Two Missives, Chiefly Concerning Lies

[Rance]

An address obtained from the Inquisitory's volumes upon volumes of information.

A small letter sealed by gray wax, sanded perhaps too much.

Dear Msa. Calomel,

I hope this letter reseaves you well, I am very sorry to disturb you but I felt as though it was necessary to write to you,

You see there has been a great bit of disorder lately that I wish should be clarified by you: when you were assisting the Governor in his racovery, did he mension anything of his Black Hour, of our forgotten extraction from the Golbin?? I do not remember a fraction of it, I would wish to know if you do, and most importantly, if Glenn Burnie said anything during convalessents to suggest that he DID, or that his reaction was any different than the common

If you wish to discuss in person I understand; could that I would I might also ask you to keep this corraspondents as private as possible,

yours,

Glour'eya Wynsee

To Darkenhold, another:

Ariane,

It is essensial we speak perhaps prior to my looking to meet with the Governor. I am undecided on weather it is best you accompanie me or not; perhaps now you have already made a decision to NOT do this, or that you must do this--

I do not regret what I said after what was said to me,

I am very fond of the tome you sent; I could not be more pleased with it, and you will find that this is loose parchment I have written on, not parchment torn from a thing for histories for I could not bare to deface it through any means except the most careful refleksions of ink or coal,

yours,

Glour'eya Wynsee

[Glenn]

Gloria Wynsee,

We are part of a very unique group now. It is not overly exclusive but very few people know what they have once they've entered it.

I've also figured out a difficulty that you are too close to realize yourself.

Sometimes, you know, I walk into the Dagger, and I turn around and I look to the door and I wait.

Send me a missive. Do your best.

Glenn Burnie

[Carnath-Emory]

Glour'eya

It is essential we speak prior to your meeting with the Governor.

You see that "perhaps" has no place in this sentance.

My decisions are made. Our cunversation may change these, your missive did not excepting in that it simplifies. We will speak, and very soon. Of what you said, and of what I did not, and of other things yet, this is a cunversing long overdue and perhaps you will consider, before we begin, setting your disstrust of me aside for its diuration. Many of the most interesting Off course you will do as you feel is right.

-Ariane

[Rance]

The note from Glenn Burnie was folded with great care into eight small sections. She tucked it into the sleeve of her dress for safe-keeping between her skin and a small, wax-parchment packet of dried herbs.

She did not reply.

A day after, another note found its way to Darkenhold.

Ariane,

If you beleave it is disstrust, then I have misled you, it is not disstrust of you but rather disstrust of me that

In Jernoah there is always the rubberwood whip. Whatever has gone wrong you may fix it with the rubberwood whip. It will always fix the same way, it will always resolve as it resolved before; there will be blood, yes, but a thing will always be remedied it by that which has remedied it a thousand times before, it is (people and the society and the function of dignoterries) RELIABLE and Myrken Wood is anything but

I see a hanging man and I think What is it that could be worse, and I hear a Governor tell lies to people and I think What is it that could be worse, and I realize this: There will always be something worse; I believe it is not disstrust which separates us, but that you have accepted this truth while I will do as a single and lone person can to deny it,

Think: Upon visiting it, you would be the Glour'eya Wynsee of Jernoah; I, there, would demand you wait, that you consider, that you heed, for I would be very used to that world, but not you. You would see all that is wrong, it would be a pressure inside your skull, it would weigh like punishing-stones on your chest, you would want nothing more than to lash out and see that things are done DIFFERENTLY,

Even there, you would have got a sword by which to do this thing. Here, what have I got. It is very loud inside of my head. My chest feels very tight. It is no help punching walls,

It is not disstrust.

Your friend,

Glour'eya Wynsee

[Carnath-Emory]

Glour'eya

In Northern New Dauntless

But here I pors to consider this, that the place to which I was born has not even its own name. Northern Dauntless severed its ties with the capital,
New Dauntless, long centuries ago. It harboors no warm feelings for the "mother land" as I hear is the custom amongst other such colony, it does
not look fondly back upon its birth, it does not consider its self an eckstunsion of New Dauntless. And yet the name of this place is yet the name which
was given it by the capital which it despises.

A Northern custom: the babe newly born is not named until it has endured its first winter.

Some times I wonder do I see patterns where none exist. Sometimes, if a pattern's very existance means anything or no thing.

