"- we consider it an honor to help you rebuild." Donovan wasn't exactly dozing off to their introductions, but he most certainly wasn't paying attention either, instead focused on a portion of the screen describing the 'basic' principles behind interstelr travel by way of Split. He only tuned back in at the end.

  "It is a pleasure to meet all of you. My name is Diana Helmsguard, and as much as I would have liked to make this first conversation of ours a face to face one, the urgency of our situation precludes such a situation." Diana prefaced her personal introduction with a brief apology about the awkwardness of a radio conference, having committed the names and voices associated with them to memory. "I do not know if Donovan already told you, but I am to be in charge of the more human elements of our little nation building projects. Personally, I would appreciate it if you could remember who should be the recipient for which types of question or projects. Donovan for anything regarding engineering, yout, or doctrine; Arc for production, timetables, or number crunching; and myself for culture, politics, or diplomacy."

  "Of course, Lady Diana." It seemed like Archbishop Envers was still in charge of the show on their end still.

  "Perfect!" Diana suppressed the desire to yelp at Donovan for pressing into a sensitive spot by digging her heels into the sides of his chest, which had little effect. "If you don't mind, I would like to skip the summary of what you discussed with Donovan and dig my teeth into the topic I seem to have interrupted. I believe it was something to do with a surplus?"

  "Ah, yes, that." Envers almost sounded annoyed by it. "To be brief, we find ourselves in the unfortunate position of having an excess of funding that we can neither discard or destroy, but having it sit around is troublesome as well."

  "I'm sorry, I'm not sure I follow." Diana had no idea what kind of situation could possibly make 'surplus funding' a problem for any government of any appreciable size. There was always something a government could be doing if they only had a little bit more money. "You have a surplus in your coffers . . . and that's a problem?"

  "That's - ugh, Adiren?"

  "I suppose I should begin by asking whether you would like the longer or shorter expnation?" Adiren, whom Diana gathered to be the head of state finances, intervened immediately upon Envers' request.

  "I believe a more complete expnation would avoid further confusion."

  "Very well." Adiren cleared his throat in preparation for what would likely be a lengthy monologue. "As I am told you are already aware, our country is facing something like a crisis of faith, the specifics of which I will summarize with the general idea that the people no longer believe they have been presented the opportunity to find salvation. In essence, they cannot see a way in which their actions may better the lives of others in a substantive manner, and have thus grown restless. Doctrinally, there are two primary methods through which 'salvation' is achieved.

  The more diplomatically sensitive of the two, 'sughter', usually involves engaging in hostilities against a power that is victimizing another. I should say that 'sughter' as used to describe this method does not have to involve killing, and does not have to involve war, however you might imagine that opportunities for one to protect the victim of a violent crime are quite rare in a nation where such criminal acts are usually unheard of, and where everyone else is also waiting to pounce on such an opportunity. As such, the only time this method of salvation is employed on a rge enough scale to be relevant to the general popution is during times of war, of which we are generally quite hesitant to start given our . . . unique diplomatic situation.

  The other method of salvation is 'service'. In simple terms, 'service' involves performing acts or providing resources that better the lives of those in a far less fortunate position. Now, this one is quite a bit more vague and interpretable for most seeing as there are a great many ways one might consider a life to be 'improved', however it has become increasingly difficult for someone in our domain to consider themselves to have improved another's life for a multitude of reasons. While I won't cim we have eradicated poverty or anything of the like, we have definitely reached the point where it is difficult to say that further improvements satisfy the perceived requirements for salvation.

  To wrap everything up in a neat little basket - the people believe there aren't enough opportunities to reach salvation being provided through 'service' alone, and are beginning to cmor for 'sughter' as an option once more."

  "That's . . . interesting. What does that have to do with a surplus though?" Donovan didn't really have an opinion on religious customs so long as they didn't conflict with his moral standards, but he did honestly find the strange dichotomy of achieving 'salvation' to be interesting.

  "Well, I needed to provide some level of context as to why we find ourselves with an excess of funds. Lady Diana requested the long expnation after all. If I may continue, the second method of salvation, 'service', was construed by one theologian a long long time ago, around the time of our introduction to the gaxy if my memory serves me correctly, to not require an action to be taken in the present in order to achieve salvation. After all, the text from which the method was derived explicitly states that performing acts or providing resources, the tter part being key in his interpretation, are necessary to achieve salvation through service.

  His supposition was that, during times of peace and plenty, when the suffering of peoples was minimal and no opportunity to substantially better another's life could be found, it would be nonsensical for those living in that time to be uniterally denied salvation. He reasoned, quite rightly I might add, that this sort of situation was the very world Holifel wished to create with his teachings, and that current interpretations of his writings must have missed some key passage or phrasing that covered this eventuality, something not missed out of malice or ignorance, but instead a failure to see from a different perspective. His proposal as to how the conundrum might be solved y in what resources a person might provide to help another, namely that which could persist through time indefinitely.

  He argued that the most probable answer, which I should note was viewed as quite controversial at the time, had to be money. His idea was that a person might provide the state, an entity that persists beyond the expiration of a single person's meager lifespan, a portion of their earnings to be used for charitable acts long after their death. In theory, this would allow the person to 'store' their act of service in an entity that could be trusted to put those resources to good use when the time called for it, and so the Tithe Bank system was created.

