Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Kura had frowned when she saw that eyebrow twitch, now fairly certain that Cally hadn't given any context on the situation. Well, she'd explain later. She returned Faith's hug, and smiled at the banter between her and Padraig as she left the kitchen. When Padraig asked how she was enjoying Scalvoris, besides her business, she smiled. "Oh, I'm enjoyin' myself immensely, and the political business is part of it." she said, before pausing a moment as Faith joined them. "Something mortals, no offense, have a hard time fully graspin' is how much my long lifespan has an effect on my mentality. In my case, I've spent more than a century involved in politics. When I'm not...it's like an itch I can't scratch, like a fundamental part of myself is missing. It's..." she paused, searching for the word she wanted to use. "For me, being out of politics for the year of I've been...it's like someone stuck me in someone else's body for a year. It never felt right." she said, before smiling again. "So getting back into politics is a very enjoyable thing."

In order to answer Faith's question, she had to pause for a moment in thought. "Well, as for what's different, no one's tried to hit me upside the head with an empty bottle or pick my pocket yet, so it's definitely more peaceful." she said dryly. Truthfully, most of her last visit had been spent in Almund, but at the time, much of the rest of island had been given to similar rowdyness. "And it was...about sixty years ago, I think. I was part of the group sent to help the island acclimate to the presence of the Imperial Navy. Almund was resistant to our presence. Had a bit of help though, from the youngest of the Lords at the time. Some young pup named Diarnav." she said, shrugging. "Most of the rest of the Lords at the time were...active stupid. Worked poorly together. Diarnav though, he had some ambition. Wanted our help convincing the Lords to work together. From what I hear, he eventually pulled it off." Granted, she didn't knwo much about the current generation of Lords, so she was working entirely of hearsay.

Kura paused a moment, considering what she should say next, then decided to take advantage of the fact that Katie and Cyrus were apparently out. "So by now, you've probably figured out I'm up to something, assuming Cally hasn't outright said it." she said, her tone turning dry at the end. Cally, who was stitting next to Faith grinned slightly at the comment. Kura meanwhile, looked a little pensive. "Here's the thing. According to official Imperial policy, Scalvoris was considered part of The Eternal Empire. Empress Raskalarn is many good things, but she is utterly incapable of letting something go once it becomes "hers". So she's going to want Scalvoris back." she said, leaning forward and propping her elbows on her knees.

"In truth, I was initially surprised that she hadn't already made a move to take the island back. I have to assume the Imperial Navy is completely out of the picture at this point. That being said, I was able to find out why the Empress is willing to take a fairly relaxed stance on reclaiming the island." she said, before looking at Faith. "You were right, Albarech Brandel is pro-Imperial. He's been sending Korlasir regular reports on the islands status." she said, her tone cheerful at that.

The she sighed again. "But it won't hold forever. The Empire is focused on conquering Nashaki right now, but she'll turn her attention to Scalvoris eventually. When the Legions come, if the island resists, things will get bloody." Kura grimaced at that. She understood the necessity of war, but she preferred settling things in less violent ways. "So I decided to...basically start taking over Scalvoris." she said, her tone calm as if she were announcing her plan to become head librarian.

"My plan is to take the fact that Empire is decently well thought of here and fan into a firm and clear pro-Imperial sentiment. If I can, I want to make it so people here aren't just unopposed to the notion of re-joining the Empire, but actively seek it out. If I can pull it off, it will prevent a lot of useless bloodshed." she said, now looking at both Faith and Padraig, gauging their reaction to her plan.

Kura leaned back in her chair and listened as Padraig and Faith, especially Faith, gave their responses to her plans. When they were done, she started to speak, then paused and looked at the door of the house. "Window in my room's open, you daft bird." she called, her tone showing some amusement. A bit later, during which Kura remained silent, Speck flew in from Kura's room and circled above everyone for a moment before settling down to perch on a chair. Neither Kura nor her owl knew it, but the chair Speck had perched on was Padraig's favorite, at least as far as the living room was concerned.

