seem like the drow of legends. She also knows that the Half-elf goes by the name of Rhuarc and that this guy tried to kill her father, at least if the info from Rihalles is correct. Cuin smiles slightly and says that the drow, or droalesti, once lived with his people, so they are barely the stuff of legend. He doesn't know why any of them would have beef with Coaltongue though. </p><p></p><p>Magdus then brings up the issue of succession. He says that he served his emperor loyally and he knows that Coaltongue would have wanted to see him on the throne instead of the impostor Leska. He thinks that the scourge is barbaric and that the Inquisitors are on a way too long leash these days, so he'd definitely change that. </p><p></p><p>The team replies that they do have to discuss these matters with the alliance leadership, but they don't see much reason why Magdus shouldn't be Emperor. At least as long as he doesn't try to conquer the rest of the world, so they'd need some kind of peace or non-aggression treaty if they were to support his claim. In return, he would be invited to join the rebel forces with his army, which would mean supplies, but also a combined leadership. </p><p></p><p>Shalosha says that her part of the army is already allied with Magdus and she has no reason to not trust him. The rest of the Shahalesti is busy defending their homeland, so they cannot really bring much to such an alliance right now. But she'll talk with her father about a future collaboration. Tinuviel sees this as a sign of Shalosha's upcoming proposal, so he intervenes and asks her to consider the consequences should she marry Magdus: Her father would lose his voice of reason and also gain influence in Ragesia. </p><p></p><p>This seems to shock the elven princess and she turns pretty angry. “How can you know my plans before I decided on them?!” she almost screams “What have you done to my mind? Are you trying to trick me? Get out!”</p><p></p><p><em>Note: I was pushing Tinu close to the edge with Shalosha. He knew that he could explain every weird action he made if he just revealed his knowledge about the Trillith. But he didn't dare to do so as he feared that either Shalosha or Magdus would use this knowledge for their own gain. </em></p><p></p><p>Now Magdus seems pretty confused. He tries to calm both parties down and orders Tinuviel to cease whatever magic he might be casting right now (both Torrent and Cuin confirm that he isn't) and then asks Shalosha what these “wedding plans” are about as he, the “groom-to-be” seems to be the last of them all to know this. “I was thinking about it...” Shalosha whispers. “I thought it could... form a lasting bond between our two countries. My father would never dare to attack his only child. Any my children, our children, could ensure a lasting peace between old rivals”. The general raises his eyebrows at this revelation and says a bit hesitant that he does feel honored, even if this way of proposing a union is both unique and utterly strange. He adds that he and Shalosha would need a break to talk about these new issues and Tinuviel asks to have a moment with his cousin afterward. He then hands her a personal letter and asks her to read it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 7338091, member: 6816692"] [b]Negotiating with a General. Or: The return of the bastard[/b] [I]Note: Seems I forgot to talk about the Halfling Earnest aka Deception in my last post. I must admit that I kind of tricked my players a bit by not using all english handouts. I loved the word-play with “the earnest lie deceives” which was meant to be played literally on Earnest (and which also reminded me of the great “Importance of being Earnest” play). But I know that sometimes english sayings or wordplays or even words with more than one meaning can be hard to get for non-natives (I suffer from this all the time as a player! Plus we had quite a discussion on the meaning of “alight” in one of Nevard's visions, so I'm a burned child when it comes to language) as long as you don't know the background (which I, in the case of WotBS, do know, as I am the DM). And so I tried to translate the name and the words of Darius' prophecy into German. Which is why Earnest became Ernest (Ernst would have been the alternative, but he would have stood out too much) and the phrase “the earnest lie decieves” became “die ernsthafte Lüge täuscht” with Deception being “Täuschung”. Seems like I got them this time :) [/I] Tinuviel teleports the party and the still invisible Gorquith to Seaquen. There they separate the rebel leader and the Inquistor and take Gorquith to Simeonne. The headmastress seems more than happy to see them all, and especially Gorquith, alive, even if they couldn't get their hands on the torch. She promises the Lord that he'd be more than welcome to join the anti-Leska-Alliance and that they'll hand him all the information they get out of Darius once they finish their interrogation. Then they bring in Darius and try to explain what happened while he was sleeping. His emperor died and Leska seized control. She is basically in an all-out war with the rest of the world and some parts of the Ragesian army (Magdus and maybe Danava). So they ask him whether he'd be loyal to Coaltongue or whether he'd rather be on Leska's side which would mean trouble for him once they hand him back to Magdus. As Darius is quite the loyalist, he'd stick with Magdus and Coaltongue and says that he always got along well with “The old Dragon” he had been protecting and his “Best Man”. When they talk about Griiat and his atrocities, Darius explains that while he's no stranger to violence (but who isn't these days?), there are some inquisitors who enjoy torturing people and who take the writings of Guthwulf as some sort of bible. He doesn't really remember what he was writing down though, only images of a burning sky, an icy wind, fire and the dying scream of a large bird. And there were draconic eyes watching him from afar. Simeonne seems satisfied with the info, and says that while Darius is a de facto prisoner, he