When I wrote "disstrust" I was twelve weeks ago. I am grateful to learn my mistake and for many reasons of which the easiest to write is that It simplifies
many things. There are

No. I am not good for words and worse for the sort that are written rather than spoken, so it is my hope that we will speak of these things very soon; your
place or mine, the choice is yours. You are wrong. You are right. You are under informed. Of these three things I can change one. Until that hour I can
only give to you a list, for that lists are what I am good for and what words upon a page are good for;

Northern Dauntless was its own worse. My mother was never so cruel as to tell me that my life would be anything but painful and short.
The capital's streets were better than Northern Dauntless. The capital's kitchens were better than its streets. Lessons were better than kitchens,
a mercenary life were better than both. E'strielle were better than selling some talent with a blade, the Snowblades were better than that,
until they were not.

Myrken Wood is not better is not worse. Myrken Wood is opportunity. Sometimes here I am very careful. Sometimes I tell Catch No, sometimes I tell my
self No. When it seems there is a storm inside of my throat and the skin drawn so tight against me that it feels it might fly free of the bones beneath,
for I am a very talented murderer and it would begin with walls.

Come soon.

-Ariane

[Rance]

Ariane,

Oppertunitys:
To be lied to
To have my brain meddled with
To see my brother struck with an arrow
To witness young mens whole lives replaced with fantasy
To be labeled like some foreign dog
To endanjer those I care for most
To never know when NO is right or wrong

As the Proctor once said -- I have got a mind for remembering words exact,

We have the right to our minds and bodies, to live as we ourselfs dotermine, and not accorting to those who rule, be they gods or humans or any other censhent thing

That right, you see, is thinning; I am a very attentive student,

I will speak to you before the Governor, this is a guarantea.

Glour'eya Wynsee

To the Meetinghouse came another letter.

Governor Burnie,

I do not care for groups, I also think that lies are poor capital. I have got many things to say to you,

These things will not be said by words on parchment either,

Glour'eya Wynsee

[Glenn]

Gloria,

Giuseppe left me notes. That's telling, don't you think? Of you and of him and maybe of me as well.

As for poor capital, they're a tool with a cost. Every tool at my disposal has a cost. Sometimes the truth weighs less than a man dangling in a noose.

This is Myrken, though.

We all have truths, Gloria. More than that, here, we make our own truths. The ones that we have been dealt are fit for no man.

If you wanted to judge us, you should have arrived five years ago. We've already been judged. Start trying to understand instead.

It took her punching me in the face for me to learn that. All she did was yell at you and give you her own truth. Say what you will to me, but you haven't the ground to call what she said a lie.

[Rance]

Us.

Rhaena Olwak spoke of US, mettled in minds to achief a clear line separating US and THEM.

Agney Kazmerrik sought to define US on that potium. I was not a part. For what, my skin? My aksent? I have forgiffen her; is she too a tool, like poor capital??

When did Myrken become US and THEM and not WE?

Glour'eya Wynsee

[Glenn]

See, this is your problem.

It's a good question. Go find yourself an answer. You would never believe me.

If you don't understand, you'll never be part of the we, Gloria, no matter how much you care.

Caring alone isn't enough here.

[Rance]

He sent the first letter.

And then the second.

Then another still.

In three days, the seamstress had received more letters from Governor Glenn Burnie than she ever had in the past. These missives were scraped over the edge of a table, flattened of their wrinkles, and deposited carefully in a leather-bound tome for histories. The gift Ariane had sent to her had already met a use: inside the book was all that she knew of history, a pile of various parchments and notes sent to her throughout a year-and-a-half of Myrken Wood correspondence. What Glenn Burnie had done now, she realized, was what he'd never done in the past:

The Governor had given her responses most rapid.

Governor,

You have given me nothing to beleave, nor have you given me anything to understand. All is not as it was six months ago, and this, you seem to have forgotten, Giuseppe is little more than flecks for I have watched his clothes burn; your lady is dead, men have hangt, Agney is a scared little farm-girl and you, I think you are broken, I think you are shattered, and like you lie to everyone, you lie to yourself; you do not know Mister Catch, nor me, nor anyone, Letters left behind by a story turned to dust mean nothing,

but you would'nt believe anything I have to say would you??

We speak soon. This is inevittable.

Glour'eya Wynsee

[Glenn]

I obviously was working off of too old information. I rectify that. You of all people should see that.

Some things are immutable save through unnatural means.

Sacred, not scared. My beliefs are few.

From you, simply understanding.

Stop trying so hard to win.

You lose by winning.

And not just you.