Now that Speck was settled, Kura turned back to her friends. "You've both got points. So let's start from the top then." she said, grinning. Kura purely loved to debate, especially when it was just something between friends, and she looked at Padraig as she was starting with his points. "I see what you mean. In most places, the leadership is of no concern to the common folk. That's an utter failure on the part of the leadership, however. Good leadership should get the people invested, get them swept up in everything, make them feel as though they are part of something more than any one person can accomplish." she said, her voice showing her passion for that idea.

Then she turned to Faith, who it appeared had some pretty strong political opinions. "Also, there's a notion I need to dispel. That either the Lords or the Empire just up and left. Neither group would have done that, it's completely against their nature. Either both groups were forced out somehow, or more likely, they're sitting at the bottom of the ocean." she said, her tone firm.

Then she smiled again. "And the Empire returning wouldn't mean a loss of freedom. Not at all. Quite the opposite in fact." Kura gestured around her, indicating the whole of Scalvoris, though it could be interpreted as meaning Padraith's house. "Part of freedom, to me at least, is being secure that someone won't just come in and take everything you've worked for away. The Empire provides both security and freedom." she said, before shrugging. "Granted, the Empire is harsh on people who break the law. Whether or not it's justified is a point of debate."

She frowned, then, however, as she considered Faith's points about the interactions between the Lords and the Empire. "I'll grant you our behavior with the Lords should have been better. For reasons even I don't grasp, the Empress didn't the Imperial presence here to become global knowledge. She seemed to want to keep the island as much a secret as she could. I think it had something to do with the tower." she said, before shaking head. "As for abolishing slavery, I'd be behind that. It gets debated hotly in Imperial councils, but the consensus that far is that, since Imperial slaves are as protected as regular Imperial citizens, it would be unwise to break the Empire in half by forcing the issue as opposed to letting natural culture shift kill the system off."

Then an idea occurred to her. "Cally, show Faith your face and neck, please." she said. The ghost, who had thus far been silent, tugged the neck of her tunic aside and turned to Faith. Faith might not have realized it, but Cally wasn't branded at all, for all that there were some scars visible. "In the Empire, slaves are marked by collars, as opposed to the universal branding system." Kura said, before giving a cold smile. "When I was twenty, branding was declared a form of torture. Anyone caught branding another citizen of the Empire, and slaves are still considered citizens, received a five year prison sentence. We usually had them building roads out by Cahryst." she said, before her smile warmed. "Bringing Scalvoris officially into the Empire would mean laws like that taking hold here as well." she said, grinning.

Kura grinned slightly at Padraig as he made his precious object analogy. "Not a bad analogy, Padraig, but a little inaccurate in this case. In this case it's more of a precious object you can't properly defend, and that lack of proper defense could make it a very temptin' target." she said, before shrugging. "The point about the caretakers is a fair one, however, and is why I'm workin' with the council as opposed to trying seize control from them." Kura firmly believed that she could take control from the council if she wanted too, but it would be difficult, risky, and likely bloody, and she was trying avoid as much of that as she could.

On the matter of slaves still being slaves no matter what, she nodded. "I agree with you there. I, personally, believe the only reason slavery in the Empire hasn't been entirely abolished is that doing so would likely lead to a civil war that would end with thousands of slaves dead for it. We haven't been willin' to risk puttin' that many people to the sword when they wouldn't even be given a say in the matter." she said, grimacing. It wasn't a great compromise, but it was one she was willing to make to save that many lives, not to mention of the lives of those who weren't slaves.

When Faith began to speak of compromises and whether or not she should go into politics, Kura's expression changed as rapidly as her emotions. At first, when she spoke of amusement, there was a hint of amusement, as if she were watching her child. Then, a slightly worried look as Faith mentioned going into politics. Then a look of cold anger as Faith described her education as a "selfish thing". Then resignation as Faith asked Kura how to get into politics.

"Cally's is less politics than it is a political statement, and no, the two aren't the same thing. Burnin' a city leader in effigy is a political statement, but it has no place in politics itself." she said with some amusement, before she sighed and leaned back in her chair. "And before I answer that question, you have to answer mine. And for you to make an informed decision, I have to lecture you a bit." she said, before smiling slightly. "So please try not to fall asleep on me."

"There's two ways to really get involved in politics. One route, my route, is to become a full politician. Gettin' involved in the leadership, an act that even my subconscious appears to associate with sittin' in a chair made out of knives and chains. Then there's becomin' what is called a political activist, which is rallying the people behind your goal and usin' that, usually in conjunction with a friend in high places, to inform the leadership of what the people want." she said, before she hesitated a moment, before her expression turned grim.

