[hr]

[color=cornflowerblue]"...And there he goes. I was almost expecting he wouldn't make it."[/color] The droningbird looked on.

Phi flicked and uncurled over her cornflower-coloured simulations. Sky City's altar room was empty, for now.[colour=cornflowerblue]"These systems are so chaotic. Anything could save a missionary, and anything could kill him. A slip on the ice one millimetre from his hand? Silas is gone. My best evangelist, disappeared. Bang! All that work for nothing. It would be hilarious, though,"[/colour] she admitted. Old Walker barely even sighed in the background.

[colour=cornflowerblue]"You know,"[/colour] she said, rambling half to Toun (who, by the black eye of the droningbird, was not watching and had not done so in weeks) and half to her aide. [colour=cornflowerblue]"The hardest part isn't even the training I lavish on these nutters. It's convincing them not to go. Do you know how easily young men become zealots? A gentle tap of sexual frustration and they'll [i]throw[/i] themselves on Rulanah spears. And if they come back... There's a reason Chirality makes exemptions for sex before marriage, you know? Keep the loyal genes in the pool. Give them a nudge."[/colour]

The diagrams shifted, from human pedigrees to incident reports across the southern Ironhearts. [color=cornflowerblue]"Of course,"[/color] she continued, her voice slowing to something deeper than a purr as a long string of deaths across the mountains lit up. [color=cornflowerblue]"All this eugenics would be so much easier if I [i]didn't have to subvert Rulanah in the first place.[/i]"[/color]

The simulations disappeared with a snap of light that burned Walker's eyelids and shocked the droningbird to sharp attention. On a wind of spiral radiation, the Chiral God blazed like fire.

[color=cornflowerblue]"FIX. YOUR. [i]RELIGION,[/i] TOUN."[/color]

[color=cornflowerblue]"If you don't take control of Rulanah, I WILL. It will cost me time, and it will cost me blood, and it [i]will[/i] cost you your dominion. I have reached the end of my patience with this godless anarchy, and I can [i]not[/i] afford to sit here and wait for missionaries to sow the seeds of violent reformation among your followers while dwarves ravage our borders and my coffers are slowly drained of resources that should be [i]funding your war effort.[/i]"[/color] 

[color=cornflowerblue]"Get a grip. Put down your filthy rag, stop polishing Cornerstone, and do something. I will [i]personally[/i] pay the shadow tunnels to carry every single one of your magi and a fat stack of gold to Yorum if you would get them to shut up for one [i]minute[/i] about their divine heritage and [i]fight! I[/i] will take care of their strategy! [i]I[/i] will rebuild their towers, arm their soldiers, write their magic, haul their burden, and if that wealth becomes the fuel for a Tounic war against the Commonwealth, then damn it, Toun, so be it! I accept! [i]Only get Heartworm's filthy pests off my borders![/i]"[/color]

The light curled, and disappeared back into its Kernel. A flick of light alerted Phi's aide. Old Walker mroomed and effortlessly caught the droningbird in its front hands.

[color=cornflowerblue]"And then you can go right back to tinkering with your pelagic china set to no explicable avail. Like you [i]always[/i] do."[/color]

Phi bowed with her words, and there was a sound of crushing porcelain.