Taramo was quite surprised when Austalir out of nowhere prostrated himself before him after shouting. He didn't have a brother. Ariwyn was also confused and the boys were laughing too hard to explain why Austalir was weeping like a babe while thanking his ancestors that he could be in the presence of one of "the Great Ones." Alice woke up then and decided to explain, after laughing a little herself.

  He had been one of the first divines alongside the first of Law, Adras himself. Having tried to give up his own power, he had apparently been betrayed by the other divines excluding Adras (He had been neutral as far as he remembered) and because of that the system was set up by Adras since Taramo was, along with everyone, unable to escape from death. He was supposed to act from beyond the grave to help justice so people would be as likely to pray to him as Adras.

  It got his desire to share knowledge of the arcane, and the reaction of the other archmages, but it didn't get any of the details right. Besides his survival there was little unity in the desires of others. They wanted to keep power for multiple reasons, to ensure that madmen didn't decide to try to kill everyone and make a world ending blood wisp out of a rival ethnic group, one archmage had tried that. Some wanted power to stay in their hands, to be sure, and trust of unknown people was the thing in lowest regard.

  "I lost much of the power I once had." He tried to explain a reason that Austalir wouldn't need to treat him like a deity. "The stories of me changed so much in the time that passed that I do not recognize them. I may be a bit more than a normal man, but I do not deserve to be treated as divine." He did lose his collection of wands, staves, and magical texts so in a sense it was correct, just wrong in every other way. Give him a few years and he would get up to speed, and if he had more things to work with.

  "Austalir?"

  "Yes your- Taramo?" He choked back the honorific Taramo spend ten minutes insisting doesn't need to be there.

  "What does your collection of magic books look like?" Austalir got a look that meant he had the intent of the question and Taramo had to hold him from running."

  " I can get there and back in two days. I'll bring my whole collection."

  "I will admit that sounds tempting, but I am willing to wait." Taramo wouldn't take the texts, he'd just make copies. It would get him up to speed on all the small changes as well. "Before we talk of going to Newport I would like to hear how it's going there, now that the Silver Chain is gone."

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  It wasn't entirely gone. Some bits and pieces had fled and melded themselves with the local bandit population.

  Because the fall of Dragon's Rest was less than a generation ago the towns and cities of the dead nation were in flux. Most of the lords and ladies had been in Dragon's Rest when it fell and many of the most powerful who had escaped had most of their wealth and influence in the city. Cities and towns were abandoned and overfilled at the same time. Farmers had their crops stolen because coin ran out and the notes for coin at the Dragon's Bank were worth less than the paper they were written on, the paper was fire proof.

  The land was falling to chaos. A slow chaos that felt inevitable. People willing to self sacrifice were working as strong as they could to staunch the bleeding at the neck of the institutions and they were so close to succeeding, except for the flight of needed bureaucrats who took whatever wasn't nailed down. In a more savage age there would be slave ships from every other nation that looted everything they could and every city would fight every other one until there was nothing but the occasional fort with some wilted vegetables growing. The Silver Chain was one of the first feelers to tell if it was possible, and it was defeated.

  But some people still believed that the nation was salvageable, and their number was not growing.

  Newport itself was better off since it was connected to Adras. Strength was easier to cultivate and since it had been built on the ruins of a long dead city, one sunk into the water that made the bay it resided in, none of the locals had bothered to live there. A colony from the empire lodged itself into the margins of Dragon's Rest. It was eventually ceeded with permissions for the temple and lordship to stay but it also lost the rights to a large military and defensive walls. They were fixing those issues as soon as possible, but pay for soldiers and architects was not the biggest issue.

  Time was. Walls were not built in a day and the ones that were temporary were easily bypassed by thieves and other nerdowells.

  Trust was. Half trained soldiers could desert and go bandit or join up with one of the other city states for 'better' pay since the city that took them wasn't putting the wealth into training.

  And then the Temple closed it's doors. Recently. There was some disagreement between Adras and the Priestess and the Priestess refused to stand down. The trade that was the lifeblood for Newport was drying up.

  Circumstances were grim.

  "Well I think it'll be best to help, if we can." The leavings of breakfast were taken by Mask while the rest of everyone sat around the dining room table. They had gathered after Austalir had started telling the story of the danger that was going to engulf the region soon. A powder keg used as a candlestick would probably be safer.

  "We should bring Patriarch Talarof to join us." Ariwyn remarked from on her golem, "He will have access to more human capital through the Pitarav. He might even be able to get the Empress Aurika to help us with our issues."

  So the Patriarch was called.