[Legates Vellyn Lhyrian & Lujayn al-Farisyya]

[Loops]

C/O the Offices of Legates Vellyn Lhyrian & Lujayn al-Farisyya

Dear Legate,

I write this at the behest of Legate Vellyn, who, on this day past, approached me to speak of rightly cause. We discussed the plight of the weak and the weary, those lost and downtrodden who have been too long neglected.

I understand you have arrangements to see refugees turned towards Arslan. To send them back across the ashen oblivion they once traversed upon a dream of a better life. And though this pains me to see, this sundering of the dream on which Ephia's Well was refounded, that Cinquefoil Promise, that here, where the blessed water rises, we may build a sanctuary for all; we may make a future where our children and our children's children may laugh and play in fields of plenty; we may inspire in their hearts that grace even as the world around us withers to ash, I understand well that this is a political arrangement born of the times.

And so Legate Vellyn asked of me to make a written proposition. Here it is.

There has been no greater champion of the meek and the weary than our Grandmaster Elizabetha d'Auvergne's rosy banner. Long have we campaigned for justice and shelter fair.

Look upon our works of hospitality, industry, and vigilance. We have demonstrated that with a meagre budget of 25,000 dinari, raised in hand, we were able to pitch the Stockade, and provide shelter and alms to so many weary souls. This work, though, has not ended.

No.

It is only the beginning.

And so I beseech you, the Legatesure, to bestow upon us writ and right, resources and reclamation, and your support in expanding these works. Sheltering 10,000 weary souls and more, who will arrive year after year as the ash grows and threatens to swallow this world, will be a task without end. Not only must we grant them shelter, but we must also grant them succour. We will need to provision them with food and dignified employment so that their hearts may swell with pride as their bellies do with grain. Only through this act of nobility shall the culture of Ephia's Well grow from this generation onto the next.

Make no mistake. It will take time to build greater infrastructure, be it irrigation and farmland to feed these growing masses, shoppes and guild halls where they may trade, or schools and galleries where culture may thrive. This investment will not bear fruit in this election cycle. It will not be seen through this month, this year, or this generation.

But we have already begun the work. We, through labour, have pitched and worked that Stockade as a demonstration of our steadfast devotion to this cause.

So I ask of you, Legates. Grant to the Rose a title in your law that conveys the authority to see this task through so that we may not be so easily countermanded by the ever-shifting politics of your would-be successors. Grant the Rose a dearth of funding that we may put towards the next steps in this most important of tasks.

It will not be wasted. We have already shown our commitment to the future. Now is the time to act and change the lives of countless people in our home, from now until that day when we render Paradise anew.

Aeronwy Caddick,
Balladeer of the Lost Hearth