Billium

Dearest Father,

I hope this letter finds you well and healthy as when you set off. Do not worry, for Miss Charlotte and I are both wanting in nothing except your quick return home. Life in town is nothing short of exciting and I shall have a good many stories to tell you when you come home.

I had an interesting talk with Ellany the other night, one that has been on my mind in the last two days.

Ellany returned down the stairs to the kitchen after helping Muirenn up to her room. As the day came to an end, Miss Charlotte had taken up one of the guard's shirts to mend. She squinted down at the small tear and let the firelight guide her needle. When Ellany sat down opposite Miss Charlotte, the elder woman glanced up from her sewing.

The elder woman sat rocking in her chair by the hearth, not a single dark hair out of place, not even the few greying ones. Her knitting needles worked rhythmically in time with her rocking. Click, click. Click, click.

"So did you stop by the jail and acquaint yourself with the Watchers as your father bid you before he left? You know that if there's any trouble, you go straight to them." Miss Charlotte raised a thin eyebrow, regarding the younger woman across from her.

Yesterday I finished my interview with Seaver, I watched this man nearly break down from the guilt he carries because he could not protect the wo

This evening 3 to 4 men in hooded cloaks and bearing crossbows fired from the roof of the armory across the town hall at Billium Cutting, Thomas Bristlebrush and Bill Cornman. All the men belong were struck with bolts, Bristlebrush and Cornman died at the scene and Cutting is being treated by a healer at the jail. His injuries are several and one of them very severe, a puncture to the ribs by a bolt.

The young woman crouched, her forearms resting on her thighs, her murky blue eyes taking in the gruesome scene. A dagger dangled from one hand, still wet with blood as she had the kindness in her stone heart to finish off one man who was dying too slowly. He had been impaled on a broken tree limb, in a rather vulnerable if not fatal place on his body. She spat at the roots of the old oak and turned at the sound of foot steps.