To the Ducal Seat of Siovale, Her Grace the Sovereign Duchesse de Perigeux, Niniane, greetings.
I am not the kind of man to dance around the topic of something that I want. We have been friends for long enough for you to know this about me. I will not waste my ink or your time with idle conversation or clever turns of phrase when there is something important to be done that you may assist me with. Even out in Siovale, I am sure you have heard the gossip of the City of Elua in regards to the effect the young Dahlia is having on the City. She is a capable woman but because she is by very nature as a Dahlia, not someone who is easily led, the City is twisting and turning in on itself trying to figure out if she’s a saint or a sinner as she holds the King’s heart in her hands. The other nobles are testing her to see how easily she can be manipulated for their own ends, the common peoples are torn between adoring her for rising above the circumstances of her birth or demonizing her for turning her back on the struggles of the lower classes. No matter what she does, she will be attacked over it.
That is not my concern. I trust my old friend Jocaste has trained her well and she will handle the challenges in her way the best way she can. No, what concerns me was the mutterings coming from the common folk, the guilds and the artisans. They are being whipped into – I cannot say it is a frenzy for they are not rioting in the streets – but they are being organized by a firebrand. He has convinced too many of the artisans and merchants that to protest the young Dahlia and the increasing power of the Court of Night Blooming Flowers over the Royal Court, that it is the duty of the common folk to remove some of that influence that things may be more balanced. As if anything is truly balanced or fair in politics.
This man, Halceaux, is of the Silversmith Guild, one of the guild leaders. And he has felt too comfortable criticizing the hierarchy of the City, the very D’Angeline way of life that is so dear to us. He demands too much from his betters while threatening too much in retaliation. I do not believe he speaks for all of the common people of the city, but he is certainly the loudest of their voices. I do not know what grievance he has against the young Dahlia, but my concern is the disrespect he shows to so sacred a D’Angeline institution.
Perhaps, as he is a silversmith, he should learn just how much of his business relies on the powerful permitting him access to his supplies. It would be a shame if one of the supply trains of Aragonian silver wasn’t permitted past your mountains, wouldn’t it? The sooner he understands his place in the weave and weft of the very fabric of our society, the sooner he will keep his private opinions to himself instead of criticizing the Night Court, the Service of Namaah, and the decisions of his King.
The decision is, of course, yours, Niniane. They are your mountains, after all.
By my hand and with my seal,
Roland de Chalasse, Sovereign Duc of L’Agnace