Six Month Interim Report to the Senate Committee on Ways and Means regarding the Economic Crisis

… the tireless work of Senator Ari Fra Vein and the economic might of the Tetrapolis continue to support the recovery from the crisis that afflicted the Teklo Confederation and the Allied Peoples beyond our borders. Furthermore, Senate Leader Liss Fra Drril has been unceasing in his work within the Senate to right the shattered trade and production networks and to give the tens of thousands of workless Teklo a chance to take up their trades again…

… Tetrapolis Balas Investment Company has been funding opportunities for willing settlers to colonise the Eastern Continent, repaying the investment over five, ten and fifteen year plans. Returns are expected to remain at a fairly constant 3.75% and will contribute significantly to the Vein Plan…

Memoires of The-Cut-That-Weaves, Sylphim tailor extraordinaire, in the chapter “My Happiest Challenge”.

“I still have tears in my eyes thinking about it. Weddings, funerals, duels, coming-of-age. That's all I'm good for, nowadays. The greatest tailor this world has ever seen, and most people come to me for drivel, look upon my wonderful creations, and then say “I was thinking of something simple and white…”. But that day that Metis came to me and said “I need a costume to surrender to the Teklo and maybe get executed in”, I knew my time had come, my Art was calling to me, Chaith had come down and given me my chance. I took the entire history of Metis's interactions with the Teklo in one piece of clothes; the colours, the embroidery, the flaring, the scents, let me start telling you all about that…”

Commentary on excerpts from the Official Transcripts of the Trial of Metis Yos Jinte in Meaning and Meaning: A World of Words by Sook Yos Geete

And so we come to Senate Leader Liss Fra Drril's famous closing speech at the trial. He spoke for a total of three minutes and fourteen seconds, his closing words being:

“In summation let me say this: that the Chimera Metis Yos Jinte perverted the True Divinity of the Teklo People. With her deeds, her intentions and, worst of all, with her words, she turned upon her own Spiritual Purity and forsook that which makes us everything that we are. She admits her blasphemy, her knowing blasphemy and in so doing we find it redoubled upon itself, once in the doing and once in the telling. There is nothing left to be said at this trial, nothing save the verdict and the punishment. Now, my words are spent, and it is time for your words to make themselves heard.”

Reports suggest that so eloquent and powerful was the Senate Leader's plea for justice that all present were struck dumb, for what words could follow such perfection?

Last words of the Chimera Metis Yos Jinte, in the official record of the Execution, witnessed by the Senate Chamber, original edition.

“I am happy.”

The last words of Metis Yos Jinte as reported in The Word.

“I recognise now, in my final minutes, the awful truth of my blasphemy and I regret my actions in whole, in part and in every particular. I recognise that I must die for my crimes, and I accept the just punishment of the Divine Teklo.”

Illint Fra Goshk, speaking at the start of The March of the Five Hundred Thousand.

“We must show our support for The Proclamation of First Purity, we must march, march on Jerad to prove that Senate Leader and his Drril Faction truly represents the People, and our voices will be heard!

We hundred here, we few hundred gathered will march to Jerad, and where we stop along the road, we will speak, we will spread the word, and our numbers will grow. We are the People and we will not let them stop Liss' vision for the Teklo. No longer will we allow the shackles of corruption and lies to weigh down our sacred democracy, to twist and deform our voices.

Now we march! We march! WE MARCH!”

Vein Representative Esst Yos Wellent speaking before the House of Representatives shortly before The Act of Personal Tithing is passed.

“Representatives! Hear me! Hear me!

We stand now the richest, the most powerful of Poleis. We have but to speak and the world bends to our will, such is our wealth and power. We are as the Teklo were supposed to be, and we have Senator Ari Fra Vein to thank for this, for all of this. He it is who has raised us up, given us the life we now lead.

I propose a motion! The Vein House of Representives will support the Senator's further investment in the East, upon the continent of Balas. A tithe, to be paid in labour, goods or currency. Let us give up to Senator Ari Fra Vein what is ours, that he may return it to us tenfold. His wisdom is beyond doubt, his honesty is impeccable, and everything that he touches turns to gold.

We must give ourselves over, in the democratic way to Ari Fra Vein, because he is the best amongst us!”

In the Offices of the Bureau of Information, a conversation.

“Scholar, we have tracked him down. He is pretending to be a shepherd in the mountains around Yent, a small village a day from the main conurbations. As we speak, Wardens are taking him in to custody and then we can bring him to you. We have also seized three chests full of debased currency. It would seem that the Bureau is finally getting on top of Rfek's finances and he has started to have to cheat. It was that which lead us to his current whereabouts in fact. It is all there in the file Scholar.”

