The whispers in the Cabinet grow louder each day, a chorus of warmongers urging His Majesty King Edmund to cast our lot with the Hughs in their quarrel with the Desert People. These so-called statesmen speak of “obligations” and “friends abroad,” yet what obligation compels us to squander the lives of Eyehasseen’s youth on sands not our own? What friendship drags us into the mire of another’s war, fought for interests far from our fields and hearths?
It is perfidy in its purest form: men who would never shoulder the musket themselves cajoling the Crown to spill the blood of others. Have we learned nothing from the endless misadventures of past entanglements? The Hughs seek not our fellowship but our flesh, to be consumed in their feuds.
Let us say it plainly: the Kingdom of Eyehasseen has no quarrel with the Desert People. Let us resist the call of false allies, and tend instead to our own soil, our own industry, our own peace.