"There's no easy way to say this. If you want, I'll help you go for full politician. But as you now, I don't think you'd last long, and for one simple reason. You said that there are issues that should never be compromised on. Holding to that notion as a politician will render you completely useless, even to the people you want to help." she said, her tone calm, but grim. "It's something I had to face early on, when I wasn't much older than you. Politics is a brutal, ugly, harsh world, even for those who excel at it. And those of us who excel at it, we aren't gentle folk, lass." she said, standing up. Turning around, she lifted the bottom of her blouse up to show off a knife scar on her lower back. "I got that pushin' for more rights for slaves. He used a common thief, I retaliated with a professional assassin. And I still lost the vote on the Imperial Council" she said, letting her blouse fall as she sat back in her chair, her eyes cold. "Sometimes, to succeed, you would literally have to be willin' to kill, and to do so without any guarantee of success."

Then she let out a sigh, pushing back memories of other, more nearly successful attempts. "More directly troublesome for you, politics is compromise at it's core. You want freedom for all slaves, yes? Try to do that without givin' the slave owners, even the cruelest of them, somethin' in return, and it'll make things worse for the slaves. If you lose the vote, their masters will turn even crueler. Win, and their former owners will lynch them in their own homes or drag them out into the alleys and beat them to death." she said, her tone still grim.

Letting out another sigh, Kura looked at Faith. She no longer looked grim, just rather sad. "That's the world I live in, Faith, and were I Mortal, I don't know that I would have been able to stand it. No matter how good I am, and I am very good, there's always a chance that somethin' I do will backfire and make things worse for the people I want to help." she said, before shaking her head. "I don't want that for you, or anyone. It's part of the reason I keep comin' back to it. I'm good at it, yeah, and I enjoy it. But I also enjoy hunting and teaching. I keep throwin' myself into one of the worst parts of the world because, if I'm there, someone who enjoys it less doesn't have to."

Taking a deep breath Kura looked at Faith again, this time more warmly. "I don't mean to scare you, lass, or tell you what you're after isn't impossible. But you could be just as effective without throwin' yourself into the breach. Honestly, I think you'd be more effective as an activist rather than a professional politician. You're a former slave yourself, people tend to like you, your stubborness would be endearing as an activist, rather than obnoxious as a politician." she said, before narrowing her eyes at Faith with a look that said she'd just thought of something.

"Plus, you have a clear association with me. You have this consistent air of endearing innocence to you, always. People always seem to think I'm up to somethin', which to be fair, is usually true. Common folk will be taken in by you as an activist, since nobody would ever believe a politician would do something out of sheer altruism. Meanwhile, more devious types will look right past you and think they see me pulling your strings." she said, before giving a feral grin that showed off her Velduris fangs. "And I know how to deal with the kind of folk that would try to deal with the situation by removing your "puppetmaster". So if you want to free the slaves, without getting them injured or killed, that might be the best way to do it." she said, before she paused in thought and sighed.

"And to be fair, as dangerous as my personal experience with politics has been, politics on Scalvoris is probably simpler and safer. This island has largely been on the bottom of damn near everyone's priority list, so politically, it's still in its infancy. I haven't seen any sign of the major assassin guilds, or other major political...influencers. I think the Pirate Lords actually kept out the major criminal groups as well. So I think the most dangerous thing anyone has in terms of...undue influence is some hired thugs. Enough to cause trouble to the unprepared, though." she said, shrugging again.

"It's up to you, Faith. I would advise you go for activist instead of full politician, but I'll help you out whichever way you choose to go." she said, before she got a strange, speculative look in her eyes and looked at Faith again. "By the way, Faith. Out of curiosity, did Famula tell you not to perform...selfish acts?" she said, her tone a little too mild.

