Chapter 110: THE PRICE

DIANA’S POV

Valence began negotiations with a table full of numbers.

Diana preferred that to apologies.

Numbers could be checked.

The senior commissioner sat opposite Raigoro in Government Terrace with two treasury representatives, a treaty lawyer, and Lady Jessa’s diplomatic secretary.

Blackharrow’s side included Daric, the treasury master, Master Enric Marlon for Household Relief questions, a treaty clerk, Diana, and Raigoro.

The restitution ledger remained open between them.

There were no ceremonial decorations or musicians, no attempt to pretend Third Watch had become less ugly because the chairs were polished.

The Valence treasury representative presented the proposal.

"Valence accepts financial responsibility for several historic shortfalls."

Raigoro waited.

The man placed a document on the table.

"Delayed grain deliveries, replacement purchases, emergency transport expenses, and specified shortages can be settled according to documented value plus agreed penalty."

Blackharrow’s treasury master read.

"Market adjustment?"

"Included."

"Transport?"

"Where Blackharrow purchased replacement supplies itself."

"Interest?"

The Valence official hesitated.

"Negotiable."

Daric made a note.

Diana did not need to see it to imagine the word.

Convenient.

The first section made sense.

Grain that should have arrived years ago could not now travel backward through time. Blackharrow had spent its own money replacing what Valence failed to send.

Money could repay money.

The difficulty began on the next page.

The commissioner said, "Valence also proposes converting selected future obligations into a standing financial contribution."

Raigoro looked up.

"Which obligations?"

"Some troop requirements."

The room quieted.

"Some engineering commitments."

Blackharrow’s treasury master stopped reading.

"Selected logistical support where direct Southern deployment may be less efficient than allowing Blackharrow to purchase equivalent capacity."

Equivalent.

Diana looked at the word.

Raigoro leaned back.

"Can Blackharrow purchase a trained infantry company tomorrow?"

The commissioner paused.

"Not literally tomorrow."

"Then payment received tomorrow is not equivalent to the company tomorrow."

The treaty lawyer spoke.

"Your Grace, military planning operates across longer periods."

"How long does recruitment take?"

Nobody answered.

"Training?"

The commissioner looked toward the military representative.

Raigoro continued.

"Mountain road engineers?"

The Valence engineering representative answered this time.

"Months for a reliable team unfamiliar with Blackharrow conditions."

"Yes."

Raigoro touched the proposal.

"You are asking me to exchange prepared obligations for money."

The commissioner said, "We are asking for modernization."

Daric’s pen stopped.

Diana suppressed a smile. The word would annoy him for weeks.

Raigoro did not raise his voice.

"Third Watch did not fail because Blackharrow lacked money."

The room went quiet.

Diana looked down at the ledger and remembered the labels.

VALENCE GRAIN.

VALENCE MEDICINE.

VALENCE WARD MATERIALS.

Empty shelves waiting for things that had not come.

Raigoro continued.

"We needed medicine already prepared and moving north."

He turned one page.

"Engineers who already knew the work."

Another.

"Soldiers already obligated to stand the line."

The commissioner folded his hands.

"And financial restitution now acknowledges those historic failures."

"Yes."

The answer seemed to surprise him.

Raigoro had no interest in refusing useful money merely because anger made refusal satisfying.

He touched the future conversion proposal.

"This is different."

The treasury representative said, "Blackharrow already maintains the strongest permanent force near the Gate. A standing payment may let you expand your own capacity more efficiently than rotating Southern troops."

"Sometimes."

The man relaxed.

Raigoro continued.

"But that does not make every obligation interchangeable."

He pointed toward the road-access provision.

"Money does not keep a Southern pass open when a Crown closes it."

Then the medical reserve section.

"It does not produce medicine during a shortage if every supplier is already committed."

Finally, the troop schedule.

"And money does not become a soldier because a treasury ledger assigns the same value."

Diana looked at him.

The simplicity made the line work. No speech or performance for Valence. Only a fact.

The commissioner said, "Then perhaps historic restitution and future treaty obligations should be negotiated separately."

"Correct."

The treaty lawyer made a note.

Discussion moved.

Some historic material failures could be reimbursed. Permanent road-access obligations remained actual access. Minimum engineering deployments remained trained people. Supplemental capacity might become financial under defined conditions.

Troop numbers could be reviewed, but the existence of the obligation could not be replaced by money.

Nobody looked satisfied.

Then Diana reached the compensation totals.

One large number covered Blackharrow’s military losses connected to Third Watch.

She read the attached categories: replacement supplies, emergency transport, barracks damage, medical expenditure, additional manpower.

Buried near the bottom:

DEPENDENT AND CASUALTY SUPPORT.

