Emp moved his warhorse towards the town of Rivière-duventeu. From where he was in the middle of the legion, he could still clearly see the town. The path had left the forest about a day ago and now his sight was free from most hindrances.
Around him, a sea of dead grass and withered shrubs stretched all the way to a river passing through the town. On the other side of that river, the same sad landscape continued on until he couldn't see it anymore and a mountain chain spanned the whole line of horizon. According to what he knew, those mountains followed the coast around the empire, started somewhere north of the Thornwoods, curved at the border between Greenpeaks and Dugo and then went to die in the sand wastes far to the east.
He had spent a while observing the mountains slowly getting bigger as they marched closer to them but they weren't the most noteworthy thing to see in the area. Instead, the eyes of the troops as well as his own were grabbed by the dead lands. The kingdom of Greenpeaks wasn't exaggerating when they complained about not being able to grow anything.
Hooves and boots trampled the mostly flat fields but none of them believed it would bother anyone. There was nothing proper growing here. Every plants they saw were sick or dying and according to the many people they came across, it only got worse closer to the center of the kingdom.
Ever since they stepped into Greenpeaks, they got the growing impression that the living were slowly fleeing this place. With the plants dying, the animals were leaving too and human survival got harder and harder as time went on.
For days now, every single road they traveled on was clogged with refugees leaving the kingdom. Hopefully, the supplies his legion was bringing would help the situation slightly. He seriously doubted they would be enough for everyone however.
His goal here was to keep order and help where he was able to but he couldn't stop feeling that as long as they didn't find the reason behind this national withering, things would never improve. It was one of the things he needed to talk about with the military he was supposed to join with in Rivière-duventeux.
By the looks of it, the town was deserted but also filled with people. The only people left there were the soldiers and those relying on said soldiers. Rivière-duventeux wasn't that big of a town and most of its original inhabitants had left some time ago but it still looked overfilled from afar.
Those that had lived here had fled the kingdom while others that had lived deeper inside that same kingdom had fled all the way here and stopped when they met with the troops able to help them. A huge refugee camp was now built around the town and the legions staying inside it.
Four legions were stationed here, each were larger than the legion Emp brought and each were more experienced. They were led by two generals, Varance Paroicier, eldest of his branch family and Arkosa Averton who held his post of general since around the time Chinui got the title of great general.
Emp didn't know much about either of them but considering he was about to meet them, he wouldn't remain in the dark for long.
They already knew that Emp was coming and their own soldiers warned them well in advance that his small legion was getting close. He wondered how they would receive him and his troops.
Thanks to the empty terrain, he was able to spread out his troops more to cover a larger area and was able to have Jin show what his pack of riders could do. When they had neared the town however, he had everyone regroup in an orderly manner to at least look like a properly organized army.
Emp planned to have everyone camp in the empty field in order to not overcrowd the town and go in to meet with the generals accompanied by the guys from school, the two sisters and his own two slaves. It would be a rather large group but he was sure that the two general would be surrounded by their own staff too.
Rivière-duventeu was built along a large river and looked rather ordinary. As they got closer, Emp could see that all the buildings were mostly made out of wood, sometimes with a layer of stone at the bottom. Emp could also see that some of the building were almost completely built into the ground. Their entrance doors were at the bottom of stairs carved into the ground and their roofs were only a few feet above ground.
The place was rather windy and long ropes filled with colored pieces of cloth were stretching towards the sky thanks to said wind and made it all a bit more lively. All those ornaments moved along with the flowing air like giant kites and Emp felt that if the wind was strong enough to push open the cloth, it would provide some welcome shadows in this hot plain.
The only thing out of place here was the lack of outside walls. Emp was able to see the place where the walls were supposed to pass through but they had apparently all been dismantled. Had they been removed to make it easier for the army to move around or did they need the materials for something? Emp was curious to find out.
As his small army stepped close, he pulled out the people he wanted to accompany him and rode towards the small town with them. They moved rather slowly because a few of them were on foot including Celtine who didn't move fast to begin with.
When they got close to the camp, Kenneth spoke as Emp second in command and announced their arrival.
"Lord Emp Muracier is here to speak with general Paroicier and general Averton!"
The soldiers there quickly let the group in and led them to the generals. They had taken a larger house to use as headquarters and the place was filled with subordinates coming in and going out. No one seemed to be in a hurry however.
