OOC: Given the cost set on my lifemages (50 gp for 1), it would seem I would have to change my current army composition to 1,500 skirmishers and 500 engeneers (20 gp for 50).
Skaldron stopped at the edge of the circle of light in the center of Esthia's working room. This was a wise precaution, as Esthia was researching. Research, with a mage as powerfull as Esthia, this time, took the form of strange shapes in a globe, appearing and dissapearing in a way that suggested, to Skaldron's untrained lifemagic sense, hidden dimensions. Skaldron waited silently. Even the least trained knew that the consequences of interupting a mage's experiement could be dire - And not as a result of anything Esthia would never do.
Slipping back into reality, Esthia loosed his hold over the multiply-dimensional energy, letting the peices fade back to the places they came from. Slowly, he became aware of the local standard-dimensional space, aware of Skaldron waiting patiently and aware that Skaldron had been waiting for two hours.
E: "I apologize, my friend. What is the days news?"
S: "No need. The lifemage accademy graduation occured today. Twenty. Combat-trained, of course. The council has set them to repairing the thornwalls."
E: "That is good news. What is the margin of the vote, this time?"
S: "Sixty-five to thirty-five. The council also decided, by the same count, to convince as many lifemages as possible out of retirement."
E: "So. Five councilers have discovered wisdom. Or at least prudence."
S: "Not entirely. Three were recalled when the populace found that we have not been entirely forgotten. Elantris sent a messanger. We have them in the visitors warren." A wise descision, that, if not entirely friendly. The visitors warren was basically a pleasent-seeming maze outside of the city that had seen many well-trained assasins wandering untill the guards, who knew the entire layout, found them. Usually swiftly. "The council respectfully asks if you would interview him."
E: "Of course. Tell him he will be granted an audience, but do not say with whom or how he will arrive." Esthia, too, knew the value of prudence.
OOC
Now, I just need to know the content of that message. Thanks for the unit costs.
About the rulership of Slianthia: Both the council, who are elected, appointed, by rank, by wealth and with nearly as many different methods as there are councilers, and Esthia hold the powers of government. There are specific documents stating who has authority over what; generally, the council governs matters internal, monetary or the army; Esthia governs matters external, magical and scholerly. This leaves the lifemage accademy in the odd position of being run by Esthia but having it's recruitment set by the council. In this case, the council had, by a vote of 60-40, retired all the lifemages and set the recruitment too zero, hence Esthia's comment about '...wisdom. Or at least prudence.'