A messenger bearing a letter enters the Senate halls. After exchanging a few words with the Protoasecretes, he is allowed to take the floor.

My Lords,

I bring words from my Lord Methodios Tagaris.

Unrolling a parchment, he begins to read.

Basileos,
Megas Logothethes,
Fellow Senators,

Watch duty on our northern frontier keep me from these halls but I hope my words will carry to you.

These are words of warning.

Some years ago, in a dispute with our actual Megas Logothethes, I argued that war against our Catholic neighbours would surely come and that we had to prepare for it and even provoke it while we had the advantage of surprise with a fast expansion behind us. My word went unheeded and see where we are now ?

In these past years, we have been faced with Catholic rebellions in our western regions and just as we begin to quell those with the loss of Zagreb to account for, the Catholic Pope calls a Crusade on Jerusalem, an offense to our people who are the righteous defenders of this most Holy of cities.

Can't you see that the Catholic threat is growing perhaps taking profit from the fact that our Megas out of single-mindedness and maybe out of spite, has not seen fit to properly garrison our northern and western frontier.

Do you think that these so-called crusaders will leave our lands untouched ? That our riches will not whet their appetites ?

That is why I and some others, and our Basileos among them have taken upon ourselves the task of interdicting our territory to the German crusaders.

And what of their answer ? Threats to wage war on us ?

Our Megas assures us that he has somehow placated the German wrath but at what price ? The price of letting them walk freely on our soil, preying on our folk and our fields...

Are you blind not to see that the so-called rebellion were only a preparatory move to soften us for a full scale invasion that may start with those Crusaders crossing our borders ?

Is there no shorter way to Jerusalem than crossing all of Greece and Anatolikon ?

I above all wish to reclaim our territories from those Turkish devil-worshippers to repay them for the offense that Manzikert was but let us not turn ouor backs to the Catholics lest they backstab us...

The dagger is already out of its sheath and it is made of German steel...

So I beg our Megas to allow for some recruitment in our western lands so that we can parry and perhaps counter-thrust that daggerstab...

Thank you for listening to me.

Signed : Methodios Tagaris.

The man rolls up the parchment, bows low to the assembly and deposits the parchment to the Protoasecretes' desk before making his exit.