Royal Crisis, or Urgent Letters to the Councilors

[Treadwell]

Each of the four councilors--Kerrak, Suede, Giscard, and Coriolanus--will have letters left at their front doors this morning, letters slightly bigger than napkins and written on normal parchment, sealed with a pink glob of wax imprinted with a stylized letter "A."

The contents are all the same: a few parchment pages.

The first two pages are simple: a brief letter in the same fat, fluid script of one Richard Aengus--though a tad shakier than usual, with a few more drops of black ink staining spots.

= = = = =
To the Esteemed Members of the Myrken Wood Ruling Council,
Greetings from New Hibera.

I will be brief, sirs. A red-haired man passing through Myrken Wood in a carriage yesterday has abducted my wife, New Hibera's queen.

I am going to do my best to find her safely and quickly. This means my sending out sixteen parties of four scouts and four guardsmen--thus eight green-winged fairies per group--to scour the same sixteen points of the compass centering on Myrken Wood and extending to one mile outside the town's borders, as delineated on the maps in your own Library of Mudd.

This is not an invasion. None of your citizens will be harmed. None of your crops will be damaged. None of your property will be razed, and none of your possessions will be stolen. None of your territories will be forfeit, and none of our flags will be thrust into your soil.

We will do this reconnaissance at night and at night alone, starting one hour after dusk and ending one hour before dawn, for the next week.

If the queen is found, she will be freed.

If her captor is with her, he will be dealt with according to our own legal code.

If neither occurs, and if we are too late to do anything about this rogue's blatant thievery, then there will be no need for any hostilities on either side, and I should hope that future relationships between us will be under better circumstances.

The accompanying document each of you will find attached is a copy of the current existing--and most certainly, I should dare say, still in effect!--treaty of acceptance and recognition from your Anno Regalis 145, our own 676 Aengus Reckoning.

I wish you good day, good health, and good rule.
From my palace in New Hibera,
Richard Andrew Aengus, King of New Hibera
= = = = =

The attached document would take up the majority of the weight in the rolled up pages: a number of pages together, painstakingly replicated to the last detail from an original in the New Hiberan vaults.

(OOC Note: This post and the one below reference post #98 on "Twelve o'clock and all is Treadwell." The second document will be attached in a second post on this thread shortly. --P.P.)

[Treadwell]

(OOC Note to any concerned: This post will be taking a number of liberties with Myrken Wood's somewhat distant past to further flesh out hints from In Character RP that have been mentioned repeatedly; if this information contradicts pre-existing information, please let me know, and I'll fix it! --P.P.)

The other pages of the letter are written in a careful calligraphic script to match one drawn up just over six decades earlier.

= = = = =
Anno Regalis 145
Myrken Wood Meetinghouse, Myrken Wood Province
Raymond Elias, scribe and Councilor of Administrative Sanctions (A.R. 143 to present) for Governor Maxwell Beauregard (A.R. 143 to Present)

Treaty of Acceptance and Recognition: New Hibera

It has been decided in the course of our events that Myrken Wood cannot and will not remain an entirely isolated whole to itself for all of time. As a province of Trae Kelsa, we border upon other territories, they border upon our own, and, we have found in the past year, others have been in effect long before our own might have even been conceived.

One such of the last is a realm of the Fae Folk, who hail from a land they refer to as New Hibera. To their reckoning, their kingdom has been established, either through another location to the west or through the present, for over the past six hundred years. They are ruled by one Richard Andrew Aengus, the third in a list of monarchs from a family of the same name, and a recent mission from his scouts to seek out further sources of food to alleviate recent famine in their cave by the lake has caused a need for acceptance and recognition of one province for one kingdom and one kingdom for one province.

Without recognition of such sovereignty, our very existence on what each considers the other's soil is potentially quite dangerous. Currently, the fairy realm apparently means no harm to the territory we inhabit, and we mean none to them, so in an attempt to enable further cooperation, we have drawn up this initial agreement, as dictated below.

ITEM: The existence of Myrken Wood and New Hibera will be mutually agreed upon from this day forth. The proposed relationship is that of neighbors with mutual respect for one another's realms. The need for such is apparent; to prevent needless bloodshed, apathy, or isolation from one another, we must work together.

ITEM: The kingdom of New Hibera, however, must take into account the size of its neighbors. It has been agreed upon that this initial agreement restricts them to the caves just north of the western shore of Silver Lake by approximately one hundred yards. They have agreed to establish an outer perimeter two caverns into these caves, posting guards at an entrance they refer to as, simply, "The Tunnel." Otherwise, they are free to make use of the resources available within those caves to further their own survival. No domestic expansion to outer territories--such as the shore of the Lake, the woods, et cetera will be permissible without prior agreement from the Myrken Wood Judiciary Council.

