Twelfth of Crown of Ice 2623

My love,

Today has been a day of most peculiar events, and I cannot write of them yet. I will admit to being, at this moment, more fearful than I have been since leaving the Vale... but I do promise to write of this day once I have had time to contemplate all that has occurred.

I wanted to write this short note tonight, however, to ask of you a great favor. I am becoming more certain that I need to know more about my family. I would ask that you seek out, from anyone who might know, information about my parents... their parents... and their parents... as far back as is possible... as well as any cousins Bekkah and I might have. Nearly every Priestess in the Temple remarked on my resemblance to my mother so often that I dreaded their approach. In fact, Kassia was the only one who didn't. Where all the others exclaimed loudly on first meeting me, Kassia merely looked me up and down and... well, simply harrumphed. It stands to reason, then, that my mother was known to the Priestesses of Dayala. She may have also been known to the Verchovai and other lay members. Ah, I was so small when she died!

They are Eelia Darksmith and Yuri Tashasdotter; Father made Darksteel swords. That is all I know. It never seemed important before. I always knew, with my fire-red hair, that I had either an Allaine or a Kelleni as an ancestor; and as I discovered, there is most assuredly Allaine blood running through my veins.

Do you recall the the first night you showed me this talent we share? You called it a curse. "Dayatina al sedenstevie," you said. "Feelings become insight. Insight becomes our curse."

The feeling that I need to know more about my ancestors has been growing ever stronger each day since arriving in Cragside. I know there is something important, someone important in the past that will give me the necessary insight to see what I will need to see in the journey ahead of me.

Dayatina al sedenstevie... I am the effect, and I need to know much more about the cause.

You have my thanks, and — as always — my love,
Your Daxia

© Kelly Naylor
The Heartwood and all characters not otherwise expressly stated are © Kh'Lyh'ra Press / Mike Naylor