[Wids]

Our Dear Allegra Cordom,

I tender unto you an accounting for the appointed tasks and their outcomes:


Dorren Sardant: Dead

Gaiwyn Sardant: Dead

Marsus Vinnbotham: Dead

Bereghel Harnloft: At Large


It would seem that there remained crucial details about Bereghel Harnloft, details which you neglected to mention. As a result of such omission, the quarry has evidently escaped his execution and our assassin assigned to him has mysteriously disappeared.

Pray return to the House of Cyric at your first convenience, that we may negotiate a further accounting of this contract. We are eager to secure your commerce in the future, and we hope that you shan't disappoint us.


Most Sincerely,
Jorin Starknives
Black Talon of the Church of Cyric

[Wids]

To the Estate of Lord Segren Coldwell
From the Estate of Lady Corella d'Margo
18 Eleint


I am grievously distressed and violated, Segren, for when I was away two eves past, someone intruded on my study and rummaged through my missives and receipts! The intruder so far as dared to defile one particular message--received of late from the hireling whom I contracted to aid me with a terrible infestation of pests--through crumpling the message and dripping water on its paper until the ink streaked and dribbled! And I truly needed to reply to my hireling concerning that message, too.

To worsen matters, Anneletta has been missing for well over a day past. I know not how she escaped Forgive my error, cousin, but it now dawns on me that Anneletta was already nowhere to be seen when I returned that scandalous night and found the message retrieved from its hidden nook and ruined, the one message in my study which I would keep Anneletta from reading above all others. And I now suspect that she has not fled my estate after all. I sat to dine and heard little footsteps plodding in the hallway outside, but my castellan assured me that no one was there. And last night, I was stirred from my sleep by scuffing on the ledge outside my window--a window three floors from the ground, mind you--and, leaping from my bed, hurried to the window to lay eyes on my disturbance, again finding no one there.

Many secrets have we kept for each other over the years, good cousin, but even now have I hesitated in sharing this matter with you, grave as it may prove to be. I shall speak with the Captain of the Guard on this matter. I fear that my servant girl has endured past her usefulness, and she has now ceased to amuse me as a plaything. Mayhap the time has come to dismiss her in whatever way forever ensures my own safety.


Wish Me Well,
Cousin Corella

[Wids]

For the Eyes of Captain Rygel Hawkgarden of the Lady's Guard
From the Hand of Chamberlain Ironpate
20 Eleint


My Good Sir,

As you requested, I have assembled a list of all goods which have gone missing from Lady Corella's manor and grounds within the past day:

Missing from the apothecary:
2 vials of scorpion venom (kept on hand to heal injured muscles)
2 flasks of alchemist's fire (used to cauterize wounds and amputations)

Missing from the artisan's shop:
1 masonry chisel
1 hempen rope (25 feet in length)
1 cargo hook

Missing from the wine cellar:
1 prybar (used to open crates and casks)
1 corkwood mallet (used to drive taps into casks and to reseal opened casks)

Missing from the kitchen:
1 bottle of Ruby Pass winter wine
1 small sack of barley
2 large kitchen knives

Missing from the stables:
1 shovel

In light of the crossbow and the quiver of bolts which have also gone missing from your arsenal, I must join you in your suspicions that these goods were not misplaced but, rather, were thieved, and that a dreadful plot may be afoot. No servants charged with these stations noticed anything amiss before the goods were supposedly stolen, and so our thief is likely a clever and cunning person possessed with a keen measure of familiarity with the estate and the servants staffing it.

I have already taken the liberty of bringing this occasion to Lady Corella's attention, and she is deeply concerned. I shall continue to speak with my servants and see what more I may learn about these losses. Though I presume not to instruct you at your own station, keep vigilance for both this thief and the missing servant girl Anneletta, for our Lady frightfully suspects that the two may be the same.


