Chp 53: Letters between Friends (Patreon)

After refresh, I bought a set of moles and placed them into the mini test layer I’d put in. I wasn’t wrong about them looking cute even in person. Once they were in, I played with the boss encounter area to make it more comfortable for them space-wise and added some prey creatures for snacks.

Unlike the hounds, they couldn’t verbally communicate, but they seemed to understand me. The giant one nodded when I explained about the snacks. After a few rounds of gesture exchange, I felt reasonably confident they were comfortable, though they didn’t seem interested in exploring outside their area. 

Like I had for the skeletons, I put in a break room on the level for them. There's was accessed by tunneling down through the earth and through a magic doorway. It was basically a copy of the boss encounter, but it was protected so they could dig and hunt for snacks without having to worry about being bothered.

Feeling like the green stack was done outside of some minor revisions, I took a look at the yellow. I let out a sigh, still not feeling any real kind of inspiration about it. So instead of bothering with that, I went to work on infrastructure issues. I mocked up mini layers and put in the stairs for them as well as boss encounter rooms and safe zones. 

I’d gone in sets of three in the green zone, so that wasn’t going to fly for yellow. Playing with that aspect could wait until later, though. For now, I was just establishing minimums and waiting for an idea to jump out at me. While I was busy, a chime caught my attention.

I looked up sharply, forgetting for a moment that the sound was in my head. It turned out to be from Elim, which cheered me up.

Mistress 42,

I discussed the matter of the relatives you asked about and my father's identity with my mother. She wrote a letter which I’ve added to the inventory. She seems to be concerned about some aspect of it but doesn't want to tell me, so I ask you to respect her wish and not let me know its contents. 

I’m an excellent liar, but she'll know just by looking at my face if I were to read it or come to know of its contents. Some form of motherly dark magic, I assume.

All is well with my family thanks to your gifts. My mother's health has been better than restored, and my daughter is as mischievous as I remember, to my delight.

Your grateful servant,

Elim

Elim’s message left me laughing. I wasn’t sure, but I felt like he’d be a garbage liar no matter if he was trying to get it past his mother or not. I opened Erica’s letter, burning with curiosity.

The first thing that stood out was how lovely his mother’s handwriting was. My own tilted between an art project and chicken scratch. Hers flowed smoothly, forming elegant letters for the length of the page.

Dear Lady 42,

I cannot express my gratitude sufficiently. I may only pray that one day I might be allowed to repay you even a tenth of your generosity.

Even so, I hesitate to answer the question my son asked on your behalf. Forgive me for this, but it’s part and parcel with an old wound I did not wish to look on, let alone reopen. Even so, I cannot justify denying you an answer and can only beg that you do not share it with my son.

My father, Bernard Silverleaf, was Baronet of Crestfeild. He lived for his ambitions, and by the time I was fifteen, they had become greater than his station. He began to scheme dangerously and, when I was twenty, tried to entrap the fifth son Of Earl Savex, Linden, in a marriage with me.

His ploy failed thanks to the intervention of Castor Grey. He helped me escape my father and claimed responsibility for Elim despite not being sure of his parentage. Neither of us had ambitions and raised him plainly, content with an ordinary life together.

I’ve never told Elim any of this part, just that my father had thrown me out. His possible identity came with a great deal of danger. Linden married a Marquise's daughter. A marriage that has failed to produce heirs to this day.

Knowing that Castor is, in truth, Elim’s father is a profound relief to me though I cannot help but fear the matter still. The people you mentioned are relatives of Earl Savex to whom we should have no relation. If you could shed light on that matter, I would deeply appreciate it.

Thank you once more for everything you have done,

Erica

I read the letter twice to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood anything. A dozen reasons why Erica was so confident of Linden being the father flared and fizzled in my mind. None of them were pleasant, and they didn’t really matter. 

What did matter was refining a clean piece of parchment and ink for myself quickly. I impatiently replicated as many pieces as I thought I'd need. In five minutes, I had a piece of common D grade parchment and black ink.

Going back into the interface, I made a quick image of the family tree. Then, in my image editor, I traced over them and added some flourishes. I copied that onto the parchment I’d prepared. Finally, with the tree ready to go, I wrote a proper letter to accompany it.

Dear Erica,

Due to certain circumstances, I have been divining information about your family. Elim's lineage connects to the Savex family tree but not by way of Linden Savex. Castor Grey's great grandfather was Maron Savex. Maron was the brother of the Earl's great grandfather and did not inherit the family title.

I don't know if the Savex family is aware of the connection. Maron sired the line by way of Tommen Grey's daughter, Eugen. I don’t know if that was publicly known at the time or not.

I understand if this is difficult to believe, but I swear it is the truth as far as I’m aware. I will not speak of any of this to Elim out of respect for your wishes and his. However, you should know that when passing along your letter, he asked me to allow you to tell him about its contents in your own time.

-42

As I rolled the letter and family tree together, I realized I didn’t have anything to seal it with. So I popped over to Henry’s crypt, and he obligingly gave me a bit of ribbon. After that, I used the wax from Erica’s letter to refine some sealing wax for myself and changed its color to green. 

Though I didn’t really need one, I really getting into the whole experience and made myself a seal by carving a piece of stone. The design was simple, a pair of mountain peaks of different depths so they’d make a relief impression. In the center of them were the numerals for 42, making it double as my signature in a way. 

Popping my arm out of my chamber of machinations, I quickly had to snatch it back as half the stick of wax liquified on contact with the air of the lava area. I really did forget how hot it was there sometimes. Fortunately, there was enough left pooled in my hand for the seal.

I kicked Elim a quick note to let him know I’d placed the letter in the inventory. With that finished, I took another look at Elim’s family tree. Maron Savex, according to the tree, had fathered enough children to crew a yacht by six different women. 

I got solid philandering shit heel vibes from his entire section of the tree. Possibly unfairly, early death or during childbirth was probably supper common locally. That didn’t really alter the feeling I was getting since I didn’t see any indications he’d been married to any of the ladies in question.

Shaking off my disgust, I started to get back to work when I found a sudden ringing in my ear. It wasn’t quite a single tone, but more like a series of chimes so close together that they almost sounded like one. 

Flabbergasted, I waited until it stopped, watching my message notice number climb as I waited. I had twenty-three messages by the time it was done. The titles varied, but they mostly seemed to equate to ‘fight league,’ and I couldn’t help but laugh. 

I knew Chris was enthusiastic when he left, but I hadn’t expected everyone else to respond so passionately to it too. Even the Bards had written to me about it.

This was going to be fun.