Every time a ship returned to any of the Sessailaine harbours the captain and crew were advised of both the new treaty and Biort's counsel to prepare for war. A few ships were sent to both Port Mearsby in Grale and to Forsyth to pass the information along to the ships that were offering trader escort. The ships sent to Port Mearsby had returned along with a number of Sessailaine vessels and brought news of war between Grale and Mornan. When this news reached the Council, they called for a War Council. Biort had asked Aeronwyn to join her in a that meeting which would also have nine captains that, under the direction of Thugard, would be sailing to the Island Kingdom.
"The world stinks of war. Good! We have been sailors for too long. The Sessailaine need to exercise!" one Captain declared almost as soon as the meeting began. The others present echoed his sentiments, roaring their approval. Biort looked around and nodded grimly.
"It does. The Sessailaine are a people refined by war. Like a sharp blade, we are honed by battle!" Biort's words were greeted by more shouts and tankard bottoms smashing into the wooden tables as the captains cheered.
There more than a hundred in the large council room. Biort held up her hand asking for silence. In a few minutes, the room was still. When it was quiet, she stood and faced her people.
"This will be different than any war the Sessailaine have fought before," she began. When a few started shaking their heads, she got angry. "Listen to me! You think, because we have never been invaded, never been defeated, that we are invulnerable? Every war in the past was others attacking us. We met them at sea and we destroyed them. Why? Because we are the greatest sailors in the world?" A number growled their assent. "Fools!" Biort said. That shocked them and there was a deathly silence in the room.
"It was because we were fighting for our lives. Even a small cat, when cornered, becomes as fearsome as a lion! We were saving our homes, our families, our way of life. We were defending Sessailaine and all that means. We won or we died as a people. So, we won. They left us no choice and we prevailed." Biort looked around at those in the room. Most of them had spend their lives at sea. There had been peace so long that their experience of war was from stories. "We are all fools," she continued, "unless we can change. You all know that. The ships we sail now are different than the open vessels of our ancestors. We no longer use iron swords, but steel. We change, we adapt and we survive. So I say again, this war will be different. Will you hear me?"
Aeronwyn could see the faces of most of the captains look thoughtful as Biort spoke, then change as they realized she was right. Sailing and warfare today was nothing like two hundred years ago when the Mornanian navy tried to invade the Sessailaine. Weapons, tactics and ships had all changed.
"I hear you, War Leader." Captain Avinder was one of the oldest Sessailaine still sailing and, like Thugard, was well respected by the others. "Tell us what your mind is."
Biort looked gratefully at Avinder. Thank the Gods someone gets it. "Captain. Captains," she said, spreading her hands to include them all, "you know that moot was held to declare the Sessailaine people have grown into a nation. A nation! We have yet to consider all that means but I can tell you it means that the people are declaring their future. A nation doesn't have ships. It has a navy. It doesn't allow its resources to be spent uselessly but plans, strategizes. Captain Thugard, bring that map that Aeronwyn and I drew."
Thugard laid out a large skin. Aeronwyn and Biort had worked for days, meticulously sketching then painting a rough map of the world as they knew it. Thugard had suggested changes as had Cadeyrn and Jerrill, based on their knowledge. In the end, the first flat map of the world that any of them knew existed lay before them. There was the large continent, with Grale, Mornan, Forsyth and the Western Kingdom. There, marked in rough detail, were the islands to the west of Grale that were claimed by the Island Kingdom. The Spires and it's known lands were marked, south and west of the Islander's lands.
