Act XIII: The Suran Business

By Miner Arobar, Father of Nilas and Gandosa

The past few days have been blur since I started making arrangements for my trip to Suran, but everything into place exactly as I knew it would. Commissioner Feranos Milar and I have a meeting scheduled in two days at Desele’s House of Earthly Delights. Typical of a Hlaalu to do business in a brothel, but what can be expected of their kind? They have no honor, they have no morals, they have only a commitment to squeezing every coin out of every deal and they’d sell their own mothers if they though they could get a good deal for her, but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that my informants in Oran’s little ‘cabinet’ have been most helpful in this little endeavor and this coup would not be possible without them funneling so much information on every detail of Suran’s socioeconomic and political status; it’s unfortunate that they will have to be taken care of right alongside Oran though when everything comes to fruition. It’s regrettable though. If only they had given me even a smidgeon of reason to believe to turn on me like they did on him, I wouldn’t be needing to plan out how I’m going to deal with them once everything’s handled, but I suppose that’s not important at the moment.

What is important is that I placed an order for a bottle of T&S West Weald Hors d’Age brandy and it still hasn’t arrived. I can’t keep waiting for it to arrive, but that was going to be a token of my appreciation to the Commissioner for meeting with me—however—it seems I will simply have to do without. I can’t say I’m surprised though. I seldom do business with the Empire’s people and this is but one of the many reasons why. I purchase a bottle of brandy that they appraise to be worth well over a thousand drakes and here I am waiting for it and once it arrives, it’ll be useless to me. I don’t drink the swill of the Imperial dogs and the only reason I wanted is because I know Feranos has a taste for Cyrodiilic Brandy and I could think of no better gift than the best brandy in Cyrodiil, fit for the Emperor himself. But it doesn’t matter though, I know men like Feranos—they’re slimy little cretins who will tell you whatever you want once you start throwing numbers at them, but I could be wrong. He could actually have a spine under there, somewhere, but I doubt it, after all, he’s Hlaalu.

Still though, I don’t like going into meetings unprepared. I’ve talked to my informants and they’ve given me a full scoop of gossip about the ‘good Commissioner’ and his penchant for sugar. Be a real shame if the Empire found out that he’s the biggest consumer of moon sugar in all of Suran, especially given he’s a man of importance and power, with a reputation to uphold in the House. I hope it doesn’t come to that though. I am loathe to lower myself to intimidation tactics when dealing with business of this delicate nature, but I suppose Feranos will make the choice about how we handle business when I see him in a couple days.

And as for the motion that Athyn so ‘selflessly’ put forward this morning before the Council in regards to the Union, I can’t say I’m sad that it didn’t pass, but I am disappointed that he would even go so far as to propose it. He knows better. He knows that I’m on the cusp of taking Suran back and that it’s going to be a financial burden to rebuild it, after all, I imagine the people of Suran will likely riot and loot once they realize the tourism is going to dry up and that they’re going to be starved out. It’ll be torn apart, but we will rebuild it and it will be in the reconstruction that we’ll create countless jobs and show our people that while the Hlaalu leave their people to starve and riot, the Redorans will always be there to pick them back up and dust them off in the aftermath of it all.

I just don’t understand why he’s fighting me on making this happen. I don’t get why he’s trying to cut our taxes when we’re going to need those funds to invest in Suran. Yes, the Union will go through some hard times, but they will survive and we will make them whole once Suran is in our control and able to generate tax revenue, but they have to be patient. They have to understand that there are bigger things going on than them and the fact that Athyn, my brother of all people, would go behind my back and try to sabotage the work I’ve spent the last twenty-five years on—I can’t help but be hurt. I can’t help but wonder why he would do this? But he’s a good man and I know he’s got his reasons, flawed as they may be, but I can’t figure them out right now and I think that might be a good thing, because I don’t want to get any more frustrated with him than I already am, especially not when I have to leave in an hour’s time if I’m to make it to Suran for our meeting. I just hope he realizes that he’s not helping these miners by giving them false hope that we’ll grant them tax exemption when we need every drake we can muster for what’s about to go down in Suran. He needs to realize that we can’t always be the ‘heroes’ anymore; we have to make the hard choices now and sometimes that means people are going to get hurt, but what we’re doing is for the good of the House as a whole, not a few eggminers, and I won’t let him stand in my way in seeing to it that this is finally finished.

I am sorry, Athyn, but I can’t let you destroy everything I’ve worked for because you can’t bear the thought of a few people having to make sacrifices for the good of the House just like we always have. I hope you can forgive me and I hope to speak to you soon once I return from my business in Suran, but it doesn’t matter, because this is already in motion and it will come to pass, no matter how much you fight it, be it for personal reasons or because you’re just trying to look out for the little guy, this will happen and you just have to accept it.

-Miner Arobar, Councilor of House Redoran