Chapter 175: Diplomatic Mission
The kingdom’s diplomatic corps — a small, underfunded division of the Crown’s administrative apparatus that had historically dealt with trade agreements and border disputes rather than wartime alliance-building — deployed its first wartime diplomatic mission on the twenty-fifth of Scorchend.
The mission’s objective was simple in concept and complex in execution: convince the neutral gods — the divine entities on the western continent who were neither part of the Green Accord nor allied with the Sovereign Dominion — that their interests were served by the kingdom’s survival.
The neutral gods numbered approximately fourteen — a count that varied depending on how one classified "neutral." Some were genuinely independent: small gods with small territories and no interest in continental politics. Some were watching the conflict as a potential opportunity — gods who might join the winning side after the war’s outcome became clear. Some were neutral because they feared Demeterra and chose non-alignment as a survival strategy.
The diplomatic mission targeted three neutral gods whose strategic positions made their support — or at least their non-cooperation with the Accord — materially important.
Target One: Halvaris — The Trader
Halvaris was a minor Commerce and Craft god whose territory occupied the narrow coastal strip between the Accord’s western border and the Pale Coast’s southern approaches. Halvaris was neutral because neutrality was profitable — his territory served as a trading intermediary between the Accord and the independent territories, and his commercial infrastructure depended on being trusted by all parties. Halvaris would not fight. But Halvaris controlled the only major port between the Accord’s territory and potential naval allies — and denying the Accord access to Halvaris’s port would constrain their naval logistics significantly.
The kingdom’s envoy — a Kobold diplomat named Tesserin who had negotiated the Shimmerfields’ trade agreements for twenty years — arrived in Halvaris’s capital with a simple proposition: the kingdom would guarantee Halvaris’s territorial integrity and commercial neutrality in exchange for the closure of his port to Accord military logistics. The port could remain open for civilian trade. Military vessels, military supplies, and military personnel would be denied access.
Halvaris agreed within forty-eight hours. The agreement was not ideological — Halvaris didn’t care about the kingdom’s politics. The agreement was commercial: the kingdom offered preferential trade terms worth approximately 50,000 Marks annually, and Halvaris calculated that the trade income exceeded the risk of Demeterra’s displeasure. Commerce gods made commercial decisions. The decision was made.
***
Target Two: Revaelith — The Hermit
Revaelith was a Nature and Isolation god whose territory occupied a massive forest region south of the Cinderlands and east of the Accord’s territory. Revaelith had no army. Revaelith had no interest in mortal politics. Revaelith wanted to be left alone, and she had maintained her isolation for three centuries by making her forest — the Deepwood — effectively uncrossable for armies. The Deepwood’s divine enhancement produced forest growth so dense that conventional military movement was impossible — no formation could maintain cohesion, no supply train could navigate the root-tangled terrain, and the forest’s wildlife, divinely enhanced to hostile levels, attacked any force larger than a dozen.
The audience chamber was carved from a single tree — not a dead tree hollowed into architecture, but a living organism whose interior had been shaped by centuries of Growth domain cultivation into a vaulted space where sunlight entered through gaps between living bark panels. The floor was root-wood, polished smooth by generations of feet and divine intention. The air smelled of sap and the particular ozone that accompanied active domain presence — the ambient signature of a god who lived inside his own territory’s largest organism. Envoy Tessara — the kingdom’s lead diplomat, a former War College instructor whose career change to diplomacy had been motivated by the observation that wars were easier to prevent than to win — adjusted her formal robes and waited. The robes were Ordinist standard: grey-and-gold, the gear-and-flame insignia on the left breast, cut in the conservative style that the diplomatic corps had adopted precisely because it communicated institutional seriousness rather than personal wealth.
Revaelith’s strategic importance was geographic: the Deepwood blocked the eastern approach between the Accord’s territory and the kingdom’s Cinderlands province. If the Accord wanted to open an eastern front — a third axis of attack, in addition to the Ashwall and the northern front — they would have to cross the Deepwood. If Revaelith maintained her forest’s hostility, the eastern approach was denied.