They were not at war and there was no emergency that could be fixed with swift actions. The situation in Greenpeaks could only be fixed by being steady and thorough. Even if they brought food in a hurry and ran around everywhere, the problem would remain.
Emp didn't feel really nervous as he dismounted his horse and stepped down the stairs and into the building. He only ever really felt nervous when there was something dangerous or when someone he knew was in trouble. This place offered neither and so he didn't slow down or worry about meeting two of his seniors.
The inside of the house was a bit dark because of a lack of windows but it was much cooler there than outside. The floors were well used but the place still seemed solid. It was a good place to work or rest Emp felt.
The soldiers lining up the walls all offered him a salute as he led his friends inside and after someone announced his arrival with a shout, everyone inside did the same. Even the two generals gave him a proper respectful greeting. Like him, they probably wanted to know what sort of person he was before doing anything.
The two generals were surrounded by many others but none of them really mattered to Emp. Maybe those two felt the same about all the people Emp brought.
He had never met them before but Emp had an easy time to recognize who they were. There was an older man and a younger man. The old one was Arkosa Averton who participated in countless battles, both at the sides of Chinui and after he left. Obviously, this meant that the younger one must be Varance Paroicier.
Averton was much younger than Aminui or duke Jazay but much older than Emp and his friends. He had a few wrinkles to the corners of his eyes and a few pale white stands streaking through his blond hair but he looked in good fighting shape overall. He had a short two pronged beard tied up with wooden beads and his eyes looked rather soft. He wasn't dressed in armor right now but still wore noble clothing fit to do physical work. He'd add on the armor if he needed to.
Paroicier showed the same brown hair that the Muracier usually did and was only slightly older than the people Emp brought with him. He must have had only a few years of experience leading troops but being a Paroicier, Emp had no doubt that he was prepared for this since he was a little boy. His eyes were sharp and he might have looked quite handsome if not for the very asymmetrical features of his face. His visage was slanted to the left and his skin was a bit ragged, possibly from an old burn or for the same unknown reason as to why his ear was missing. There was a wide cloth covering the wound but one could tell what was, or rather wasn't, there from the lack of bulge underneath.
Averton was the first to speak after the door was closed behind Emp and his friends. It was only natural since he was the senior here. His eyes scanned the group and landed on Emp. He recognized him as a Muracier and detailed him with his eyes as he welcomed him.
"Welcome young lord general Muracier. I am general Arkosa Averton and this here is general Varance Paroicier, both at your service. It is an honor to meet the youngest of your prestigious name at last."
"It's good to make your acquaintance. I am indeed Emp Muracier. I came here to learn and of course to help on the request of my lord grandfather Aminui. Should I present those that came with me before we truly begin?"
Varance bowed slightly.
"I would appreciate the gesture. I don't think I've been acquainted with most of them before."
"In this case, let me introduce my friends. Over there is Oran Glavan, he's got a lot of strength."
The massive man bowed as he was introduced.
"Then next to him is Oliver Firgelo, he's talented with a spear and he's hardworking."
He bowed as well but because he was so tall, it just looked like he made himself take on a normal height.
"Then the stiff looking one is Zoran Glowstorm, he's the youngest man I brought but he's a talented light mage."
Zoran barely lowered his head at all because he felt nervous but it was fine considering he was the son of a duke.
"Then there's Kenneth Tortufeu, he can be a bit hotblooded but he always fight for what he believes is right."
Emp had learned his name only after they left school because he had kept it hidden like many of the students that came in with Emp. Kenneth showed his respect swiftly and Emp pointed to the stocky man next to him.
"That one is Odilon Sandcrest... I don't really know what to say about him."
The others had a hard time to stop their laughter while Odilon bowed with a pitiful face. Emp didn't intend to be mean with him but he really didn't know what Odilon could actually do.
"Then there's Jin Josephal, he's quick and good with horses."
Emp could have said that he was good with animals but he didn't want his words to be misinterpreted to be about cursed-bloods. He didn't feel like cursed-bloods were animals or monsters at all but he knew that some would think that was what he meant anyway.
After Jin was done with his greeting, he turned to the last of the men, Ivar.
"Here is Ivar Longhorn. He's my expert in archery and a more talented negotiator than me."
Emp could hardly ever understand what others wanted so he was really bad at mediating conflicts or negotiating for something. Ivar on the other hand was an open minded man who could keep his calm, understand others and compromise.
