The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

That morning, as Nah was prepared and groomed by three dozen ponies in preparation for carrying the Shogun’s emissaries into the heart of enemy territory.

As Speaker stepped into the courtyard he surveyed the scene. There were a surprisingly large number of ponies from the city of Chung Do there to see of their saviors – for they knew the stakes. Cash Charmer had made it known that the circle was about to leave, as well as his intentions to see the circle return to Chung Do with the conflict resolved one way or the other. To the ponies of Chung Do, who in so many ways had witnessed the terrible might of the circle, the question wasn’t whether the circle would return victoriously, but how.

It was a little amusing to Speaker as he saw that the many ponies had brought freshly grown flowers thanks to the enhanced and focused geomancy of the city, which was only really possible thanks to him. Of their idle chatter Speaker could hear the ponies talk about what the circle would do to punish the daimyos. Would the circle kill them all? Would the circle use mind control charms on them? Would the circle come back to Chung Do with the Daimyo’s in chains? This made Speaker wonder how the ponies of Chung Do would react to circle simply swearing the Daimyos to an oath of fealty and then sending them on their way again – or that was at least how Speaker perceived Cash’s plan – but then again, when he had been a mortal pony he’d been quite used to nobles and unicorns being treated differently than regular commoners and peasant ponies.

Finally finding him in the courtyard, Sunrise approached Speaker quietly. Speaker was up on the howdah making some last minute modification to what appeared to be some kind of retractable gangway, and didn’t notice Sunrise trotting up the steps of the gangway: “Thank you”

Looking up, Speaker saw the mare with the orange fiery hair. Following the probably quite noticeable improvement in her diet over the winter, compared to whatever she’d been living off back in Great Forks, she had experienced a bit of a growth spurt and was now firmly in the realm of young mares – no longer in any way mistakable for an adolescent. The smile on her face didn’t hurt either, for indeed Sunrise Glow had grown into an absolutely stunningly beautiful mare and while she didn’t wear the hood up on her cloak anymore, then she still hid the rest of her behind those worn old linens. Finally catching himself in analyzing Sunrise instead of responding to her, Speaker cleared his throat: “It was the least I could do. You should thank Shimmer, it was her friend who dug up the information”

“I did. I told her I now owed her two boons” Sunrise said calmly, inspecting the strange retractable gangway as Speaker reeled it in.

The rest of the circle appeared in short order, Red wearing a very fancy suit of samurai style lamellar armor, Cash in his quite literally divinely fashionable robes and Sullen Hoof… who Speaker wouldn’t have recognized if not for the chef uniform, for Sullen Hoof now appeared to have an all-brown coat, and no horrid melty face scars. Now that was a disguise.

“Now we just need Shimmer” Speaker noted, wondering what Cash had ordered packed in the barrels and crates that Nah had been loaded with.

“In your ear” a tiny but familiar voice that only Speaker could hear said.

Nodding and speaking up so the rest of the circle could hear him, Speaker smiled: “In my ear, of course. Cash, I think we’re ready to go now”

As Cash made Nah leave the ground and fly into the sky, Red commented that Speaker could at least have tried to dress at little better for the occation: “I know you love your old Lookshy uniform, but do you think it’ll be fitting for this?”

“I’m a Lookshyan medic, now chief apothecary for the Shogun. Lookshy is well known for its large supply of first age weapons and artifacts, so a Lookshyan doctor who can produce an impossible cure is a far easier sell than pretending to be anything else – Cash’s idea” Speaker noted.

Red nodded: “Ok, but I still think it’s going to be a hard sell to convince the Daimyos that we cured the city”

“We can fly them over the city if they want proof” Cash injected into the conversation.

“If they don’t believe me I’ll have to take offense to that and demand satisfaction” Speaker said matter of factly, although a smile did creep up on his face afterwards.

Red nodded with a pleased expression and took off her kabuto, briefly fiddling with her mane to reset her hair-bun as she floated her helmet down to the floor of the howdah: “True, although you’re missing one thing to really pull that off”
“And what would that be?” Speaker wondered.

