[b]Lanark
Uwan Isles Republic[/b]

Lanark Harbor was one of the busiest ports in the world. Situated on the island of Uwan, the Big Island as everyone called it, the wide expanse of water was a perfect natural harbor that had good sailing winds blowing through it year round. Hundreds of ships of all kind came and went through its waters every day. Even now, as a fishing schooner set sail for the shallower waters around the Uwan Isles, a massive trade galley with a crew of five hundred men were departing for Svargiya. The docks served as almost a strange melting pot of global languages, religions, and cultures that all intermingled together by the ships. A man of Vös could be involved in a high-stakes dice game with a Bandara and a Satyr. While most crews came from the same nation, plety were comprised of hodgepodge crews from every race, region, or walk of life. The waters were the great connector, regardless of where you were from. 

Jock Munrue watched the bustling docks from afar. He sat on the balcony outside his office at midday and watched the comings and goings of the port while he ate a plain meal of fruit, cheese, and some cured pork his wife had given him that morning. This was his usual routine. He would eat and pine to be down there among the men of the sea. There was nowhere else he would rather be, save maybe out in open waters with his hand on the rudder of his own ship. 

This job was only temporary, Jock's wife had reminded him. He had but a year until the Quorum would meet again and pick the three new Sealords. There was talk among his friends and allies that he should stand for a second two-year term. It was well within his constitutional right, but it nearly twenty years since any man had served as First Sealord for two terms. Reelection would be a tall task, and he wasn't sure he even wanted it. Jock found the job a chore. Things always seemed to get bogged down intp arguments about semantics. Both Cinead and Wallis were adept in arguing semantics because they were men who had never truly been at sea. They had never commanded their own boat in the middle of a raging storm. Semantics mattered very little when a thirty foot breaker was racing towards your starboard bow.

Jock finished off his apple and tossed the core off the balcony towards the water. He brushed his clothes free of any crumbs and headed back into his office to continue the tasks of the day.

---

"It doesn't have any precedent."

"But, in a time of emergency we can do it?"

Iomhar Cinead looked at the old man with an arched eyebrow. Chief Steaphan Raibeart leaned back in his seat and thought hard over what was being asked. As Chief any questions of constitutionality fell to him. This was why Iomhar wanted to pick the man's brain before seriously committing to his plan. Plus, the Chief was known for his stoic disposition. There was no way word of his plan would get out if he talked to the old man first. 

"The constitution stipulates that the Sealords have the power to call together the Quorum. Sealords of the past have interpreted it as the yearly meeting, never an emergency session. If you wanted to do it, it would constitute an executive action and you would need both Sealords to vote with you on it."

Iomhar nodded and let the angels play inside his head. Jock Munrue was an adequate First Sealord. He didn't do anything wrong, but he never really tried to do anything but business as usual. Times were changing though. In the north, Angoria continued its saber-rattling. Iomhar spent the better part of three weeks engaged in back channel talks with Rana Shivret, Angoria's ambassador to the Isles. The problem was that old man who whispered in the young king's ear about glory, treasure, and conquest.

Munrue was committed to diplomacy and goodwill ending the conflicts and controversies with Angoria. It was idealistic and foolish of him to think that. The young king wanted to make his name, and the only way to do that was to finally get rid of the Republican menace to the south. Iomhar would continue diplomacy, but the Republic needed to be ready for war. And while Jock Munrue was a capable First Sealord, he was not a wartime leader.

Iomhar was a wartime leader. He planned to take the reigns of his country and lead them to victory by any means necessary.