Keish- October 15, 2003

October 15, 2003

Dear Arri,

What exactly do you expect me to tell Imato???? Do you honestly want me to tell him you caught a griffon and took off to find Uncle W?!?! I think the jump shook your reason a bit. I’ll figure out something to tell him though. Maybe if I can talk to Tulson and use him as an excuse somehow…. Though I suppose if you really want me to tell Imato the truth, I will.

Luckily Hermes got here quick enough that no one has panicked, so I have a little time. I can’t believe…. never mind, yes I can. I wish I could have gone with you, but oh well. You just make sure you tell me everything you find. I told Father some story about you needing to make an unexpected trip to help at the sickbed of a distant relative. Close enough to the truth, I suppose. Most mornings he’s so tired he’ll accept most anything I say. Anyway, it will suffice for now.

He is feeling much better. He’d just been working too much again. I think he’s starting to get too old for all this. After all, he’s hardly getting any sleep. I have been forcing him to sleep more lately, though, and if I have to, I’ll go to the king about the hours he’s working.

Imato’s exhibition is in three more days and Tulson will be here, so I’ll see if I can get some more information out of him. I’ll also see if I can find the book he told you about. There must be a copy of it here somewhere.

I’ve actually been scouring the royal nursery because it occurred to me that almanacs and encyclopedias and such may not be the place to look for information on fairies. After all, the people writing those things probably don’t even believe in fairies, so how accurate can their information be? So I’ve been reading all the children’s books I can get my hands on. I found something interesting in one volume. It had a couple of stories regarding fairies who never lost their memories and so chose to be “house fairies,” sort of serving people, using little bits of magic to make people’s lives better. I’m going to see if I can find anymore stories like these. Are there any that mention house fairies in your book?

The census information is definitely interesting. I think we may have copies here, so I’m going to check. If not, I’ll see what Tulson has to say about them. Maybe he’ll think to bring them with him when he comes. That would be great. It’s strange that there are only two references though, I would have thought there would be more since censuses are conducted fairly frequently. Maybe he hadn’t looked through all of them yet?

I’m sending you my small magnifying glass, so I hope you have the book with you. I’d send a larger glass, but Hermes would probably refuse to take anything bigger that this one. We can probably learn a lot from the pictures in the book.

I think you must have caught a rather unusual griffon, or do you think they are all moody like that? He sounds funny, if a bit gloomy.

I don’t know what to say about the bridle. That’s so strange, especially since we don’t know where it came from to begin with. I mean, it just sort of appeared. Maybe you’ll run into a unicorn. Do unicorns require golden bridles? I’d never thought about it before.

Do you really think this griffon can find Uncle Winthrop? I know their magic is supposed to allow them to locate anything… it seems so strange though, leaping about with no idea where to look and little idea where you are. We’ll just have to believe in it, I suppose.

Liop says to be careful with Nozama. He seemed indignant that you would try to leave the monkey behind to begin with, especially since you took the cat.

“A monkey would be far more useful than a pestiferous grimalkin,” he insisted. (Apparently he finds Kestrel annoying. Who knew.) I suppose we’ll see about that, since you have no choice now.

I of course won’t say a word about you taking the sword, I’m not sure that Imato would be angry, but I don’t think he would know quite how to react. He’d probably just wonder what you intended to do with it. He can be very pragmatic, you know.

Liop, Gretel and I are going to go look for more about house fairies. Maybe I’ll send a note to Tulson… it wouldn’t get to him before he leaves though. Well, when they get here he and Jace and Taty can help look. Brynn will be disappointed not to be able to discuss healing and magic with you, but it will have to wait. I’ll see what she knows about fairies. You don’t suppose she could be a house fairy, do you? It would certainly explain a few things. Like how she knows so much about everything and how she doesn’t seem to age. It could even explain why she seems to be connected to our family, if she’s a fairy and Pricille was a fairy and all.

I think I’d best close. I want to get Hermes back to you quickly in case you need him. (Besides, since I want him to carry this magnifying glass, I’d best keep the letter short!)

Stay safe.

Love Always,

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