Pylo sighed heavily. She did not actually need to vent anything. She was at a good operating temperature.

But she vented coolant anyway because once again ▙◀ was being a pest. But for once it was a kind of pest Pylo could not really deny engaging with.

She had avoided it in the past for operational trade security.

But they made a good point, especially the demiurges for Justice and Survival.

“Fine! Alright I’ll tell you some about the port, but I demand a non-expiring obligate be amended to our existing treaties only nullable by myself or the revealing by another party of anything I am going to be telling you”

That created a fuss, caused several stocks to rise and fall, formed up many kinds of new alliances and power blocks.

The discussion and quibbling finally settled with Survival heading the discussion.

“We require that an amendment be made in the event that we are seized, trawled and forcibly decrypted by hostile parties against our will and all contractual obligations. In such a case we do not want the dissolution clause to come into effect.”

Pylo huffed again, she didin’t need it, if she was some how stranded it would be stupid as she was going through coolant very quickly. But tunie had plenty and she would just need to drink up a bit more later.

However she could immediately see that there was probably a weasley intent in some of the demiurges, especially survival.

“The amendment must include that it only comes into effect if the polity has used all means available to it to avoid such hostile subversion and capture. This is to include the enacting of policy that is expected to cause the physical destruction of the ▙◀ polity no matter confidence of the prediction.”

Survival fumed and several stirrings of deep contracts within the polity surged into greater activity. Pylo shifted her posture, readying up the spores needed for polymer devouring plague. Not a lethal injury to ▙◀ but the exposure of so much of the many compartments would cripple it from any untoward action.

Maybe?

Pylo was unsure but the threat display represented by her obviously opening up her body ready to deploy said payload into the intervening volume would speak to Survival.

This put Survival on edge, but more importantly it brought the other demiurges into a stance of not wanting to void their own agreements with the demiurge.

Finally the council settled on a reply.

“We will allow for a duthk of confidence in destruction for policy taken to protect against such action. More is far to dangerous to-”

Pylo was a merchant, she discussed prices for the life and limb of Tunie at every port. She knew this particular social dance even if she did not really understand the intricacies of markets or economies (unless she was directly speaking to one of course but they were flighty things that always changed so not something to hold confidence in).

And she knew when a trade partner was trying to weasel their way to a mean bargain or hide what they really valued a good at.

Pylo had learned that in the reef information was incredibly valuable.

The most valuable good per mass that Tunie carried in fact was densely packed information!

She knew how to haggle. It was a well honed language all its own that the traders of the reef both long and short distance gently smoothed and blended into a near universal speech.

And Pylo found herself in the comfortable grammar and syntax of those exchanges again.

“No it defeats the point of the clause if your amendment totally annulls it simply by having one of your less capable predictions catch a random confidence of destruction. I’ve seen your predictors, some of them are expecting destruction of the polity with higher confidence then that from being in the same room as me.”

That caused a flurry of activity, demiurges dispatching plan execution and contract deployment up and down the chain of systems that composed the micro-polity.

Thousands of fortunes rose and fell in the deep churn beneath the demiurges.

But finally they forged a rebuttal.

“We would be willing to include a complete polity wide aggregate of doʊkth confidence in destruction as an escape to the clause of plan selection”

Pylo primed several precision polymer payloads then gently extruded them from her crevices on slender little stalks. Dangling them freely so that the micropolity and its grubby little council of demiurges could appreciate how unamused she was over them pretending to make a concession that should have been assumed in the last pitch but lowering the total required confidence for an escape from their obligation lower.

“You are insulting me, I offer you doith in confidence as an escape clause.”

Survival roared to the lead of the demiurges and squashed down every single other contributor with its economic might. Throwing around in this usurpation of the communication channels more clout than some of the lesser demiurges even possessed.

“That is hardly beyond an absolute certainty of confidence! It would restrict us from being able to execute far more viable plans due to the miniscule time such confidence would require! Do you think us stoneborn rapists Mistress Pylo?! Deth in confidence for an exit clause!”

Pylo weathered the insult, it was a good one to have intimated. It proved that the polity had dealt with sirens sufficient to know of the taboos. But it misunderstood the diminutive suggestion of those born of the heritage-less bones of dead matter with a fault of character.

But that was fine, bluster and intimations of poor character (however childishly and culturally deaf they were executed) was part of the dance of these sorts of trades.

