Jigano had thought (hoped, prayed) that Rory was too busy at the farm to come in for this farce today. His heart froze when he heard the familiar voice speak up, gruff and calm, though the bard thought he could pick the threads of the hunter’s frustration out. Or perhaps that was just memory of their recent conversations, coloring things in a way he expected. Because the last thing he expected was for the quiet, diligent farmer to volunteer to get bound up in this mess, as Rexanna had already done (why, why, why Rex, you knew better, you’ve lived this before, you left it behind and freed yourself from it)
”Edrei ,” Jigano said, speaking again, voice calm and without the sly humor that was all Zariah had gotten from him. He didn’t bother looking disappointed; he knew it wouldn’t work. She had made her choices (or they had been made for her, long ago), and he wasn’t going to change her mind now, that he knew. ”Listen for a minute. It’s not that people don’t want change, but Zariah’s way is madness. This place is changing and will continue to do so without your cousin giving herself airs. But from what I’ve heard, Northhaven had its share of problems, too. Trading the problems of here for there doesn’t actually help people, it just changes the yoke. At this rate the only “allll of us” being driven out of town is Zariah and her supporters. There are plenty of other bridges that have been mended between Outlanders and Naturals before she drove a knife into the wound and starting sawing at it again in order to create a problem just so she could try to claim she was ‘solving’ it by banning words that will only morph and change and go underground and fester all the deeper for it.” Trust a bard to know a thing or two about words, after all. Both their power, and their weaknesses.
”But just as importantly, what you accuse the Naturals of goes both ways. The people from Northhaven have been here for nearly a year. Some have set themselves to helping others, creating for the good of all,” he nodded to Ronin and Remi . ”Others have shown courage, saving lives and hope,” and he nodded atEdrei, for all she stood at Zariah’s side. It didn’t make her contributions less valid – or less her own, rather than any reflection a family name that meant nothing in the lands of Caido. ”They have worked hard to earn respect and trust, going among the people, letting their actions speak more loudly than her words. But what has Zariah done to earn anyone’s respect? Loyalty? Trust? As you say and in her own words she has taken, like the thieves her own laws condemn, because in the past four seasons she has done little enough for these things to be given to her freely.”
He knew what he was doing was dangerous, but Zariah had lashed out at him harder and with more vitriol than at anyone else. He was already a target, and if it meant keeping her attention on him and off innocents like Emmett, then so be it. He knew her guards by sight now, had watched those standing guard over the draft change and change again through eyes that were not always human, nor a body always maned in striking white. Zariah had her informants, but there were others always glad to gossip to the local talespinner and songster about what they had seen outside the jail or the manor, and Jigano nodded his head at the man who had spoken earlier.
”Maea might not have lead for long, but she made a proper place for governing, for one. You’ve made yourself a personal fortress – as much to protect you from us as anyone else. That doesn’t help the people or the Hollowed Grounds, though” he pointed out. ”Just you and your current favorites.” And how people could fall in and out of favor more swiftly than a juggler’s balls in a tyrant’s court! ”Even the jail has been used not for thieves or murderers, but for those who defy you, personally.” He nodded towardsBastien , whose exploits at the draft board were still spoken of with glee. ”We’ve been watching who goes in and out, and that place is more like your private dungeon, a threat you hold over the heads of people who dare to disagree with you than a place that has helped the community, at least the way it’s been used so far.” He arched a silver brow at the woman who would be a tyrant, his demeanor calm and confident as he crossed his arms over his chest. ”You asked for questions and concerns and candor, but you don’t seem to know what to do when you don’t like the questions being asked, or the concerns your behavior has caused. You lash out like a petulant child, all insults and snark, but very little substance. You talk of war like it is inevitable, and speak of the people you would rule as if they were pawns on a board, not individuals… but that is because you have never taken the time to get to know them. Why, then, should they listen to anything you say? What have you built for the people of this land, Zariah – for them and not yourself? What have you done, in your year of living here, to prove to anyone that you have the skill or disposition to lead? What Guilds have you started? What battles have you fought to protect the people you would seek to rule? You defied the will of a hundred or more of the Naturals to breach the Spire, doing so not at anyone's request but for your own designs. But in the end it was 108 who brought down the Barrier, not you, because they were willing to sacrifice for their goddess, for something beyond their own self-interest. It is hard to lead others, yes, but you cannot lead without the respect of the people who follow you. And I have yet to see you do anything for anything other than the sake of your own personal power.”
