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

13 May 1022, 22 Merton Street, Edenford

My dearest cousin Armand,

We have had yet another breakthrough: which is to say that young Jane, in addition to running everywhere at full speed, has uttered her first word. Predictably, it was “Mama”; devastatingly, she said it to Margaux, her nurse. And it could not be hidden, for I was not two yards away.

Quelle horreur! as my dear Janine Allard would say, and well she might!

And so I am continuing my study of Old Cumbrian, day by day, in hopes of finding additional evidence for my conjectures; but after the discovery I related to you in my last, I now intend to reduce my hours of study in order to spend more time each day with my daughter.

We have had Jérôme Lavigne with us here in Edenford for the past several weeks. Not here at Merton Street, of course, for we have no spare beds; he has taken rooms at Veronica’s, where he has been working closely with Maximilian and Dr. Tillotson in order to form a source of magical power for their Iturian Relay.

Before coming to us he spent several days in the village of Saint Rocher, studying the supposed saint’s “tomb”.

“Which was less helpful than you might think,” he told us when he and Dr. Tillotson came for tea shortly after he had settled in. “It is not like M. Tuppenny’s warming blocks, made of several pieces in balance. It is the single block, n’est-ce pas? There is little one can do but stare at it and pray for the enlightenment of le Bon Dieu.” He shrugged. “And so I sat, and I stared, and I pondered the derrière of Saint Rocher until I had come to some conclusions.”

You would not think it to look at him, for Jérôme is always so reserved in company, but he has a low sense of humor. I do not know whether it was on display during his time with you in Bois-de-Bas, but he has. And so, following our joke about “King Guy’s Fundament,” that being the ley node and formed stone below the statue of King Guillaume in Toulouse, he has chosen to refer to all such formed magic sources as les derrières de Saint Rocher“. “For it is what the ley nodes sit upon,” he told us solemnly, as if daring us to laugh.

Which we did, of course, though Margaux blushed and took Jane from the room.

He believes he has nearly achieved the forming of such a denizen of the nether world, as Maximilian has chosen to term it, and with judicious application of your principles, so that it will not pull too much “effort” from any “generous” artifacts in the vicinity. “Though this will limit its contribution,” he said.

“That’s all to the good for now,” said Dr. Tillotson. “If Mrs. Archer is correct about the Cataclysm, as I begin to think she is, then we must proceed cautiously.”

“Do you begin to think so?” I said, perhaps a bit archly. “It sounds like you have some notion you haven’t shared with us.”

Maximilian cleared his throat. “We, ah, we have one or two notions, my dear. We will need to verify them, and we have been waiting for Jérôme’s fundaments to make a beginning.” There was a sheepish note in his voice, and I looked at him in some surprise. He reddened adorably. “The mathematics check out,” he said. “But no wizard of Edenford is happy without a tangible demonstration.”

“Hmph!” I said, snatching the last biscuit…which happened to be on his plate. “This will show you.” He bowed and made a gracious gesture of defeat.

That, as I say, was weeks ago. Jérôme has made great progress since, and we now look to see that “tangible demonstration” sometime in the next few weeks.

And I might add that yesterday my Jane called me Mama!

Your hopeful cousin,

Amelia

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