Insurrection: A Council in the midst of change.

[Carnath-Emory]

The Myrken Wood Judiciary has gone through a great many scribes, this last year -- no doubt the stress of even the most simple meetings wear their nerves thin to the point of distress -- and at present completely lacks one; Councilor Guillaume has once again found himself assembling minutes of the meeting, a task which falls to him not because his penmanship is the loveliest, but because it's an irritating task and no-one else cares to be troubled by it.

The fact of this has not escaped him, and likely contributes to the man's present mood, which is quite explosive; he writes with sharp jerks of the quill, and already, the tabletop -- a fine rosewood which surely deserves better treatment -- is littered with spots of swiftly-drying ink. This has been, after all, a damnably difficult meeting to write up, and the difficulty lies in phrasing things in such a manner that they won't have someone or other immediately jailed for treason, or some such rot.

"Thankyou, gentlemen. It is an honor to accept this position; I can only hope that we may bring some order to what has, of late, been a region rather in turmoil."

So had spoken the Marquis Al-D'arcu, and isn't that one's election to office a relief? They might, after all, have ended up with that madman Dhugal, and in any case, it's a pleasure to have a bit of good blood in the room; certainly, the man makes a fine foil to the earthy O'Cynen. But things had continued in that vein: congratulations all around, a gathering of wealthy old -- and not so old -- men basking in their self-satisfaction...

"I wouldn't worry about 'etiquette' too much. Come to meetings regularly, and you might see me punch another governor. Which, Gad, I'd like to apologize for."

....well. More or less. But in time they'd moved to the most immediately urgent matter: that of a new Governor's election, desperately required by a township eager to sieze onto some form of fresh, stable power. They could hardly afford them to shift their loyalties to, say, the Inquisition. Three choices had been presented: Alexander Kanashia, previous Captain of the Guard and present interim Governor; Altias Bromn, Councilor of good standing; and Gad Phuri, once Alosius Treadwell, but no-one cared about that now, since the differences between he and the original Gad were so bloody small.

"Arguably the first difficult decision I've had to make."
"I would venture to lean against Bromn... Of all three, he is the most determined idealist. I would not have the people's Hero become corrupted by a surfeit of sudden power."
"And the other two? Phuri is untrustworthy, but while we haven't seen a particularly blessed period under his governorship, those events are things we can hardly blame him for. And then Kanashia? ... The captain was specifically put out of the 'order of command', as it were, to avoid martial law..."
"Indeed...there has been already this week some small conflict between Guard and Judiciary, and a repeat of this could be disastrous."

Which was, God help them all, the very next order of business; they'd avoided mentioning it this entire time, and surely for reasons of outright distaste.

"We dare not, gentlemen, put this township in the hands of a man who lacks the.. the gumption to steer it back towards peace and prosperity."
"Kanashia is a good man, from all that I hear... I can see that he is very cunning, and a man of ambition. Of Phuri, I will say only this.Perhaps weakness...would allow this Council, as a body of demokratos - as spoken of in the old world - many minds holding each other's ambitions in check - more freedom to act, in the interests of the people."

Which had been a damned good point, and it had seemed that they'd actually reached a concencus here, both men casting their votes, one of them already noted down in good, black ink, when:

"There remains, of course, another option. Were we to elect Bromn as Governor, we could install Kanashia -- or, no, Gad, as you prefer -- as Councilor in his place. Were you, that is, eager for the benefits the peoples' adoration of the man might bring..."
"I can't imagine the sense the people would get from noting such a dramatic shift in their council could be all that good."
"Pigswallow, Joseph; unless they are blind, deaf and addled, they've already noticed it."
"It seems ...remarkably well-concieved, to me."
"But then...Actually...yes. It might very well be."

And that, as they say, was that; the gentlemen in question had been ushered back from the foyer to which they'd originally sent -- the Judiciary guards its voting as preciously as it does its coffers -- and:

"Altias Bromn, we invite you to take your seat as Governor and Judicar of Myrken Wood."
"...surprise surprise."
"Well. Congratulations, Governor Bromn."