Blue eyes swept the little group at the front of the temple, from Rexanna’s turned head to the guards to the Launceleyns, and he shook his head in disappointment. ”We’re not saying that a leader is a bad thing, but we are saying that you aren’t it. Or at least, you have done nothing to earn the title you have stolen from Maea. I grant you that we have waited long enough for her to recover and return, and it may be time to look for another, but if you want it you have a great deal of work ahead of you to earn it, and that work starts with the basics, and treating your people with courtesy, not with foolish demands.” Jigano shook his head in frustration, eyes roving the Temple full of women and children, the oldest and the youngest. ”That draft proclamation, for one. From what I’m hearing you never had to deal with something like this in Northhaven because your population was so much larger, but here you can’t tell all the men to sign up for military service and report for training in Leafchange. This is the harvest season, and you want to take half the farmers off their fields to play around with swords and spears? The crops will rot before they can be brought in, and half of the people you want to rule will have starved to death by Flowerbirth.” He raised a brow. ”Not to mention the logistics of it. As Ronin asked, who will do your training of these hundreds of men you want to sign up to fight for you? Who on your current staff is trained in logistics? Strategy? Tactics? Quartermastery? That they might pass those skills on, as they are skills that haven’t been used here in three hundred years. Who knows how to fight in phalanx? In tortoise? In triple line, and can teach that to others?” He uncrossed his arms, shaking his head. ”So think of the consequences of that. You need people who can train your soldiers. The ones who have experience and skills fighting wars against other people are all Outlanders. So your officers and command staff are Outlanders and your rank and file are Naturals. And of course, the only way to get battlefield experience involves plenty of your soldiers – mostly those rank and file – dying while the officers stay back and protect their knowledge, so there’s another barrier to Naturals surviving long enough to become one of the experienced officers themselves. Ban the names all you want, but the very approach you’re using creates a stratified system where Outlanders accrue power and authority over Naturals and you widen those rifts further by your actions.”
And oh, the Naturals in the room did not like that point of logic, not at all.
”So there you are. By your own request, I bring you questions, concerns, and candor,” he finished, giving the dark-haired woman the shallowest of bows; less respect than he would pay a seamstress in the settlement, for at least the seamstress had proven to have a useful skillset.
”
”But just as importantly, what you accuse the Naturals of goes both ways. The people from Northhaven have been here for nearly a year. Some have set themselves to helping others, creating for the good of all,” he nodded to Ronin and Remi . ”Others have shown courage, saving lives and hope,” and he nodded at
He knew what he was doing was dangerous, but Zariah had lashed out at him harder and with more vitriol than at anyone else. He was already a target, and if it meant keeping her attention on him and off innocents like Emmett, then so be it. He knew her guards by sight now, had watched those standing guard over the draft change and change again through eyes that were not always human, nor a body always maned in striking white. Zariah had her informants, but there were others always glad to gossip to the local talespinner and songster about what they had seen outside the jail or the manor, and Jigano nodded his head at the man who had spoken earlier.
”Maea might not have lead for long, but she made a proper place for governing, for one. You’ve made yourself a personal fortress – as much to protect you from us as anyone else. That doesn’t help the people or the Hollowed Grounds, though” he pointed out. ”Just you and your current favorites.” And how people could fall in and out of favor more swiftly than a juggler’s balls in a tyrant’s court! ”Even the jail has been used not for thieves or murderers, but for those who defy you, personally.” He nodded towards
Blue eyes swept the little group at the front of the temple, from Rexanna’s turned head to the guards to the Launceleyns, and he shook his head in disappointment. ”We’re not saying that a leader is a bad thing, but we are saying that you aren’t it. Or at least, you have done nothing to earn the title you have stolen from Maea. I grant you that we have waited long enough for her to recover and return, and it may be time to look for another, but if you want it you have a great deal of work ahead of you to earn it, and that work starts with the basics, and treating your people with courtesy, not with foolish demands.” Jigano shook his head in frustration, eyes roving the Temple full of women and children, the oldest and the youngest. ”That draft proclamation, for one. From what I’m hearing you never had to deal with something like this in Northhaven because your population was so much larger, but here you can’t tell all the men to sign up for military service and report for training in Leafchange. This is the harvest season, and you want to take half the farmers off their fields to play around with swords and spears? The crops will rot before they can be brought in, and half of the people you want to rule will have starved to death by Flowerbirth.” He raised a brow. ”Not to mention the logistics of it. As Ronin asked, who will do your training of these hundreds of men you want to sign up to fight for you? Who on your current staff is trained in logistics? Strategy? Tactics? Quartermastery? That they might pass those skills on, as they are skills that haven’t been used here in three hundred years. Who knows how to fight in phalanx? In tortoise? In triple line, and can teach that to others?” He uncrossed his arms, shaking his head. ”So think of the consequences of that. You need people who can train your soldiers. The ones who have experience and skills fighting wars against other people are all Outlanders. So your officers and command staff are Outlanders and your rank and file are Naturals. And of course, the only way to get battlefield experience involves plenty of your soldiers – mostly those rank and file – dying while the officers stay back and protect their knowledge, so there’s another barrier to Naturals surviving long enough to become one of the experienced officers themselves. Ban the names all you want, but the very approach you’re using creates a stratified system where Outlanders accrue power and authority over Naturals and you widen those rifts further by your actions.”
And oh, the Naturals in the room did not like that point of logic, not at all.
”So there you are. By your own request, I bring you questions, concerns, and candor,” he finished, giving the dark-haired woman the shallowest of bows; less respect than he would pay a seamstress in the settlement, for at least the seamstress had proven to have a useful skillset.
