June 20, 1216
Hello LC:
This is my second letter back home. If you want to read the first one,
ask Amanda about it. I know she's in the Circle, but you have to get
over your prejudices. All that talk of "we'll fight to the last member"
doesn't go too well with everyone in the Club. So how's the Club doing?
I know my absence will stretch our resources thin, but the Circles
haven't kidnapped anyone since forever ago so I figure we should be ok.
Anyway, I'll continue my account of what I've been doing since I left.
I finally arrived to this place in the east coast of Spain. It's not
impressive looking, but the folks I've been hanging out with aren't the
type that want to attract attention. It looks like a couple of Admiral
Bello's ships could hang off the coast and bomb the place back to the
Stone Age with a couple of salvoes. But you know what they say: "looks
can be 20/20, but you can't flog a horse into deep water".
After a week of waiting, I have been allowed to join Prospectus Locus
as an associate. Aubrin, the leader of this place, mentioned something
about studying mares or something. You know I'm not a horse lover like
the High Priestess so I kind-a tuned him out after that. You know what
they say: "anything important enough to say twice can be put off until
tomorrow".
Confidentially, I didn't really think they'd let me join. I kept doing
the wrong things all through the week I've stayed here. First there was
the interview with Aubrin. He reminds me of our school principal, Mr.
Benjamin. You remember him, don't you? He'd just stare at you until you
broke and blabbed everything to him. Aubrin is kind of like that. He
stares at you with big puppy-dog eyes and you just want to tell
everything to make him stop being so sad.
Gosh, come to think of it, he looks just like her worshipfulness when
she relives that first encounter with the DoN. It makes me all heart-
broken just to think about it. (Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy
thoughts). Ok, I think I'm better now.
|
Anyway, Aubrin
and I talked for quite some time. Or rather, he let me
talk and talk and talk. You know how I can gab all day long when I
really get going; must be a bardic thing. He was really interested in
where I came from, but I gave him a song-and-dance so he didn't find
out anything. He also wanted to talk about the May Queen and her Court.
I gave him all of the gossip I remember which I'm so sure is outdated
by now.
Aubrin mentioned that he was a subject of the May Queen's. I asked him
why I hadn't seen him around when I was there and he gave an excuse
about 90+ year-olds not being able to get around much. I was sure he
was joking so I said he didn't look a day over seventy. That bothered
him and the interview kind of died off after that.
So they gave me a room in the guest wing, I guess. The rooms are
not big but I suppose I should be used to it by now. Guess what? They
have real bathrooms here! Well, close enough for me. No more freezing
my butt off in an outhouse. Now at least I'll be indoors freezing. They
also have some sort of sauna which I doubt I'll ever use. I can't
imagine why a body would want to sweat in a hot room. Maybe I can get
them to build a jacuzzi.
After a couple of days a bunch of people came back from some trip to
North Africa. They were pretty happy to get back home, except for one
guy who refused to come in -- Al Bus is his name. I kept calling him Al
but he kept wanting me to use his full name. Geez, some people! Anyway,
he now has some religious thing against plumbing or something 'cause he
moved into some shack outside the walls of the manor.
Gosh. This writing with a quill is so primitive. It tires me out. So
I'll stop now and continue later. I hope you can get away from your
Enforcer duties long enough to write back.
Your friend,
Larissa the Bard |