[Rance]

Governor,

Is this then what we will do, bikker like children? I confece I have not got many matters of importants to attend to, we may go back and forth and back and forth for it seems this is your most important duty as spokken by the frek freac freaquintsy of your letters;

You may ask of me blind understanding, but you will not reseave it by communicating through riddlework. You demand my understanding but write in abstracks. I care very little for winning, I care for what is right -- we have had months of wrong, many months of it, do you even care to know what it was like here, when you were gone; do you even care to learn?? Or will you hide it behind a great many lies and proceed as you think you ought?

That is a very familiar plan and it did not end well for your lady, for all you harp upon my knowleje of histories it would do you well to remember that one, yes?

She mulled over that sentence. It spilled from her nub like slippery oil, and though a black streak from her thumb attempted to obscure it, the line remained. She concluded:

Where is the man I met fifteen months ago? Where is he, or did I only meet some clever shadow of him?

Glour'eya Wynsee

[Glenn]

Blind understanding is a contradiction. Understanding takes work, not faith. We have enough contradictions and more than enough lazy belief. We have enough blind people too. Always walking into things. Dents everywhere. You're not even taking the time to understand a simple letter. Instead, you're jumping to the conclusions that you're most comfortable with, even if they make you terribly uncomfortable indeed.

[Rance]

The stock of the letter was different this time. More crisp, more firm. The missive was sealed with a dollop of wax pressed by the Inquisitory's mark.

Governor Glenn,

You say so very much and say nothing at all. How am I to understand a man who makes himself impossable to understand.

You demand understanding of a consept you cannot explain, you refuse to answer questions I have written very clearly, I am forced to wonder if you were driven mad in that Golbin. Perhaps in this we are simmiler, you see, for when your lady rained here, I was secluded by my choice, I spoke boldly against the lady's purpis, I papered walls against her name, I watched as my friends were changed, forced to forget, forced to conform, and I had nothing. and so I made terrible choices, bad decisions, poor judgments, and I regret many. Some have forgifen me, others have not.

I understand accountabelity, some scars I have caused in others will not heal. These I carry heavily. Giuseppe did not understand accountabelity either and now? Now he is dust, now he is dead.

You say there is a difficulty you see in me which I cannot see. Yes I am blind, but so are you. Let me write for you what I see of Glenn Burnie which he does not see, for I will not hide behind riddles.

On an underlying page, the letter continued.

What we both are awaire of: Glenn beleaves his lies would allow a great many people to move on. Glenn beleaves he has seen many things which others have not. Glenn beleaves he is smarter and more clever than many people. Glenn beleaves a series of lies will comfort an aleing people though Glenn knows they have been hurt very greatly by lies. Glenn sees there is a girl who is very foolish who does not beleave him. She is ensick ensig insignifocant. Glenn beleaves he will silense her with twisting thoughts and abscure ideas. She is fifteen years old and knows very little.

What I am awaire of which you are not: Glenn is afraid of this girl. Glenn is afraid, his answers are very rapid. Glenn cannot bare to be humbled and she will not stop writing. Glenn is afraid of this girl. She asks valed questions which he cannot answer or does not wish to answer. Before Glenn has not written her much ecksept to please her, but now he writes to prove her wrong. Glenn is afraid of this girl.

Rhaena Olwak taught me mathymatics. In fifteen months I have done many things. Numbers grow as exponants.

You have lost that which is very dear to you. I am sorry for you. But I have only resently gained many things which are very dear to me. I will be loud and you are frightened. In several days you will need to look upon my face, you will see what fifteen months has done, you will see what five more years will do. Do not write me again unless you wish to do something more than waste my time,

Consider this a matter of formal Inquiry and envest investogasion for now I am doing as I ought as a member of your agentsy.

Yours,

Glour'eya Wynsee
Junior Inquisitor
Myrkener

[Glenn]

Glenn is stuck in a bed for at least half the time and is, frankly, bored. Glenn sees a girl who cares, who has intelligence but not wisdom, who is not far off from where he was years before. Glenn sees a girl who is in a world she did not make. He'd rather things get better than worse.

How do you think I ended up Governor, Gloria? I was a foreigner just like you. Just because you couldn't see it so well in my skin doesn't mean people didn't know it. You overestimate that because it's easy. It's not skin color that matters here. It's not appearance. Myrken's small enough and close enough and tight enough that they would know. They always know.

How, then?

Stop assuming.

I'm asking you to understand what I'm asking you to understand.