[A Letter to Aubrey]

[Vegan_Snickerdoodles]

Aubrey,


    This is Akna. I have not done this letter-writing much, but I believe left with the Roseman of the bar, it will reach you. I write now to ask you to do a thing that I think you will find less enjoyable than eating worms.

    Please just vote for Domhnall.

    We have shared our doubts about certain things, but I have come to accept that they are only doubts. Those who claim to know these things with a certainty, I have seen with my own eyes, will claim any stupidity on a mindless whim, to slander someone they want to destroy. Their words are empty and opportunistic. I would be a fool to pretend to know what I do not, as they do.

    There are things I do know. Purple currently has power to hinder change, to sustain the current status of things. And the current status of things is terrifying. Heinous cases are brought in private by Purple Sergeants, to Purple Magistrates, and a hapless boy who was all but framed for Brooking by that Sergeant's illegal coercion is executed in private tribunal.

    Marcellus refused to hold his magistrate accountable. Only by the crowd, and Domhnall's support of it, did she step down. Shortly after this, the Well had to execute that same criminal goon of a Sergeant, and Marcellus attempted to pay the Legion the most in Allotment for their disgrace. Domhnall prevented this, but it forced an even split; the Purple status quo.

    We see how little can be achieved in the presence of Purple, and what poison we may take if a League of boot-licking and power worship seizes the Pyramid entirely. The White League membership is beset by mindless hecklers and the apathetic who, for nothing more than vague distaste of Domhnall himself, will stand by and see our entire ability to combat these injustices vanish.

    I have spoken to a scribe. The race is so close the Torchbearers are taking emergency loans from Ashfolk coin-sharks to buy random votes off the street. Every vote is critical. I understand Domhnall did not support you against Marcellus. With this information you can do several things. You can pay him back in kind, by withholding your vote or giving it to another. Or you can up the White with me.

    Sephidra may not be the same shade of Purple as Marcellus, but it matters not; the League wins with her and controls her seat. Imagine the high-ground you will have by rising above the personal. Imagine also the humor of a Purple organization attempting to win by entering debt to Baz'eeli loansharks, only to lose anyway. The League of Purple does enjoy owing the Ashfolk for nothing.

    Please vote, if you have not. Hold your nose if you have to.


Akna

[Pandip]

Akna,

I do not intend to be much longer for the Well, but I shall not betray your confidence or that of the People in my final days hereabouts.

  -- Aubrey Domergue
              

[Vegan_Snickerdoodles]

[A response is left in the same way, without regard to whether or not it is ever to be seen.]

Aubrey,

    I thank you.

    I saw you in the Pyramid but there was, it seems, too much a crowd to speak. I do not understand where you intend to go, but on your path I wish you luck. In time it will surely bring you back here, for this desert is less grand than the locals like to pretend. A purpose is a welcome thing in this place. I look still for mine. Perhaps next time I will have more on it to say.

    I will try not to become jaded with politics. I see this despair in others, and it drives me to want to resist. It is after all just the process of deciding what happens next, and it determines how freely people can walk the streets, breathe the air, and live their lives. I do not think I have yet accepted that my life will occur here. A silly hope may remain that one day, just as I woke here, I will as easily be back Home. Until this happens, this place should be made something that is worth being called home.

    Since 'Live and Drink' is of the desert, and I am not, I will just finish with 'Be well'.

          Akna