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Written By Joscelin

Nov. 14, 2018, 11:24 p.m.(12/28/1009 AR)

News trickles in and my family is named among the rumors of tragedy and triumph. What happened? Are you all alright? More names to add to the list of loss, more prayers to plead, to sing praises, to beg, 'keep my loved ones safe, and if they cannot come home to me, let them be taken without pain to Death's embrace'. It's ridiculous to beg for mercy and yet I do it. And I write letters as more news comes in. What has happened?

My nerves are frayed. I can't take much of this.

Written By Vanora

Nov. 14, 2018, 11:21 p.m.(12/28/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Valdemar

I know you will be what he was teaching you to be. What the people of Grihem's Point need you to be. Challenging the worth of what time puts in front of you. Remembering what, and who, came before.

Cast as great a shadow, may your sons one day consider it just as daunting.

We'll see his saga written, and then you will continue to do the deeds that will be written in your own.

Nothing would please him more than to look on your saga with jealousy.

Written By Karadoc

Nov. 14, 2018, 11:10 p.m.(12/28/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Lucita

The entire HOUSE staff is chattering on and on about some gala that took part on boats - rhymes with vanilla chinchilla, whatever. Something about making a splash -- I hope my lady didn't fall in.

Written By Vanora

Nov. 14, 2018, 9:57 p.m.(12/28/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Harald

Let those who would remember him remember other battles he has fought and understand that this, the one that finally took him from us, was no different.

I used to jest now and again that the Grim Duke would outlive us all, and I believed it truly. I did not expect to see him pass until way unto middle age myself, he seemed larger than life. Invincible. And he must have been both of those for all the tales of his heroics to be true.

In the caves once fighting began he charged into the fray a man possessed. I cannot guess what thoughts went through his head, though likely they touched upon clashing weapons with foes he'd challenged before. I am told that the Grim Duke looked his death in the eye long before the caves, long before I knew him. He called his death by name once and came out the other side. Now I wonder. If he intended one way or another to go back, if once a person has seen their death, chosen it, named it....it chooses a person right back.

I know what many do not, what he spoke of only seldom and only if you were truly listening for it. That he, like most Grimhalls he would claim, did not wish to die an old man in his bed, even surrounded by peace and love and family. There was only one 'good death' and it came at the sword, the axe, the knife, or the choke of the sea. That he would have a story that made his ancestors jealous. Are they now? I hope so, for he died as brave and Grim as any who have come before him. Yet there is something of the work left unfinished. A legacy that even in death, or perhaps especially in death, he passes on to his sons and grandsons.

Written By Vanora

Nov. 14, 2018, 9:45 p.m.(12/28/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Harald

I am doing all that I can to be who I am supposed to be in this moment. Stoic and Grim as the traditions and expectations of this house demand. Supportive and patient as I give my husband, his siblings and cousins, and all the other members of this very extended family the room they need to grieve. That I have grieving of my own to do seems especially selfish considering. So I will indulge it here and no where else.

The Grim Duke is dead. He and I had a complicated relationship from the first, one that only grew more so as time went on, and yet by the end he was father to me as well. Not the way he was to Valdemar, nor Ingrid...but he loved me the way a man might his daughter-in-law, the mother to his first grandsons who will carry the name Grimhall with them. He taught me so much, and between us by the end there was affection and respect. I wished for so much more time. There are still so many things I don't know and will never know about him. I wanted very much for him to be there as the boys grew up...for I've never met a man who loves children the way Harald Grimhall did...save perhaps his eldest son.

I mourn in quiet, where my grief cannot distract from those who have lost something more. Yet I mourn him too, and would have all who ever read my whites know this. I'd do anything to have him back here with us, to have spent another ten years, or twenty, learning all that was and would be expected of me. I've lost a father, a teacher, a powerful opposing force and an even more powerful ally.

Thank you for this, Harald. For making me a part of this family, and insisting that at least among ourselves I was never anything less.

We will honor your legacy a dozen different ways, over and over again.

Written By Alrec

Nov. 14, 2018, 7:45 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Norwood

Ugh, did I just witness an Oathland tradegy in the making on the classifieds or a love story between a man and a lost wine. Brings a tear to my eye.

Written By Ophelia

Nov. 14, 2018, 6:36 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Jordan

I miss you very much. Thank you for everything.

Written By Miranda

Nov. 14, 2018, 6:10 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Domonico

Did I congratulate you and your betrothed?

Consider it done now.

Congratulations, Cousin!

Just breathe.

Written By Miranda

Nov. 14, 2018, 6:08 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Fecundo

Prince Peacock,

Congratulations!

All my love to you and your Lady Dragon.

Can't wait to see all those little peachicks you two will make!

Written By Preston

Nov. 14, 2018, 5:11 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Thena

Do take care of yourself, Dame Thena. The Faith has a great many uses for you yet - and I would be sad should things happen to you.

Written By Tikva

Nov. 14, 2018, 4:59 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Gareth

Gareth dreaded the large wedding I was planning on inflicting on him. Not because ... he didn't want the marriage, because he seemed to want it entirely -- indeed, it was his idea -- but because the panoply and hoopla struck him as a kind of social purgatory to which I was going to subject him whether he willed or no.

As I look into the future of the social calendar of Arx and I think about what to do in honor, in memoriam, of a cousin I honor, I think: thousands of silver in commemoration, food and drink and remembrance? He'd hate it, but he's dead and wouldn't have to participate? Dozens of people coming together to deliver eulogies of a person who they remember largely as a grim, intense shadow?

In Gareth's honor, I will serve the Inquisition that he served with his whole heart. I'm not sure else I will do. I have to think on it.