Your Diligent Servant,
Chamberlain Wilgerd Ironpate of Margo

[Wids]

For the Eyes of Captain Rygel Hawkgarden
From the Hand of Lady Corella d'Margo
21 Eleint


My Dear Captain,

My spies have informed me that young Anneletta has joined hands with assassins from the House of Cyric, and that they shall gather in the Lady's Vineyard tomorrow evening at nine bells. There, they are to plot the details of my assassination.

Ensure that they do not prevail. Come that hour, bring to the vineyard as many men-at-arms as you can muster and find the conspirators. Do nothing to permit their escape! If they yield, bring them to justice. If they resist, then kindly put an end to them. I shall remain secluded in safety until I receive word of your success.


Damara Forever,
Lady Corella d'Margo

[Wids]

To His Blindest Omniscience, The Most Regal Beggar-Prince, Exexexes X, Deacon-Esquire of Jolo's Perfectly Ignoble Boarding House
From Siamorphe's Bootlicker, Madame Zenzylina Q of the Discarded Mop, and the Outhouse of Brutal Serendipity
22 Eleint, Yesteryear's Tomorrow


On this solemn day, we of the Outhouse mourn the tragic and untimely passing of our beauteous and beloved Lady Corella d'Margo, who succumbed beneath the crushing burdens of her ponderous guilt and overwhelming despair and, in so doing, chose to end her own life by imbibing winter wine laced with scorpion venom. But when that measure failed to bring a swift end to her days, she resorted to shooting herself in the back with a crossbow repeatedly, pausing only to reload, then throwing herself down two flights of stairs, loosing more crossbow bolts at herself and desperately beating herself with a mallet before finally sealing herself inside her prized wine cellar by barring the door from the outside, then setting the wine cellar ablaze. She perished to the smoke and the flames soonafter. Leaving behind a murdered husband, a disgruntled peasantry and a legacy of self-indulgent decadence, Lady Corella died a magnificent rose cut short in the summertime of her life.

But not all is lost! Bereghel Harnl Oleonor Rex and Anneletta Sardant, our fellows within Lady Corella's walls, assure us that Lady Corella will achieve a swift and full recovery from her suicide within a day or two.

Oh, bother. Did I forget my invocations to the Mistshadow? Well, then I suppose that this missive must be entirely truthful, unless it is not. Quite the riddle, is it?


With Sincere Insincerity,
Z

[Wids]

For the Eyes of Dame Pellance Ironpate of Trailsend, Damara
From the Hand of Chamberlain Wilgerd Ironpate of Margo, Damara
29 Uktar


Mother,

Again have we come to the advent of the Feast of the Moon, a time when Father is never far from my thoughts. Though it is a time to hold our fallen and our forebears in memory, some also consider the Feast of the Moon to be a time of change. And we at the Margo Estate have seen change aplenty, for these two months past have been a time of tumult and scandal, such that Highharvestide came and passed with scarcely a whipser of notice.

Late into Eleint, Lady Corella grew afeart that her young handservant Anneletta had in some way come into the company of the Mad God's church, with whom this servant girl plotted to remove Lady Corella from the board. And it so happened that, whilst the Lady's Guard were away in a vineyard chasing ghosts and shades, an assassin cornered our lady in the wine cellar and made his move! But by Tymora's grace, one of the stablehands had entered the manor to ask her instructions for her next morning's ride, and there he found Lady Corella and the assassin. He struck the scoundrel into a stupor with one of the cask mallets at hand, but not before that assassin hurled a sack laden with alchemist's fire at Lady Corella and sparked a horrific blaze. With his stout thews and his own two hands, Bereghel the stablehand dragged both Lady Corella and the murderous knave away from the fire and out of the wine cellar. Our lady yet clung to life, but her failed slayer swallowed poison and expired ere Bereghel could draw answers from him regarding his sender, whom the Lady's Guard suspected to be the servant girl Anneletta, likely promising Lady Corella's coffers to whomever could see the dark deed to its end.

