Arrow of Heaven part II

by Franz

My dearest sister Kirstin,

I'm sorry I have not written for so long, but I have been in a foul humour since being near-killed by that villian that had signed on as our mate for the trip to Avalon.

Events of late have not done much to improve my mood. As we travel through Castille I am subjected to food which keeps me awake half the night from stomach upset. Some of it is so spicy I can scarce get it down in the first place.

There are signs of battle in some places and I am sure the Castillians think their land ruined. The worst I have seen bears no resemblance to the best that was left of our beloved Eisen. And as we have travelled into the countryside away from the bloodshed I see a land so beautiful and green--I wonder could Eisen have ever looked so, and if it did will it ever again in our time or the times of our children?

I am a whirl of emotions as I see the Montaignes and Castillians at war here. On the one hand I take a perverse pleasure that they kill each other after the way they seized our lands after our armies had spent themselves on each other. I also wonder at the minds of nations that have witnessed our folly and seek to reproduce it elsewhere. In some small measure I sympathise with the Castillians defending their homeland. It is a very small measure--in general I cannot recall having met a people so difficult to deal with.

As we travel strange things occur almost as if we were under the influence of a Fate Witch. We had not long set out on our journey across Castille when we happened across an old "friend"--Captain Chevalier. You recall I wrote of him previously from our travels to Charouse? He challenged Borstennskoldmund to a duel and managed to best him leaving him with a prominent notch in one ear. Well, perhaps for most it would be prominent, but the Vesten's braids tend to hide his ears for the most part. Still I'm sure it stung for a while.

Further along the road it appeared that partisans were attacking us for travelling with our Montaigne companions, but it turned out to be a young girl who had lost her family in the fighting. As Fate would have it, she had an uncle in the vicinity of San Christobel so we added her to our party after extracting an oath that she would not attack the Montaignes while we travelled.

As if that was not enough we also ran across an old flame of Eduarde's leading a Montaigne supply convoy. From her behaviour I trust things ended badly, but Eduarde appears to still be smitten with her. After doing her best to belittle him we moved on as we were travelling faster than her carriages, but as it was late in the day when we passed them we could not have been that far away when we made camp.

Sure enough in the middle of the night we heard the sound of musket fire. Eduarde, fearing his beloved Eloise to be in danger rushed back to protect her, and we to protect him. It did not take long to drive off the Castillians that had surrounded them and I was pleased that by holding my attack I was able to complete the battle without having aided the Montaignes in their invasion.

When Eduarde went to check on Eloise she rounded on him claiming he had ruined some master plan of hers--it was hard to know whether she believed what she said and was ignorant, or whether she could not acknowledge his aid and was arrogant. More than likely it was something of both. Without a doubt her words were stinging Eduarde badly, so I threw her a barb of my own hoping to distract her from Eduarde.

Sure enough, she turned on me but my words had apparently had more effect than I'd intended as she challenged me to a duel. Had I been in better spirits I would have refused her as that surely would have hurt her more than anything else, but it did not occur to me at the time.

As it was, there was no way to win the encounter. My choices were to concede the duel, or to risk my friendship (if it can be called that) with Eduarde by wounding her. She struck a telling blow and the duel was done. We left, and Eduarde has been in a depression since but we are still as much friends as ever so I feel I did near everything I could. For her sake I hope we never meet in Eduarde's absence. It appears that in Montaigne women, as in nature, the brightest things are often the most venomous.

Proceeding on we finally approached the border back into Castillian territory. We had heard tales of brutal fighting, and indeed we passed several bodies left to rot as they hung from trees. Wandering into a village we managed to find someone with access to a boat we could have. The price we paid would have done so much good back in Eisen that I could have wept, but the man was unwilling to bargain and we seemed to have little option.

We managed to row across the stretch of water under cover of a sorcerous fog summoned from a rune given us in San Augustin. Much as I detest sorcery, it is hard to see how we could have managed it otherwise.

Onwards to San Christobel. We have delivered the young girl to her uncle who was happy to see her alive and well, though we had to endure a rich and spicy feast as a "reward". We have also been to the de Pasquale estate with our madman. Most of the servants wept with joy as soon as they saw the medallion he bore. The elder of the house was less certain, but I think in these times is grateful for any source of happiness and willing to indulge the fantasy--if such it be--for a time at least.

It is from those estates that I dispatch this letter, as I feel confident that these people will do their best to see it arrives safely.

Always your,

Franz