When the buffalo flees the lion, into the tangled wood, we do not demand it stay and bare its throat. When it is attacked by the wolf pack, and with flashing horns defends its young, until all the wolves are slain, the bear has no right to demand that it offer up its flesh as weregild.
Eleusis came to us with a generous offer, that we should destroy more than a millennium of community and offer ourselves up as food for the gnawing grub that would, in time, metamorphose into a child-Eleusis, and in return our debts would be considered paid. A debt we apparently owe to Lady Gaia, as the heir to Lady Artemis. A lesson, then, from a city: when the debt is cancelled by the person owed, their Heir cannot demand repayment.
By what right, then, does Eleusis demand the giving over of our substance? Cyrene has defended itself from predators, no differently than the buffalo I spoke of. We made peace with Lady Artemis before her noble sacrifice, and continue to defend her shrine in the Pantheon from the continued attacks of Hashan. We are prepared to work to live in harmony with our valley. The sticking point seems to be that we will not destroy ourselves to do so.

Penned by my hand on the 7th of Valnuary, in the year 867 AF.