Currently, these tunnels are not in use by any of Myrken Wood's citizens. It is for this reason that we of the Council feel it safe to allow the fairies their kingdom there.

ITEM: The Myrken Wood Judiciary Council has agreed to assist, free of charge, the Fae with a show of good faith by offering them necessary food and water to bring an end to their current famine. The amount of supplies given are surely minimal on our part--two (2) large bags of fruits, vegetables, meats, and bread with two (2) large jugs of fresh water. The king assures us that with proper rationing, these should be sufficient for getting the fairies through these leaner times.

ITEM: In an equal show of good faith, the people of New Hibera have, through King Richard's word, promised assistance in the future. This assistance, he assures us, might be drawn from magical means such as healing, scholarly means such as the wealth of fairy wisdom from the past hundreds of years, or even military means if necessary.

With these terms, it is thus initially agreed. This original document will be stored in the office of the Governor in the Meetinghouse. A copy will be given to Richard Aengus of New Hibera for safe-keeping in the New Hiberan records. A copy will be sent to the offices of the Trae Kelsan Crown, a copy will be given to Altruian Mudd for storage in his Library on Thimble Street, and I will keep a copy of this in my own records as the official scribe for the Governor. Further copies are only recognized as valid if they are made totally from one of these sources without alterations. Any copies given to or to be accepted from the fairy king will, of course, need to be smaller to fit them.
= = = = =

The document ends with a variety of signatures and titles, ranging from the aforementioned Governor Beauregard and Councilor of Administrative Sanctions Elias to people filling the other three (still existing) Council positions to the signature and seal of Richard Andrew Aengus of New Hibera--a signature and seal that still match those at the end of the accompanying letter.

The fairy means business!

[Guillaume]

I, Giscard Guillaume, Lord of Lothbury Estate, Councilor of the Myrken Wood Judiciary In Regards To Commerce and Trade, Interim Governor Etc., to Richard Andrew Aengus, His Majesty King of New Hibera:

Greetings.

You will surely understand that I do not have the authority to recognise such action, or to rule upon it; this is clearly a matter for the Council as a single body to discuss. As such, be assured that it will be addressed with all appropriate urgency, when next we meet.

Done by my hand at the Estates of Lothbury, this 6th day of July.
Giscard Guillaume.

[Treadwell]

"Six nights and nothing yet! No carriage, no man with red hair, and no Deidre!"

The first of the scouts for the night has just checked in with Richard after being on the wing for roughly an hour. The pink fairy king sends the fellow back out, and he then sadly shuffles back to his bedroom.

There is tonight, and there is tomorrow night, and then he must call off his formal search, as he said he would. But what of the Council?

He had received word from Giscard. The two of them had always been, if nothing else, on talkative terms. Not a note has come from Coriolanus Helstone, though, and nothing has come from Suede, and nothing has come from Kerrak.

It's just one more example of fairies going unnoticed and unseen.

Poor Richard.

The fairies, he vows, will soon go unnoticed no more.

[channe]

To: His Majesty Richard Aengus, King of New Hibera
From: Coriolanus Helstone, barrister, Councilor of Administrative Sanctions, Myrken Wood Judiciary Council

Your Majesty,

Please let me express my sincere condolences on your situation. I hope your wife is found with all speed and haste.

I cannot speak for the entire Council on this matter, as we have not yet met, but can tell you this: I would not stop you. Please understand that we are under attack -- that we are at war with the drow.

Sincerely,

Coriolanus Helstone, Esq.

[Suede]

Unnoticed, of course not! Suede had received the letter from the Councilor gone fairy. And after reading he'd started laughing aloud in his room, nestled in the chair which he often used to relax in while mulling over books and papers... in the dark or with but a candle or two at most.

When he'd finally controlled himself he'd scribbled several things off the pages and thrown the rest into the quiet hearth to burn later.

[Treadwell]

"There have been no sightings and no words at any time this past week, your majesty. I'm afraid we're out of possibilities."

Richard Aengus stands there in sadness, staring at the green glowing eyes of the fairy guard before him. After a huffy, quivery breath, the king nods his head and makes for one of the various rooms of records, laws, and other such. His hope now is that Myrken Wood will make good on this decades old agreement. Further bad news would certainly not be acceptable right now. Richard soon sinks into a chair and resumes writing. . . something. Another note, perhaps?