[Timestamp TBD]
Inali had spent the first portion of her morning working through a particularly difficult cipher. Other members of the Old Guard had each taken a stab at it and the collected parchment of notes was painfully thin. A few of her colleagues had used the reverse of the page to scribe ideas and conjectures and this half of the page had been utilized much more. While it was tempting to scratch out the most ludicrous of guesses, the eidisi reminded herself that she was no better than her cohort at cryptography – at least not yet. The group had concluded that the cipher was written in both Rakahi and Common which was rather typical. Few merchants had the inclination to hire a scribe that was well versed in the esoteric runes and symbols that made up the rarest languages spoken in Idalos. The eidisi traced her fingertips over the neatly written copy of the correspondence, covering some words while she turned the page ninety degrees to the left. Such exercises looked absurd to pure academics, but the practice of cryptography blended creativity and science. Seeing the cipher in a different way or chopping it up into component parts often provided enough new stimuli to reinvigorate the senses.
Not this time. With a pronounced sigh, Inali folded the coded letter and placed it into one of her books before taking a moment to walk down the main tavern of the Inn for Dinner. The barkeep smiled and waved before calling out,
“You’re usually down earlier for breakfast. Did you sleep in today?”
The eidisi rolled her eyes at the comment before glancing at the day’s menu and deciding on a simple meal of eggs and grilled pork. She relayed this to the barkeep and quipped,
“Eidisi never sleep in. I was vexed with a million unsolvable questions in my dreams. The sheer terror of dying without answering them woke me from my peaceful slumber.”
It was his turn to roll his eyes. He yelled the order back to the cook – a friendly woman named Marisa – and grabbed a sheet of paper off the bar.
“Have you seen these? Some man up in Foster’s Landing had them distributed and a few made it back to Etzos. I agree with a lot of his points but he… rambled on a bit. I thought it might be good for a morning laugh.”
Inali stretched her arms and stood up before grabbing a copy of the letter entitled ‘The First Letter of Gangui to the People of Foster’s Landing’
Her eyebrows raised at the presumptuous nature of the title. In fact, letters weren’t even supposed to be titled. This was more of an essay, and any self-respecting letter writer would be ashamed to title it as such.
After a few bits of reading, Inali got the sense that the man or woman, Gangui, was not a self-respecting letter writer or academic. She made the trip back to her room to get a sheet of her own stationary and a ink pen to reply.
“Mr. or Ms. Gangui,
I cannot begin to point out the numerous inconsistencies and flaws in your ‘letter’. I will attempt to bring your attention to a select few in hopes that your future ‘letters’ to the people of Foster’s Landing might have a more positive and lasting impact.
First – the ‘letter’ is entirely too long. Your points run on and circle back upon themselves, chasing their own tail like a mange-ridden dog. Brevity is key, especially if you intend to demonize a large subset of the population.
Second – You offer no proof to substantiate your paranoid claims. How exactly would an Immortal ‘fund, support, and build’ each one of their followers? Surely these wealthy individuals would be easy enough to spot. You insult those in Etzos who spend countless breaks searching for these illusive Immortal worshippers.
Lastly – You would do best to not use such vile caricatures of Immortal worshippers. Though your letter claims the opposite, I would hazard a guess that the Immortal worshippers around us are rather normal. If they were as terrible as you claimed, they would be easy to identify.
I look forward to meeting with you if you would like to discuss some of the finer points of your letter. I would also be willing to provide my services as a Viden Academy trained linguist to help you craft future correspondence.
-Inali
(Inn for Dinner address on reverse side)
Inali smiled at the letter and held it up triumphantly in the air for the barkeep to see.
“This Gangui individual is about to be rather displeased. Perhaps he’ll call me an Immortal worshipper to boot.”
She laughed lightly at this before beckoning over a youth and giving him 5 golden nels to ensure the prompt delivery of the letter to Gangui of Foster’s Landing.
Inali had spent the first portion of her morning working through a particularly difficult cipher. Other members of the Old Guard had each taken a stab at it and the collected parchment of notes was painfully thin. A few of her colleagues had used the reverse of the page to scribe ideas and conjectures and this half of the page had been utilized much more. While it was tempting to scratch out the most ludicrous of guesses, the eidisi reminded herself that she was no better than her cohort at cryptography – at least not yet. The group had concluded that the cipher was written in both Rakahi and Common which was rather typical. Few merchants had the inclination to hire a scribe that was well versed in the esoteric runes and symbols that made up the rarest languages spoken in Idalos. The eidisi traced her fingertips over the neatly written copy of the correspondence, covering some words while she turned the page ninety degrees to the left. Such exercises looked absurd to pure academics, but the practice of cryptography blended creativity and science. Seeing the cipher in a different way or chopping it up into component parts often provided enough new stimuli to reinvigorate the senses.
Not this time. With a pronounced sigh, Inali folded the coded letter and placed it into one of her books before taking a moment to walk down the main tavern of the Inn for Dinner. The barkeep smiled and waved before calling out,
“You’re usually down earlier for breakfast. Did you sleep in today?”
The eidisi rolled her eyes at the comment before glancing at the day’s menu and deciding on a simple meal of eggs and grilled pork. She relayed this to the barkeep and quipped,
“Eidisi never sleep in. I was vexed with a million unsolvable questions in my dreams. The sheer terror of dying without answering them woke me from my peaceful slumber.”
It was his turn to roll his eyes. He yelled the order back to the cook – a friendly woman named Marisa – and grabbed a sheet of paper off the bar.
“Have you seen these? Some man up in Foster’s Landing had them distributed and a few made it back to Etzos. I agree with a lot of his points but he… rambled on a bit. I thought it might be good for a morning laugh.”
Inali stretched her arms and stood up before grabbing a copy of the letter entitled ‘The First Letter of Gangui to the People of Foster’s Landing’
Her eyebrows raised at the presumptuous nature of the title. In fact, letters weren’t even supposed to be titled. This was more of an essay, and any self-respecting letter writer would be ashamed to title it as such.
After a few bits of reading, Inali got the sense that the man or woman, Gangui, was not a self-respecting letter writer or academic. She made the trip back to her room to get a sheet of her own stationary and a ink pen to reply.
“Mr. or Ms. Gangui,
I cannot begin to point out the numerous inconsistencies and flaws in your ‘letter’. I will attempt to bring your attention to a select few in hopes that your future ‘letters’ to the people of Foster’s Landing might have a more positive and lasting impact.
First – the ‘letter’ is entirely too long. Your points run on and circle back upon themselves, chasing their own tail like a mange-ridden dog. Brevity is key, especially if you intend to demonize a large subset of the population.
Second – You offer no proof to substantiate your paranoid claims. How exactly would an Immortal ‘fund, support, and build’ each one of their followers? Surely these wealthy individuals would be easy enough to spot. You insult those in Etzos who spend countless breaks searching for these illusive Immortal worshippers.
Lastly – You would do best to not use such vile caricatures of Immortal worshippers. Though your letter claims the opposite, I would hazard a guess that the Immortal worshippers around us are rather normal. If they were as terrible as you claimed, they would be easy to identify.
I look forward to meeting with you if you would like to discuss some of the finer points of your letter. I would also be willing to provide my services as a Viden Academy trained linguist to help you craft future correspondence.
-Inali
(Inn for Dinner address on reverse side)
Inali smiled at the letter and held it up triumphantly in the air for the barkeep to see.
“This Gangui individual is about to be rather displeased. Perhaps he’ll call me an Immortal worshipper to boot.”
She laughed lightly at this before beckoning over a youth and giving him 5 golden nels to ensure the prompt delivery of the letter to Gangui of Foster’s Landing.