Red smiled and swiftly drew an unsheated katana from elsewhere: “You can’t summon Gift instantly. You really need to learn that”

Speaker couldn’t deny the utility of being able to do so, and Red noted that it wasn’t difficult – although to learn it would probably take a week or so, since it was, if not difficult, then it did require a few basic techniques that needed mastering first.

“When we’re done here” Speaker suggested, sounding confident that the nobles would be dealt with quickly.

Cash nodded to this sentiment.

Cash flew Nah high up in the air to avoid any immediate ground detection. This also gave them an incredible view, allowing especially Shimmer and Sullen Hoof with their sight-enhancing charms to see for miles. Of course, not everything they saw was good…

“Uhm, guys… this is bad” Shimmer suddenly noted. Sullen Hoof peered in her direction with his glowing essence-enhanced eyes and nodded.

The rebel army was marching towards Chung Do. It didn’t look as if it had been on the move for long, indeed the last bits army camp kit was just being packed on carts or loaded into heavy saddle-bags to be hauled by camp followers.

“We have to stop them. If not the nobles could just draw out or delay any negotiations until they’ve taken Chung Do – and then we’re screwed” Cash quickly noted.

The circle furiously debated what to do, and while Red would love nothing more than to leap down and start bucking flanks, then Speaker suggested a different alternative: “Sunrise I… hmm… Sunrise, would a magical message from Shimmer or a prayer from you reach a god in Yu-Shan first?”

Shimmer and Sunrise looked at each other for a moment. Shimmer finally noted: “A prayer would probably be quicker”

“Ok, Sunrise – I need you to pray to Resplendent Buttflow, the god of diarrhea. Tell him loverboy says hi and needs a favor” Speaker quickly stated.
The rest of the circle looked at Speaker in a very weird way. Shimmer looked a bit jalous.

“What? Oh come on Shimmer, you heard you what I went through when we were looking for Lytek….” Speaker said, explaining his torid toilet adventures with the god of the gaping sphincter back in Yu-Shan.

Cash found Speaker’s plan to stop the army nothing short of inspired: “I have to give it to you Speaker, this is one hell of a plan”

“It all depends on whether Sunrise’s prayer gets to him in time – and whether he can even make something like this happen” Speaker noted.

What followed was less a prayer and more of a very dirty erotic poem that bordered on the obscene, courtesy of some quick thinking from Cash, that made Sunrise feel so very much dirty having recited as a prayer to the god of torrential excretion.
Moments later a great brown light in the shape of an eye appeared above the marching army and winked, and seconds after that the circle could hear the combined cries of thousands of ponies from down on the ground, as every single pony that had been marching on Chung Do was stricken with a most furious, a most generous and a most heavenly bout of instant, explosive and – if Sullen Hoof’s farsight charms were to be believed – quite viscous bout of diarrhea.

Speaker sighed as he also felt his bowels begin to churn: “Yup, he is generous”

“No good deed goes unpunished my dear” Shimmer said in support as she retreated into Speaker’s ear, inquiring if Speaker had built any kind of toilet into the howdah. He hadn’t.

Extending the gangway a little bit, so he didn’t just go right over the side of the howdah and down the side of Nah, Speaker noticed a change in course for the flying yeddim: “Cash, you’re not flying us over the army so my shit will hit anyone?”
“Just giving of the gifts freely” Cash said with a truly shit-eating grin.

Speaker couldn’t help but crack a grin, which quickly faded as the full impact of the most generous god of bowel wrecking’s blessing hit home. It didn’t hurt as much as much as last time, indeed this round seemed tempered so that mortal ponies would survive the onslaught – something that had been a specific part of the otherwise quite sleazy prayer sent to Resplendent Buttflow.

Leaving the scene of fecal carnage, certain that the army’s advance had been stopped quite thoroughly for the time being – not to mention how the generals of the army might react to such a clearly ill omen – Cash flew Nah towards Birdstone, passing over the city walls at a frightful speed and very low altitude.

