Frankly, the old hard-bitten whore could go to Tartarus to work as the glorified guard dog’s shit-shoveller for all he cared for her and her insinuations regarding his parentage, but the game of politics wasn’t won by losing your patience. He had learned that the hard way. He had acted… rather rashly to King Goldtooth in the wake of Handy’s death and the debacle of the Fall Festival weeks ago, having said quite a lot of things he shouldn’t have. Ever since then, he had regretted his actions. Trade was closed down on orders of King Goldtooth, extra taxes on his subjects traveling or working in Firthengart lands, retaliatory actions by his own nobles, followed by retaliation by Firthengart’s nobles. It was quickly running the risk of getting out of his claws as escalation built upon escalation and Goldtooth refused to respond to his missives.