Kura grinned in good humor as Padraig countered her correction on his precious object analogy. He was right, of course, but she'd had to poke a hole in his analogy, just to see how he'd counter her point. Professor Augustin was a smart man, though, as his comments showed. He still had some of the naivety of youth, or at least relative youth, but his mind and heart were in the right place. "Allow me to correct myself, lad. I got excited and spoke unclearly. There are issues that shouldn't be compromised on. How to deal with them is where compromise happens. That being said, said compromises aren't always political in nature." she said, before giving another cold smile. "A number of times, it's been a moral one. Do keep to an upstandin' and stalwart moral fiber and deal with things fairly and above board? Or do I decide not risk my losin' the point and resort to things like bribery, thieves, and assassins to make sure the things I value most are held?" she said, before grimacing. "When the safety of the people in my care is at stake, compromising my moral integrity is, to me, a small price to pay. Of course, to me, allowing them to be put at risk for the sake of keeping my hands clean would be an utterly cowardly and selfish act, so I suppose it depends on how you define morality." she said with a shrug.

When Faith spoke, Kura turned her attention to her. Her comments about Cally first drew a surprised look, then an oddly satisfied smile, and she kept that look as she listened to the rest of Faith's comments, at least until she turned to her life as a slave, where the smile dropped to be replaced her usual look of barely contained wrath whenever Athart became a subject of conversation. By the end of it, Kura was considering feeding them alive to the Velduris wolves. If her anger what the life Faith had been raised into got any worse, she'd start taking bites out of the slavers herself.

That was for later though, and she bottled that fury, to be used at the proper time and place. For now, she had something far more engaging to attend to. "You know, I keep underestimatin' you, lass. I think it's because you remind me of Cally, in a way. I keep expectin' you to be more innocent than you actually are." she said, before glancing at Faith's side where Cally was sitting. The ghost, Kura guessed, would have moved over to try and hug Faith when the girl started talking about her life in Athart. Kura remembered the ghosts earthly habits well and was actually looking right at her. "And yes, Cally, I know I kept underestimatin' you too. That bein' said, Faith hasn't shown any signs of bein' capable of berserk rages, and you were otherwise innocent." she said in a dry tone, causing the ghost to try blushing again.

"Three times. It was only three times. And it was beneficial all three times." she muttered, though she seemed pleased that Kura was both talking to her and remembered her well despite thirty years passing since her death.

Kura, however, couldn't hear Cally, and the look she turned to Faith was simultaneously speculative, pleased, and impressed. "I underestimated the extent of what you were doing with Cally's. It is political, and I apologize for not seein' it." she said, before she burst out in laughter. "Oh, it's been far too long. If you ever wish an education in politics, either of you, I would happily oblige. The last truly gifted student I had was Alistair Venora, and the two of you show every sign of being his equal if you wish it. If you want, I can teach you everythin' I've learned over the past century." she said, grinning warmly at her friends.

Then she leaned back in her chair and grinned slightly. "As an example, the choice of activist vs politician has a few facets you might have overlooked, lass. The most important is whose minds you wish to change, whose opinions you wish to influence. An activist deals directly with the people, can change society at a bedrock level by changing the culture itself. A politician deals with other politicians, mostly, and changes society by changing the rules society has to operate by. It's also a matter of skillset. I cannot, for example, easily rally a large crowd to my cause. I can, however, sway just the leaders of a group to my side. Both are equally effective, but require different skills." she said, before letting out a sigh.

"And I owe you an apology, for slighting your patron Immortal, lass." she said, before giving a wry smile. "My mother, you see, purely hates most of the Immortals, and it's left me with an unfortunate tendency to think the worst of them. My mother accused Famula, as the Immortal of Servitude, as quite literally inventin' slavery, and that she keeps ghosts in unwillin' bondage to her will. Likewise, she firmly believes Moseke is lyin' through her teeth about being benevolent, that she's as schemin' and connivin' as her sisters Audrae or Sintra, and as malevolent as her sister Lisirra. After all, the two of them used to be close." she said, before shaking her head. "I grew up on stories like that. Wasn't until I was older that I learned there were other opinions about many Immortals, and that my mother wasn't necessarily correct." she said, before tilting her head. "Granted, I do still believe Moseke is hidin' somethin'. The rest of Cierel's creations are at least a tad unnervin', and she's supposed to be entirely benevolent? Nope, not quite buyin' that. But that bein' said, I don't necessarily think whatever she's hidin' is malevolent, just that she's not as pure as she acts." she said, before shrugging again. "Not an issue until it becomes one, anyway."