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Abheski Cultural Primer
In entering the service of the Company, any Abheski possessed of the virtues we exalt above others – these being leadership, initiative, clarity of thought, and financial acumen – may become successful and the very envy of their fellows. Further, with proper training and discipline these virtues may be cultivated and promoted; so that in the training of cadets, the Companies do their utmost for the benefit of these young officers, and thereby the benefit of the Abheski nation.
To truly benefit the nation, we must first understand who we Abheski are; a nation of diverse parts, no doubt, but possessed of a common history.
We came to these lands from abroad – it is not known where exactly from. Some believe that one of the distant lands of Ycairn is the place of our origin, but most agree that we came from another world. Traditional belief across much of the continent holds that we came from the Sun itself, but others believe our origin is from Fasaath, or Kombyeny, or another point within the night sky.
We Abheski are an industrious, creative, and innovative people. Having tamed patches of the wild expanse of the lands, building towns and farms and trading posts, the most successful and prosperous of our ancestors founded the five great cities – Zhikav, Vilv, Otvev, Mirsvr, and Lansk.
Though we live alongside other peoples, we hold ourselves apart. The Abheski have distinguished ourselves twice by mastery over the skies – first, in building the mighty towers that soar over our cities. Some of these towers are centuries old, and stand strong to this day, the least of them stretching higher than fifty people. In the last few generations, our supremacy over the air was proven again in being the first nation to recreate the science of powered flight; our ships, lifted by mighty dvint, broke us free from the shackles of the land.
Trade is the blood of the Abheski culture. Spread across this harsh and hostile continent, ever taming the ancient forests and defending against the great beasts, our trade is what makes the Abheski prosper above all other people; and the Companies are the pinnacle of Abheski trade. Not restricted to one province, we can deal in goods from across the known world. Not bound to the paths of the rivers and coastlines, we can go anywhere our airships can carry us. Abheski goods are prized from the tents of the Anshessi to the outposts of Hoitan, and if an Ebwari baron wants to exchange letters or goods with a Nalmyan chief, it is most probable that an Abheski vessel will carry their intercourse.
There are other practices that mark us as a peculiar peoples among our neighbours. All nations have their own calendar of celebrations and holidays, and the most important of ours is The Yearsrise festival. Though we differ on which precise day this takes places, Abheski always celebrate the end and beginning of the year around the time of winter solstice. Other peoples reckon the year differently: the Erthani begin at the spring equinox, and the Ebwari count from the height of summer. Other nations practice more curious calendars yet.
Our other important festivals are the First Feast, which in ancestral times celebrated the first hunt after each winter; and the late summer Meetday, where the harvest traditionally begins and the year's differences and disagreements are put aside.
Each city and town observe their Founding Dates. These may variously remember the day the first settlers began to build their new homes, or the day the first Spire was finally completed, but always are celebrated with great revels and public entertainments.
Though we are all Abheski, we may have slight differences in our speech. The rapid speech of a city-dweller may sound different to the calmer pace of a settler from the deep forest; the clipped vowels of Otvev are readily distinguished from the rounder syllables of Zhikav; the plain words of the groundsfolk contrast with the florid oratory of the wealthy classes. All these however are still Abheski, and can readily talk to one another; just try to understand the harsh Hoitani or the singing cadences of the Ebwari to hear how truly different language can sound.
Extract from A Child's Primer and History of the Abheski, published by the Temar Company Press
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Business Innovation
Dazhag,
The new initiative you have heard rumours of has been approved, and the same vessel carrying this letter should have aboard it a young Licence-Prospector by the name of Regana tsi Ovnen. This initiative is of her design, and she is to be extended all reasonable assistance in establishing her practice here. The Finance Board and the Eastern Office have placed great hope as well as significant resources in the success of this venture.
I do not believe you have been previously introduced, and her reputation may well not precede her, so allow me to give her a brief introduction that you may understand your new associate's work. She is a native of Vilv, and of a respectable if not exemplary family. She has experienced considerable success working in the Anshess and Ebwar, dealing primarily with the potentates and established wealth of those lands, and has by this work elevated her own position . Her recommendation from the Anshess Office could not be higher; they were loath to have her return to the Spires and lose one of their most capable and profitable agents.