Written By Victus

Nov. 14, 2018, 4:53 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

I'm hearing a lot of nice things about this 'coffee' business, yet I've never had any drink warmer than a cup of cider in my belly before.

Perhaps someone can sell me on it.

Written By Thorley

Nov. 14, 2018, 4 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

<written over and over on a piece of parchment is

Baron Thorley Farwatch
Baron Thorley Farwatch
Baron and Baroness-Consort Farwatch
Baron Thorley Farwatch, Baroness-Consort Violet Farwatch, Lady Tala Farwatch, Lady Sorcha Farwatch

..and then a note at the bottom.>

Not sure if I'm ever going to truly get used to this. Just planned my first event as a Baron. We'll see how it goes.

Written By Samantha

Nov. 14, 2018, 3:29 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Rymarr

What a delight it is, after years of partnership, to learn something new and endearing about one's spouse.

Written By Kaldur

Nov. 14, 2018, 3:11 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

Patrols yet run in the Gray. Frays entered. Enemies defeated. Allies lost. We are holding. We hold. But there is fighting still to be done. We have had victories, but today as patrols took us near the Grove - new made as I understand it by Petrichor's own presence - I cannot feel its peace. I taste mud and ash, as before.

And yet the saplings reach for the sky, the Wheel turns, and we with it.

Just... now it feels like we're under it.

Written By Alrec

Nov. 14, 2018, 2:33 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

Has anyone seen the giant coat Master Felix wears? I got to know who is his tanner.

Written By Forato

Nov. 14, 2018, 2:21 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

So many new folk, it's truly amazing. I've had the... gall? moxy? courage?.... to show the scars. Maybe I felt I had little to lose due to only having just met the handful of people who saw them. Perhaps, I'm tired of still being chained by the fear of just being who I am. I am a scarred man. They are strange and deep. I can be grateful for the short looks and level tones used by those who keep their composure with such a sight... but it is always the adoration worthy Adora's outlayer aptitude for being such a pure audience to life that helps most. Out of everyone that evening... I feel she is likely the one who accepted me as I was simply because she was willing to boldly (or is it blandly when she does it?) ask.

I couldn't live a slave of fear. I can't live as a slave of anything, or anyone, anymore.

Written By Delilah

Nov. 14, 2018, 1:34 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Cybele

I am not ready to write this and I am not certain that I shall ever be. Writing implies a certain permanence absent in the spoken word. The wind may snatch the syllables from my mouth, conveying them far away but diminished in their strength within the stretch of meters and seconds.

A written word conveys preservation against the brunt of cruel time that erodes many things. Who among us can really say what the wind remembers and the sea recalls but Mangata? Yet in every loop of ink I engrave memory and perception that will withstand the diminishing of the years piled up against them. An odd sentiment, for the person I write of has a different legacy and a different place on the Wheel.

Cybele was one of the first people I encountered in Arx, one of the first lasting friendships I made back when no one much knew about me -- and many would look on the family name with raised eyebrows, regardless of the achievements of my relations. They looked deeper into a person and found something perhaps not immediately seen by others. There was never a sense of hubris or haughty judgment. Cybele watched the world through such a sense of serenity and purpose, a knowledge of what roots sank deep into the world and what was needful at the time. I am saddened our paths diverged more often than not in recent months, though I could always trust in wisdom badly sought being found upon my friend's lips, in a smile, in a kind gesture.

We are the poorer for the loss, and yet so much enriched. The presence of Cybele and Bashira in the new Grove is something that will inspire coming generations, new shaman and devotees of Petrichor who hear the story of their grand gestures and the lives they lived. I can say I knew Cybele, and shared much. I can say that such a sacrifice for others -- loving, strong, brave, and utterly certain -- fits in every way with the character I came to know.

Be you well, friend, and the spirits rejoice that you have touched so many.

Written By Khanne

Nov. 14, 2018, 1:12 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

I want to personally thank every single person who has done and are doing all they are able to for the Lodge of Petrichor and all that reside there, those who continue to give of themselves for the cause, and the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Though I am a member there, I am not high ranking enough to claim my voice speaks on behalf of the group. This is just my personal appreciation for each and every one of you.

Thank you.

And for those who have lost their lives, lost their loved ones.... my heart both hurts for the loss of your presence in our current lives and busts with awe and in some cases pride for knowing the person you were in this lifetime and how strong you were to have given so much of yourself, to the last. I hope to honor those who have passed from our grasp to return to The Wheel soon.

To Cybele and Bashira, members of the Spirit Walkers, both such talented and wonderful people, know that I am blessed to have known you. Thank you both for the impact you made upon my own life.

And to those who went with me... who listened to my plea for assistance in hopes of accomplishing something so absolutely dangerous... who feared, perhaps, their own chances of survival in even attempting this feat (Spirits know there are few times I have ever felt my own mortality so deeply)... who despite all that stood by my side in that clearing... some of whom very nearly (much much much too nearly) lost their lives in trying to see us all to success... I know you all know how very much it meant to me to do... and I hope you all know how much it means to me that you helped. Words will never be able to come close to expressing the depths of my gratitude. But....

Thank you.

Written By Valdemar

Nov. 14, 2018, 1:02 p.m.(12/27/1009 AR)

Relationship Note on Harald

My father is dead. I've said those words many times since it happened, and now even writing them down, it doesn't quite seem real in spite of the fact that I was there when he fell. I was always fairly sure that he would outlast me. He was like a mountain, not only in that he was a tall man, but that there was a sense of permanence to him. No matter what else was changing around him, there he was, staring those changes down, challenging their worthiness. Every time I step into the Great Grim Hall of our longhouse, I still expect to see him in his place at the head of that table. When I don't, the shock of his loss comes flooding back, and I cannot help but wonder how long it will take before this new reality sets in and feels as solid as he was.

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