Annetan felt weight settling in on her shoulders as she rode North, towards the city of Buxiang. At the moment, Buxiang was undergoing much the same renovations as Aurorasaki. Somehow, she was much, much worse than the largest city in Stoludi. That city had decayed into a den of sin and utter barbarity. Rape, murder, plague, firestorms... it all happened in Buxiang and sometimes at the same time. The new and recently damaged sea fort and accompanying port just South-East of it was one of the best around, but the city just South-East was one of the worst. It was utterly bizarre, and Annetan wanted to put an end to it. To get to this cancerous growth of a city, however, she had to cross through the nearly lawless Tinnham Forest. It was thickly wooded and beautiful, and home to a few hermits but the Ranger had vanished a few weeks ago and his apprentices were terrified of what lied in wait in the deep, dark boughs of the Tinnham Forest. Aleit had sought a replacement but... that had been slow going. She kept her eyes on the thick leaves overhead as the four guards on her four corners watched the twilit woods like hawks. Speaking of which, hawks could not pierce the canopy. She and her guards were alone out here. 

There were incidents, of course. One incident was particularly scary when a loud crack and a sharp ding off of the back of her armor made Annetan whip around and draw her scattergun. The arquebus was pointed roughly at the spot where the shot had come from and then set off. With her poor stance and hasty draw, the arquebus slammed back into her shoulder and dented the armor there, while a shower of blood and gore rained from the shredded canopy. A body thumped to the ground minus a chunk of its head, and it's brains fell next to it with a rather sickening squish. Upon further inspection, Aleit decided it had been a male. She scoffs softly and turns to canter on, reloading the arquebus in the meantime. The rear guards throw a few last glances to the body before they move on as well. They knew that the wolves would clean up the assassin, a worthy fate for such a man. Then another incident where Annetan had to cut a man in half with her curved longsword when again someone tried to assassinate her, this time with a rusty scythe. As she rides past this body, with it's innards spilled upon the ground, she shakes her head, "I never expected it to be this bad... what are they all afraid of?" Rubania carefully stepped over the guts and threw back a throaty chuff, as if in reply. 

Annetan had fully expected the opening of Stoludi to be a massive problem. She had mostly expected strife from foreigners, as Stoludi was a strange place indeed. The people were, for the most part, good people. There were a lot of things that might scare foreigners, though. Stoludi just looked weird... the people had looks like no other, and they spoke with an accent like no other language on the planet. Their alphabet was odd, and their customs were odd, and their dress was odd. Stoludians speak in a strange, singsong accent with a lot of lisp and throat movement, and their alphabet is a series of pictograms that can have their meanings morphed in all kinds of ways. It was very hard for one to learn Stoludian, and the same applied for the opposite. They dress in bright colors and loose clothes like they are all ready for bed. This is how they dressed, however. Even shoes were rare as most Stoludians still went barefoot. That is before you even go into their culture... Stoludians are often at least somewhat hedonistic. Love is love to a Stoludian, even if that love (or just simple lust) is for the same sex or even for a beast. Stoludi had one religion, and it was a polytheistic affair involving five gods, mostly ones involving nature and war. The government is matriarchal, with the female as the first and preferred heir. Males only ever inherited power if there were no females available. The King had power, of course, but not as much as his wife. He was mostly the lead justice of the land and advisor to the Queen. Aleit Annetan had expected some resistance from foreigners due to her land's strange and often controversial ways, but she had never expected this much internal strife. She believed in open borders, but all of this was starting to scare her a little.

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Thankfully, her life was no longer in danger as she approached Buxiang and broke out of the Tinnham Forest. Now some new problems began. Even from here Buxiang looked terrible. The walls were dirty and smeared with all sorts of things, and they had several chunks that were either cracked or missing altogether. The cannons on the walls did not gleam as they should, and some of them looked as if they were no longer mounted properly. Annetan pauses for a moment to heave a sigh, and then begins down the hill and towards Buxiang, having Illiat, the lead guard, raise her banner high. Normally a city would open its gates immediately but in this case, Annetan rode up to the thirty-foot walls and then waited. She waited a few moments more, and then yelled a challenge. Finally, the gates began to creak open, slowly. The Queen taps her fingers on her arms, sighing, watching the wooden doors swing inwards. They stuttered and finally stopped at an awkward angle without having opened fully, but just enough so she and her envoy could get through.

 Her inspection of the place went very poorly. The gatehouse was just as bad as she had predicted with its incredibly slow operating time. It was a square structure set above the gate with two squat towers on either side that framed the one-meter thick gate. Inside, after the gates managed to close, she dismounted, left Rubania and two of her guards to guard the three horses, and began what she knew would be a most unpleasant errand. The door to the left tower was unlocked, which in itself was a huge problem. Then she began to climb up to the main gatehouse, hardly even noticing her armor's weight. Inside the cramped room she found that the gears were cracked and had teeth missing in some places, a few chains badly needed replacing, the shafts needed lubing... Annetan already knew this would be unpleasant. The single man operating the whole mess was a young, fat teen who was sleepier than any cat Aleit had ever encountered. On top of all of this, the windows had no shutters on them, and there were few primed torches in the room. She noted all of this down in her head after giving the young man an earful and then she rode off to inspect the town guards. The garrison of the city guards was based in the fortress in the center. This fortress was run down and a few of the towers looked almost ready to fall. The roof of the main keep was not much better, and within she found broken, outdated equipment, unprepared, under-trained soldiers, and a commander passed out drunk at a table. Things came to a head when she found a group of them in the stables, raping a stablehand. Annetan had not yelled that long in a while, and if that didn't convince them, the thunderous boom of a blank arquebus load sure did. If they still were not sure, the banishing of them all to the deepest parts of the dungeon should do the trick. The girl was given to a couple of Annetan's guards to be taken to the Royal Palace, where she would be installed as a stablehand there and treated much better.