Which had been a particularly perturbed Gad indeed, one already launched to his feet in a tremendous wave of blubber; why, even the mention of their plan -- to have those eligible choose between he and Kanashia to replace Bromn's position as Councilor -- had mollified him not in the slightest.

"Then you're one of a pack of fools, Councilor, if you put this before the public right now."
"Gad. Sit your great arse down, for a moment, if you please."
"By the will of the people, for the will of the people, or some such rot, eh?"
"There is no vote. Gad Phuri is the new Councilor, I have a new order of business."

Which turn of events likely made the lot of them regret, just a little, not having set Kanashia in the role of Governor after all; it was the most swiftly-made decision the Judiciary had seen in some good months, undoubtedly, one which received no argument from anyone, and which opened up the next can of worms quite efficiently.

Or disastrously, depending on one's taste for treason...

[Carnath-Emory]

The notion of a second vote for the open position was swiftly dismissed --

"...if you even dare let Dhugal or any of those half-wits near this political race it's going to be the death of Myrken."
"Did any of those other candidates have any experience in a council, or were they running simply for the sake of an open spot?"
"We had a miracle worker, a blowhard, two women, of all strange things, and a General known for wielding her swords upon the townsfolk. ... And a member of the Order, but not a particularly experienced one; I can't imagine what possessed him to run, or who in heaven or earth might have voted for the man.."
"Gad. He has experience with the people. They're already warmed up to him, they know what to expect."
"Alexander is right. I would like to see the seat filled by Gad Phuri."
"The problem Giscard, is if I became a councilor, I would have that man removed from power."

The records, written with some haste now, clearly show that Alexander Kanasha had pointed directly at Lieutenant Kilborn, a man summoned by special request to the meeting, and a maneuver which had left the chambers in an uproar indeed. Oh, clever of Kanashia, to move from one matter to another with such speed -- best to keep the Council on its toes, or at least those members of it that were physically capable of such a thing. If it was drama that he'd intended, the man had accomplished his aim.

"No you bloody wouldn't, unless you had the agreement of the rest of us."
"Who gets the bloody seat, sirs?"
"Councilor Phuri, will you take your blasted seat and sit down..."

Chaos, and Governor Bromn had done a remarkable job of siezing hold of it; quick maneuvering had been performed once more, attention set upon their second urgent matter of business: the recent conflict between Guard and Government, a matter quite close to Guillaume's heart. He was aware, after all, of what this might bode, were the situation to worsen just a fraction; oh, outright insurrection -- civil war, perhaps, if they were particularly unfortunate, and surely the township was close enough to hysteria's edge that this was quite, quite possible...

"The news of this is yet to spread fully across the town; it is vitally important that each of you understands the ..delicacy of this matter. ... Not three days ago, the Gaol was home to a dispute that very nearly pitted Guard against Government."
"I did not go there as a Governor. It was not my intention to harm the Judiciary, or pit it against the Straka. I came to free Ariane Carnath-Emory from her prison, as I felt that she was being held for no reason other than to fill the pockets of Private Kilborn."
"Hardly possible, Mr. Kanashia. You were acting interim governor whether you wished the duty or not -- "
"Gad, stifle it -- "
"That, I can say at least with some assurance, is not the case. And if you would like to, I can certainly show you the reports concerning miss Carnath's sentencing."

Which was to be expected, of course; any fool with eyes and ears could have said this much. He'd expected the protest to be made by Kanashia; what he'd not expected was the breadth of this bizarre accusation. Indeed, to judge by the expressions of the men at the Council table, neither had anyone else...

"What makes you feel that Ariane's imprisonment would benefit Killborn?"
"Motive. Say you were behind something, something large that you did not want people to know about, or else it would ruin your reputation. Say you kept careful tabs on a person, and using your power and influence, you could keep them silenced. Wouldn't you take the opportunity, or risk them running their mouth?"
"If I were a man of lesser morals..."
"Me and Altias remember well a man named De`rouge. He was our captor, and the victor of one of the first few Gaol pitfights. He is kidnapping people who were involved, who are have strong political ties. Now, let's say someone was involved, and they wanted to be kept a secret..."

