"Agents of Pelagia" and thirty fruit.

Now where was this forthright candor not a month ago?

You would make himself sound the righteous victim in this by some third party's marauding action, not the victim of your own plague-borne paranoia.

Yes, information was provided to my sister and myself, about your precious lemons. Yet we sat there making excuses for you among ourselves before deciding to journey to the Asterian Peninsula to clarify.

The mother of two of your children came to your gates, not quite believing and hoping against hope that what she was told was not true. Because she believed you 'generous to a fault' and 'intending to attempt propagate more of the cure'. All she wanted was answers.

And for my part? Several months ago, I came to you personally to ask about a likely cure. I made mention that I had kept my investigations, which had directed me specifically to Aster Malik, largely close to the vest at the time, not wanting to cause a fuss around your town and the people. You and I have not always seen eye to eye, but I respected you and your efforts to keep your people safe enough to counsel discretion when I shared the information with the Imperial Chancellor.

This I made clear to you when I decided to speak with you myself. And I kept my silence long after the fact because I did not want rumours that separate investigations had lead to the same destination. That sort of rumour leads to fixation and paranoia, and I did not wish for a desperate horde to descend upon the peninsula.

The last thing I did was write to your own guard captain, Jineid, the brother of Tutor Yineid of Judgement Mountain, who had originally pointed me in Aster Malik's direction all those months ago. "Ask my brother." he had said. I did not wish to go over your head at first, so I spoke to you as above. When no progress was forthcoming, by Scarlatan, I finally put quill to paper, taking care to describe the fruit rather than fancy cultivar names. And then I waited, in silence.

Not long after, a jar of fruit went to Countess Nezaya, which she confessed to me privately was given rather than found. My suspicion grew, but I held my silence, trusting because she said it was 'the only jar'. A few months later, another jar was sent along to Eleusis. Again I held my silence because I knew the donation would be put to good use and research.

Trust is repaid in Trust, I told myself. So you can imagine, my sadness and disappointment, not for a lack of citrus (which I made clear I did not care about) but for a lack of reciprocity in trust and respect.

Yet, when it was confirmed to us that you did in fact sit on a cache of lemons, did I or my sister come to you, with a knife in our hands demanding "Give us your lemons"? No. That was all in your own paranoid head.

Who was the first person I asked after? I asked after the Baroness Jurixe, a friend and a subject on your land, of whom I knew was worse off than myself. The jig was clearly up, yet instead of offering reassurance, or trusting in the silence I held for months even against my own sworn brethren, you treated my genuine concern as an attempt to extract information and shut the door in my face.

What happened after was indeed a tragedy. A tragedy both you and I had attempted to avoid. That my Lord Emperor took exception to your lack of candor is... unfortunate. But you are of equal blame in this, Aerek Ancyrion. For your dishonesty, your lack of trust, and your resource guarding inflating your already overlarge sense of self-importance to madness.

For a little while, that is to say, perhaps the last two or three hundred years, I thought of you as a friend, even if a highly contentious one that I oftentimes felt compelled to make fun of yet grudgingly respect. But I see now the entire relationship was all in my head. You do not even mourn it. I actually felt sad! A sadness, like my regard and time, that's apparently been wasted.



Skye Bellatere Anchors

Penned by my hand on the 6th of Lupar, in the year 979 AF.