He waited for Ivar to make a bow of his own and then turned towards the four girls.
Even though they were important to him, he chose to gloss over Celtine and Svae and go directly to the two Porter sisters instead.
"Those two are my sealed slaves but those two are Leonni Porter and Erin Porter. I made both of them my retainers and I trust them deeply. Do not underestimate them for their looks, they have more experience in real fights than most of the men who came with me."
Both of them bowed and both of them knocked their heads against his armor because they stood right behind him.
The two sisters held their heads in pain when Emp glanced back to see what hit him. They seemed embarrassed but managed to remain somewhat dignified. Meanwhile, the soldiers in the room had what Emp could only describe as a mildly disgusted face.
He wasn't quite sure of the reason behind those faces but even if he was curious, he had better things to do than try to understand what was going on in the heads of everyone. He wasn't good at trying to figure out what others were thinking so it would only be a waste of his time to try to decipher the expressions of everyone.
If there was something worth his attention, Celtine would warn him about it. Unless one of his friends or she herself pointed it out to him, he had no intention of getting bothered by anything.
Instead, Emp returned his attention to the two generals.
As taught by the teacher Blackbull, in a formal gathering, the two generals would have to greet everyone he just introduced to them. From what he understood of the teachings, since everyone he brought came invited by him, the two generals would have no choice but to express deference towards them even if they were dissatisfied. As his personal guests, they couldn't be addressed simply by the rank of their respective houses as they usually would which meant that the two generals had to lower themselves greatly to greet them properly as guests brought by the Muracier.
An ordinary noble would feel bitter about this but Emp didn't intend to let them go through all the usual greetings. It was a long waste of time to welcome everyone one by one and he had more things to discuss. Plus, sparing them from this might give them a good impression of him. Because of this, he spoke again before either of the two generals could speak.
"With everyone introduced, let's get to the real talks."
"As you will." General Averton said.
He seemed mildly satisfied by the way Emp cut this short. Either Emp was right about them not wanting to lower themselves or he found this intervention very Muracier-like.
On the other hand, general Paroicier seemed more confused than satisfied. He was too young to have served under Chinui so he might not have been used to this way of doing things. Emp decided to ask just to know for sure, he liked when everything was clear after all.
"General Paroicier, you seem a bit confused. Is it because you think I've done something strange or is it because you're used to the way my uncle would do things?"
"Uh, no, I just thought that since you went trough all the trouble of bringing them here and introducing them to us, you would have wanted us to acknowledge them."
The general explained his train of thoughts, quickly regaining his composure.
"I see, that's not the case however. We're not at a noble party here, we have some work to do. I brought them here because I believe they can be of help. I think you will naturally acknowledge them on your own if they show some talent. In the meantime, I just don't want to waste too much time on overcomplicated greetings. I'm sure someone of your name can understand that."
"Certainly yes."
His answer was a bit stiff but Emp was satisfied since he seemed to understand what he meant.
He wondered what he should ask next for a short moment and then decided to go for something different than a question first. He was improvising since he walked here but believed that was also a part of learning. He just went with whatever subject he thought was most important.
"As I said earlier, I came here to learn. I'm still inexperienced so I'd appreciate it if you two could assist me and teach me what it's like to lead people in practice. I am the heir great general and I know you two are supposed to follow my commands but I also know that you have much more experience than me. Our priority should be the safety of Greenpeaks, not my learning experience.
If anyone thinks that I'm doing something wrong, please, speak up before resources and lives are wasted. This isn't about me and my friends racking in achievements, this is about helping those that need it and this is why I came here instead of going in the north of Artefine to butt heads with my uncle.
I'd like everyone here to understand before we continue that thinking of the situation between Graube and me too much would only distract us from our objective. As such, this is the last time I will address the issue. I want everyone to focus solely on how to help the good people of the kingdom of Greenpeaks because thinking about who between me or Graube should get the title of great general is simply a waste of efforts. Doing that would only be in disservice of our empire.
If you understand that, please, let us all think about what has to be done instead of who should be doing those things."
"Understood."
The two general agreed with a nod and all the officers and staff around the room said the same thing with a bow right after them. Emp felt satisfied with the reaction for now. He couldn't read their minds so he didn't know if they agreed with his short speech or not but no one here should be silly enough to confront him about Graube now.