Conspiracy. Murder. Kidnapping. The scale of the conflict was growing with each word that Kanashia spoke, and certainly far beyond the realms of what Guillaume had anticipated. Knowing of De'rouge was one thing; making a connection between he and the Lieutenant was something else altogether, and he himself was inclined to question the wisdom of this. An inclination which, evidently, was shared by several others.

"...so why not silence the person that is liable to tell of who was behind the Gaol fights?"
"Someone like Ariane. But...as much sense as the idea might make, I must ask, Sir Kanashia, what sort of proof you might have of such accusations?"

At which a terribly-worded little letter had been read aloud, albeit by Governor Bromn, rather than Kanashia himself; it had detailed a bit about the woman's stay in the Gaol, and a good deal more about the conflict between Kilborn and Kanashia -- that Kanashia, Governor at the time, had been threatened with both fines and arrest for reasons of pardoning a prisoner -- and seemed to adopt a whiney tone that he himself didn't much care for. It also, by his estimation, added nothing whatsoever to the present discussion -- nothing save than to make clear there'd been witnesses -- and he noted it down amongst the rest with some reluctance.

"Ariane gave special orders that this letter was to be delivered to myself or Joseph, only. Ariane told Jason that 'This is madness, they must know of this'. Something is most assuredly wrong."
"Something is wrong. Private Kilborn, do you care to enlighten us on what exactly is the matter?"

But instead of the Lieutenant, his Captain chose to explain the matter away: something about laws and regulations, the most of it claptrap, and the whole of it quite silly. Gad had pardoned people. No he hadn't. Captain Taliaferro had pardoned people. Yes, but he shouldn't have. And so on, and so on, until a man could want for a drink and a journey to some lovely, northern estate where the climate was temperate and there were no blasted fools with titles that they thought gave them the liberty to -- ahh, but in time, they'd moved back to business...

"Arrik Singh, I believe was the man's name. I pardoned him of, I believe a murder charge, by a note to the guards several months ago."
"I was merely under the assumption...that it could be done. ... There was no right to threaten me with jailing."
"Did you have the consent of the council?"
"He did not need the consent of the council."
"Alexi Rose's pardon came under Captain Kanashia's watch sir. I was not permitted to interfere with his actions. I found the man to be incompetent."
"And I am speaking of the repeated pardons of Miss Alexi Rose. These also occured under your watch, if you found the Captain's actions to be in error, you did nothing to counter his orders either."
"You stayed in your little hiding hole and did absolutely nothing--"
"This is turning into little more than a playground case of fisticuffs."
"-- That's right--I'm not just to blame here, and that thought sickens you, don't it?"

....eventually. 'Business', at this point, consisted of establishing an entirely fresh point of protocol, to avoid such confusion in the future: it was agreed unanimously that, starting from this very evening, the Governor and Judicar of Myrken Wood was no longer capable of pardoning prisoners without the approval -- written, one might hope, but it wasn't made clear -- of no less than three Council members, and that in addition, no member of the Order of Straka, regardless of rank, was permitted any such liberty. About damned time, in his opinion, the entire affair having gotten quite out of hand already. But in any case, the matter of Guard and Governor had already degenerated into a stream of one man's word against the other, and it was swiftly decided that the 'witness' in question should be summoned; in time, Kanashia had returned with one Ariane Carnath-Emory -- the previous Governor's guard, if he recalled, with some effort, whom Kanashia was quite literally carrying.

"I shouldn't have gave my horse to Daniels..."
"It's right out back...you should've used him."
"I'm not a horse thief."
"Are you sure you are up to this, Ariane?"
"I am injured, Governor; I am not dead."
"Of course not, but I am allowed to be concerned for the well being of my guard, wouldn't you think? We have been told that you have something to add to the incident involving Lt. Killborn. Please...we await your infomation."

A folded segment of parchment, its seal broken, was produced from her purse and handed to the Governor.

"I found this in my room, several months ago. I was...unsure of what to make of it."

So, evidently, was Governor Bromn. He read it -- so far as Guillaume could tell by watching the man -- and swiftly. Managed: "This..." And his face had displayed nothing but shock.


The meeting had, immediately, been adjourned.