Letter to Lyrist Aubrey

[NeedForGreed]

To Lyrist Aubrey Domergue,

I have hoped to speak with you, in lieu of this please accept a written proposal I am sharing with members of the Accord. I would still like to speak, but I know your time is valuable.

So, my proposal:

I seek to establish a public Hospital for Ephia's Well, and ask for your support, advice, or to hear your concerns. The Hospital would have the following goals:

To provide medical care and proper medical beds to those wounded in war, to Janissaries, and to those who live within Ephia's Well.

Second, to provide medical care and quarantine for future diseases and plagues.

Third, to provide medical training and become a place of medical learning, hopefully in cooperation with Sandstone College or more.

Four, to address the public health of Ephia's Well at large: prepare for eventual outbreaks, research and store medical knowledge regarding the local drugs, etc.

Until such time as the Hospital can be built, a clinic within Ephia's Well would be maintained on an interim basis. This would allow for the relocation of wounded Janissaries and war veterans currently left on the streets and the floor of the Krak des Roses.

To clarify, what distinguishes this from the House of Healing in the Tablet. The House of Healing serves the poorest, most disenfranchised of the Well. Refugees, Voiceless, the Tablet. I believe it is of limited usefulness to the average citizen or resident of the Well.

Due to the current limitations of the Stele, funding is likely to be a tricky matter even with the support of the government, however, I believe that a solution can be found. The interim clinic will not require as much funding, and I am prepared to dedicate my personal funds and donations to the effort, but the Hospital itself would require some problem-solving as to how to receive government funding if offered. As I understand it, the Stele cannot currently pay entities beyond the Accord, leading to situations such as the delay in the Hope's funding. Let the interim clinic stand as a temporary measure, until the Hospital can be figured out. The Janissaries and war veterans still recovering from battle deserve better.

I seek your endorsement, or simply your blessings in this endeavor. For those you represent, if there is a need that may be addressed by the creation of this Hospital, I would like to hear how I can address that need. I welcome discussion with you on any potential concerns or requests. I hope that each of the Accord can recognize the mutual benefit in such an establishment, and allow for this small grace and unity for the benefit of the people of Ephia's Well. I know that you care, and you know that I do as well.

Thank you for your time and consideration. May you be well in both body and spirit,

[Pandip]

Fiordelise,

You have my earnest, unerring, and heartfelt support in all your endeavors. I am greatly enthusiastic to see the headway you have made these past several weeks. It is a rare surprise to witness the dispensation of kindness by one as well-intentioned as yourself.

Though I would challenge your belief that the House of Healing and Tablet could not be greatly benefited by your presence and aid, I will concede that you likely have fully contemplated the impact of your support and trust your decision to create your hospital within the premises of Ephia's Well.

It is an inevitable and unfortunate reality that my name comes with its own breadth of scorn from the various powers of the Well. I have, after all, been a consistent thorn in the side of those degenerates who are unceasing in their efforts to bring harm to the People. However, you need but tell me how I and the Balladeers could best assist you - and that assistance shall be readily made yours.

In the interest of making your own name and circumventing the difficulties of state funding, I would suggest you propose that the legates bestow the Palatial Physician position upon you. The title has remained without an owner since the Astronomers' unfortunate public execution of the nadiri which held it. But this would be a way for you to extract from the state a small - but helpful! - stipend. And mayhap most importantly, a degree of legitimacy and recognition from the powers of the Well.

Call upon me as your heart desires; you are ever welcomed at the College of the Lost Hearth.

Truth in Action,

    -- Aubrey Domergue
       Lyrist of the Lost Hearth
       

[Pandip]

Fiordelise,

Congratulations. The appointment is well deserved.

When your now much busier schedule allows, I would enjoy the opportunity to speak not of politics or machinations, but of things of a more personal nature. To hear why you decided to come to Ephia's Well and what compels you to follow Sage Santina.

Ever at your disposal,

    -- Aubrey Domergue
       Lyrist of the Lost Hearth
       

[NeedForGreed]

Aubrey,

Gladly. A conversation is the least I owe you. I will be busy later today, but free for a while now and much freer tomorrow.

I would be glad to learn of you as well, and how you came to your work.

My work begins in earnest. Live and drink!

[NeedForGreed]

Dear Aubrey,

I am sure you have heard the anger on the bellows. So much of it from within the White League, both within the Balladeers and without.

I am sorry that we have not yet had a chance to talk. I would like to, when you are free.

I wish to find a way to continue my work without doing harm to those who share my values. To you, to the League, to the Balladeers. I fear that my presence shall cause discord among the League and among your people, when the priority must ever be on helping those who are without.

The Hospital project is off to a decent start. Marcellus has given much support, offering space within his own library for beds. I was able to purchase property to add more room. The Priory has made noise about having charity funds to give out, and Carrot believes I should ask them for some of these funds. They do not seem inclined to, perhaps preferring to keep charity to those of their faith. So it goes.

