Friends at the Table

I don't know if this device will transmit over this distance, so I'm gonna be brief. This place is just like you said it would be. The Sonorous Academy still stands. The Paladin and the Ranger are here. Phantasmo, no, the Wizard is not, but I must confirm what they claim. I don't understand. I'm closer to the Original Pattern than any archivist or mage has been in ages, but I cannot close the dist...

Prelate, I do not understand. The Northern Exarch and the Paladin walk only on the Surface Path. Why did we not educate them? Why did we not bring them into the Warm Shade of the Son? If we had brought them into His Mystery, they would be able to better sew the north for His return. I defer to you here, in your parish, but do not forget that Exarchs and Prelates are equals under His Eyes. I have e...

Collector-Curator They pursue two patterns. They showed me only the first until today, but I've finally gained their trust! I've marked what I understand with an X, and seek your guidance on the rest. Brackets are lacunic markers, as in Roak's Notation. A Lukewarm Sun, Bowing - X A Room of Seeded Prisms Two lodestars that carries [the banner of the queen of death] - X     One which sees [the old w...

Jer, I write to you in fear. "To be Justiciar," I was told "is to be unwavering in loyalty, determined in diligence, and zealous in the pursuit of justice." I was not told that it would be like herding lions. Couriers come and go with reports and notes. Blood of Fire and Blood of Steel bicker over what I ought do with what I've found: A world, underground. No, not a world. Worlds. They reflect a e...

Semiotician-Emeritus, Something is wrong. I am no great pattern worker. I know a few techniques that aid me in my duty: How to lower the light of an already dim bar room; how to sharpen a blade without a whetstone; how to make voice twice itself. Even to call these 'techniques,' feels false: They are tricks. I know that. But I also know this: The world is askew. There is a simple pattern I do when...

Prelate Springe, Thank you for the hospitality on my visit. Thus far, it has been the only trustworthy thing in this gnarled subterrane. This place confounds me, brother. On my trip to our Lord, I saw things I know have never been true: A vision of the Fallow Traitor's cold city spread far and wide thru the continent whole, except it bore a symbol akin to our Warm Sun's. In another, the sky had be...

Collector-Curator, It took two months, but I've finally convinced Tel and Havelton to see things my way. For weeks, the old man spent the day attending to his dandelions, and dismissing me whenever I ran new apparitive patterns by him. He'd shake his head, cough out a grumble, and rattle on about some absurd, missing component: A "tower of tomorrow's light." The "speaking sands of Rosemerrow." A n...

Living Blood of Fire, As my second reported, and I have confirmed, the first threshold has been sealed. I have walked the remains of that twisted museum myself, through the wing of turned mirrors, under the second sky, past the... chaos. It was chaos there, Fire, nonsense, impossible to comprehend. I reached for a goblet that caught my eye, and when I lifted it, it turned to a leaf. Whatever the s...

Archivist-Collector, Please read this week's classification updates carefully. For the next month, it is imperative that "textile" carpets be subdivided by specific material ("wool," "hair," and "fur" are not interchangeable.) The ban on the classification of actors has been lifted, and new categories have been established. Use "living," for traditionally sentient lives, "breathing" for those who...

Aloysha, War is coming to Velas. Ordenna is coming to Velas. And while I believe in the strength of the velasian people and in the resolve of the church and, as much as I would hate to admit it, in the benevolence of Ordenan occupation, I cannot continue to serve our lord if I need to worry about my family, about Rosana and Benajamin living under the heel of Ordenan rule. Of my actions potentially...

TO: Impetor Fela Malle Living Blood of Steel, I have it. It is at the top of the tower, in a room my soldiers cleared of tables and chairs and old shelves. The room is bare, and it stands in the centre. Forgive me if my handwriting reveals my tiredness, I will set the words alone for clarity: I have it. I spent the last night, awake, watching it and its light was so bright. It did not burn my eyes...

So, listen. I've heard whispers from spies and rumors from stewards, and it sounds like you've got your hands on something really special. Something that could really change the way things have been going for you and yours. And well… Listen, MG, I like to think I know you pretty well. Balion and I won't ever forget what you did for us, and more importantly, that you had very little to gain from do...