As to the new initiative; Regana is being sent to Lansk to assist in the renewal of the district damaged by the insurrection. Her experience as a Licence-Prospector abroad is being turned towards the raising of capital, the streamlining of existing industries, and the establishment of new business in Lansk itself. The principle of applying these business practices to Abheksi affairs has long been suggested and decried in turn; Regana's proposal represents the first complete and well-reasoned attempt to specifically applying these ideas in actual domestic usage. This undertaking was not without some initial resistance in the Finance Board. However, it has been seen that the good of the Company and the good of Lansk are one and the same, more often than otherwise. Further integrating ourselves in the mercantile and industrial makeup of the city can only be to our mutual benefit – a strong tailwind carries all vessels, as is said.
Your role in working with Regana is to assist her in liaising with the Municipal Hall and the new Chief Bailiff – I assume one has finally been selected, though the news has not yet reached me. She is to be considered your subordinate, but you are expected to give her great liberty in how she conducts her business. As this is a new and untested venture, there may be unprecedented complications of rank and etiquette; we ask you both to approach your working relationship in honest faith and with the good of the Company – and thus, the city! – always as your shared goal.
We have but two restrictions to place on her, owing to the differing circumstances of working in Abheski cities instead of the Anshess. Having become used to cheap labour, she must not be allowed to expect access to the work of those citizens housed in the Depot; this would be poor for the population's morale, and could easily be misrepresented by agitating elements still lurking within the City. Similarly, the use of Company arms will not be permitted as liberally as she may have grown accustomed to. I hardly expect that you need to be instructed in these matters, and do not take this caution for a lack of belief in your judgement, but I have been directed to make these caveats explicit.
We look forward to hearing from you both, and to great success in this new endeavour, for Lansk and for the Temar Company,
Yours,
Alett, Finance Board Eastern Office Representativ
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Strike Pamphlet
Groundsfolk of Mirsvr;
The Abheski nations of which we are part have carried wealth and industry to all corners of this continent. The reward of this undertaking has brought untold prosperity to the Spires and the Companies – and untold misery to the common folk of these nations and countless others.
We appeal to all groundsfolk of the Abheski to stand with us and with the common people of all nations against the evils of exploitation. Our lives and our labour are the fuel for the furnace of Company trade. Without them, they cannot turn the engine of profit.
When we ask for the merest accomodation of humane conditions, bailiffs are loosed upon us. When we ask for the least alleviation of suffering in the form of increased pay, marines and patrol craft fire upon us. Remember Lansk!
The lives of the groundsfolk are reckoned as naught in the face of Company profits. It is clear we can no longer ask and expect a fair reply; our only recourse is to refuse to fuel them any longer. Join us, groundsfolk and common labourers of all nations, and strike! From Zhikav to Vilv, from Atyen to Hoitan, lay down your tools and say NO MORE.
They will label us agitators; they have provoked us by their injustice!
They will call us ungrateful; they have no gratitude for our work upon which their ships and weapons are built, their commodities are traded, and their wealth comes forth.
Your life and your labour is of value greater than can be accounted by a Company ledger! Stand with us! Stand in solidarity with all groundsfolk – with the Erthani – with the exploited in the Anshess and TransOlyen – with the Ebwari.
STRIKE
#artifexian#podcast#abhesk#mirsvr#lansk#zhikav#vilv#atyen#hoitan#erthani#ebwar#anshess#transolyen#worldbuilding#ycairn#handwavia#planetary romance
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A Failed Investment
Yensir,
Please deliver to your client my extreme dissatisfaction with the outcome of our recent business.
The mine in Outer Anshess has proven to be a nightmare, and parasite to our coffers. I was assured a worthy investment, and guaranteed healthy returns. On this front, the mine has not delivered and his words have been untrue. It is now a full year since we took ownership of this folly; not only has it failed to generate a single coin in profit, we have in fact spent nearly a quarter of our initial investment again to simply keep the cursed pit functioning.
Is this manner how you treat all those with whom you deal? Let me enumerate the difficulties we have had with this business, and you may judge for yourself whether your client has been entirely scrupulous.
Firstly, we were told that the mine had recently been outfitted with the latest equipment. It was specifically assured that a new pump had been installed, alongside heavy duty drills and hammers. These indeed, had been installed the previous season; however, they were leased from a Temari supplier, not purchased. This I learned only in a letter from the mine captain. When we began operation after the purchase, we learned that the equipment had been repossesed by the supplier, and thus we were working at far below the output we had come to expect, based upon your client's figures, and we have spent significant capital in replacing the machinery.
