On his ship in the Baltic Sea the Duke was standing on the deck with his men, searching for the Swedish coastline... The feeling of floating made him feel uncomfortable. He was used to having solid ground under his feet and he did not like the unpredictable weather on the sea, nore the waves. It was a cloudy day and the wind was rather strong, but the sailors seemed confident that the Swedish coastline will come in sight soon.

Suddenly a sailor announced the arrival of a smaller ship wearing the Muscovite banner. It was not one of those large rigid ships that are build for carrying troops, but one of those that are build for rapid transportation. Still, usually those ships do not get that far off from the coast, so the event itself seemed rather...weird.

Out of all the men on the deck of the small ship a young man came aboard wearing the Papal Emblem. The Duke went mad, but when he approached the envoy he also noticed another coat-of-arms, that of Cardinal Janus Valerius. Suddenly, he became calm and asked the envoy to follow him in his cabin where he was presented with a message.

QUOTE:
Aaahhh! The Cardinal wrote me a message. Please, drink some red wine out of my cup! I assure you its not poisoned. I am extremely sorry you had to travel all the way to Moscow Castle and than all the way to here, as I am sorry I cannot receive you in better conditions, but as you can see we are currently marching to war...unfortunately against the men which wear the same emblem as you.

After reading the letter he went to a window and looked back at the place he was coming from.

QUOTE:
Do you know how hard we fought and worked just to be able to launch ships to the Baltic Sea? At that time I wasn't even sure we will be able to have access to the sea for too long, but now I am so proud that we did and I am proud of my men. They have fought allot and they do not even complain when things go bad. A king could not wish for better men.

He than took to his small desk in the corner and wrote:

QUOTE:
Your Grace, Cardinal Janus Valerius,

I am honored by your message and by our concerns. The Grand Master is indeed an honorable, a wise person and a true friend. During our trip from Lithuania to Constantinople he gave me many answers to my questions and it was with his help that I properly understood the necessity for traveling to Constantinople in order to ask for penitence. That I did and I asked for penitence in the way in which the Church instructs everyone to do and in his unending wisdom, his Eminence the Patriarch of Constantinople has granted me the forgivnes I needed by lifting the unlawful excommunication.

Regarding my decision to break our diplomatic relations with Rome, all I can say is that it was a political act, not a religious one and this is shown by the fact that my letter to Rome made no reference to any religious aspects, but only to diplomatic details. My decision was to break from Rome as a recognized faction, not from the rest of Christendom. I however decided to keep an open door to reconciliation by allowing your Grace's envoys to come because as forgivness was granted to me, I considered it only just that I should do the same. My decision had nothing to do with your people, but only with its leader and with the decisions made by him which in my view were unjust and unworthy of a person calling himself "Holly". I also assure your Grace that I have no desire to shade any Christian blood, no more than the other Christians wish to shade ours and to this purpose I will do everything I can do to avoid this from happening.

Furthermore, my decision to travel to Constantinople was in great part influenced by the Grand Master as well as by my own convictions, not because I was asked to do so by Rome. In my view Rome made the request out of pure zeal, without even understanding the situation. However, the Grand Master, to whom I've told every single detail of what has happened during the Lithuanian-Muscovite war, understood my situation and could advise me to repent in full knowledge of those details. As a pure coincidence, the request from Rome came at a time when my decision had already been made, but the message from Rome was still helpful as it presented me with the manner in which I was supposed to ask for penitence. The details of the entire procession were unknown to me, but after that letter my questions were answered.

Your Grace, I may still be angry at Rome, or more precisely at the Pope, but I see the wisdom behind your words and I incline to agree with your Grace. There is indeed no point in keeping a ban on the Roman couriers and on its knights, when I am only angry at the one leading them. It is not their fault they are being ruled by someone who is misguided and has lost his way as they are only fulfilling their duties towards the one whom they view as their leader. I will follow your Grace's advice and I shall lift the ban, but regarding the letters coming from the Roman ruler, I shall not accept them unless they also have your Grace's seal on them. From this point of view only a partial lift will be made.

I have also sent your Grace's envoy back to Moscow Castle along with a letter adressed to my Chancellory ordering them to allow him, or anyone else sent by your Grace ONLY, access to the corespondence between myself and the Roman ruler. There your Grace will see the reasons which I decided to do what I did.

I anxiously wait to hear from your Grace again!

Yours, respectfully,

Alar I, Duke of the Grand Duchy of Moscow

Having finished the letter, the Duke refused to give the letter to the envoy and instead, he invited him to stay one day and one night aboard his ship in order to rest.

QUOTE:
One less day won't make much of a difference, so feel free to remain here and rest for a while.