House Playero and House Amaya go on a joint venture, attempting to contact the Hallonq smuggling networks to get "a way in". The supplied offers were some mercenaries provided by house Playero, along with Simone Playero's bank account of roughly 2 months worth of rent of a regular house. Obviously, the smuggling networks didn't even bother to approach the Amaya/Playero venture, as Simone Amaya didn't even have one-twentieth of what the smugglers would even consider a financial sum worth talking to, and Playero's mercenaries were not considered reliable enough in comparison to the city's own militia and outlying Regalian garrisons, that at least lived in Hallonq instead of answering to the beckoning call of a foreigner not based there. The group was given a few Pastéis de Nata for their efforts and returned back to Regalia. House Telarel, as Foreign Minister, approached the resurgent Allorn Empire at Tanaar Ivaëlle, in an attempt to meet Empress Talea. After being told to wait for nearly two weeks, the foreign Minister was sent to some backroom of the Allorn palace to meet a low-level dignitary, the Sol of Mavantalon, who was apparantly the only dignitary with a low level of Talea fanaticism enough to want to meet a Regalian dignitary. The Sol of Mavantalon explained that with the Allorn Empire's government re-formed that a lot of pre-conceived notions of prior Altalar states were no longer valid. This was, in essence, given the content and situation, a tacit admittance that the Allorn Empire did not formally acknowledge the Regalian Empire as a legitimate state, on the premise that the Allorn Empire fell before the Empire usurped the Kingdom, and that as such, the Allorn Empire had not acknowledged the Regalian Empire as the legitimate government of the Archipelago, or indeed any of the extended lands there beyond. The dignitary also kept referring to the "Seperatist regions", whenever the matter of now ex-Allorn territories came up in the discussion. The Sol seemed reasonable and kind spoken, but is was fairly obvious that he wasn't giving anything to work with, and wasn't entertaining making any official stances on what the Allorn Empire intended to do. One could have potentially argued that the court of Talea would have even been offended that a non-royal low-level government bureaucrat, no matter how legitimate, was the one to ascend the stairs of the Allorn Palace. Not the Emperor, or even at the least, a Prince. House Telarel never got anywhere near Talea or the Avatars of the Gods, and so further attempts to figure out more about them was fruitless. Talisin Oruisin also attempted to investigate the role of the Cielothar and Avanthar in the new Allorn Empire, but given the scope of the trip was to Irvaëlle, they were unable to find even a single Cielothar or Avanthar in the capital. In fact, there were no Lesara, no Fin'ullen, and no Suvial (and certainly no Solvaan). It seemed as though Tanaar Ivaëlle was entirely Teledden, which made sense since even before the re-establishment of the Allorn Empire, this region had a massive Teledden majority, but minorities had always been present in the past. The absense of Suvial Altalar made sense, since the Suvial were practically at war with the Allorn Empire, but the lack of other Altalar or indeed Nelfin species was curious to say the least. House Delmotte represented the diplomatic ministry as a dignitary to the Foreign Minister. Attempts to gain access as such to the King were declined, however Marcus Delmotte was greeted by the nefarious Comtesse Sancerois Ilvaudain the Third, a radical nationalist and famed general in Ithania. The Comtesse informed Delmotte that Ithania has re-massed the Chevaux du Ciel, and are confident that they will be able to defend the Marche de Nuit, which is more commonly referred to as the Ithanian desert and jungle region that separates it from the Daen land mass. The Comtesse also informed Delmotte that the Ithanian Kingdom had some issues with Allorn radicals, but that these were largely resolved by imprisoning these members into internment camps on the western side of the Kingdom, with long term plans to exile them to the island of Marvantée, on the western coast. For now, the Ithanian Kingdom makes no further requests or plans with the federal government, as the Comtesse poigantly states that this "hardly ever comes without the caveat of squeezing more money from the proverbial rose of the Regalian tax scheme". The meeting is ended cordially, besides a comment that the King would prefer to be graced by the actual Foreign Minister instead of a clerk, before House Delmotte returns home.
