The strain of the past few years is showing on Matthias. He speaks in a cold voice, but one with an edge of desperation.

This is Madness! Churches and Cathedral burned! Members of the Diet taking delight in the destruction and rebellion that is going on about us! Yet there is still no word from the Kaiser. He is fiddling in Constantinople while the Reich burns!

I oppose Unification. Our effort to unify Churches and Empires has accomplished little but rebellion, arson and chaos. What has been severed cannot be rejoined, to try is folly and only invites the dire events we see before us.

But I also oppose these Lutherites and those who support them.

Matthias's gaze bores in on Fritz.

Their actions might stop Unification, but only because there won't be anything left to join on either side. They think they are "saving" the Reich, but in fact they are only destroying it. What use is that?

This cannot continue. If this rebellion is to be put down, unification must be halted. We cannot stay on this path, or our Great Empire will be lost.

It sickens me to do this, but I call for an Emergency Session. Kaiser Siegfried must be removed from the Chancellorship, Unification halted, and the full force of the Reich brought down on this rebellion. I hope if Peter and Tancred hear of the Session they will halt their advance, but if not, they will soon be shown the error of their ways.

The Rule of Law must be reimposed, against all who set themselves against it. Without order, without laws, we are lost.