Armand’s First Letter. Amelia’s First Letter.

17 Rue Thomas, Toulouse
27 October 1017

My dearest cousin Armand,

Must you have given in to Jérôme’s importunities so easily? You swooped in, solved a great part of our mystery in a matter of few moments while extending the whole of it greatly, and then swooped off again with the one member of our little group with any understanding of forming at all.

It is true that Jérôme will know far more when he returns to us—but as I judge from overhearing your negotiations with him, when he does return he will not be allowed to tell us much of what he has learned. It is of all things the most annoying!

My Maximilian reminds me that if guild law were not so there would be no wealth and so no prestige attached to the position of Grandmaster of the Cumbrian Former’s Guild; and then your father would never have been allowed to marry my dear Auntie Jane; and then, perhaps, I should never have had any cousin at all. I suppose I must count my blessings.

So, then, Maximilian and I have turned to that part of the problem we can understand: the power flowing into the ley lines, and the ley lines themselves.

Our first question: when did King Guy’s Fundament cease to power the ley lines?

It clearly is not doing so now, or we would have noticed long since. And if it ceased immediately when the other nodal object were destroyed, then all is well. But if it continued to do so after the destruction of its presumed mates, that would mean that our estimates of the rate of decay of the ley lines are out; and possibly quite far out. The same would then be true for our estimates of the age of that destruction.

Maximilian is madly calculating as I write these words, trying to bound the problem. Alas I do not know enough of Cumbria wizardry to assist him. Yet! Jérôme might travel to distant shores seeking insight into the lost stream of Belazel, but for my part I shall pair my studies into the Fleuve de Johannes the vastly nearer shores of Cumbrian wizardry. I may say that Dr. Laguerre is quite in agreement.

My studies in the Stream of Johannes have progressed, I hasten to add. I have not written much about them, as very little of what I am studying has to do with extending my reach, as it were; but rather entirely with ensuring that I only produce the effects I wish to produce, in the measure I wish to produce them.

“Votre puissance est redoutable.” says she. “On that we have no need to work. Contrôle, that must be votre mot d’ordre.”

But back to the ley-lines. We know how they were powered, but we are still far from knowing what that power was used for. It is clear that the formed artifact we’ve been calling King Guy’s Fundament is a source of magical power, solely; and so I have been wondering whether King Guy’s plinth might conceal some other nodal object, paired with the Fundament. Or, perhaps, not all nodal points were the same: some provided power, and others made use of it.

It is something to look for, at least. Maximilian is as eager as any Edenford undergraduate to extend his map of Provençese ley lines, in hopes of finding and studying the nodal points—so much so that he and I intend to make a tour of the Provençese countryside, and perhaps on into the adjacent lands, to see what can be seen.

It will be good for him, for he is used to more activity than my life as an academic easily affords; and for my part it will be delight to travel with him even if we advance our theories not a whit.

Your soon-to-be-wayfaring cousin,

Amelia

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