  In many ways, this system has been considered an unparalleled success, providing a stable source of funding for such organizations as orphanages and schools and a major source of funds for us to dip our hands into whenever we are called forth by the Arboreal Maiden to aid in the resolution of great disasters. Unfortunately, a problem has surfaced to which we have no solution - it has become increasingly clear that the money being put in to the Tithe Bank is outpacing our ability to spend it. We are approaching ten thousand years of backlog on record, and there is growing concern among the general popuce that the money they and their ancestors offered as tithe for future acts of charity will end up in limbo forever."

  "Ah, I feel compelled to add that this is a retively minor source of agitation all things considered." Muarikyo interjected right at the end of the speech, seeking to crify a situation he felt hadn't been properly addressed. "The majority of the popution understands that the Tithe Bank is meant to be a long term solution to what we might consider a short term problem, but alleviating the concerns of the few who are losing faith in the system would serve to dampen the agitation we are faced with."

  "I see." Diana still didn't quite understand what 'ten thousand years' of tithe worked out to, but it was undoubtedly an appreciable sum. How appreciable would depend entirely upon how many people offered tithe and in what quantity though, her thoughts drifting to a certain pair of global powerhouses which would spend the median worker's annual wage in less than a second. "And you wanted to dump some of this surplus on us? Wouldn't that result in more conflict if we used it in an unsavory manner?"

  "They'd have to find out, and then confirm that the funding we granted was used to those ends. Besides, I doubt someone in your position would engage in wasteful spending."

  "Hmm." Diana started massaging Donovan's scalp. "That really depends on what we consider to be wasteful, but I digress. At this stage I don't even know what we would do with an excess of currency. You are already taking on the brunt of our expenditures, all of which I imagine is coming from the Tithe Bank, correct?"

  "That would be correct. In fact we are scheduled to attend a meeting discussing state finances for the coming season today, of which both tax and tithe expenditures are subjects, and your case is expected to be center of conversation."

  "In that case I suggest we maintain a line of credit on the public record. Anything there might be a problem justifying for Tithe Bank funding we can consider a debt to repay once our economic situation improves."

  "A line of credit? Wait, no, I think the public record part is a bit more interesting here. Why do you want that?" The emotions and intonations weren't coming through the transtion particurly well, however the spacing and content suggested a degree of bewilderment from Adiren.

  "I think it is in everyone's interest that we be open and honest with the people who are concerned with salvation. I still don't have a concrete grasp of how it is achieved, mind you, however I do understand that it is a very important thing to your people. Uh, allow me to break this into three parts.

  The people would have the most obvious benefit, being provided information as to how the tithe of their ancestors is being utilized and having the opportunity to protest an expenditure if they don't think it satisfies the qualifications for 'salvation'. I can't imagine we would do anything that isn't a strictly necessary purchase, but offering them the opportunity to verify this wouldn't hurt.

  For you, dispying the ability to say 'no' when necessary should have a good effect on the perceived legitimacy of this operation, and I can only imagine that the people having a clear idea of what their tithes are accomplishing would offer a much greater reduction in unrest than mere vagueries that something is being done.

  For us, its a bit more complicated. It would give us an idea of fair market value for certain items in your market compared to others, as well as an idea about how our ally and prospective trade partner conducts economic transactions. We would also begin to establish a good track record of repaying debts should a transaction be something not covered by the Tithe Bank, which could have various implications on international and domestic financial interactions a long way down the line. I don't know if you have a simir system or concept, but some of the nations of our past have been proponents of debt or deficit spending, and we would very much like to have that option open should an emergency arise and we don't have enough reserves. Finally, we want to build a positive retionship with the Holifanian Theocracy. This means more than just befriending the politicians and other people of importance, but building a good reputation among the general popuce. It is my hope that being open with them and expressing a desire to not take advantage of the kindness we have been shown - even unintentionally - will impress upon them that we are dutiful and conscientious."

  An amalgamation of quiet murmurs and grunts, neither of which Arc bothered to transte, were all Diana received in response for a few seconds. The only hint that they weren't just ignoring her the faint scratches hidden by the ambient radio static.

  "I believe the proposal sounds reasonable. What say the rest of the Council?" Diana could only imagine that the rest of the Archbishops had finished writing down their thoughts when Envers once again spoke.

  "I believe its a reasonable proposition."

  "I second Muarikyo's sentiment."

  "Same here."

  "I've no opinion on the matter."

  "I think we'll have issues administratively, but otherwise I have no objections."

  "I'll . . . I'll have someone check the feasibility of such an arrangement, but I still want to know why you specified a line of credit instead of a lump sum." Adiren offered one st question on the subject.

  "Uh, is there regution against it?"

  "No."

  "Then why can't we?"

  "I wasn't saying that you can't, it was just a bit odd. Even those with knowledge of the proper use of credit still prefer to have cash on hand. We might possess an elevated standing amongst merchants, but having to contact us and receive payment from our treasury always incurs an elevated level of risk and presents a bit of a headache."

  "Oh." Diana hadn't really considered how 'credit' might work in a system cking digital transactions. Having to collect payment for your services from a third party in a possibly distant location could break an otherwise agreeable deal. "I mean, I expect the bulk of our exchanges will happen with entities within your borders, so it shouldn't be unreasonably difficult for them to be compensated."

  "That's . . . yeah, I suppose it would make more sense to do it that way, at least from that perspective. Still, I would maintain a sizeable reserve of currency on hand if you find the opportunity to use it."

  "Then we will request a sum to be sent for such transactions. Thank you for bringing it to our attention."

  cakeonfrosting