April 14 2024 - Izrith's Letter

Venture,

This whole outrage and torch-and-pitchfork yelling and running around has accelerated quickly, hasn't it? The processes of this castle can truly be as quick as greased lightning at times; I only wish they were similarly rapid outside of situations like yours and mine.

I do not write to you to discuss matters of speed of process though; doing so will bring no benefit to anyone. It shall not remove the potholes placed in my path nor give you whatever it is that you seek out of this whole affair. Instead, I write to address you on the matter of your original challenge to me.

I do not know if anyone ever told you this, but one of the sources of my vituperance towards the court in those original pair of letters, which started this whole slog, was thanks to my witnessing of the exact kind of behavior that I described within them, done by prominent members of the court to some of those in the Outer. I spoke of this at length in the Court of Honor hearing that I attended. I mention this as events have spiraled so far outside the bounds of sanity as to enter the realm of madness, and if there is to ever be a cure for this madness, then it may lie through this detail.

Make no mistake, I still believe that you have no honorable (by your definitions of the term) basis for the challenge that you issued to me, as the circumstances wherein you issued it was by lying to me about wanting the difficulties during last Yule to be over and done with and not dragged on, so as to gain my trust and cooperation in attempting to do so, only to reverse yourself later and perpetuate the issue with your challenge. Whether or not you were influenced by another to do this, and we both know whom that individual would be if it were so, is irrelevant. But it is clear that my opinion on your challenge, no matter how reasoned and logical it may seem to me, is not widely shared.

However, part of my refusal to engage with you in that challenge, regardless of my opinion of it, was due to my belief at the time that you would be unwilling to negotiate upon your terms. I know you, Venture. You are nearly as stubborn as I am when your hackles up, and you know that I speak true on this. But perhaps enough time has passed so that both of our necks need not be so stiff. The very fact that I am writing this to you should be indication enough of that on my part. In your original challenge, you demanded of me a quote, 'public, formal apology to Her Majesty and Princess Maeveen; for the implication that Yule is a shallow, vainglorious event for the Court to flaunt before the Commoners, reducing the genuine, joyful spirit of the festival to petty parades in your ongoing crusade to decry the Court.', end quote, if I were to seek reconciliation.

I am willing to grant this, as neither the queen nor princess Maeveen were intended to be included in my lambasting of the Court for the behavior of certain specific members of it. In truth, I did not even know that princess Maeveen had anything to do with the creation of Yule until I was told as such after the initial social explosion from all of this. In such an address, I would also make clear that my anger was directed at specific members who used the event in a fashion that it was not created for, twisting the, as you put it, benign and beloved festival into something worse. I will make clear that it was not my intention to lump the innocent members of the court in with those that had aroused my ire, and that I acknowledge the slight that they and the court as an institution feel due to my words. I will also, as in this letter, not name the ones of which I speak, for such are dangerous names to write; and not just to me, but it would be so to you as well.

This proposal meets the terms that were present in your original challenge, lets those uninvolved members of the court to receive the apology that they desire and deserve, and allows me to express the truths of that past Yule and apologize to those that were slighted without due cause, all while not deceiving public or otherwise falsely representing myself.

Let it not be said that I am unwilling to explore all paths to peace. This entire affair has set friends of mine against me; I have avoided harming them in self defense, but I do not know how much longer that can last. To end this state of affairs so that they are no longer put in such difficult positions, and for other good reasons, this challenge must be resolved somehow, and I believe that the above is our best chance of coming to an agreement on how to do so.

For reasons that are abundantly obvious, it is not possible for me to acquire a second through which to speak, and frankly, I do not even know if the one that you chose is still waking. I certainly have not seen her around. Thus do I send this to you directly. A response may similarly be sent directly to me, but it may take some time for me to see it, again for reasons that are obvious.

There was once a time when we would work together to end mad situations. While I doubt that we will ever be friendly towards one another again, there is nothing stopping us from doing so here. Let us end the madness.
It is signed, "Sincerely,", by Izrith.