Secondly, the rates offered for purchase of the ore by local smelters were not those suggested to us by your client. It has become apparent that the local mine owners are members of a collective, membership of which is required to avail of the favourable rates for the purchase of ore. As an independent business, operating from Lansk and unable to partake in such fraternity, we were unable to sell our already-reduced product at these prices; thus a further reduction to our meagre margins. The Company smelters either will simply not accept outside business, or will charge such fees for the transport of ore as to make it impractical for us, given our remote location.
Thirdly, I was of the belief that, as is custom elsewhere in the Anshess, the human labour of this mine would be acquired as an asset. I expressed this belief on several occasions in communication and in speech with your client, and at no point did he disabuse me of the notion. Given the disastrous performance of the operation so far, we had hoped to recoup our losses by relocating the workers to other labour. I have since learned that the miners are prevented from seeking other employment, while our mine is operational; however, should we cease activity, they are in effect free to seek employment elsewhere. Again, being a small independent business at some remove from the site, we lack the ability to enforce this issue, particularly in a province so deeply contested between the Companies. I have no conclusion other than your client knowingly misled us about the acquisition of the human capital at the mine.
Finally, I would note that the mine captain himself was unaware of not only the specifics, but the actual fact of his mine's sale, and it was only with difficulty and persistence that he was able to contact us at all. This suggests to us that your client has a general habit of dishonesty and fraudulent dealings.
We have no great expectation of satisfaction in this matter; all the evidence suggests that your client is a scoundrel and mountebank, and honest resolution of this difficulty is not possible. We will be making this affair known to all those we deal with. Having acted with honesty, we feel no loss of honour or standing in the deceit we suffered; all such lands squarely at the feet of your client.
Signed,
Naham te Valbe, Director, Lansk Combined Enterprises
Letter from Lansk Combined Enterprises to Yensir te Llarvin, agent for Borsuv tsi Irens, Licence-Prospector
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A Letter from the Frontier
Benvin,
Your letter arrived at Depot last night. Should this reply find its way to you in a similar time, I make that an eight-day round trip from your tower in Mirsvr, to my cot on the frontier and back. I thus concede our wager settled, and you may consider payment delivered, awaiting only my presence in the city. I confess I am not sorry to find myself the lesser in this matter, as my joy at our progress outweighs by far the stake I placed against you.
As to professional matters, the state of my honour is less certain.
The progress here has been slower than was hoped, as I cautioned in my reports when this expedition was first planned. The blame does not lie on the scouts, as I know many on the Boards and in the Wardrooms are no doubt speculating – at least, on no scouts other than myself. As the first Company man to observe these lands and the author of the reports upon the intelligence of which the appraisements were calculated, what blame can be assigned for this region's deficiencies thus far must surely be assigned to me and the poor quality of my intelligence or my inability to communicate its significance. I remind you again, nonetheless, of my early and continued pessimism regarding this venture.
The Hoitani are much as I found them twenty years ago. I needn't describe their character again for you. The Company consensus seemed to be that enough material tribute would be sufficient to sway Hoitani chieftains from their position of reserve into acceptance of a closer partnership with the Company. This was never to succeed, as I insisted from the start; the Abheski mind and the Hoitani mind are too dissimilar. This is not to denigrate them, you understand that my respect for their nation is considerable. They simply do not share fundamental concepts of value that are apparent to us, and the benefits of our way of life are perhaps incomprehensible to them. They care not for a letter carried from Mirsvr and back in eight days. The bribery and force that work so well in the Anshess or beyond the Belt simply are not persuasive here.
After the late debacle in that western camp, I fear our progress will be slowed further. The destruction of that settlement was of no benefit to Temar – the Hoitan see little if any distinction between the Companies. The work achieved by our scouts, against the unreasonable expectations of the Boards, was highly promising, now rendered useless. The bumbling of a Valdjin captain has undone our project to an immeasurable degree.
I feel no joy in this vindication. I am galled to see the Erthani – really Benvin, the Erthani! – trade with the Hoitani more successfully than we. Our best course to salvage this region is to allow our scouts continued liberty in managing their own affairs – to an individual they are as disgusted with the Valdjini massacre as I, and are themselves best placed to repair their own contacts among the camps. Failing that, a further deployment of force, while regrettable, will yield the most profitable returns in the least time. I know the Boards grow hungry.