They had the right to believe Graube should be the one in charge instead of him, even if Emp was certain of the opposite, but here was not the place to argue about that. That was the only thing he needed to convey. He would fight those who challenged him for certain but he wanted everyone to keep what was truly important in mind.
He felt that at least the two generals should understand him. Wasting time challenging him would not help the kingdom and the empire. It would not be too late after the situation was resolved to grumble and complain. For now, there was a lot of work to be done and Graube had nothing to do with it.
After that, the generals invited him to sit down at a table with them, the real discussion was finally about to start.
All those he brought with him stood nearby with the rest and Celtine remained close to his chair in order to take notes for him.
Soon enough, Emp was able to word out his first real question. Hopefully, by the end, he would have a good understanding of the two generals and the situation here.
He first decided to satisfy his own curiosity.
"As I was coming in, I saw that the walls of Rivière-duventeu had been removed. I'm not really complaining about it but I'm curious as for the reason behind why you did."
The two man sat in front of Emp didn't seem to think it was a big deal at all. They answered the question casually.
"The forest is too far from here and we needed wood for the encampment so we dismantled the wall for it. It shouldn't bring any problems because our armies are camping around the town, any threats would have to go through us all first before reaching the civilians. We're still lacking wood but we sent men all the way back to the nearest woods to cut down some ancestors for us."
"That's reasonable. There should be no problem as long as we replace it before leaving." Emp approved with a nod. "Then, what the global situation in the kingdom exactly? How bad is it?"
The two generals made a bitter smile. They started relaying each other to give Emp the details. Some servants brought wine to the table but no one touched it as they talked.
"Not good at all. The only surviving fields seems to be along the southern coasts of Greenpeaks. Everything in the mountains has decayed and nothing will grow anymore."
"Death seems to be propagating towards Grandbois too. By careful observation of the spread of the decay, we can expect it to reach the borders of Grandbois in less than two years. At this point, it is the ancestors that will darken and die rather than just fields."
"The king has given up since the reserves and fishing industry can't even sustain the capital anymore. He has fully mobilized his knights to help escort the population away from the kingdom. The city of Sunstorm peak is almost empty of troops because they're busy escorting everyone out of the honeyed cradled."
"Well, now it's more black and grey than honeyed. People are leaving in mass and so every path through the mountains are filled with starving peasants and fleeing citizens. This means that bandits appeared along every road, they think it's a great opportunity and because there's so little to eat, there's a lot of desperate people that joined them."
"There aren't enough knights to get everyone out safely and they're too spread out already. We had many reports of bandits attacking knights at twenty or even thirty against one. Everyone is getting desperate. The worst part is that the emperor doesn't want Grandbois to be flooded with outlaws so he asked everyone to restrict the flow of people crossing the border. Every road is packed and every border town like Rivière-duventeu is overfilled with refugees while they wait to be admitted inside Grandbois or simply just fed."
The two generals kept giving further details about the dire situation while keeping a serious face. They showed Emp some maps and pointed at every points on it to explain what was happening across the kingdom, it took them the better part of an hour. Emp knew things were bad in the kingdom of course but he had not expected it to have almost entirely collapsed already.
"But has anyone found the cause yet? I know that if we knew what was happening we would have acted on it already but its been going on for years already and still nothing has been done. Don't we have at least a clue?" Emp asked them next.
"The origin point of the creeping decay has been discovered and thoroughly searched but there was nothing there."
"At least that's what we thought until some scholars hypothesized that the place might have been the site where Cloudsburg has been buried."
"Cloudsburg?" Emp asked in confusion.
"Yes, it's the city spoken about in the death seer watch. Using plenty of old records they estimated where it should have been and discovered that the decay originated from there. The site was dug out and they confirmed that a city was buried there." (1)
So this was all caused by the man who had the watch in the story? But it didn't make sense.
"Why could that curse spread on its own after all this time? Wasn't it only the water that was poisoned? In that case, people should have died in droves just by drinking from the wells."
"Your excellency is right, many others discarded the idea. People are indeed dying from the decay but too slowly to be the same thing than what affected the city of Cloudsburg centuries ago. There was no mention of it affecting plants either but this new decay seems to mainly target them."