“One last thing” Sullen Hoof noted: “We know that there’s a deathknight here, we don’t know what he or she looks like – and we saw the Ruby and Emerald Mare shapeshift… sort of… so stash anything of value elsewhere, so they can’t be stolen by someone you don’t suspect”

The circle agreed although Cash remained adamant that he’d keep his recorder of everlasting glories hanging around his neck like a large chicken-egg sized jeweled bauble: “I’ll notice if it goes missing, and it’s too important to hide away”

Circling the city a few times and buzzing its watch towers, Sullen Hoof pointing out that archers up on the city and castle walls were trying to aim at them. Cash bid Speaker to ‘untie the thing’, which turned out to be several large banners in the Shogun’s colors which Speaker had fastened to the back of the howdah, making the brilliant green banners trail behind Nah in a colorful display of allegiance. Sullen Hoof noted moments later that the archers had lowered their weapons.

Putting Nah down in the middle of the Birdstone castle courtyard, a much smaller courtyard than that of castle Chung, Cash bucked out the gangway and triumphantly trotted down right in front of the gate into the castle keep where several ponies in expensive silk kimonos and other flavors of noble fashion both hid and looked on in awe.

“Greetings Birdstone, my, what an entrance – don’t you say?” Cash Charmer beamed. Had Speaker been able to see Cash’s face from up in the howdah he’d have sworn that the eclipse caste pony should have dislocated his jaw from smiling that much.

The rest of the circle, Shimmer still in Speaker’s ear as a flea, and Sullen Hoof as a lowly but trusted servant last, followed Cash down the gangway and was quickly greeted by a visibly frightened master of ceremonies, an aging pony in officious white robes with blue cranes embroidered on them: “Be you the emissaries from Chung Do?”

Cash nodded ever so slightly. The old pony, his gray beard and bushy eyebrows nearly completely obscuring his face, quickly snapped to attention and shouted: “Announcing: The emissaries from Chung Do!”

Having heard the announcement, the nobles hiding in the gate leading into the keep quickly scurried away to get dressed properly, while the master of ceremonies led the circle into the grand hall. It quickly became quite obvious to the circle that the theme of white colors and blue cranes were probably the colors of Daimyo Crane Lotus – the name at least fit, and the white livery of the soldiers encountered at the blockades equally did so.

After having been led to the grand hall the circle was swarmed by servants that offered them tea and small treats. Cash quickly identified this as a stalling tactic and demanded that he and his associates be led to an audience with the Daimyos for proper peace negotiations: “…and I will accept no less. I, Cash Charmer, speak for the Shogun, and I demand to be treated accordingly”

With Cash’s stern words said the servants quickly scattered, both to bring the news of Cash’s identity to their masters as well as to try to accommodate his request.

“Ok gang, remember: They will try to test us here to see if they’re to take us seriously. It’s too early to issue duel challenges, so just try not to be baited into getting angry – this goes especially for you Red and Speaker. My immediate goal will be to make them take us seriously and recall their army while we negotiate – I’ll appeal to their honor to have them halt the army while we talk” Cash said, sounding just as serious as when he had addressed the servants.

Red nodded and shifted nervously in her ceremonial armor. Sullen Hoof wondered if he should excuse himself and try to mingle with the servants. Cash hastily gestured for Sully to leave as the master of ceremonies approached, the old stallion’s bearded face revealing much trepidation – no doubt from having been shouted at by his noble masters and thus feeling caught between these strange flying ponies from a supposedly dead city and his lords.

The master of ceremonies ushered the circle to a large hall where most of the nobles had had assembled for negotiations. The room was beautifully decorated with long tapestries and decorative paper scrolls on which virtuous proverbs were written. In the center of the room was a very big wooden table, it being more than two yards across and at least five yards long, covered in an even larger table-cloth. The nobles, in all their fancy gowns, sat on one side of the table on tall chairs to elevate themselves above the massses, with their advisor and bodyguards by their sides, while four meager and lowly chairs had been made ready on the other side.

Cash smiled as they approached. Speaker, Red and Sunrise showed a bit more apprehension, for while they had all become good friends with the young Shogun, then for them this was the first time since exalting that they had truly met nobles – oh sure, they had met gods and whatnot, but that was different, or so they would at least argue if asked. They might be solars, but parts of them still behaved like mortal commoners.

In his impossibly elegant heavenly silks, which he knew for certain was already drawing envious looks from many of the Daimyos and other courtiers present, Cash sat down first and had the rest of the circle sans Sullen Hoof sit themselves down around him, with Sunrise on his left and Red and Speaker on his right.

