Court proceeded into the late afternoon in the Obsidian Tower of Gor Ithios. Arceus only called a couple breaks during the sessions, but lunch was served there in the court, a platter of fruit and chesse with salted pork and a glass of water was what he took and nibbled at as he went about the daily business. His brother Eamon's fury was still emanating from where he sat further down the line in the room, but he'd calmed down slightly.

Finally, after several more petty disputes and cases, that which Arceus knew was to come up, came up. A messenger bearing his house's colour presented himself before the court bearing a brightly coloured parrot and letter it carried with the seal of House Dionaea, the Royal House of Geriang.

Arceus gestured to his uncle Thamiel, who took the letter and opened it, reading its contents before Arceus and the court.

As the Arch-Magus predicted, the room exploded in activity, mostly outraged and nervous reactions by courtiers, petitioners and noble Magi alike. Calmly Arceus stood from his throne, and with one swift moment of focus, channeled his power into his staff, slamming the butt of it against the floor of the court, the resulting soundwave of released energy resounded like a great gong throughout the room and wider tower, and brought all commotion to a silence as the Arch-Magus spoke.

[b]"Peace, everyone. Are we not Sorcerers, and the loyal servants of King Merin? It is the will of the King to accept the people of Geriang into this mixing of lands, and we must abide by it. I understand many of you have qualms about hosting those whom in many circles would call monsters. But we should not think of it as a slight to our honour, but rather a test. We are not merely representatives of our houses or our province here, but of all of Handon as well, and thus the responsibility of impressing a foreign power fell upon us. If we disgrace ourselves by being bad hosts to a foreign people, how would we look to the other houses, or the King himself?"[/b]

One particularly flustered Sorcerer called out from the crowd:

[b]"Fuck the King and his thoughts on the matter! He's not here, you're merely playing his lackey and letting these beasts disgrace us!"[/b]

Arceus turned to face the offending Sorcerer, his eyes and staff flicking with red power.

[b]"I pray that you merely made an error in judgement sir, for you or anyone else tries to speak such openly treasonous words or insults towards this whole affair, I can assure you I'll have no problems blaming the whole affair on you and your house before subsequently seizing all of your properties."[/b]

That shut the Sorcerer up quick, and made most of the rest of the audience who started to become more active again, subdued.

[b]"This is my will on the matter. We shall prepare to host the Royal Family of Geriang's representatives immediately, and I shall want it done as well as if it were any House of Handon attending. My illustrious House shall oversee much of the preparations anyway, all I require from most of you are your shares of the supplies and upkeep for it, and more importantly, for you all to be on your best behaviour. I shall not tolerate being embarrassed by ANYONE within the bounds of Cathal who calls themselves a resident, and that's a promise. Besides that, cheer up everyone, its an excuse for a major festivity in honour of our King with a foreign who seek to do the same, if you cannot enjoy the company, than at least find some way to enjoy the event. Who knows? Perhaps they'll have more in common with us than most with Handon, given our own dispositions."[/b]

At this, Arceus returned to his throne, signalling the end of his proclamation, and runners began sprinting out of the throne room as soon as they wrote down Arceus' orders, or abbreviated forms of them to the various Houses of Cathal, to ready the way through the countryside to Gor Ithios ahead of House Dionaea's arrival and send out calls for general preparations to begin. Arceus sighed into his throne, reading over the letter again, the Royal House seemed to understand his position as much as he did. He harboured no disdain for the people of Geriang, his concern was power, and the means of obtaining it, and the Royal House, even that of a foreign nation like Geriang could always prove valuable towards such a goal that petty prejudice couldn't be allowed to stand in the way of such opportunity. And he'd be damned if he was going to look like the only fool in all of Handon who couldn't properly host a Mixing of Lands.