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“Oh, they do,” you said, knowing what Magnus was referring to easily. “Caelus. Twaryi. That shit storm happening in Vynmark, and now in the ocean. A lot of people here think it’s too far away.” None of the professors or higher officers seemed to share that apathetic attitude, however. You knew just enough about how the world worked to know how <span class="mu-i">big</span> it was that Caelus and Naukland had begun to feud over what was once thought to be just a territorial war between Twaryi and Vynmark.
The funny thing though, was that nobody seemed to have any guess as to why Caelus would spoil what was thought to be a very good thing for them. As far as anybody knew, they had no reason to breach the Stor Ankomst Accords as they did. They had every reason to not provoke Naukland and continue to invest, to collect on fat profits, to influence subtly and through mutual gains. Nobody cared that they heavily invested in Twaryi, traded with them. They did that all over the continent where they could reach, in Vynmark too. Yet now they might lose it all…over what? Nobody could say, and if anybody knew, they hadn’t breathed a word about it to anybody.
“It’s distracted the Netillian people from <span class="mu-i">other</span> outside threats, and the Ellowian Republic…is even more threatened than we are. There’s been an alliance formed, an uneasy one. An extension, perhaps, of what was already beginning to form before. Both Netilland and Ellowie are badly wounded, though. Before, Netilland might have used Ellowie as a bulwark against the new rival of Twaryi. Now, most believe we need one another to survive, regardless of our history of wars.”
“Sounds like everybody should be agreeing inside back home, huh?” You said, but you knew better from Magnus’s letters to you during the time he’d been away. “So what’s the issue, that you were so busy with?”
“The Netillians of today can agree upon the primary <span class="mu-i">foreign</span> threat,” Magnus sighed, “But they cannot do the same when they see enemies amongst one another. I won’t bore you with a history lecture, but to greatly summarize, the Military Council’s seizure of authority was seen as a good thing by many. They ousted an ineffectual and weak-willed democratic organ. Now that democratic government has returned, and plenty of people fear both vengeance from those wronged by the Military Council, but also that the representative government will once again fail to address the problems of the country, as it did before. A surprising amount of problem people different sides of the problem that I am called to deal with.”
“Any of those troublemakers throw a birthday party for you?” You joked.
Magnus gave a single hollow laugh. “Almost a month back? To tell you the truth, I was so exhausted then, I remember all I wanted was a good day’s sleep. Although my family at home would have preferred I was home long enough for to make up for the ones I’d missed.”