The kingdom’s envoy — a Pyreist priest named Ashara, chosen because the Cinderlands bordered the Deepwood and Ashara had decades of experience managing the border relationship — entered the Deepwood alone. Revaelith did not receive diplomatic missions. Revaelith received *petitioners* — individuals who entered her domain and survived long enough to reach the Heart Grove, where the goddess’s divine presence was strongest.
Ashara survived. The forest tested her — the trees closing behind her as she walked, the wildlife circling, the terrain shifting to redirect her path in ways designed to disorient and exhaust. The Pyreist fire-blessing helped: the forest’s predators avoided fire instinctively, and the divine flame served as a beacon that the forest’s navigation-disruption couldn’t fully suppress.
She reached the Heart Grove on the third day. Revaelith’s response to the kingdom’s request was delivered through the grove itself — the trees speaking with the voice of the goddess, the words carried on the wind with the patience of an entity that measured time in centuries.
"I will not fight for you. I will not fight against you. The forest remains as it is. Nothing crosses the Deepwood. This was true before your war and will be true after."
"That’s all we need," Ashara replied.
The eastern approach remained blocked. Demeterra would not open a third front through the Deepwood. One additional axis of attack denied.
***
**Target Three: Vaulmire — The Opportunist**
Vaulmire was, of the three diplomatic targets, the most dangerous and the most potentially valuable. He was a formidable War and Shadow god whose territory bordered the Green Accord’s southern frontier — a position that made him either a potential Accord ally (if he chose to join the coalition) or a potential strategic threat to the Accord’s rear (if he chose to attack while the Accord was deployed north against the kingdom).
Vaulmire was an opportunist. He had spent two centuries building a military capability that exceeded his territory’s defensive needs, maintaining an army of 40,000 shadow-blessed warriors whose training and equipment rivaled the kingdom’s own. He was not neutral out of principle — he was neutral because he hadn’t decided which side’s victory benefited him more.
The kingdom’s envoy — Vrenn Myrvalis himself, because Vaulmire’s intelligence capability was sophisticated enough that only the Ministry’s director could conduct the conversation without being outmaneuvered — met with Vaulmire’s representative in a neutral trading post on the border between Vaulmire’s territory and the Accord’s.
The negotiation was not diplomatic. It was transactional.
"If the Accord deploys north and leaves their southern border exposed," Vrenn said, "Vaulmire’s territory is positioned to threaten the Accord’s supply lines."
"I’m aware."
"A diversionary attack on the Accord’s southern logistics network during the first week of Verdant Storm would disrupt their supply flow at the exact moment when their forward-deployed army is most dependent on it."
"And Vaulmire’s benefit?"
"Two Accord territories. After the war, the kingdom cedes all claims to the Accord’s southern frontier — Gorvahn’s Mireist territory and Kreth’s Gleanist territory. Vaulmire absorbs them, doubles his territorial base, and inherits 155,000 believers."
The offer was substantial. Two territories, 155,000 believers, and the strategic position gain of controlling the continent’s southern corridor. The risk: Vaulmire would be attacking the Accord from behind while the Accord’s main force was engaged at the Ashwall. If the Accord won the northern war quickly, they would turn south and Vaulmire would face the full coalition alone.
"I’ll consider it," Vaulmire’s representative said.
"Consider it quickly. The clock is running."
The diplomatic mission’s results were mixed but net-positive. Halvaris’s port closure denied the Accord naval logistics access. Revaelith’s forest blocked the eastern axis. Vaulmire’s potential intervention remained uncertain — a card that might be played but whose timing and commitment were unknown.
The kingdom was assembling its strategic architecture: military defense, intelligence operations, coalition fracture, diplomatic containment. Each element was a layer. No layer was sufficient alone. Together, they formed the strategy that would either save the kingdom or fail trying.