should be treated well as he might remember something valuable. After all, he has to be transferred back to Magdus in a few days. Regarding the General, Simeonne asks the party to play envoy of Seaquen once again if the time arrives. Katrina, who's basically become Simeonne's secretary, and who's also wearing a brand-new anti-divination crown, offers to accompany them on their trip as she knows a bit of ragesian customs and they surely don't want to step on a general's toes. Cuin muses that Tinu might already have done that, but doesn't go into more detail. After the meeting, Cuin'halar quickly moves to his room to take care for his gold dragon egg. He's read quite a bit about Dragons in the past, so he knows that he should probably keep it warm. He asks Tinuviel whether he may use his portable oven as soon as he realizes that “warm” might be quite a high temperature for a fire-based dragon. Both elves discuss how and why this egg could have come into being and what they are supposed to do with it. Cuin muses that it might be the crystallized essence of Syana that could or should be transferred to Trilla, but he can also sense some kind of life growing inside the egg, so maybe this is a reincarnated Syana. Or her child. [I] Note: Tinu originally commissioned the oven to recharge Toma's fire gem along the road. He really fears the burning sky, the little teleport-bunny. As expected, Cuin turned out to be quite a protective “dad” and decided to keep the egg a secret from anyone else. [/I] Then Katrina knocks at their door and, as soon as she sees Tinuviel's face, she slaps him hard. “You bastard! You vile, evil, no-good idiot! You pitiful disgrace of a man!” she scolds him. Tinu takes a minute to grasp that Kat must have spoken to Torrent (who's her room-mate and also her friend) and she must have told his ex about “the kiss”. “Kat, I'm sorry. But you haven't seen what I have...” he tries to explain, but she doesn't let him finish. “You will make things right for Torrent or I swear that you'll pity the day you were born, you high-nosed Shahalesti!” she shouts before slamming the door in front of him. “I totally earned that” Tinuviel sighs. “Yeah, you do”, Cuin'halar replies. Then Cuin tries to talk reason into Tinu. He says that while he could understand if his brother developed some hidden feelings for “the princess”, he should at least decide on his stance on Torrent. Especially after they just got their feelings sorted. After all she's their friend and even if Torrent seems to be the most mentally stable of them all, she has surely been hurt by Tinu's actions. So he should at least apologize and decide on their further relationship. Tinu answers that it isn't that easy, as he does love Torrent, but he also knows that they will have no more than a few decades together as Torrent is a human and he is an elf. “So you're really planning to woo Shalosha in advance?” Cuin asks, eyebrow raised. “She'll need me. Calanis is a hornet's nest and she'll be the ruler of Shahalesti some day. She needs an ally she can trust. The world can't bear a second Shaaladel. Neither can it bear Shaaladel influencing Ragesian politics via Empress Shalosha”. Cuin laughs in return. “So you think that you, fifty-something, could be a political anchor for a woman double your age who was born and raised in Calanis? This is still about your vision of Magdus, isn't it?” Tinuviel sighs and looks very unhappy. Cuin explains that he's in a similar situation right now with Lady Timor and he doesn't know what to do witht the fact that she's a human. But he decided that he wouldn't let dark thoughts cloud what could become a wonderful relationship and neither should a young, passionate elf like Tinu. “Thinking of grief is for old men” he says and sends Tinu off to Torrent. There he sincerely apologizes for kissing Shalosha in front of her. Tinu tries to explain what he saw in his vision, so he establishes a mental link between himself and Torrent and shows her the full vision. Torrent says that she understands his motives, but thinks that it would be wiser to talk to Shalosha without embarrassing her (and Torrent) in front of her troops and her potential ally. She says that she doesn't know enough about this Magdus guy to judge whether the vission is a genuine warning of a potential abuser or just a bad dream. She says that she'll forgive him this time, but he needs to make up his mind regarding his feelings for Shalosha as he was the one who wished for a “real” relationship. Tinuviel returns to Cuin and says that everything will be alright. Although he's still worried about a potential marriage between Shalosha and Magdus. Cuin tries to tell him that he saw no signs of any “potential marriage” between these two besides Tinuviel's vision, so he'd better calm down a bit. He has to agree though that the prospect of such a union would be troublesome indeed. Shalosha, despite her high self-esteem and prowess, is still the daughter of Shaaladel and doing his bidding. So even if she wanted to stabilize the relations between Ragesia and Shahalesti by marrying Magdus, this could easily lead to Shaaladel dictating ragesian politics via Shalosha. Also, as they both assume that Shalosha is the last thing that keeps Shaaladel from becoming a total megalomaniac dictator, having her in Ragos would turn things worse for all non-Shahalesti in the country. So Tinu suggests that he could write an honest letter to his cousin to explain all this to her. And Cuin can for once agree to this plan. A few days later, the meeting with Magdus and Shalosha is scheduled in the ragesian encampment. On their way to the command tent they briefly meet Shalosha and Tinuviel asks her to not marry Magdus as this will make things worse. Shalosha's turning away from him in response and she looks as if she's somehow afraid. They enter Magdus' tent alongside his Second General Octavia who formally introduces the two parties and then leaves. The general puts a small, beautifully decorated book aside and places it close to the portrait of an older woman. He