Remun lounged upon a wicker chaise in one of the numerous parlors of the Sashul's Palace, observing the servants as they attended to the girl he had rescued from the Soul Forge. A plate of rice flour pastries, fried to a golden crisp, were placed before the despondent girl. Her face was void of any expression, but those brown Rainlander eyes were cast down to the lyestone tiles in utter dejection. She gave no reaction to the maids as they poured for her a steaming cup of cardamom tea. With a tacit nod, Remun dismissed the servants from the parlor.

"Forgive my breach of etiquette," Remun began as the last of the servants had departed the chamber. "I have not properly introduced myself. I am Remun, son of Davorgada. Sashul of the Salished Dominion."

The girl continued to stare blankly at the floor, ignoring the Sashul entirely. Rainlander peasants were expected to kneel at the very sight of their Sashul. For this serf girl to ignore Remun was a grievous faux pas. Indeed, Sashuls past had subjected peasants who misstated their titles to horse-whippings. But Remun could not help but excuse this beautiful creature, especially after the torturous experience she had only escaped hours ago.

"What is your name?" Remun asked with a behumored sigh.

"Magali," the girl whispered, uttering her first word since she had left that wicked place.

"Magali," the boy Sashul repeated. "I welcome you as my cherished guest of this palace. Please, make yourself at ease and walk these halls as if they are your home as well."

The girl's only response was an audible exhalation.

Remun studied the girl slouched upon the chaise across from him. One of the servants had given her a robe to wear, but Remun wished he could gaze upon her nakedness just once more. Magali was, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes upon. The Sashul had become a man locked within a claustrophobic cell, and until a fortnight ago, had not seen a woman since he was locked away as a boy. Remun's only knowledge of feminine beauty came from the books he read in his imprisonment. He knew what the feminine form looked like from detailed illustrations of human dissections by Drathan scholars. Remun knew how women were to be interacted with, as he had read tales of courtly love as well as the nigh-pornographic biography of one exceptionally-promiscuous Drathan Master. But for all his reading, nothing could have prepared Remun for Magali's exceptional beauty.

"You are safe here, Magali," Remun added. "You are under my protection now, and no one in all the Dominion would ever dare to do so much as touch you."

"But [i]you[/i] sent us there," Magali said, failing to look up from the floor as she recalled what those depraved priests said. "They said the Sashul wanted soulsteel."

"Not like this," Remun shook his head solemnly. "Not from the souls of innocent maidens. Believe me when I say I could not fathom what monstrous things those priests were carrying out in their forge until today. I will not abide such evil deeds to be carried out within my city. I will send the Sashul's Guard against the Soul Priests and put the lot of those monsters to the sword."

"If you do such a thing, then you are a dead man."

Remun and Magali immediately turned to the entrance of the parlor to find Irssun striding toward them.

"If Amon has not already commanded your death, that is," Irssun added. "After today, it would not surprise me."

"Guards! Remove this man from my presence at once!"

The clinking of lamellar armor and the heavy bootfalls resounded through the parlor as the two Sashul's Guard posted outside followed Irssun into the chamber. Irssun gestured for them to stop as they approached to seize his arms. The stoic-faced Saliszi warriors stopped in their tracks, exchanged confused glances, and tacitly agreed to resume their post outside. Remun fumed as Irssun approached him unabated.

"It is fortunate that some of the guards recognize a foolish request when they hear one. If the guards on the barge had recognized your foolishness earlier, we might have avoided the current disaster."

"Leave me, Irssun," Remun snarled. "I will not hear the counsel of a man who would see innocent maidens slaughtered to appease a clique of perverse cultists."

"The Cult of the Forge Gods is powerful; the Dominion is weak. Perhaps a day will come when the opposite is true and we can dispense with this barbaric cult. But today is not that day, especially if the Dratha indeed have hostile designs against you."

"You mean to return me to the forge, don't you?" Magali whimpered.

"He will do no such thing," Remun assured.

"The Sashul is correct," Irssun affirmed. "Returning you to the Priests would accomplish nothing, the damage is already done. I will not see you killed in vain."

"No, only when her death is expedient."

"You do not understand the gravity of this matter, Sashul."

"I must not, Irssun. Remind me, what do I have to fear from a clique of geriatric degenerates?"

"It is not the Forge Priests you must fear, Sashul. The Forge Priests are but a single facet of the Cult of the Forge Gods, and by far the least menacing at that. Amon Rael and his Swordarms, it is them that you must fear. Four Swordarms with soulsteel blades from the House of Sharp Edges could best the entire Sashul's Guard. The Cult of the Forge Gods is a dangerous enemy indeed."

"You think that they would kill a Sashul over a single girl?" Remun asked, visibly sobered. "Why do they sacrifice maidens to the forge to begin with? I read that captive enemies - warrior souls - are the source of soulsteel souls. Is that not true?"

"It was [i]once[/i] true." Irssun corrected. "During the reign of Tiomad IV, your father's father's father, when that tome was written, that was true. But as the Salished Empire's wave of conquests ended, so too did the interminable supply of captive enemies. Few enemies are captured, and so the Forge Priests sought a more readily-available supply of souls. According to the Priests, the warrior souls are the most powerful. But in lieu of the most powerful souls, the Priests now seek the [i]purest[/i] souls: virgin maidens."

"I will not accept that," Remun declared. "If innocent souls are the cost of soulsteel, then the cost is too steep to forge such weapons. Khalul and his invasion be damned."

Before Irssun could retort, a flare of horns resounded from outside the palace. Their sound was deep and unearthly, causing the air to quiver even after the horn blasts had ended.

"Shogol horns," Irssun recognized. He left Remun and Magali for the patio outside of the parlor. Remun and Magali followed Irssun outside, craning their necks to look over the lush foliage of the tiered gardens beyond the banisters. A caravan of big, old gaan lumbered into the opened gates of the palace courtyard, growling at the small army of Sashul's Guard forming around them. Banners affixed on rods of ivory rose from their saddles up to the fronds of the palm trees planted within the courtyard. As the gaan waddled amongst the cadre of palace guards surrounding them, the banners waved through the air, revealing the wicked Moon and Star of the Drathan Union.

"The Drathan emmissaries," Remun concluded.

"They're early... curses!" Irssun hissed, glancing to Magali. "They could not have come at worse time."

"Sashul, have the servants attend to the girl. She is not to be seen by the emissaries. After that, meet me in the Great Hall and assume your seat upon the throne. Let us hear what the Congress wishes to say."