Please communicate all I have disclosed here to the relevant Boards and Members. I will continue to direct our efforts, and update you through the usual channels.
In friendship,
Survit te Ovnjen, Depot-Commander, Hoitan
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On Scouting
Scouts are the fundamental element of our expansion into Hoitan at this time; they are to be given the greatest degree of autonomy that you consider prudent.
By living on the land, moving among the locals, and learning intimately their languages and customs, scouts are uniquely positioned to understand how a foreign country and foreign nation can benefit most greatly from increased trade with the Company, and how the Company might best profit from such a trade. It is not practical to manage every degree of these interactions between scout and native; the greater liberty given to a scout, the more successful their missions will be.
Many captains fear that, by giving freedom overmuch to our scouts, we risk losing them to the native land or native ways. This has been a tenet of the more conservative approach to scouting advocated for by many within this Company, as well as the guiding philosophy of our fellow-rivals in Eltin and Valdin.
It is not that this restrained philosophy is without merit. A more directed scout, tied closely to their command or their home depots, will seldom stray, and properly managed can provide many years' worth of faithful and effective intelligence on the affairs of foreign lands. Consider however the relative gains of our Company and those of our rivals in prospecting the Anshess. In the many years since our company's adoption of a more liberal approach to scouting, Temari holdings in that land have risen at a rate far greater than any other Abheski company. Thus its efficacy in the field can be considered proven. But why is this the case, and why should we consider our successes in Anshess more than a fortunate coup?
Our scouts are trained to an exceedingly high standard, and none are let loose upon a land that do not have a gift for self-sufficiency, survival, and the gathering of intelligence. They are each an impressive individual, and many owe a significant debt – whether fiscal or sentimental – to the Company. This debt, and an understanding of the benefits of what we as a Company can offer to foreign nations, makes them effective ambassadors for our mission, without them being constrained by the rigours of formal diplomacy. They themselves are often best suited to determine what course of action to take and which contacts to cultivate, and to do so immediately. Waiting days for such orders to be communicated to a superior officer – who is less intimately familiar with the environment – often results in the loss of fruitful opportunities.
It is true that, following our doctrine, many more scouts leave their posts or attempt to settle among their host nations. This is the chief argument made by those favouring a stricter variety of scouting. However, even those scouts who abandon their careers may very often act to the furtherance of our goals. Scouts who turn native frequently submit the greatest and most insightful intelligence before they abandon the Company, due no doubt to their deep attraction to the host nation. Further, they have a destabilising effect on the inhabitants and society they wish to integrate into. Their very presence either softens a nation's attitude toward the Abheski, allowing us to integrate our business more easily; or it creates a discord and mistrust which will often lead to violence, allowing us a more overt approach to concentrating and enforcing our commercial interests.
Sorind te Lletzky, Commercial Coordinator, Hoitan 1st Depot
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Reports from Depot 15
Ship's Log: Corvette Vasaa Training/Patrol flight over the mountains to the SE of Depot 15 [Vikol Province South]. Mid-morning: human figure spotted traversing a mountain pass: a route known to our navigators but considered unused. Figure was heading NW – no settlements for many days' travel in their direction of origin. Dangerous creatures known to inhabit this area.
Entry Log: Uple Village [adjacent to Depot 15]
Description: Male. Short, broad build. Dark skinned. Clothing of unkown origin. Stated Origin: Anshess Business: Nomadic trader Name: Tal Eli Effects: Assorted bags containing objects of minor value. No contraband discovered. Entry and processing fee paid.
Notes: Entrant arrived on foot, from a southerly direction, traveling alone.
Disciplinary Log: Runner Lotyil
Junior Gunner Arbe: Charged drunkenness, failure to present. Sentenced hard duty twelve days.
Rated Hand Syan: Charged drunkenness, gambling. Sentenced hard duty twenty days, half-pay twenty days.
Rated Hand Yolin: Charged brawling. Sentenced confinement and corporal beating.
Unrated Hand Pety: Charged drunkenness, insubordination. Sentenced hard duty thirty days.