Diana paused over the line.

All the families, the wounded, and the people still living with consequences had been folded into one line inside state military cost.

She wrote and slid the slate toward Master Marlon.

DO NOT PUT FAMILY LOSSES INSIDE GENERAL MILITARY COST.

Master Marlon read it and passed the slate to the treasury master.

The document moved to Raigoro.

He read before looking toward Diana.

"What separate categories does Household Relief already maintain?"

Master Marlon answered.

"Dependents of the dead. Long-term wounded. Exceptional medical assistance. Housing support. Several individual categories created after Third Watch."

Raigoro looked toward the treasury master.

"Why are they collapsed here?"

"For settlement simplicity."

Simple for whom?

The Valence commissioner said, "Your Grace, military-family support is normally a domestic Blackharrow obligation."

Diana wrote:

THE FAILURE WAS NOT ENTIRELY DOMESTIC.

The commissioner read and chose his next words carefully.

"No. But not every casualty can be assigned directly to delayed Valence support."

Diana nodded.

Correct.

She had no interest in inventing causation simply because grief wanted a guilty name.

She wrote:

THEN DOCUMENT WHAT CAN BE DOCUMENTED.

Raigoro read.

"Yes."

The treaty lawyer leaned forward.

"That requires individual review."

Diana nodded.

Valence wanted the convenience of one number after failing people one person at a time.

The commissioner said, "Potentially hundreds of files."

Master Marlon answered before Diana could.

"Then perhaps the settlement should require work."

Daric looked down at his papers.

Diana suspected that was safer than allowing the commissioner to see his expression.

The treasury representative asked, "Who determines causation?"

Diana wrote four offices.

MILITARY.

MEDICAL.

TREASURY.

LEGAL.

Then she added:

RELIEF HELPS THE FAMILY THROUGH IT.

Master Marlon nodded.

"Household Relief should not decide medical or military causation. We can make sure people know what records exist, what documents they need, and where the claim goes next."

The Valence lawyer considered the slate.

"A joint claims mechanism."

Diana waited.

"Individual awards would still require evidence connecting a specific loss to a documented Valence failure."

Diana nodded.

She wrote:

AND THE AGREEMENT STILL ACKNOWLEDGES THE FAILURE.

Raigoro read.

"Separate the questions."

The lawyer looked toward him.

"Individual compensation requires individual evidence. Collective restitution can acknowledge documented treaty failure without pretending we know which missing crate caused which wound."

The Valence lawyer considered that.

"Different burdens of proof."

"Yes."

Diana wrote:

NO DUPLICATION.

Then:

NO ERASURE EITHER.

Raigoro read both.

"Draft it."

The commissioner looked toward him.

"We have not agreed to the mechanism."

"No."

Raigoro closed the current proposal.

"You have agreed there is enough of a problem to put one on paper."

The commissioner considered that before answering.

"Yes."

By evening, they had the outline of a process rather than a single number.

Diana added one more provision.

PRIOR BLACKHARROW AID DOES NOT CANCEL ELIGIBILITY.

The treasury representative frowned.

"If Blackharrow has already paid the household, Valence should not pay the same amount again."

Raigoro looked toward the treasury master.

"Then offset only where the same specific cost has already been reimbursed."

The treasury master nodded.

Fair.

Diana could live with fair.

The commissioner gathered his documents as the meeting ended.

"We will return a draft mechanism tomorrow."

Raigoro nodded.

The Valence officials began collecting their papers.

Diana remained long enough to watch Master Marlon separate the claims records from the general restitution ledger.

Individual compensation would require individual evidence, while the larger treaty failure would be acknowledged separately.

Messier than one settlement number.

More accurate.

Diana preferred accurate.

A junior household clerk entered before the room had fully cleared.

"Your Grace."

Diana looked up.

The clerk carried several sheets marked with the Household seal.

Mistress Hale’s handwriting appeared across the top.

FORMAL VALENCE RECEPTION.

Diana took the first page.

Arrival acknowledgments, music, working supper, formal court sequence.

She was ready to hand it back when she reached the line near the bottom.

GRAND DUKE AND GRAND DUCHESS: OPENING MARRIED SET.

Diana stopped.

Across the room, Raigoro was speaking quietly with Daric.

He had not walked beside her after meetings for days, remained beside Vharos once usefulness ended, or asked one unnecessary question since she wrote Selena.

At the formal reception, in front of Valence and half of Blackharrow, the musicians would wait for the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess to open the floor together.

Diana looked at Raigoro.

He did not look back.

The clerk asked, "Your Grace?"

Diana lowered her eyes to the program.

In two nights, the entire Great Hall would find out whether Raigoro crossed it toward her.