All too tardily, the Lady's Guard sniffed and spied the smoke billowing from the manor and came running from the vineyard as one, rightly dreading that they had erred in the defense of their liege. A thorough search of the culprit's corpse revealed that he was the selfsame Cyricist assassin whom the Lady's Guard had sought among the grape vines. Captain Hawkgarden praised Bereghel for his valor and his vigilance, even as the stablehand continued to salve our lady's burns and bind them in torn strips of silk and gauze.

The guards then bore the slain assassin away, to deliver his remains to a gibbet in the town's outskirts and thus inform the Church of Cyric that they were -- and are -- on notice for seeking the life of Lady Corella. Mayhap that should convince those mad dogs to cringe in hiding for a while.

Never once did I see Lady Corella's face after the attack, as her head was thickly swaddled with bandages, with strands of her surviving blonde hair extruding from among them. She sobbed and moaned in her every waking moment; her sleep was tormented with incessant twisting and writhing. So I imagine that what burns she suffered were awful indeed.

The lady could speak again after a tenday of rest, but her voice was a weak, soft, rasping voice which sounded far different than it ever had. From the comfort of her bed, she gave her first command since her brush with death: "Send for a cleric from Leira's shrine on Amaryllis Road. Inform her that all is as it seems." I was startled with her whispered demand, as Lady Corella's disdain for the Church of Leira is known entirely well, but I sent forth a messenger as bidden. Within the hour I was welcoming a mysterious priestess robed in reddened brown and masked in silverglass, introducing herself as 'The Eminent Z, Princess of Moths'. I led this enigmatic 'Z' to our lady's bedchamber, feeling ill at ease in her presence all the while, from where Z could greet our bedridden lady and begin her ministrations. Lady Corella urged me to leave the two their privacy, that Z could remove the lady's bandages without compromising her virtue, and I duly complied.

The priestess later informed my higher servants and myself that Lady Corella had inhaled the flames during the assassin's attack, giving the fire leave to scorch her throat and her lungs as terribly as it had marred her face, and that I had sent for the priestess too late for the harm to ever be wholly reversed; to spare her the consternation and aversion of her subjects, she would need to wear a mask of porcelain for the remainder of her life. I am far too seasoned to take a Leiran at her word alone, but it would seem that a bridge betwixt Lady Corella and the Goddess of Illusion begged to be mended, and the proper time for that had come. Mayhap the priestess could be trusted for this while, even if not at any other time.

And just over a tenday past, a woman-at-arms clad in the armor and livery of the Barony of Polten marched into our court. The City Watch of Daleport had found a young pauper girl dead in a winding alley near the wharfs, slashed to her death and robbed of everything she carried. The messenger sought the girl's origins and so showed a sketch in charcoal to Lady Corella, Captain Hawkgarden, Maid Lorewen, Maid Quainne and myself. Each of us saw that the subject of the sketch was none other than the wayward handservant Anneletta Sardant, and so identified her as such. Satisfied, the messenger returned whence she came, and thus did that chapter of our court come to a close. Lady Corella was never kind to that girl, but I do believe that I heard a sigh of remorse as she looked that sketch over. Whatever her reasons for arranging our lady's demise, I do hope that young Anneletta has finally found peace.

I never embraced the Feast of the Moon with any measure of eagerness, but I imagine that, even as he attends the One Who Endures in the House of the Triad, Father is pleased with my service and my station as House Margo's chamberlain. Yet I grow weary with this season, for I have spent enough time in the company of death. Mayhap Lady Corella shall grant me furlough from her court, that I may come to Trailsend for a visit. If that should come to pass, Mother, pray expect me soon.