For a brief moment the Senior Scholar considers the contents of the file, eyes flickering a faint parchment yellow as her mastery of The Words on the Page manifest themselves.

“Excellent, well done. Now, please take this file and distribute it to Scholar Ichet Yos Fresne, she can use it as a basis for her class with the first years.”

“Scholar? Distribute it to Ichet? But she teaches Rfek Studies 101…”

“Yes, I imagine that your work will prove very useful to the first years. Please, don't get me wrong, this is good work, but you are dealing with Rfek Fra Gatki here, and I can promise you, you do not have him in custody. Your report notes that the shepherd under suspicion had a flock of thirty sheep. At this time of year, six months after the lambing, the average Yentish sheep flock is four hundred. Doubtless the debased specie was used to buy the flock and Rfek has now sold the meat and wool to some passing merchant with more money than sense.

The report also mentions you received a tip-off from a Kirlsa-Teklo Chimera merchant in Trask. This confirms my latest suspicions, Rfek has perfected his inter-species disguises. You should be honoured, it would appear that he graced you with his presence. That certainly has increased your standing in my books.

But don't be disappointed, whilst Rfek was busy running rings around you and conning sheperds and merchants, we managed to close in on four bank accounts containing a total sum that slightly exceeds the Bureau's budget for a year. A tiny fraction of the total theft, of course, but step-by-step we will get him eh? Now, please, if you don't mind, my husband has stolen the children again, and I must find them before supper time, else there will be some rather grouchy faces come bed-time.”

Etched on a Wall in Jerad

We are the New Radicals
We have seen the Truth
We have seen Chitha
We will know Forbidden Love

This is our Manifesto
Beauty for Words
Beauty for Truth
Beauty for Beauty
Love the Butterfly

Captain Teshp'Weyl'TruDiEs'Mas, recalling the Sundering of Jerad

“It was thirty-five years ago that, but I was there on one of the viewing balconies, instituted, by Liss Fra Drril to allow the People to witness and watch the Senate, (or so the plaque read anyway), were opened up to us as an especial honour and so it was that I was the only non-Teklo to witness the Tetrapolis Declaration of Independence.

I recall, there was a great knocking on the doors of the Senate Chamber and when they were opened, there stood Ari Fra Vein holding a great wooden staff of office. He walked slowly and gracefully on to the floor of the Chamber handed Liss Fra Drril a huge scroll of paper.

'You hold in your hands a record of the Official Secession of the Tetrapolis and associated Eastern Colonies from the Teklo Confederation. The desires and interests of those here undersigned are deemed too different from your own. By our deeds, and, more importantly, by our words, we declare our Secession.'

But the Senate Leader was not shaken, and without preparation, or notes or any such he turned and addressed the Senate, speaking with dignity and grace and eloquence. His words told of the Unity of the Divine and the thought of Secession being as meaningless as the lips being independent of the words that passed them, as meaningless as Democracy without Divinity. Such was the power of his words that fully two-thirds of the Senators there present remained seated and only the remainder left to join Ari Fra Vein.”

Last words of Warden-Lieutenant Rala Yos Tellenn of the Thirty-Third Bluejackets at the Battle of Tranquility Heights, calling across the battle-lines

“Listen you stupid addle-spoken country bumpkins! Listen! Our War-Whisperer says the war is over. OVER! A negotiated settlement, they say.

STOP BLOODY SHOOTING ARROWS AT US!

The war is done. No one wins, some people died, there is no need for you or us to die either. Go and find your commanding officer and just stop shoo…”

From A War Within: A History of the Secession by Scholar Alshot Fra Eksi

”…whilst Balas, with its deeply embedded culture of cooperation saw little of the fighting, the Deep Mountains became the locus of several bloody, but ultimately indecisive battles…

… if the sinews of war are infinite money, then the Tetrapolis was in the stronger position certainly. As a significant counterbalance to this however, the Bureau of Information sided almost unilaterally with the Confederation forces, the only major Bureau to split so unevenly, and infinite money does not beget infinite Leadership material. Fourteen significant assassinations were recorded, but no doubt, countless more…

… so that in the end, neither side could be so certain of achieving the sort of victory desired that they could risk continued war and a truce was established…

… and now we remain, so many decades later at the same old stalemate, so well known to us all, with no official peace treaty signed. Nonetheless, relations between the Confederation and the Tetrapolis remain stable, and trade agreements signed over the years strengthen the bonds of peace…