Lt. 3rd Enllya: drunkenness, failure to present, loss of company property. Enllja did not present for duty at this noon's assembly of crew. Was found in a distressed state in Uple, speaking Incoherently and not responding to orders or threats of disciplinary action. Was found to no longer be in possession of Company- issued items of rank. Witnesses report her speaking to and drinking in the presence of a trader recently arrived in Uple, described as a short man of unknown origin. Sentenced disrated until a proper disciplinary hearing for her commission may be convened.
Prob.2 Dyeten: insubordination. Sentenced grounding and administrative duty ten days. Recommend return to academy for probationary evaluation.
Report: Weird Bolshja of Corvette Vasaa
Having spent the evening engaged in calculation and preparation for the vessel's upcoming long-distance patrol, and being scheduled to remain as the overnight duty officer aboard the ship while in depot, I took a short walk around the shipyard to refresh my body and mind before assuming this duty.
Upon this walk I happened to pass a number of ships recently seized, undergoing maintenance and processing. I observed that a member of the guard tasked with securing this region of the yard was lying on the ground at his post – upon closer examination he was dead, with a wound in his side, though no damage had been done to his clothing. I summoned the remaining guards in the area and additional personnel and we undertook a search of the vessels.
No assailant was discovered; however, aboard one of the seized vessels, lately known as the Senan, a previously undiscovered compartment was found in the hold, cunningly hidden in the structure of the vessel. Though this compartment was empty, my findings indicate it held an item of significance and value.
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A Death in Ebwar
To whom it concerns,
Please excuse the errors of my language – I am communicating in your tongue for the first time in the medium of letters, being previously only accustomed to speech and the simplest ledger-keeping. I write to you as an acquaintance and business agent of Ostkin te Ateyr. I must report with heavy sadness that he has died. It is unknown to me how those in your country treat the death of your kin – please be comforted that we have extended every possible respect to his passing, in the manner of our own people. As his chief associate in this land, I have charged myself with the handling of his remaining affairs and the return of his effects to his home. The contents of his office will be shipped back to Mirsvr with the next Company vessel flying that route.
I shall give you an account of what I know of Ostkin's final days and passing. As you are no doubt aware, Ostkin was in Ebwar seeking to enter the local mining buisness on behalf of your firm. He had promised capital and many materials to a number of local enterprises, and had become well known and well liked among the controllers of the local commerce – hosting most agreeable parties for those of us involved in the trade, and showing us the great delights that the Northern culture has to offer.
We all saw what prosperity could be brought to Ebwar by association with Ostkin, and the Companies, and the noble city of Mirsvr most particularly. Please be assured that none of us who traded with Ostkin would have dreamed of harming him, and we had not a hand in his death. Rumours and speculation of Spires depravations in Anshess and other foreign lands carry no currency among the traders of Ebwar, who seek only a peaceful and mutually profitable relationship.
It was at one such gathering, held three nights ago, that we last saw Ostkin. It was an affair typical of his gatherings: a dozen or so local captains of enterprise, a handful of Company officers, Ostkin himself, and on this occasion two more unusual figures: an Erthan river trader and a curious person of obscure origin, a squat man with skin the colour of Azen wood and peculiar clothing, claiming to be a nomadic trader.
This final person engaged very little in the society of the party, and refused all food and drink excepting a cup of water and syrup. Late in the evening, he secured a private audience with Ostkin, and they retreated to a side office. I hope I do not breach any social precedents if I tell you that Ostkin seemed reluctant to be alone with this person, and that shortly after they emerged, Ostkin begged forgiveness for calling an early end to the evening, and retired to his own chambers before all the guests had left. He seemed most perturbed by whatever discourse passed between him and the mysterious trader.
He was not seen the next morning, nor during the day. He had never missed an appointment in Ebwar, and his absence was soon noted. An examination of his chambers, undertaken by me personally in the presence of his secretary and a captain of the Temar company, revealed no clue to his whereabouts, except for a packed travelling chest, as though he was preparing to leave Ebwar. His appointments-book revealed that he was not due to return to the North, nor travel elsewhere on business, for more than twenty days.
It was last night – on the evening of the second day of his disappearance – that his body was discovered at an abandoned mine, not far from the Companies' shipfield, which Ostkin was considering acquiring and reopening under the management of your firm. A local boy, tasked with exploring the workings, spied him through the window of the mine office. Though he had been missing for less than two full days, he appeared to have suffered a great illness – his skin was drawn, his face was gaunt, and he appeared much older than his years. No cause of his death could be definitively established – though an older mine captain summoned by the boy confided in me that it greatly resembled a wasting disease that afflicted the miners of Anshess, where he once worked in his youth. No such disease has ever been known among the Ebwari.
