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

13 November 1025, L’École du Sorciers

My dearest cousin Armand,

I apologize for the delay in sending Captain Grier back home, and also for the delay in this letter; for you must know that I try to return your letters promptly. Both were delayed for the same reason, and the reason is such that we should all be quite pleased with ourselves!

Jérôme spent his voyage hither in forming nodes for the Iturian Relay that not only incorporate the lessons learned from your message arrows, but also something like John Gamble’s whirligigs—for Jérôme made best use of his time in Bois-de-Bas.

To be precise, Jérôme formed two pairs of nodes. Each pair consists of a source node and a target node, formed jointly out of a single block of wood so that they remain related. The intent is that a source node from one pair and a target node from the other pair form one end of a paired relay, what Dr. Tillotson is now calling an Iturian Terminal. Terminals come in pairs, and packages can be sent back and forth between them. The pair of terminals taken together he has chosen to call an Iturian Circuit.

Each target node includes a wheel that spins to use up any excess of magic when a package is received. The wheel isn’t a pretty whirligig but could be used to drive a whirligig or some more subfusc visual indicator.

Captain Grier skipped over Toulouse on his outward voyage, choosing to go straight to Nexing Cross, where between them Jérôme and Dr. Tillotson completed the task of enchanting the nodes to form a complete circuit. They spent several days testing the circuit in Nexinghamshire, to ensure that it will work for anyone without any further effort by our wizards—which it did, thanks to your insights. All kudos to you, my dear cousin, all here in the Old Lands are agreed!

And then Dr. Tillotson boarded the Amelie with his belongings and one of the terminals and came to Toulouse, where he spent several days here at L’École. Captain Grier was most gracious about it; I believe he spent much of the time shopping for gifts for his wife. 

I should like to address other matters now, just to keep you on the edge of your stool, but instead I shall take pity upon you. 

Yes! Yes, Armand!

Ten minutes after Jérôme’s arrival we sent a letter to Octie at Nexing Cross by means of our terminal and fifteen minutes after that he returned it by means of his, having scrawled upon it a note of congratulations. We have put the letter into safekeeping, for surely this was an historic moment!

Tillotson could happily have embarked for Bois-de-Bas at that moment, but we chose to keep him for a celebratory dinner with the masters of L’École; and then he and Jérôme spent three days forming two new relays with larger, more powerful nodes, with which we hope to span the distance between L’École and Bois-de-Bas. 

As I handed this letter to Dr. Tillotson for delivery into your hands, I would presume that you now have the Amelie, your terminal, and the good doctor all in your wise and prudent keeping. We will attempt to send you a brief letter at noon on December 24th.

Jérôme and I are keeping our terminal safe and hidden; here in the Old Lands, only Dr. Guisman, Jérôme, and I know that it has been created. We recommend that you do the same, even after you have managed to create your own circuits: it could be quite useful to have a private way for L’École and the Armorica Former’s Guild to communicate without interference or cost from the Courier’s Guild or the governments in question.

One terminal of our original circuit remains with Octie in Nexing Cross. We intend to visit Cumbria next month to introduce little George to his grandparents, and we shall fetch it back to L’École, to be stored with the original letter.

As regards your guild and your future college—what shall you name it, do you think?—I have spent some little time discussing your proposed changes with Jérôme, and have been pondering them myself. First, I think you are wise to preserve the protections that the guild system gives you. The Iturian Circuit will be a great and important gift to the world, but also one with a degree of peril should it be misused or poorly formed, and your scheme will go a long way toward keeping its construction safe.

But I believe you must also protect the terminals themselves. Consider the heating blocks you sell. The simplest heating block is just a piece of wood formed to produce heat by greedily extracting effort from the generous objects around it, thereby destroying them slowly over time. You have therefore designed a more complex forming that balances greed and generosity and thereby preserves hardened cookware and other formed artifacts in its vicinity.

You must do that with Iturian nodes as well, of course; but perhaps you might design them so as to hide the details of their forming. Perhaps you might even form them so that improper meddling causes what is within to destroy itself, or to send itself into the Abyss. Otherwise, some wealthy individual or state might attempt to have one of your failed students gain the practical knowledge of how the circuit works by direct inspection.

But that is your affair; and, I suppose, that of Grandmaster Netherington-Coates. I have not written to him of our success, nor of your plans for the Armorican Former’s Guild, as I had no wish to jog your elbow; but I expect you will eventually have Jérôme bring the details to him. But perhaps you wish to negotiate with the Courier’s Guild first?

Your exultant cousin,

Amelia

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