A Letter Comes

Dear Lady Astraea,

I am sure this letter comes as a bit of a surprise to you, but the High Initiate Phelps has conscripted your talents by Arian law and the law of the Priest Kings. Your service as a soothsayer has come into question.

You are directed to meet me in the commons of the Black Larl Inn on Avenue D' Turia on the eighth Ahn. If you fail to meet me a warrant will be issued for the arrest of both your guard Aiden Fenius and yourself.

Do not be late, I abhor tardiness.

Castor Minos

“Words -- so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”

-Nathaniel Hawthorne


The letter was folded and set to the low table near my sleeping couch, I staring out the window, my hands running up and down opposite arms, quelling the goose bumps that refused to submit to the warmth of my touch. Up until this point I had escaped the watchful eye of the initiates, they having even gone so far as to shun me as if I bore the haunting illness of dar-kosis. But such anonymity couldn’t last forever, a fact I well knew. Why? Because I had seen it.

Darkness, so thick and despairing it was almost palpable, a tangible tenseness that rallied against the whispering rays of light that cut through the wavering glass, then splintered on the floor near my feet. The dizziness I felt was overwhelming, having to clutch at the window sill just to remain upright. It was curling around me, the tenuous talons of control, bony digits that promised to prick at not only me self esteem, but the very fabric of me freedom.

It was time.

My cloak was gathered and then tossed about my shoulders, its hood hiding the expression of trepidation that lurked beneath. I slipped out of the inn without Aiden’s knowledge, seeing no reason to burden him unnecessarily, or to put him in undo danger. No, this was my problem, one that I would see to, and hopefully, correct. One last glance was given the folded letter still setting on the table where I had left it, before I stepped out into the bustle of cobbled streets and towards the Black Larl Inn.

I wouldn’t dare be late.