Iron Rebirth: The Eagle Eternal

Fritigern convened the council the morning after. The summons reached Ragnaris at dawn and also reached Alatheus — the king deciding to have both arguments in the room rather than managing the result of one of them.

Abster sat with Corvus at the boundary and waited. A visitor had arrived that morning from the eastern garrison — a tribune named Marcianus, seconded to survey the joint patrol routes for the field army command's pre-arrival assessment. He was competent, politely distant, and had been watching the settlement from the boundary for half an hour before Abster noticed.

"How long has that been operating," Marcianus said, gesturing at the settlement.

"Since spring," Abster said. "Under the imperial grant."

"I know about the grant." He looked at the granary frame, the smoke, the paths worn clear by daily use. "I'm asking how long it's felt like that."

"Like what."

"Like a real place." He said it without judgment, the observation of a man who had seen many temporary settlements in his career and was noting that this one had crossed some threshold of permanence. "Your sector record says joint patrols. Formal muster beginning. Arbitration with local Roman landholders resolved." He paused. "It also says a Roman centurion crossed the boundary unauthorized during an active incident and a Gothic warrior walked to the boundary to ask questions about the channel." He looked at Abster. "In my experience, that kind of thing produces results or it produces disasters. I'm here to understand which this is." He paused. "I want you to understand that I'm not certain of the answer yet."

Abster said: "What would change your mind in either direction."

Marcianus looked at the hall, where Fritigern's council was presumably in progress, though nothing was visible from here. "Ask me after the emperor arrives," he said. "I want to see what he sees before I form the opinion I'll have to defend."

He moved away along the boundary. Abster filed him — not hostile, not convinced, not the ally that Sebastianus and Treverius had been. A man conducting an honest assessment who would form the honest opinion he formed and defend it, and whose honest opinion could go either direction.

— ✦ —

Adalric came out of the council two hours later.

He sat on the stone near the boundary marker. What he described, Abster filed carefully.

Fritigern had begun by asking each reiks to state what they understood the proposal to mean. An hour of that — different understandings, different histories, the auxilia veterans with their specific knowledge and the ones who'd never crossed the line of contact with Roman command with their specific suspicions.

Gailswintha: who decides what Gothic terms are once our warriors are inside Roman command? Who appeals the decision?

Vidugavia, an older reiks: I buried two sons serving Roman commanders. That was all. He sat back down. The room held it.

Ragnaris made his argument clearly. Alatheus made his — the dependency, the reinterpretation, his father in the tent. He said the last part quietly, the way he'd said it to Ragnaris, as a fact he'd been carrying for a long time placed on the table for the council to use.

A reiks named Cuno — a builder, older, who had come to the settlement in April with his tools and had been building things since without making much noise about it — said, from the back of the room, without standing: "I've been inside Roman construction contracts for twenty years. Everything Alatheus is describing is accurate. Every word of it. And I'm still in the settlement and not on the road." He shrugged. "There's no arrangement without dependency. The question is what you're trying to build while you're inside it."

Nobody had expected Cuno to speak. He hadn't said anything in a council before. The room adjusted around the unexpected voice.

Then Sueric stood.

"Then there is no vote," he said. He walked to the door. He paused. "I'm not leaving because I oppose what you're doing. I'm leaving because the decision is already made and I would rather be elsewhere than watch the administration of it." He went out.

The door closed. The room was different after.

Fritigern said: "How many."

Not whether. How many.

Swanhild — who had lost her husband at Marcianopolis — said the timeline served Rome's schedule, not theirs. Accurate. Nobody argued.

After further discussion that Adalric condensed to its essentials, Fritigern said: "Sixty volunteers, one season, full council review with complete accounting of how the terms operated in practice. If the review finds material deviation, the arrangement suspends pending renegotiation." He looked around the room. "Does anyone contest the mechanism."

Nobody contested the mechanism.

Fritigern said: "Then it begins."

He stood and walked out without ceremony, which was what Fritigern did when a decision had been made and he wanted the room to understand it was time to do the thing rather than continue discussing it. Three reikeis followed immediately. The rest took a moment before they rose.

The council was over. The first muster was in two days.

The Vellum380 days.

Marcianus, eastern garrison tribune. Honest assessment, going either direction. He wants to see what the emperor sees first. I don't know if that helps us or not.

Cuno the builder: no arrangement without dependency. The question is what you're building while you're inside it. Nobody expected him to speak. The room adjusted.

Sueric: then there is no vote. He left. The door closed. The room was different after.

Fritigern: then it begins. He walked out. No ceremony. That was the whole announcement.