News Travels Fa-(Well, it travels, anyway)|Khelek
Feb 1, 2011 18:20:06 GMT -5
Post by Darastrix on Feb 1, 2011 18:20:06 GMT -5
The fact that the letter had been marked to be delivered to the temple instead of the palace was the first warning sign Schuldig picked up. He didn't live there, though he sometimes slept--or more accurately, "slept"--there. Still, he was a priest, and had it been from anyone but Crawford, it might have gone unremarked. But it was from him, and the address did what it was meant to do: it got his attention.
Back in his room, Schuldig squinted at the seal. Crawford's crest was a blue rose with a star at its center, and he used a blue sealing wax. For more formal or important missives, he used a stick of wax that had small flecks of gold mixed in. Casual correspondences were sealed with plain blue wax. As Schuldig tilted the letter, parts of the seal winked gold in the light. Of course, Crawford could have just run out of the plain sealing wax, though if that were the case, why couldn't he have waited to just get a new stick?
Wait. There. He moved it again, and there was a glint of orange amongst the gold. Copper. Not just important, then. Urgent.
He took a knife and carefully removed the seal, checking the underside for any additional message before opening the envelope and pulling out the letter itself. A few feathers fell out as he unfolded it--orange and white, black, and yellow. The first feather signified coming danger. The other two were tied together with thread. Black and yellow together...Morilanta.
Schuldig swore and set to reading the letter itself. Two hours later, after checking and double checking the clues he'd picked up peppered among inane talk of balls and scandals, he had the full picture. Or at least as full a picture as Crawford had been able to send.
Morilanta was going to attack Grandisle. With Fireteeth. No, by now the attack would have already begun and Crawford, with any luck, would already have set sail for Naruta.
After a single raid by two of Fireteeth's ships had done such damage to Amastar, there was no telling what a large force could do, and with Morilanta on top of that? He didn't need foresight to guess that it would be a massacre.
Brad, you better be the fuck out of there.
The next couple of hours spent with Lucifer went about as he'd expected. Until mid-autumn, unless one of them got a vision, they had to trust that Crawford had left Grandisle as planned at the end of Aes. Schuldig would touch base with the port, seeking Crawford's mind in the south beginning in Isolde. If there was still no word by Isolde 15th, they would have to assume that at best, he was stranded on one of the other islands and at worst, he'd been captured or killed.
Schuldig was all for declaring war on Fireteeth and Morilanta at that point, but neither Khelek's ships nor their sailors were made for battle as far south as Firegem. And fighting on two fronts like that was just a poor idea in any case. They would consider other options in the meantime. One of those was to alert Anarlina to Morilanta's activities and see what the Sundancers might do, which was Schuldig's next task.
~Twilight,~ he sent. ~I've got some news from the south that you may want to hear.~
Back in his room, Schuldig squinted at the seal. Crawford's crest was a blue rose with a star at its center, and he used a blue sealing wax. For more formal or important missives, he used a stick of wax that had small flecks of gold mixed in. Casual correspondences were sealed with plain blue wax. As Schuldig tilted the letter, parts of the seal winked gold in the light. Of course, Crawford could have just run out of the plain sealing wax, though if that were the case, why couldn't he have waited to just get a new stick?
Wait. There. He moved it again, and there was a glint of orange amongst the gold. Copper. Not just important, then. Urgent.
He took a knife and carefully removed the seal, checking the underside for any additional message before opening the envelope and pulling out the letter itself. A few feathers fell out as he unfolded it--orange and white, black, and yellow. The first feather signified coming danger. The other two were tied together with thread. Black and yellow together...Morilanta.
Schuldig swore and set to reading the letter itself. Two hours later, after checking and double checking the clues he'd picked up peppered among inane talk of balls and scandals, he had the full picture. Or at least as full a picture as Crawford had been able to send.
Morilanta was going to attack Grandisle. With Fireteeth. No, by now the attack would have already begun and Crawford, with any luck, would already have set sail for Naruta.
After a single raid by two of Fireteeth's ships had done such damage to Amastar, there was no telling what a large force could do, and with Morilanta on top of that? He didn't need foresight to guess that it would be a massacre.
Brad, you better be the fuck out of there.
The next couple of hours spent with Lucifer went about as he'd expected. Until mid-autumn, unless one of them got a vision, they had to trust that Crawford had left Grandisle as planned at the end of Aes. Schuldig would touch base with the port, seeking Crawford's mind in the south beginning in Isolde. If there was still no word by Isolde 15th, they would have to assume that at best, he was stranded on one of the other islands and at worst, he'd been captured or killed.
Schuldig was all for declaring war on Fireteeth and Morilanta at that point, but neither Khelek's ships nor their sailors were made for battle as far south as Firegem. And fighting on two fronts like that was just a poor idea in any case. They would consider other options in the meantime. One of those was to alert Anarlina to Morilanta's activities and see what the Sundancers might do, which was Schuldig's next task.
~Twilight,~ he sent. ~I've got some news from the south that you may want to hear.~
