Book 4: Chapter 19
My dearest younger half-sister,
I write to offer my sincere condolences on the most embarrassing situation that has befallen your beloved tribute, the Iron Bull. It would be an understatement to say that news of it has run amuck throughout the lower courts.
To be clearly beaten and then claim a victory in such a vulgar and dishonorable manner has no doubt caused you as much distress as it has indeed the entire royal household. I trust that you may have received letters of criticism and malcontent from our beloved sister Rheutera already.
But if you have not, rest assured, it will be soon to come.
It is with that in mind that I have reached out to you with an offer of grace.
Whilst I have received your letter of rejection of my initial offer, I shall put that in abeyance in light of the present circumstances. Your tribute has no doubt become a worm found most distastefully within a prized apple.
As such, any connection to him would likely, as it has already, affect your standing within the lower courts. With your planet’s already questionable contributions towards the empire, I would hate to think what this may do to your reputation permanently.
I thus offer you, once again, a way to salvage this most dire predicament.