"Oh, I seriously doubt you've heard of the Bhvais," he says with a laugh. "But they are a somewhat less mature group who have engaged in frequent tussels with both sides in the current negotiation. Apparently, they thought the recent enlightened attitudes being displayed indicated a certain 'softness' they could exploit and thought that crashing the conference would win them a nice catch of hostages."

He drains his cup and pours another. "Once the dust dies down, I believe we can go back to the negotiation table without much problem. Valen as my witness, they were hardly needing my mediation at all. I think it would take more than this to break things down completely."