If I have to work the boards hours a day, I will make this work.

I have spoken with a few Wheel priests that are interested in assisting with the project, though we keep finding ourselves being interrupted.

In any case, I still hope to speak, but wish to be careful in my presence and advocacy that the shadows some imagine around me, do not darken the light that is our work. Pray do not let the xenophobia and hate towards the Sages harm your work, your advocacy, your people. Instead, counsel me how I might make little trouble for you.

Mercystar comfort you and strengthen you in all you do.

With eternal gratitude,
Fiordelise Foscari

[NeedForGreed]

Dear Aubrey,

I have heard that you are around again. I still wish to meet and talk. Much has happened since we last spoke. My clinic has been attacked, as well as my person, by people we believe have been paid to do so. Yet there has been unity, too, and peaceful accord I always hoped was possible. The Hakem and I are growing an understanding and I believe can come to peaceful cooperative agreements in the matter of the hospital. I have spent my own funds on property for the hospital, secured additional funding for my work, and am forging ahead. There is a small delay as I discuss switching properties with another, but it will resolve one way or another.

In all of this, I have made some difficult choices that you will likely disagree with. But I hope you will hear my reasons for them - I owe them to you. May we speak in person?

I remember harshly the day of the Allotment when the Balladeer faction walked out in reasonable protest and was thus denied its share of funding. This lesson has stuck with me and is one I needed to learn more than most. I have repeatedly denied aid from sources who did not align with my views, and it has taken me time to recognize that, pragmatically, this does nothing to help the refugees and the poor to whom I devote my time.

Complete wins would feel lovely, but I do not want to sacrifice real, smaller improvements to peoples' lives in exchange for nothing. So, I resolved to focus less on 'teams' and more on direct action. More on what would make a real difference. The refugee shelter and the hospital are real, concrete actions I can take.

At the same time, I have felt increasingly pushed from the White League. You know most of why: anti-Dome xenophobia runs in the ranks of Balladeer and White alike, as it does in the Purple. Unity and action have always been issues, as have those sitting within the League but voting otherwise, as you have noted in the past. I believe that the White League has many who speak of the virtues of charity and Voiceless rights, but do not actually make the choices to ensure they will be improved. Instead, some seek a politician they can control and a politician they can benefit from. You have never been one of those people. By the words, I remember in that Balladeer meeting, you have been betrayed by those who make such choices time and time again.

I share your wariness of them. The last few League meetings were the final straw for me. When Aeronwy asked me what I thought of the potential White candidates, I privately expressed to her my distrust towards one. I felt that a candidate was all but pre-selected, the one that could be controlled. Not the one that was best able to win or had the most feasible goals (though I am not saying whether it is the case - only that I do not feel this factored in). I do not think there was even a discussion of what candidates believed, wanted, or would do in the last meeting I attended. It felt like the Priory had already met and decided who to push in some private backroom, to the detriment of the refugees and Voiceless. I did not appreciate this kind of influence by the Priory in the White League and made my decision to leave.

It did not come as a great surprise to some of my friends when I either told them privately I was planning to, or when they found out after. It was a long time coming. The White League has friends, people who prioritize the same thing that I do for all manner of reasons. But it is also full of people who will ever refuse to work with me, obstruct my work, and seek to drive me out of League and Well. Whether they smile to my face or not, it comes as no surprise to me that the bandits were enticed to burn down my clinic.

There are too many among the Whites who hate my faith more than they love the refugees. Who hate the Golds more than they love the poor.

So I endeavored to focus on my work. I will continue to advocate for the Voiceless and the destitute. I am working to pressure Dante to consider the needs and wants of the Balladeers, particularly you, in his campaign. Whatever small bit of influence I exert on the Well, to repay you for your kindness and to aid the Balladeers in their efforts of hope, I will do. I have asked him to try to keep the table open for you. Should he win, I want his changes to be better for the little people than they would have been otherwise. So I have asked for what can be managed: better protections for the Voiceless. Charity from the Gold League for refugees. More Voices. Fairer laws for them.

It will never be perfect, no matter who wins. But it is worth trying to secure better rights for the Voiceless if he does, and I believe the numbers favor him.

I was ever a voice for compromise and finding common ground in the League. So I have now asked for concessions from the likely winner, and I hope you will understand why I have done it. Dante wants me to be his Prelate - he has been asking me for weeks, but ever was it my position that I wanted real concessions towards the White platform in exchange. I have, finally, some concessions I can be proud of. I am still deciding on his offer.

I cannot help that I am in love with a man of the Gold. But I can make some good come of it. I am determined to claw from the powers that be every little improvement in the lives of the underclass that I can.

Please reach out when you have time, that we might speak.
Signed,