Hey chief, This is a weird one, and I almost didn't bring it to your attention, but Carver insisted. There was this guy shouting out near the Westshore-Upon-Scene theater, you know? And these folks, they yell all the time to try and get people to come to their plays, but this was seriously weird. He was speaking nonsense--a bunch of words about plays and whatever, but not really saying much at all...

TO: Chief-Justiciar Qinta Quatróna Living Blood of Fire, you know I write you this at great peril, because it is you who imperils me. But whatever my ambition—and whatever your animus towards me for it—know I hold one thing in greater esteem in myself: Our nation. And I have seen with my eyes a more dire threat to our home than any plague, any animated corpse, any beast. I saw it that night, in th...

Associate van der Dawes, There are actually three distinct sections to the treaty that allows the Golden Lance to operate in Rosemerrow, and I came upon them quite strangely, in three different ways. At first, I received the end of the document, a series of bound pages traded to me in exchange for a collection of measuring spoons. The document did not identify the parties; Presumably this occurred...

Sorry for being so late to announce an off this week but we need a little extra time to make a big special thing a little more special. We tried to make this a fun one for you in the mean time, so be well and see you next week! 

It's been four days since His sun left us, Tutor. On the first morning without it, I woke early--before its light would have graced us on a normal day--and, when I found sleep too hard to return to, I put on my sandals and took to the empty streets of Velas. The soft shuffle of my steps echoed with the other pre-dawn murmurs of my seaside city. The gulls called, and they called for me, so I follow...

Cider-Brew Conveyance  Departure: 2TE,3M / Arrival: 4OL,3M Received By: Exarch Alyosha, Church of Samothes, District of the Sun, Velas Articles of Shipment: Four (4) Large Enhydro Crystals (Smokey, wrapped & crated) One (1) Painting on Canvas (Sun cresting over cross-section of a rabbit warren, rolled) Three (3) Leather-Bound Books ( Manners and Preparations for the Aspirant , Practical Models for...

Do I yet write to an empty room? An empty desk? An empty page? Or do you remain, too busy with your work to respond? Or, perhaps I can lure your eyes from your sense of duty, as I learned to do years ago. Let me try, at least, with another story from my childhood. As you know, the Grand Tour makes endless, circuitous route across the east with no regard for what is below it. Water, earth, air, blo...

Pupil,   Alyosha. I promised you once that I would not ask the question ever again. That whatever our differences, however foolish your faith, I would respect your wish and let it rest. You told me that if I did not relent, you would stop responding all together , and I feared... No. That is not why I gave up on you. It is because you made the case clearly, with strict logic and rhetoric curved sh...

The mothkin do not remember why years ago, they decided to worship the stars of the southern sky, specifically. Perhaps it is because that is the direction the weavers first arrived from. Or perhaps, becaue looking south from their forest home, the they face the sea, a vast mirror that reflects the night sky. Or maybe, some time ago, the living constellations of the south did the mothkin some favo...

There, in hidden village of Old Man's Chin, the mothkin gather around the dry well at the center of town, look to the stars of the southern sky, and begin the midnight sermon. They praise those distant, flickering speckles of white for the light they provide—distant, and safe, yet bright enough to bring the world into focus. They praise, too, the messages written in the sky: Each star a word, each...

Several years ago, Arrell, I made a low shelf of wood and attached it to the wall above my bed. Before retiring to bed, I would draw some water and place it in a glass, so I might reach it in the night were I to awake and find myself thirsty. As time passed, I found myself adding to the shelf with things you might scoff at, knick-knacks, nothings. During an afternoon's walk and study, I might unco...

It's time I leave Rosemerrow, Alyosha. All sorts of cockroaches scramble through this city, now. And while I am used to the cretinous locals--who can blame them for not ascending to their highest potentials in this town--it is the new arrivals which distract and anger. A fascinating thing, refugees. There is no limit to the reasons that drive them from their erstwhile homes: War, famine, disease,...

The library kept by the New Archives here in Velas saw its final day, Arrell. I walked past its corner today, and it was gone, vanished. Does that make you happy? That their presence in this place was destroyed? I'm sorry, teacher, the quill and ink make me bitter on days like this. The storm has grown strong today, and though I never visited that library, I went out of my way each day to walk pas...