An uncomfortable silence followed, or that was at least how Speaker felt. Red and Cash seemed more at ease, and he couldn’t see Sunrise’s face under her hood which Cash had suggested she wear up while at the castle – he had said it made her look more pious and mysterious for this event.

“Honorable lords, I am Cash Charmer, Emissary of Chung Do and the rightful Shogun Chung Onyx” Cash opened up, breaking the silence. This statement was met with many a look of concern and curiosity from across the table, undoubtedly because his name had been passed on to them from the ponies-at-arms that had returned to Birdstone from the smashed blockades. Cash followed suit by introducing the rest of his associates: “To my right is Chung Red, older sister of Chung Onyx and samurai to his highness’ court, to my left is Sunrise Glow, my spiritual advisor, and to my far right is Bright Machine Speaker, royal apothecary of the court of castle Chung and my personal sage from Lookshy”

Murmurs spread out from the nobles and three messengers quickly and quietly darted out of the room. These murmurs were quickly interrupted by a loud but brief bout of laughter from none other than Daimyo Crane Lotus of Birdstone himself, a stately-looking stallion in a white broad-shouldered silken garb with many a blue crane embroidered onto it: “Oh this is rich. The pretender brings us two prince-slayers, a no-name pilgrim and a… whoever you are… to speak in his name? I should have you all flogged”

Red was about to say something but Cash quickly raised a hoof: “I can assure you that any rumors you may have heard of my associates are grossly exaggerated – although I cannot say the same of myself, so I beg of you oh lord of Birdstone, do take us seriously, for the fate of the lands of Chung depend on it”

In Speaker’s ear, Shimmer whispered: “The Daimyo, he’s testing you… just let Cash talk, and don’t say anything even if they talk about you attacking that unicorn punk – right now they need to get to know you all, to see if they can take you seriously… I’ve done this a lot with tribal chieftains, and they can be just as annoying”

Since it quickly became clear to the nobles that the Chung delegation wouldn’t take their initial bait, the nobles nodded to Cash and Daimyo Crane Lotus graciously permitted Cash Charmer to speak his terms.

“I come from the court of castle Chung where we see the people of the city still stands strong, now even more so under our guidance over the winter. Our apothecary here, born of Lookshy, developed a miraculous cure before the winter, so the city is free of plague and has been so for over a season. Still, the death of the late Chung Ivory-Hoof and his wife weighs heavily on us all, even more so on their son and heir, the young and honorable Shogun Chung Onyx, so we come here to end this folly and bring peace to the lands” Cash stated.

Speaker marveled at Cash’s ability to speak so much and yet say so little…

Cash continued by stating the terms he had prepared, speaking quickly and officiously: “On behalf of the young Shogun we would propose a cessation of all hostilities and the formation of a council of Daimyos to rule the Chung lands in the interim until Chung Do comes of age. At this time he will ascend the throne under proper circumstances and all things will resume as the nobles traditions of Chung have always dictated. In return none of you will be persecuted for your rebellion and you will have all honor restored”

Again murmurs and whispers broke out among the nobles, their advisors and their courtiers – and again this was cut short by a brief burst of laughter from Daimyo Crane Lotus: “So bold! Now I see why the pretender sent you mister Charmer – you’re a court jester! I have never heard such ridiculous claims!”

“I assure you oh great Daimyo, I am quite serious” Cash stated, his voice firm and serious.

Speaker could see that Red’s hooves were twitching ever so slightly, mainly because he was keeping his gaze down – he wondered for how long Red would be able to hold back any outbursts.

Daimyo Crane Lotus, with his impeccably groomed beige coat and perfectly brushed black mane set in a high hair-bun atop his head, gave Cash a serious glare: “As we speak our army marches on Chung Do. You have nothing to bargain with. For a pony as well-spoken and disciplined as you, I would have surely hope that you can see your own folly”

Cash smiled: “Oh we have plenty to bargain with. And your army is not marching. I saw to that just prior to my arrival”

Two more messengers left without a word, young foals who know how to discreetly move from one place to another – one returned moments later, looking very frightened regarding the news that the poor filly had to deliver…

As the news rang out, the murmurs among the nobles and their advisors quickly turned to shouts: “What? The whole army!? In shit?”