With Love,
Wilgerd

[Wids]

For the Eyes of Treasurer Cassida Laurent
From the Hand of Lady Corella d'Margo
5 Nightal


Pray speak with me in the morn, that we may discuss these matters:

• Increasing the wages of Bereghel Harnloft or elsewise rewarding him for saving my life and coaxing me through this harsh time.
• Sending a tithe to the Shrine of Leira on Amaryllis Road, and seeing about helping the Leiran clergy build their shrine further. My gratitude and apologies are overdue.
• Finding a new place for a hog farm, then evicting the Enswell family and their hog farm on Amaryllis Road.
• Finding a new place for a tannery, then evicting the Trant family and their tannery on Amaryllis Road.
• After both evictions, donating the tannery lot to the Church of Leira, then finding the Pinewold family and offering to return them to the hog farm lot. If the Pinewolds cannot be found, give both lots to the Leirans.

Many thanks.


Damara Forever,
Lady Corella d'Margo

[Wids]

To Captin Riegel Hawkgardin
Frum Gaoler Bortgush Hammurhand
6 Nitall


Captinn Hawkgardin

We wud be happey to welcume Ladey Corela and let her speek to her prisunners and see wich wuns disurve releese But i must warn yu that we cannut acount for wun prissuner The wun in Sell 18 the tiney sell at tha end uf tha coridorr

Thre or forr moons ago i cumed in and find a man loked in Sell 18 He wored a blakk kloak and kowl and luked like sumwon beat him up pritty good and he wus raving abowt Seeric the Mad God strangelling us in owr sleep and flaying Ladye Correla and whot We nevur figgered owt whoo put him in Sel 18 but we feeded him and wipped him like all tah othrs

Then too moons ago teh Seric man dissapered overrnite And we stil hav no idae were he gonned

Prae do not kik me owt of my job I am sory to loose this prissonner I am just dooing my job Plees let me keep it


So sorrey
Bortgush tha Gaoler

[Wids]

For the Eyes of Wilgerd Ironpate, Chamberlain of the Margo Residence
From the Hand of Rygel Hawkgarden, Captain of the Lady's Guard
9 Nightal


My Good Sir,

Your expertise in keeping our estate sound and in working order has been greatly commended in this time of dismay, and I am grateful for your discretion regarding the Guard's shameful role in the attempt on Lady Corella's life.

Would that the incompetence ended there, for my gaoler has informed me that one of Cyric's own languished in our dungeon for a brief stay, though no one among us led the Cyric-sworn dog to his cell, nor did anyone notice his leave.

This unanticipated turn causes me grave concern for two reasons. Firstly, what does it say for our vigilance if anyone can smuggle a captive into our dungeon and bind him there without drawing notice? And secondly, what if this captive Cyricist was involved in the plot against Lady Corella, or perchance was so much as the assassin himself who, once loosed within our walls, promptly proceeded forth in his vile hunt for our Lady? Was the mysterious skulker who imprisoned this Cyricist without our notice indeed our ally, or was he instead another enemy playing his role in the Mad God's scheme?

Of late, Lady Corella has released from our dungeon a number of captives whom she formerly held and punished for what she now admits were injustices: A milkmaid for spilling fresh milk on the Grand Hall's carpet, a butcher for delivering links of rancid sausage to our larder, a pauper boy who failed to bow to her carriage as it passed him on the road to Margo, and more. Each captive so freed was restituted with coin from the treasury, a gesture of generosity which our Lady would have loudly renounced or denied in days not long past. So it would seem that Lady Corella's brush with death has left her remarkably changed, mayhap for the better.

And now her state of good will stands to continue: The Winter Equinox is coming, and on that night, Lady Corella shall be entertaining a great many of her acquaintences and fellow noblefolk, to include a number whom she has slighted or wronged in her history. Let us work together once more, Good Chamberlain, that we may shield each other from any foibles or missteps and ensure that your servants and my guards work ideally together. Let us thus ensure that Lady Corella's forthcoming gala shall end in a stunning success and return our province to a state of grace, prominence and excellence in the eyes of all Damara.


Stalwart and True,
Captain Rygel Hawkgarden