"Humans can catch the decay too like a sickness but we don't know how it spreads, it seems to affect people at random. Those contaminated slowly start loosing their strength as if they were overusing a self-magic until they collapse form exhaustion and eventually die from it. The healers haven't found a way to cure them yet and it's not a priority since thankfully, only a few seems to get infected."
Emp thought it was really a strange disease. Only a few infected, doesn't spread nearly as fast as it does with the plants. What could be the cause?
"Going back to the buried city. There was nothing interesting to be found there. There were no unnatural signs, the city was still buried properly and nothing happened when they dug their way into it. None of the workers contracted the decay either. There is nothing abnormal with this place, at least in the current age. I heard they even had a slave drink water pulled from there and he ended up fine. Whatever took the city back then, it doesn't exist anymore."
The two generals ended their story with a frustrated expression. That was all that they knew, that was all that anyone knew.
This whole thing was very strange. If it had nothing to do with the city, why did it all start there this time? What was going on? He felt frustrated that there were no clue after all this time of searching for an answer...
A thought suddenly wormed its way inside his head. He had a way to find out what was happening.
Emp shoved his hand into his bag and pulled out the book of answers. He placed the massive tome on the table over all the maps while everyone looked at it with a perplexed air. Only Celtine knew what he intended to do and smiled brightly.
"What's the cause of the decay spreading in Greenpeaks?" He asked out loud before flipping open the book.
"Your excellency, what are you doing?" Varance Paroicier asked.
"I'm looking for the answer." Emp answered calmly as he looked at the short sentence written on the page. "A man is preparing a large scale necromancy spell."
That was what was written on the paper.
Confusion and unrest spread across he room.
"What let's you infer such a ridiculous thing?" Someone gasped in astonishment.
That sort of remark would have offended most nobles but Emp didn't mind it.
"I'm not inferring anything. I just read the answer the book gave me. You see, this book is a treasure given to me by the god Sage himself. It can answer any question I ask it."
His words shouldn't have been easily accepted and any normal person would have shot him a dubious look but he was a Muracier. It was inconceivable for them to think that he would lie, it would be even less reasonable if it was about the current subject.
Instead, many in the room felt awed and some even dared ask him to hurry and ask where that necromancer was. Emp did but the answer disappointed everyone, it was a real let down.
"The necromancer is somewhere in the mountains of Greenpeaks."
Some of the guys felt betrayed after expecting so much from the book and general Paroicier almost fell of his chair from the cheer nonsense.
Emp couldn't help it however, the book was so often a let down that it wasn't even surprising to him anymore. He could probably try to refine the question to get something more precise but it would likely take some time.
"So this whole catastrophe would be man-made? Who would dare do such a thing in our empire?" Averton said in disgust.
"Whoever he is, he must be found and stopped. If the book his excellency brought is right, this national disaster is only a preparation. I dread to think of what would happen if he was allowed to finish." Paroicier added.
"Then could you tell me next about how we're organized and how the operation was going up to now. I need to know the whole plan so I can help adjust it to find the culprit." Emp told them.
The two men agreed and explained in details how their troops where deployed, how much supplies they had and how they distributed it up to now. They told Emp about how they planned to deal with the bandits, how they planned on escorting the citizens out of the kingdom and so on. Again, they showed him the map and placed all their troops on it and their planned routes along with food they carried.
They had quite a lot of troops but they were mostly unmotivated. They all knew that what they were doing wasn't all that helpful. Chasing starved bandits wasn't a task the soldiers found worthwhile and delivering food was even less so. There were many talks going around comparing their current jobs to escorting small time merchants and the gloomy landscape didn't help.
Emp was sure they'd cheer up a bit once they heard about the necromancer. Being able to pin the current suffering of a whole kingdom on someone and being told to go hunt for him would be great for their moral. They'd finally feel like they were useful.
Until they found him however, they'd still need to remove the bandits popping up everywhere. General Paroicier took his time to show all the spots where bandits had been recently seen as well as the many places were some disturbance had been reported. The soldiers would have to take care of all of that because the knights had their hands full.
"Then, I only have two last questions. Are we lacking in anything aside from the wood you sent people to gather and where do you think my recruits should go?"
"Well, knowing that there is a necromancer and that he is hiding in the mountains, I suggest we move further into the kingdom and deploy our forces across the mountain range. We have to spread as wide as possible to execute the villain as quickly as possible. We should all hunt for bandits on the way and leave the smaller bandit camps to the recruits to let them practice. That is what I would do." Paroicier suggested.
