I hope this letter finds you well rested after your expedition to the Broken Isles. From what I have gathered you’ve begun the process of returning to your office within the Dawnspire. No doubt you have already heard what my nephew wishes to plan and we have already begun negotiations of financing. I will spare you the details, but home and prestige have remained intact and the young Archon is free to conduct warfare as he chooses.
Though our last meeting has been months apart, I will attempt my best to give you an update of what has kept me so preoccupied. The first snows have begun to set within the Emberlight and Lady Idrya has seen to the closure of the Blacksun Gate. The eastern villages of Heartsong and Leabel have both begun to empty as they do each year and the populations hide away into the mountainous Blacksun Citadel until first thaw. I do wish that one year you will permit Aeriana to winter here in the Netherholde, she will not find a more majestic view in all of Quel’Thalas than looking over the Whispwinter Mountains.
Some politicking has kept me busy as of late. I was given the privilege, if one could call it such, to attend a masked affair last weekend in City. I believe I told you of the ball some weeks back and your silence on the subject of our ball only makes me suppose your curiosity is too great for words. I did not wish you to feel the need to attend so I made adequate excuses for your absence, speaking praises on your zeal and love for country. There was one Lady Swallowsong, who dared to treat me some newly mourning widow, whose wife’s departure from his life in society might as well been the signal for an opportunity to win the graces of the Emberlight, or my fortune. She was pretty enough, blessed in both amiable assets but obviously the victim of poor tutelage at a young age. I took pity on her for there is no honor in disliking someone whose brain is so different than your own. Luckily enough the party was well attended and my arm was freed from her clutch.
You know how I adore masked affairs, there is some much allure and mystery, and while others choose to believe their mask might hide who they are, my agents worked tirelessly for me to memorize attires, colors, and voices, even those who wished to dye their hair to give secrecy at who they are behind the mask. Oh my love, we would have shared such a banter of whispers and I could have felt your hunting gaze even from afar.
Lord Flamewood attempted to lecture me the importance of my duty in the House of Nobles, but I reminded him that the woman of which he has carried on a torrid affair was being necked by some besaron from Quel’Danas. He gave me a huff and carried himself away, swearing the whip the both of them.
There was another Lady Sol’thoel, who by all accounts is a woman deserving of praise, who drank too much and danced to freely. Her husband, some fifth son who inherited after the fall, was nothing to note, despite his unfortunate voice and even worse ability to carry a conversation. One could tell that it was not he who would free his lady wife from her bodice later that eve.
In the gardens, outside those lovers who thought to slip away from the dance unnoticed were interrupted by two gallant errants eager to win their renown by a display of swordsmanship. If I would not have sworn to be on my best behavior, perhaps I would have given them a show that you would have heard about prior to my letter, but I was content to drink my wine and critique their form. Some bravo from the Evergrove wished to outstrip a city knight of his honor and the two quarreled for the better part of an hour before the guardsmen pulled them away. No doubt their great strut of feathers had earned someone’s affection to lick their wounds.
I did my fair share of dancing, eager to remind my world that I both adept with my footwork as I am with my pen. My partners were gracious enough, if not too eager for the embrace and to slow to transition from my arms. Towards the end, I met with an agent of mine who I had come to see in the first place. There is a treatise about that I need to discuss with you for great length and am in need of your skills in a particular area that I dread to say outstrips my own. A quarter till two I summoned my carriage to depart alone, to the woe of many.
I am reminded at last of how cold the mountains here are in the winter. Even behind stone walls and paned glass, there is a chill in the emptiness of my bed. I know your Archon will soon declare war, but I believe you have a free night to spare before you are spirited away once again to those forsaken isles in the sea. Should you come, I believe you will find yourself well delighted.