A letter for Aubrey

[VanillaPudding]

Hey Lyrist,

I've been standing in the same place for two weeks waiting for you to arrive to that meeting. Do you think I'm just going to live forever? If you still want it send down a messenger or follow the mist or something. Don't try any tricks though.

- Valeria

[Pandip]

Your killing of Faith has layered the prospect of a meeting with a thousand complications, not least of all is arranging a discreet time and place.

Your actions have cloaked you in a most virulent pox; one that makes it difficult to justify getting close. Similarly, the contract that I wished to have you undertake has become substantively more risky with the amount of attention that is being directed your way.

And, as ever, I am wont to contemplate: What was the price of a Legate's death? Can I even make further attentions worth your while?

We may yet be able to arrange a meeting. Wait for word.


    -- Aubrey
       

[VanillaPudding]

Aubrey,

What's the worst thing that could happen? I might tell you no? I might pass it on discreetly to an apprentice? As for your question, the price and other details of my work are always discreet, you silly blood panther. That's how it works and to betray it is just foolish.

Throw on a black cloak or something and sneak out to Ynis Eilir. The dreamers there keep their secrets and almost no one comes through. Tell Phaedra a secret word for when you want to meet and I'll meet you after it is bellowed.

Valeria



OH  - I'm not surrounded by a virulent pox, that would be disgusting. Also, my friends of the Wyld provide many nice smelling flowers and herbs. You probably spent too long among the REAL FILTH to remember what good things smell like anyway.

[VanillaPudding]

Aubrey,

What do you think I am?
What do you believe you know about me, and why I do what I do?

If you were the scent of a flower, I would be the thorn catching at the skin. Is it morality you think stands between us? Bravery? Courage? Or perhaps the quieter word no one wants to say... cowardice?

You stand in the light while I remain in the Mist. You speak for the innocent while I wait for my gold, and more so that watering of this ashen waste. They call it an experiment and you sing your siren song to a deaf audience, never seeing the waves break at your feet.

We are the same, Aubrey, though we are shaped differently. Both of us are tools, used, worn down, and when we've given all we can...set aside.

I miss people like you... not just for what you do, but for the way you are. Even if I can't remember the last time I truly knew one, and yet here we are, two pieces of something stubborn still trying to grow in the ash. The law will change, and even they cannot stop it.

Two hundred thousand gold, dinari, whatever you call it, and you will speak again. Not with their title. Not with the voice they pressed into the dirt so long ago.....with the one that matters. The one that's yours.I can make it last forever Aubrey.


And..... maybe, when that day comes... I'll still be listening.

I can open the door for you Aubrey, you must walk through...

-Valeria