Averton shook his head from the side and proposed something different.
"I disagree, the mountain range is too wide, even if we had all the armies of the empire, we would not be able to search it all in a reasonable amount of time. The mountains need to be combed since we're looking for a small amount of people. We need to regroup at a single point and proceed in an orderly fashion while leaving nothing unchecked. I do agree on the recruits however, the larger bandit groups should be left to more experienced units to minimize casualties."
Emp still didn't know exactly who the two of them sided for but from this, he understood that they weren't willing to blindly agree to the opinion of the other. The two started to argue with one another to decide who had the best plan but Emp interrupted them both.
"I understand the views of both. We need to be swift to limit the already consequent damage but if we go too fast, the man will go through the gaps in our search. I think we should regroup near the point where the decay originated and search the mountains closest to there. He must have set up something there at least in the beginning to start his spell, he might not have strayed far if he needs to sustain the magic.
I propose we map out a grid and assign a legion to each place, we'll cross the squares as we go and our troops won't all be stuck in each other's way. I think this is a fair middle ground to your two ideas. Supposing he's close to where we expect him to be, finding him shouldn't be too long and we won't have to comb the whole mountain range."
The two generals thought about the idea for a short moment and both agreed it was a reasonable assumption and middle ground.
"Good, then let's do that. I also want every Vaelian in Greenpeaks to be recruited in our search." Emp added.
"My lord general?"
"Your excellency?"
The two men seemed puzzled. As expected, recruiting cursed-bloods wasn't in their habits.
"Considering the terrain, our troops will have a hard time moving freely in the mountains. I have no doubt they can follow paths but what if our man is a good mountain climber? He might hide someplace our men will have a hard time to reach and looking everywhere this way will drastically slow down the search.
This is an emergency, a whole kingdom is crumbling, we don't have time to take half measures. I say that everything that can fly should be put to use, I'm willing to put a huge bounty on the head of the necromancer so that the death-seekers will help too."
"Your excellency! I can agree that the Vaelians might be useful but hiring the death-seekers will only make things harder on us. They'll start cutting heads left and right without proofs in an attempt to get the reward. The chaos this will cause will be damaging for our progress." General Paroicier objected.
Emp understood what he was fearing and yielded on this point easily.
"I had not thought of that. Not everyone is as honest as a Muracier. More hands would be useful but you are right, the disruption is not worth it."
"We could still have the existence of the necromancer advertised and called everywhere to raise awareness. Some death-seekers in search of glory might still join the search willingly despite the lack of reward. Most of them are used to going in hard to reach places and would be invaluable for us. If they catch him before us and the decay stops then we'd still have fulfilled our objective." Averton proposed.
Either he wanted a death seeker to steal the merits of stopping the decay from Emp or he just wanted to help the kingdom as quickly as possible. Either way, Emp didn't care because his idea was good.
"Then let's make it so. Have messengers relay everywhere that I personally demand for all individuals able to fly including Vaelians and other cursed-blood to join us for the search. This is mandatory for the good of the kingdom but be sure to also tell them that they will all be compensated for their time and efforts. Ask for the Laomillians too while we're at it, their great jumping abilities will be just as useful. Have the cause of the decay exposed everywhere too. I'll leave the exact content of the declaration to you two because I'm not good with speeches."
"Understood."
The two generals bowed their heads and everything started to move quickly. It had been a desperate struggle to feed the population up to now but from now on, it would be a race against time. Who knew how far the decay would spread and more importantly, who knew what sort of necromancy needed so much preparation and space to set up?
With that in mind, a petty quarrel between Emp and Graube could wait. Emp knew what the priority was and hopefully, the two generals knew as well. It would be really frustrating if they tried to cause trouble at such a time.
Celtine expressed her own worries to him with a note.
< Maybe you should not have shown the book to them all. Now a rumor will spread that you could have told the army what was really happening years ago but didn't for personal reason. They'll say you waited this long to make your achievement of stopping it all weight more. They'll say you let everyone suffer for your own gain. >
This was false of course, he just never thought of it before because he wasn't directly involved but he could understand how such a rumor could spread easily. Emp decided to trust that people would be able to separate the truth from the nonsense. Time would tell if he had done the right thing.
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(1) (The death seer watch was a short story at the end of ch50: Lucky tavern, drunk friends.)