The Council had been called to session once the news of the two letters had spread through the city like wildfire; one a colonial proposition, the other a seeming attempt at a shakedown. Nations had always tried to seize the wealth of the Councilate by force, many had found they were a much harder nut to crack then they looked. As some 90 odd members by Marcus de Happself’s count milled into the chamber, taking their various seats which were set aside amongst the many factions within the Council. There was the military factions led by General de Vries and Admiral Wulfstan, the liberators composed mainly by the twenty allocated seats led by Councilman Artanus, there was the Progressive faction led by Council von Schlck and finally the last major faction was the conservatives led by the stoic Councilman Koneg. Councillor opened the session as expected of him as leader of the council by saying “Councilmen, I call this meeting in order to respond to two pressing matters facing our nation, as many of you would be aware we have received news of three distinct types; firstly, the cartographers have discovered a new continent which has been christened ‘Aventia’. They presented a map of this land as a gift to every major nation in the land so every other nation will be making the same decisions as us. As such I ask of you to respond with haste but caution to these proposals presented by various parties in this matter.” There was a shuffling of paper as the many aides and footmen in the room rushed about bringing out various notes for the council and reports as they considered the proposals in front of them. “My Cabinet has carefully and meticulously studied this new land, it’s distance and supposed worth to the new world. We found that to colonise this new land would both be a feasible endeavour and one present a significant opportunity to establish a foothold in a new trade market. We personally favour the proposition to commission one of our most talented naval officers to take one ship of the line, two frigates, two schooners and 4 sloops along with 500 of our regular soldiers to attempt to establish a colony capable of exerting influence over the straight in the eastern side of the land. How votes this council?” His voice echoed through the now silent hall as many of the councillors took the time to ponder and collect their thoughts. Murmurs and whispers broke out slowly; councillors consulted their faction and leaders, gauged the opinions of the other factions. In a motion like this many deals, agreements and threads were used in order to facilitate a resolution. Marcus knew personally that this law would easily pass, he has the support of the military, the liberators, many of the independents and the Progressives who couldn’t pass on the opportunity to be on the cutting edge. Voting papers were handed out to each representative in the hall, the servants of the council scurrying like ants to and fro, eventually gathering the papers together and the count began. The 94 votes were tallied and summed; eventually the steward of the hall, a portly man of some 40 years stood up and echoed through the chamber “With a total of 70 ‘yay’, 24 ‘nays’ and 11 abstains due to absence, the Colonial Propositions Act is passed into action. Admiral Wulfstan will therefore begin the preparations with assistance from the Army, the city officials and the Cabinet.” There was a round of applause ringing through the hall; easily drowning out the desolate noises made by the naysayers who’d been shot down in this bill. The majority of them were from the conservatives who wished nothing more than to sit in their archaic position, unchanging with the sands of time. A knowing nod passed between Admiral Wulfstan and Councillor de Happself; they’d worked on the bill together one night, eventually managing to procure a favourable result. He rose again from his seat, bringing the next order to light; a shakedown from Lascaux, a militant power to their north. “Next on the agenda; Lascaux has sent the nation an offer of protection in return for a fee which is not mentioned. Their Consulate General offers to station their soldiers on our land and fight our enemies should it be needed. Whilst this seems like a tantalizing offer we cannot forget the past; this Argantan once protected a republic then turned on it. As such I have decided to refuse this offer, the strength of Arbassian arms is enough to hold our territory for now and there is no clear sign of hostility for now. We have taken the cautionary step of increasing our vigilance on our border with Lascaux, there is the possibility he may take the rejection poorly” said Marcus as he explained the occurrence to the councilmen. There was no clear sign of disagreement as many of the councilmen had been privately consulted about this matter; many had taken the patriotic road and decided to back his decision. “Our final issue for the day is a matter of expanding our fleet in order to capitalise on our overseas expansion policy. The Cabinet has estimated what the needs of sustaining an overseas trade route would be while pressing a dominance as such we put a bill to the council to approve the expenditure of $8.2 Billion in order to fulfil the following order: -6 Ships of The Line, $3B at $0.5B each -5 Frigates, $1.5B at $0.3B each -10 Schooners, $1B at $0.1B each -4 Sloops, $0.2B at $0.05B each -Expansion of the existing docks for a specialty Colonial dockyard, $1.5 billion -Provision for establishment for a major colony at the mouth of the inland sea, $1 billion after private contributions. How votes the Council?” proposed Councillor Marcus de Happself before the chamber erupted into uproar about the amount. --- Three hours later the bill was passed but by a bare minimum; a number of people have found the amount to be a little excessive for something that hadn’t been attempted before. Even if the colony failed however, the Councilate of Arbasses would find themselves with a greatly increased fleet but their land border remained suspect. In order to circumvent this issue, two messengers were dispatched in the dead of night, riding hard for the targets in order to facilitate a deal of sorts. --- TL;DR - Colonial escort of one ship of the line, two frigates, two schooners and 4 sloops along with 500 of our regular soldiers are sent to protect the colony to be established by private citizens at the mouth of the inland sea. - Lascaux’s offer of protection is politely rejected in the present but the promise of future use stands. - Expenditure of $8.2 Billion; $2.5B for colonisation facilities and $5.7B for the production of new ships - Two messengers sent in great secrecy in the middle of the night. Who to though?