Cash smiled.

A few minutes later the nobles all turned to face the circle. The master of ceremonies announced: “In light of recent news we will adjourn early for lunch. We shall reconvene in the afternoon”

The nobles quickly began shuffling out of the room, their heavily embroidered and ornately bejeweled garbs weighing heavily as many of them struggled to rush to their private chamber to consult their advisors and spies without others listening in. Cash motioned for the circle to leave, and on the way out Speaker felt several of the nobles maintain their distance to him, even stopping to let him pass so he wouldn’t get too close to them.

“See, even if they’ve been told that you’re anathema you have nothing to fear – they’re far more afraid of me now” Cash noted. Speaker wondered if it was healthy for a pony to smile as much as Cash was.

The lunch banquit was very different from how meals had been at castle Chung. Castle Birdstone was untouched by plague, so Daimyo’s kitchen was fully staffed and fully supplied, allowing for delicacies that only the circle’s experience at the jade kitchen in heaven and some of Sullen Hoof’s better concoctions could match. Honeyed lark’s tongues, exotic fruits that not even Shimmer had heard of, sweet meats cured with expensive spices and much more, all arranged beautifully. Sullen Hoof took careful note, but also informed Cash upon arrival that he had tested all of the fare for poison, having found none.

“Good. Now, all of you just sit down and eat – we have to wait for their move now” Cash said, his voice revealing how certain he felt he understood hundred kingdom courtly procedures.

As the cirlcle settled in to eat at their designated seating arrangements, again on chairs lower than those of the nobles, several servants quickly passed by them, discreetly whispering things to Cash who simply nodded each time.

Speaker barely got the opportunity to even sample any of the dishes before him when Cash cleared his throat and announced that him and his associated would be leaving for a private audience.

Following Cash’s quick steps down a hallway from the banquet hall, Speaker inquired into who wanted an audience. Cash gave Speaker a bemused reply: “The Daimyos”

“All of them? That’s not much of a private audience” Speaker mused.

Red sighed: “No silly, one at a time – but they all want to talk… this is how alliances like this fall apart: You divide and conquer”

“It’s not that straightforward, but this does show that we have their attention and that the rebel alliance members probably want to see if they can’t get better terms from us than Birdstone” Cash explained, adding that now it was a question of showing the nobles proof of Chung Do’s health and readiness to ward off siege.

With that in mind, Red wondered how Cash was going to do that – without letting the nobles and their ponies at arms into Chung Do. Cash simply told Red not to worry: “I have that covered – and if nothing else we can offer them a fly-by on Nah”

The first meeting was with three Daimyos at once, with Red recognizing the three variations of the same red livery on the gaurdsponies standing outside the door: “That’s house Fu colors – father split up the hold of uncle Fu and had his three kids take over when Fu got too old”

“Why would your father split up a Daimyo’s hold?” Cash quickly asked before they entered.

Red shrugged: “Fu was a good general. He expanded his territory south by conquest, got too big. Father knew that Fu was loyal, but his kids weren’t, and the size of the Fu lands would allow them to secede and weaken Chung. Last I heard the three of them were on polite terms with each other, but not friendly with each other enough to band together and split away”
Cash nodded and opened the door.

The room that the circle entered was a much smaller chamber than that of the grand meeting hall that they had been prior to lunch. It was none the less richly decorated, with drapes adorning the walls and many a scroll and ledger littering the few tables in the room that weren’t filled with empty carafes and treys with wine glasses, plus lots of crumpled scrolls around the floor. Overall the room bore the hallmarks of intense negotiations.

The three Daimyos Fu sat in the middle of the room, Speaker recognizing them from the negotiations. Fu Lee was a portly and balding pony stallion, but with a stern look on his face. Fu Yu had a bitter look on her face, while Fu Me looked to have eager eyes that danced all over Cash as he sat down before them on the chair provided, both mares looking well beyond their foal-bearing age. All three wore similar but uniquely cut red garbs befit of nobility, each with unique symbols and crests embroidered.

