Letters. Angry letters.

[channe]

A letter to the big house on the Calomel farm, ferried by a very proud Otto:

Cinabar,

Of all the peple to go along with my husbund's idiotic plan it was you. You. We have known each other for YEARS since I was toting around a kitchen knife, and know each others sekrits, and you and your familee are nearly part of my Familee in everything but Blood. Not telling me he asked you to kill him? What the fuck? The crossbow I can forgive, it's this that Burns.

Thanks arsehole.

-Agnie

And a nondescript delivery urchin, to Darkenhold:

Ariane,

I really did Try. Being nice. Getting along. Working with you. like Adults. like Friends, like we were once, because I am an adult too and my time in Razasan made me think that I was a Bitch to you and that I was sorry for ruining things especially our Friendship. but since you now apparently feel like my opinion does not Matter at all, whether its with Catch or with the Refyewges or apparently my very own Husband, I'm done. I will see you in the Committee-meetings and otherwise you can stay in your fancy castle. From now on if Aleksei asks you to do anything remotely related to the Eight you tell me first. Like you would a Peer. Like you would a fellow Counciller. Like you would ANYONE ELSE BUT ME. Because like it or not that is what I am. The third. The deciding vote. NOT A FADING VIOLET THAT CAN'T HANDLE SHIT.

Sincereley,
Agnieszka

[Carnath-Emory]

Agnieszka

Of this with Aleksei I told to you what I told to the Governor: nothing. And that it the same thing which I told to every other member of the Council, to every member of my own household, to everybody who was not Cinnabar who was told for one reason only: my need of a second should things go very awry and Aleksei prove capubl of breeching my armour to the point that I was sertain to die. It had to be Cinnabar, it could be noone else not even you and has he explained to you why this is and why it was me that he asked. If you haf not even begun to gess it has very little to do with what Agnieszka Kaczmarek can and canot handle and that it was me that he asked is far from being any sort of complment.

If he has not explained you migt ask until he does and press him until he answers.

Here is another question wich you migt consider: what does Catch do when he reckons himself thretened.

Here is another: does Agnieszka Kaczmarek haf the means to slay Catch very swiftly.

Here is another: does Agnieszka Kaczmarek haf the means to subdue Catch very swiftly and effectifly.

Answer those questions and then you may haf a third: Why, knowing these things, would I alow you to threten him.

Are you really so damn angry that you do not understund that I wud do the same were it Cinnabar, were it the Governor, were it anyone at all that I cared for. I wud hope under such circumstances to recive the same, for no mater that I was blind with anger and consern I still wud not wish to die to a thing which might slay me as easily as blinking and I wud hope that someone migt hold me back until I had recvered some mesure of my senses.



-Ariane

Done with writing this. If you stil haf an anger come morning then you bring it to me. My home, the Meetinghouse. What dos it mater. The first hit is free. Youre owed that.

[BetaFlame]

He did have people that watched where his wife's letters went. He could have probably had it intercepted. But he didn't. It would make her feel better. Instead a very confused urchin that was a god coin richer is delivering a very nice fruit basket to Ariane.

Ariane,

I apologize that Agnie got this off before - oh hell, I couldn't have stopped her with wild horses.

I hope you enjoy fruit. I hope your bones are feeling better. I will heal. I feel less burdened.

Please share with Cinnabar and convey the same to him. I suspect he would burn anything I sent.

-Aleksei

[Carnath-Emory]

Aleksei

Youv nothing to apologize for. This was gong to hapen it is jus the next piece of a convesation we haf had for years.

I am sorry




Our archuitect Ser Duquesne wuf haf me send you his best also aproval off your gift in particulah the dates, the figs and their sose in infloresense, he hopes perhaps you wil come in visit at another time.

Not this week and not the next.

I will tell Cinnabar these things.

I do not want more leters.

-Ariane

[Cinnabar]

A pleasant welcome for Otto, though the letter he bears is more perplexing than pleasing; if he'll wait a moment - cakes and tea are available - he'll have a reply in a short while, and a few pennies for his fine work as courier.

Chairwoman Agnieszka River,

Thank you for your letter.

I fear your husband may have misrecalled events. Or perhaps - it is not unprecedented - you may have reached incorrect conclusions based on limited information, and penned your letter in furious and ill-considered haste. This is an unfortunate habit for one in public office, and one I recommend breaking.

I did not tell you that Aleksei asked me to kill him, because he did not ask me to kill him.

Ariane asked me for assistance in an unspecified matter. Only on the way to meet Aleksei was the nature of this assistance explained, and the details of the plan - namely, that your husband had asked Ariane to provoke him in order to test his control over what he holds. My role in this was to keep Ariane alive through whatever followed.

At one point, having taken a few cuts far short of anything which should have felled him, he nonetheless fell. Having had an account of the recent altercation at the Broken Dagger - which featured a similar fit in which the thing he holds attempted to break free - I suspected his control had failed, and loosed a bolt for his leg in hope of some small advantage in whatever fight ensued and to aid our escape. As it happens the marks in his flesh kept him from serious injury; he afterwards informed us that he had managed to re-work those marks to better contain the thing inside him.

I can only hope that he is correct. You know what Karolinger became. You know that Aleksei holds a piece of that inside himself, for all that he might downplay it. You, above all people, know what is at stake.

As Chairwoman for Defence you defend Myrken Wood. If it turns out that you must defend it from whatever Aleksei River becomes, you will be expected to do so. If this means striking Aleksei River down to keep him from harming another, you will still be expected to do so. The thing he holds has cost us far too much already.

Sincerely,

CC