A further curiosity arose from this tragic situation. The office in which Ostkin was discovered was locked, but no key was found within the room – the only copy was in a workshop across the yard. Thus I must unfortunately assume that malicious agency or foul play is somehow involved in Ostkin's passing.
I regret that I must communicate with you under such tragic circumstances. I regret further that the acquisition of the mine by your firm will no longer be possible as we do not wish to open up a working that may have poisonous airs, so close to our homes. The delivery of Ostkin's effects to your offices has been arranged, and should any further issues pertaining to his business here arise, I will contact you immediately.
With blessings,
Tarre Lamin, Business Agent
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A Yearsrise Revel
Avdyen,
Thank you dearly for your last letter. My wound is healing nicely – the recuperation here in Otvev has been most regenerative not only for my body, but for my mind, my spirit, and my soul.
The social circuit here has done much to revive me. Even though I am on half-pay, my cousin secured me an administrative post (little more than a sinecure, in truth). My duties are far from onerous but the extra cash along with my injury compensation means I have had a heavy purse while recovering here. Thankfully though, there are many revels which have assisted greatly in lightening this burden.
The social youth of Otvev consider a dashing lieutenant of the Temar Company, bearing a battle-scar and limping from a war wound, a handsome spectacle indeed, and I have been invited to no fewer than three parties each night of this festive season. My account of the Battle of Selin Lake has been recounted so many times (embellished no more than the appropriate amount), that I feel sure I must be telling it in my sleep.
I was at the most curious party last night. A Licence-Prospector was holding a Yearsrise celebration in his palace, and his son insisted that I should be there – or perhaps it was his nephew, the fellow was rather dull but the party sounded exciting and so I graced him with my attendance.
You are probably wondering how this letter has reached you so quickly – do not worry, my friend, for in Otvev they celebrate Yearsrise several days earlier than we do! I tried to get an explanation for one of my hosts, why they do things so strangely, but they could not really explain how they reckoned the change in the year. I must confess than I was then pressed upon to explain how we reckon our year in Mirsvr, and found myself unequal to a clear explanation. It simply is so.
In any case, the party was magnificent and peculiar at once. The majority of the evening was taken up in great revelry. Dancing a new dance adapted from a Koiri rhythm that has been fashionable of late in Otvev – has it come into vogue at home yet? – drinking brandy and fine wines, and being entertained by a troupe of acrobat players from somewhere to the far south of Anshess. A good hundred or more people must have been there, and all dressed in their festival finest – the fashions are much like home. I danced my share, and recounted my story of Selin Lake at least twice more and was heartily applauded both times. My fist nor my throat ever wanted for a drink thanks to my admiring audience, and I made the acquaintance of a young poet with the most striking eyes.
As the evening drew on and the guests began to retire to their own homes for their private Yearsrise observances, I was asked to stay and take part in the more intimate gathering of close friends and family, the nephew insisting I was part of his personal circle. We recited the same prayers as I was familiar with – or at least, the words were the same, but the rhythm and the cadence were very different, and not solely because of the local accent. Rather than baked fruit and fish, we ate a small meal of a sky-jelly, native to somewhere to the West but long popular in Otvev and their typical Yearsrise meal. We drank three toasts (of good Mirsvr brandy!), and spent the remainder of the evening in much quieter, gentler pursuits than I had expected.
It is curious how we two cities – so alike, so aligned in our purpose, and united by our familial bonds and our common tongue – can yet be so alien! It is often the least changes that have the most striking effect upon the stranger. In a temple in Anshess or a tent of a Hoitan chief, one is prepared for the unfamiliar, but when the unfamiliar hides within Yearsrise prayers one has known all of their life, the effect is increased manyfold.
I hope your own Yearsrise revels were glad, my friend. I await your next letter eagerly, and hope to be returned to full health soon. If you encounter a Temari probationer by the name of Yarllen, who I hear is on leave in Mirsvr, stay clear of the cardtable – I am sure the little sneak is a cheat.
Now, I must go and ask my striking young poet where I really have been telling war-tales in my sleep.
Your friend,
Dazhag te Shensha
Lieutenant (bound), Temar Company
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