It didn’t take much for Speaker to realize that these three had probably joined the rebellion as a means to stick it to the late shogun for dividing their lands – even if they were too covetous of their own titles to forego them and unite under a single leader. They probably each wanted to lead their combined holds too much to let any of their siblings gain an upper hoof. Speaker found this amusing as the three and Cash began talking, as it quickly became apparent that Red’s stated of dividing and then conquering had already been done half-way here for them.

Cash chiefly addressed Fu Lee and Fu Yu, only giving Fu Me the odd lusty glance which seemed to please the old mare endlessly. Fu Lee and Fu Yu on the other hoof were initially very apprehensive and attempted to extract as much information about Chung Do and the nature of its defenses without giving anything in return themselves. Of course, Cash didn’t want them to ‘give’ him anything – not yet anway – so he marveled them with imagery from his recorder of everlasting glories.

It took a moment for Speaker to recall just how common such devices had been in the first age, with many cities having had such simple image and sound-recording devices on almost every street-corner to project semi-transparent holograms of news, religious sermons, or solar propaganda. Cash used his to great effect, displaying images of a city that the Fu Daimyos could at first barely believe was Chung Do – and while it was clear from the images that the city’s population had taken a dive, then it was equally clear that the ponies there weren’t suffering from any plague.

“By the by, my apothecary recently developed a wonderful little tonic that – when applied on the head and neck, grows your mane out quite spectacularly. I am certain that we could arrange a private sampling if that sounds tempting…” Cash noted, Fu Lee listening with rapt attention.
Seeing that both her sister and brother had seemingly fallen Cash’s charms, Fu Yu sneered: “And what exactly can you then offer the Fu holds? Crane Lotus already promised us more land, what can Chung Do offer instead?”

“What Chung Do can offer? Nothing, but that’s ok isn’t it – you get to keep your power, you lose nothing, isn’t that a good deal?” Cash boldly suggested.

Speaker couldn’t believe how outrageous Cash’s suggestion was, but judging from the slightly glazed look in Fu Yu’s eyes then it hadn’t just been words Cash had used. Sure enough, Daimyo Fu Yu slowly nodded her head.

Having ensured that all three Daimyos Fu were either willing or interested in cooperating, Cash excused himself and his ascosiates and left, the rest of the circle following suit.

Outside in the castle Birdstone hallways again, Speaker curiously asked why Cash hadn’t actually tried to strike any deals with the three Daimyos – it would have gained the circle the allegiance of half the rebel alliance!?

“Speaker, I get what you mean, and I could have – but if I didn’t have to. If we have to strike deals with each of the Daimyos we will very quickly run out bargaining chips. All we have to give is the position as head of the council that’ll rule until Onyx comes of age, and if need be, Onyx himself for marriage – and with six Daimyos then being able to make three of them interested in dealing with us without having to give them anything… you get the picture” Cash pointed out.

Nodding, Speaker conceded that with so few positions to bargain with, then holding them holding them close was the wisest.
The next meeting that Cash hurried the circle along to, for they had to finish all of the meetings before the lunch banquet ended, was with Daimyo Lang Tung Ting of house Lang.

Red sighed audibly when Cash said that they were to meet Tung Ting: “Oh gods not him”

“Anything we should know?” Cash wondered.

Red craned her neck and briefly tried to work out her uneasiness with a good stretching: “He’s smart, but his father spoiled him rotten – so he’s a fat and disgusting little pig, who knows that as Daimyo none can speak against him, and the few who can don’t because the Land hold sits on the trade roads going norths so they’re rich from taxes”

Despite Red’s description, then the sight that met the circle as they entered into Daimyo Lang Tung Ting’s chamber was not one for the faint of heart.

Sitting on a pile of utterly crushed futons was a pony who was twice as wide as he was tall, the rolls of fat on this supposed noble pony simply overflowing. In one greasy hoof was the nossle to a hookah that, from the smell of it, was burning a mix of choice hashish buds and quality tobacco, filling the room with a thick sweet stench. In his other hoof was something that Sullen Hoof might once have called food, prior to evidently having been battered, fried in oil, rolled in sugar and drizzled in honey. Had Sullen Hoof not held his distance and forced himself to maintain the appearance of a servile serf he would have wept at the sight of such a culinary against good taste.