The Commander was yelled at until the Queen's throat hurt and he looked like a kicked puppy. He was then demoted and his command given to a new Commander from elsewhere. Her inspection did not go any better once she had finished ripping apart the garrison. The reconstruction work was a mess. People were constantly stealing from the work sites, and even worse, there was evidence of embezzlement by some of the foremen. The city never really had a layout. The walls themselves formed an oval around the city, and in the center there was the decrepit fortress, but between those? It was just a mess of whatever people wanted to do with it. Fires regularly razed entire neighborhoods, but they just came back a few days later. The whole place stank with an odor that made Annetan cringe, and even Rubania was acting like she really did not want to be here. Even while she watched the work being done out on a side street between a couple of rickety whorehouses, one man fell into a tub of improperly stored glue and was melted before her eyes. There wasn't anything anyone could do, of course, except for slaying him to end his misery as he turned into a crimson sludge. Aleit herself hopped off of her horse and lopped off the sizzling man's head with her sword. Afterwards, she turns and stares at the city in disgust. The pipe wasn't laid properly and now a man and been melted into nothing. Sometimes, she did wonder why she did not just burn this place down. 

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After that long day, Annetan rode into the Keep of the Gods, tired and weary from the day out. No further problems had occurred on the ride home, thankfully. She still had a few things to attend to as she was undressed and redressed in more casual attire, consisting of a loose green silk robe and no shoes. Now with all of that out of the way, Annetan began to check her castle. Princess Zuzoya was in the kennels, having always loved dogs, her two sons were out practicing with the Huntmaster, and her King was settling some dispute between a couple of farmers. The garrison was either training, rightfully resting, or maintaining cannons and small arms. The craftsmen were inspecting the walls. The kennel keeper was training a pup, the stablemaster was orientating the girl from Buxiang, and the Hakwer was busy up in her tower. As Annetan was wandering towards her chambers in one of the better armored towers, the Hawker stopped her. She bows quickly and then hands her a couple of letters, before walking off elsewhere. Annetan reads them as she walks and begins to frown more and more as she reads it. By the time she reaches her solar, she is positively scowling. The Queen takes the first letter from the RNI out onto the balcony of the tower, reading it in the sunlight. Then she snaps the scroll shut and clenches it in her fist, biting her lip as she leans on the railing and looks down on her daughter playing with a couple of the castle's wolf-dogs. Some men were messing about with a cannon, presumably doing some maintenance on it, and a couple of hawks were flying about. Aleit closes her eyes and rests her head on her arms. She was just a woman of 31. This was a lot for her. The word of attempted sinking of [i]Moonlight Tide[/i] was concering but... it was probably just a disgruntled countryman. That could be looked into later. This letter from Robert, however... Time passes. After a few minutes, she wanders inside and begins to write. This letter was an atrocity. That bastard of a man in charge of the RNI had all but threatened her country and decried her actions, despite the clear danger her men were in from that man. 

[i] To the Great Leader of the RNI, Robert Williams, the First:

I do hope this letter finds you in good health. I apologize if some Stoludians have been prodding into matters that should not concern them, but I am afraid that I have no idea who you are referencing and I must also say that she has no connection to my council or me. We have no concerns about your Navy and would never risk an agent's health by having her commit sexual intercourse with one of your Naval officers.
	Now, as for your own agents, the evidence is quite damning that you are, in fact, responsible for the death of five enlisted men and two officers, not to mention the serious wounds eight others took from shrapnel and shockwaves. We are treating your man well, but my own men's actions were justified. As I understand it from the evidence we have gathered, this agent first planted an explosive in the magazine at the seaport of Buxiang, and then escaped before the device detonated. After it had exploded we found him transporting the substance without our permission to your country, with letters worded directly to the heads of your government. One of my guards tried to apprehend him, but your agent was releasing a bladder filled with Jester's Breath. The guard had no clue what was in this strange contraption, and so I believe it was right what he did. We have not permitted any trade of Jester's Breath beyond what was sent out on our recalled convoy.
	Again, this evidence is damning to say the least. It is all too clear to me that your claim of innocence is an outrageous lie. We will treat your man well and return him in due time, but rest assured that I will not forget this heinous act. You should be grateful that I am turning a blind eye to the fact that this is an act of war. I will not allow you to start mining operations on my land after what you have done, and especially after you threaten my country. I can read, Robert, and I will not have my country treated like a child. If I see another of your men stealing any of my resources, take my word that he will not meet so kind a fate as a crippled hand. Perhaps I will forgive one day, but rest assured that I will not forget. It is regrettable that I must do this but that convoy will not be sent out again and I will be putting all trade on hold pending further review. Perhaps one day we will meet in person, but that day is not in the near future.

	Best Regards, Aleit Annetan, Queen of the Proud Lands of Stoludi
[/i]

Annetan sat back and read over the letter a few times. With a heavy heart, she seals the letter with wax. It feels as if she is walking to the gallows as she walks down the long hallways to the chambers of the Hawker, She hands the letters to Hyiet, wishes her a good day, and then retreats to her solar once again. She sets her eyes on the darkening skies, brewing and bubbling with a building storm. The first drops of rain begin to fall as Annetan questions the fate of her country and its denizens.