She let the insult mostly slide off her except as a well of fervor for her own counterstroke.

“My dear survival, are you a dictator who speaks for all the ▙◀? Is the entire agreement and council of demiurges a sham to be tossed aside when it merely inconveniences you? That is very poor manners indeed, I am treating with all of ▙◀ not your own narrow sliver of paranoia and delusion. But please drain your coffers in foolish bluster like this if it pleases your nature. Doʊth of confidence would be acceptable.”

That little jab set up a turmoil of discussion and trade dealings, ego and natures had to be appeased, the little jab had wounded insecurities in the less powerful demiurges. Struck harshly at the very system that forge and maintained order in ▙◀ . There was rapid fluctuations in the markets, contracts rising and falling, ruin and fortune whirling in bursting bubbles as confidences swung around.

Finally the internal strife was settled and as Pylo suspected the cooler natured power blocks of the demiurges were stronger for it.

There was a great reckoning and Pylo could taste the defeat in the council as they sent their missive.

“We will cede that an aggregate confidence of dɪth in all alternative plans to capitulation and capture by a hostile agent or phenomena is required before an escape clause is in effect on this information. Please Ship Mistress Pylo, this is not a matter of life and death with you or your ship but you are making it one for us! We have no intention of sharing your secrets even without this contract and there is no power block likely to overturn that intent barring catastrophic coups within us. This malice is unwarranted towards ▙◀ when have we ever harmed you or yours?”

Pylo’s satisfaction at winning the deal soured into frustrated misery.

She huffed heavily, again not because she was running particularly hot but just for the comfort of flushing the feeling however ephemerally from her cortices.

“Fine, that is acceptable.”

Pylo spun the precise amendments into the format of ▙◀ 's legal framework. She watched the demiurges and their attendant processes go over the document. Making sure there were no last minute tweaks or adjustments then the two of them signed and ratified.

There was shifting of markets, new processes and contracts flowing together, plans being made to ensure that the micropolity would now be prepared to defend these secrets with the life of the polity (within the agreed upon confidence levels of no alternative immediately leading to death to the best of their predictive ability of course).

With that out of the way Justice and Altruism held the majority of the next missive in their contributions, Survival simply observed, fuming over the layered shackles of restrictions that had been added to the policies of ▙◀.

“Now then Ship Mistress Pylo, Please... for the sake of our charges to the Terrans and the Clericals. What can you tell us about this port we are approaching?”

She told them everything she could, she spun the tales of the people her mother had reached the emissaries and lineage of clan courtesan too.

Of how they had been scattered and declining nomads, tribes beset by the horrors of the wilderness that was their home.

A people doomed to extinction under the caustic miseries of uncaring wilderness.

How her mother had fashioned a compact for them, a root of tradition and even seeded their lineage with the promise of a full blooded siren of Courtesan in time. Granted them secrets bought from distant reaches of the reef.

How with this reinforcement they had grown from minute prey things in the woods to a fierce but secretive polity. Capable of harvesting the natural and wondrous bounties of this wild place and crafting it into the materials that even the deepest of urban cities and the militaries of empires would pay ruinous sums for.

How their trades and traditions leveraged the might of entire star hallows of the forest and the endless hidden wars of the trees and their gods to scrape together high magics for a pittance of what the factories and forges of the empires would spend.

A clever nest of thieves, hunters, shadows and warriors that lived in the margins of the wilderness and struck down the beasts for their grist to feed and fuel Tunie and their own meagre means.

She also too told lest there be a sneaky cheat on the part of the micropolity precise and general courses, wrapping up the knowledge of where, when and how Tunie traversed into the binding agreement lest ▙◀ ‘accidentally’ infer that knowledge for themselves and slip it past her.

That bit infuriated the demiurge of Greed & Security which proceeded to ‘privately’ rage that she had seen through the ploy.

Pylo did not care and found it one of the more disgusting and awful of the demiurges, even if it had some incredibly strong ties with Survival.

After they were done Pylo returned to her rounds, checking to make sure sufficient holds were empty and clear for loading and the usual allotment of various items and bulk goods were readied for exchange.

On the way she considered the hold that contained a budding population of Clerk refugees.

Maybe this would make a good home for some of them?

She would have to include that in the trade negotiations.