[puffyn]

---- Arcoscephale, Turn 47 ----

Usually, when you leave a muddy little village that has been your home for many sad, sorry years, and set out on the road, having many great adventures, surviving one dangerous peril after another, only to return victorious months or years later, the place seems a bit small and unimportant. The village elders seem a little less mysterious and powerful, the local priests less authoritative, your own former fears and anxieties less real after all the dangers you have faced and survived.

Usually. While I have been gone, Oast Hills has transformed itself from a village into the capital of an empire. Everywhere I look tall, new buildings have been erected, among them no less than eight gaudy shrines to a certain blue-limbed pretender god (whom I have yet to encounter). The village elders now wear dark black robes and are followed everwhere by an honor guard wearing a strange rune on their shoulders. When I asked Anemoreia, a young priestess who was once a slave alongside Andromache, what the rune was supposed to mean, she said, "That was your idea, don't you recall? We are all one people now, the people of Arcoscephale; and that is our sign." But somehow when I devised my ideas of giving a downtrodden conquered people some sense of hope, this was not what I envisioned.

There does seem to be less mud, though. The streets have recently been paved with broad stones, just as I had often proposed to a complete lack of interest. Special attention has been paid to the roads near the mystics' quarters and the soldiers' barracks, which I appreciate. There are only ten new recruits stationed here, but they have been drilling constantly, and are much too keen to hear stories of the Mictlan wars. Eh, over-eager lads are nothing new, I suppose... but their enthusiasm for battle is a bit discomforting.

One thing that has not changed: it still took weeks for me to arrange a talk with the village elders. I would have thought they would be interested in the state of their empire to the east -- we have, after all, nearly tripled the size of our holdings since I left -- but they seemed almost bored by my accounts of turning the blood-suckers capital into a prosperous city. Instead, they wanted to know everything about how the mystics had fought in battle: what incantations they had used, and to what effect. They were especially curious about the vinoghers. But my concerns about the triplets and their power over the eastern swamps held no interest for them, nor did they care much for my accounts of the battles I had heard were raging between our neighbors and my opinion that we should tread carefully lest we get drawn in. "We trust you will remember that your contract does not include informing us of how we may act in affairs of foreign diplomacy," was how one of them put it.

I grew more uneasy when I was ushered out of their presence after only a quarter of an hour, only to see Vlde enter, and be greeted warmly. Nirmai, who arrived before I, told me that she has been in constant meetings with them for the past week. About what, I can only speculate, and my thoughts are all bad.

I was pleased when my desire to take the recruits on an extended training exercise to the small village to the west was approved by the elders. This city is starting to give me the creeps, and I welcome the chance to return to the quiet little town where Thymbre found a library and built a small place for studious types to engage in quiet refelection. I could use some time for reflection myself.

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