When the Music’s Over
I promised you I would try, did I not? Here is proof; a written letter! Quite beyond my habits usually – thus, let it be the ultimate reflection of my undying love to you. After all, who needs a ring, a hero, or a muscular Knight when they have letter writer!
Sorry, love, I am only bitter: I have been disinclined to write letters since my time pretending to be the Librarian, when that was all I did – was write, that is. How are you? -Where- are you? Have you made the duchy yet, and how are your companions and your daughter? Surely it must be nice, at least, traveling with your family. Like a mini-vacation… were it not only for business. My readjustment into the city is hard – I feel more like a ghost than ever, a stranger who can hardly have an affect on anything. Mages show themselves and men much younger than me protect the populace from them. I am shepherded to the back corners of taverns where I sit, drink, watch, and grow fat. I can hardly recall how to be an active member of society anymore after so long spent languishing in a slaver prison cell.
That is of no matter though, I will soon get over it. I think I will go back to my writings; I have pieces of Aurthyn ab Sidhaar’s journal that should be compiled, and a thesis on the ‘Role of a Modern Knight’ within the clergy. Since the dissolution of a patriarch monarchy, I feel the Knights need to evolve into something bigger than what they might have been – a society more independent, and more wholly accountable for their actions and the actions of their fellows. The code, after all, saves us from the horrors of the Inquisition – but our oaths bid us serve the Inquisition. It is a duality of nature, one that I think truly defines the Knights – as the conscience, so to speak, of the Church. The men and women of the people, even as the Inquisition must torture them for answers.
I don’t know how I feel about torture. I really don’t. When I was a member of the Masque, it seemed the only way to get answers was to beat people, torture them, or threaten their loved ones. Now, Ariel has shown me a different way – a simpler one. Conversation. Oh, people still lie, but even lies have truth sometimes, it seems. The Cardinal seems to have a straight enough head on him – I spoke with him about transparency in the Church, and we shared many of the same ideals – but I don’t know about the others. Which brings me back to the Knight’s primary role in the modern age: both to serve the Inquisition, and to protect others from it. Is that heretical of me to say?
Yours truly, Casimir Aldair