then addresses the Seaquenian emissaries by saying that he asked Princess Shalosha of Shahalesti to join them later as he needs to make something clear: The Princess is his honored guest and therefore he cannot allow anyone to harass or hurt her. Even if they are family. He adds that he can understand the passionate character of a young person though, which is why he can put aside past transgressions if they are not to be repeated. Tinuviel doesn't seem to understand Magdus' intentions, so he turns quite sour and replies that a free citizen of Gate Pass won't take orders from a Ragesian General. The General's voice turns a bit more intense as he says “Careful now, lad. I bear no ill will against you yet. But you forced yourself on my guest against her will and I, as both a host and as a man of honor, cannot let you do this again. Also, I promised the Lady her safety and I intend to keep this promise.” [I]Note: I was really amused to let Magdus turn this into a role-reversal as it was Shalosha's self-proclaimed "savior" Tinuviel who was being a manipulative creep just to keep her away from Magdus and to hide his secrets. As for the General? He was really married to his job till this day.[/I] “What a great way to start negotiations...” Cuin'halar sighs as Tinuviel bit by bit understands that Magdus sees his kiss as an offense against Shalosha. Cuin says that if they are now about to make things clear, he'd like to bring up the issue of the Ragesians who are harassing innocent Sindairese as they had to put down a patrol who tried to kill a farmer and enslave his family. He tells Magdus about the incident who stays pretty cool and even says that they did nothing wrong by “punishing” his patrol, as they went against his orders. Feeding an army is one thing. Terrorizing people is on a different level. Then Princess Shalosha enters the tent, accompanied by her loyal bodyguard Rihalles. She asks the Solei Palantis officer to leave her though as she wishes to have a private talk with the General and the emissaries. Magdus starts the talk by bringing up the issue of Darius. He says that he's glad they honored their agreement and brought the Inquisitor back. As a sign of goodwill he says he will order the release of four Seaquenian spies who got caught while they were sniveling around his encampment. They are barely more than kids anyway and were treated well, he assures. [I]Note: I found that the fate of the team who was sent to Sindaire wasn't mentioned anywhere in adventure 6, so I assumed they could be prisoners of the Ragesians. [/I] They then talk about the murderers of his Emperor and the Torch. Cuin says that they didn't find the artifact and don't know where it is, but they did find an image of the assassins in the Dark Pyre. Shalosha adds that she had her mages examine the Pyre who brought her images of three people: One Half-elf and two others who seem like the drow of legends. She also knows that the Half-elf goes by the name of Rhuarc and that this guy tried to kill her father, at least if the info from Rihalles is correct. Cuin smiles slightly and says that the drow, or droalesti, once lived with his people, so they are barely the stuff of legend. He doesn't know why any of them would have beef with Coaltongue though. Magdus then brings up the issue of succession. He says that he served his emperor loyally and he knows that Coaltongue would have wanted to see him on the throne instead of the impostor Leska. He thinks that the scourge is barbaric and that the Inquisitors are on a way too long leash these days, so he'd definitely change that. The team replies that they do have to discuss these matters with the alliance leadership, but they don't see much reason why Magdus shouldn't be Emperor. At least as long as he doesn't try to conquer the rest of the world, so they'd need some kind of peace or non-aggression treaty if they were to support his claim. In return, he would be invited to join the rebel forces with his army, which would mean supplies, but also a combined leadership. Shalosha says that her part of the army is already allied with Magdus and she has no reason to not trust him. The rest of the Shahalesti is busy defending their homeland, so they cannot really bring much to such an alliance right now. But she'll talk with her father about a future collaboration. Tinuviel sees this as a sign of Shalosha's upcoming proposal, so he intervenes and asks her to consider the consequences should she marry Magdus: Her father would lose his voice of reason and also gain influence in Ragesia. This seems to shock the elven princess and she turns pretty angry. “How can you know my plans before I decided on them?!” she almost screams “What have you done to my mind? Are you trying to trick me? Get out!” [I]Note: I was pushing Tinu close to the edge with Shalosha. He knew that he could explain every weird action he made if he just revealed his knowledge about the Trillith. But he didn't dare to do so as he feared that either Shalosha or Magdus would use this knowledge for their own gain. [/I] Now Magdus seems pretty confused. He tries to calm both parties down and orders Tinuviel to cease whatever magic he might be casting right now (both Torrent and Cuin confirm that he isn't) and then asks Shalosha what these “wedding plans” are about as he, the “groom-to-be” seems to be the last of them all to know this. “I was thinking about it...” Shalosha whispers. “I thought it could... form a lasting bond between our two countries. My father would never dare to attack his only child. Any my children, our children, could ensure a lasting peace between old rivals”. The general raises his eyebrows at this revelation and says a bit hesitant that he does feel honored, even if this way of proposing a union is both unique and utterly strange. He adds that he and Shalosha would need a break to talk about these new issues and Tinuviel asks to have a moment with his cousin afterward. He then hands her a personal letter and asks her to read it. [/QUOTE]
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