With fatty cheeks stained with wine and half a dozen servants and sex slaves hovering about him, the poor souls seemingly used to his otherwise atrocious body odor, and the pony’s stately garbs more of a table-cloth with sleeves draped over his bulk than any semblance of proper robes, Daimyo Lang Tung Ting greeted the circle, along with unintentionally but also uncaringly gifting them with a light shower of half-chewed food as he bellowed: “Ah, the strange flying pony and the two prince-slayers, how quaint. What can I do for you?”

Displaying a measure of courtly discipline that Speaker found most impressive, Cash stepped up to the disgusting Daimyo without ever showing anything but a professional demeanor: “Honorable Daimyo, it is I who come here to service you through wise advice”

The fat Daimyo waved a greasy hoof as if to gesture for Cash to continue.

“Your house benefits from trade, as does Chung Do. I’m sure that you’ve felt over the last year how that trade has dwindled due to this little disagreement with Chung Do. My advice is simply to end this as quickly as possible, that we may get back to our comfortable lives – and I carry the authority to see this done on behalf of Chung Do, to which end I can promise that your house will have all honor restored should you choose wisely” Cash said, not missing a beat.

As Cash spoke Speaker couldn’t help but notice the defeated looks of Ting Tung’s servants. None looked happy, few managing to maintain even a façade of being content to serve their lord.

“You know, that’s not really that bad an idea – except Birdstone has promised me a far greater share of the taxes my hosue collects on the northern trade roads, so I can assure you: My house stands to benefit far more from Birdstone’s leadership. Plus, Soaring Blade is an old fart; he won’t able to fight the north-eastern raiders and barbarians forever, and he has no martially inclined heirs, so I’ll need the extra money to fund my own defences”

Red quickly leaned in to whisper to Cash: “Soaring Blade is the last Daimyo we haven’t talked to yet. He was old when I was sent into exile, he must be ancient by now… he protects the north-eastern border from barbarian raids. It’ss thanks to him that house Lang doesn’t have to spend that much money on protecting their trade routes”

Cash nodded: “Well Daimyo Ting, if you’re afraid that you’ll need to spend more money on defenses then I hope that you’ve considered what we could do with our many flying yeddim. If we mount a ballista or two on them, load them with archers and shock troops with grappling hooks and then we could just fly off with your precious merchant caravans”

Daimyo Ting made a gurgling sound as if he began to choke on whatever it was he’d been eating – but he managed to swallow hard and clear his throat ultimately: “What the – the nerve! You dare threaten me!?”

“No of course not. I have not at all threatened you, your hold, or your ability to tax the merchants traveling through you land… I’d have the merchant caravans picked up and ferried over to trade routes that lead into your parts of Chung Do long before they actually arrive in your territories or get in reach of your armed escorts” Cash smugly noted, his voice remaining ever so calm and his demeanor so sickeningly ‘professionally pleasant’ as Speaker called it.

Not able to hold herself back, Red chimed in: “The Talinin gem-stone merchants pass through your holds, right? I’m sure they’d love us taking a month or so off their travel-time, say, all the time needed to pass through your hold and stay at your tax posts?”

“Wow, they go through the Ting lands on their way to Nexus? No wonders this guy is loaded – they’re the only other major gem-stone supplier in creation other than Gem itself” Shimmer said inside Speaker’s ear, referring to the legendary city of ten thousand gemstones nestled deep in the mountains of the south, said to be so close to the edge of creation that from its tallest minarets one could see where sands gave way to endless oceans of elemental fire.

At this point the Daimyo was jiggling, like some of the nasty-tasting jelly dishes Speaker’s old army buddies would make out of glue and sugar – although Cash could, through his social charms, tell that the fat pony was in fact simmering with rage: “So, might you reconsider your support of Daimyo Crane Lotus’s rebellion? I ask of nothing more…”

Like a foal denied a sugary treat, the Daimyo began shouting and hollering incoherently. As the less-than-noble-looking pony flailed its greasy and corpulent limbs about one of the Diamyo’s advisors stepped forth: “Our gracious lord will consider your proposal – and, given his record of fury followed by thought, will likely accept it – but do be warned, he will not take this lightly”

“I would never ask to be taken lightly” Cash smirked, turning and gesturing for the rest of the circle to follow.