The Hag's Contract

Appendix C

Greeting, Razlev, whom I once called Master—

You had requested periodic letters concerning my travels as I sought a place in the world for myself. I realize this will be only my second such update, and that it follows close upon the last, but I feel obliged to write you at once because I feel I owe my life to your teachings.

I had not realized it at the time, but your philosophy of forcing the individual to take responsibility toward defeating evil, in whatever form it takes, is correct. I encountered an undead creature in Grabentod which attempted to kill me in order to feed on my blood. It was only through calm rational thought that I managed to thwart its plans.

Its defeat forced my thoughts toward a greater picture of the world, one in which good and evil are more than mere abstractions, but equal and opposite forces constantly at war, pushing at each other. I doubt if either can completely conquer the other, for there is a balance in such things, but I now see the need to work tirelessly toward maintaining that balance.

Evil could have overwhelmed Grabentod. It was only through my chance presence that good (if it is possible to categorize pirates and their culture as good) managed to win out.

So, my old Master, I thank you yet again.

Greeting, Razlev, whom I once called Master—

I find myself in Müden, which is an amazing, bustling city like none I have ever seen before. So many ships are docked here I could not count :hem all. The port bustles at all hours of the day, and ten thousand warehouses hold the goods of a hundred-score merchant princes. I have never seen such wealth in my life.

Nor have I ever seen such poverty.

Just as I last wrote you saying that good and evil mirror one another, so too do wealth and poverty. The rich here continue to prosper, and the poor barely have enough to eat. I have dined with several rich merchants and their families, and the leftovers from their smallest meal would feed a family of ten for a week. Such scraps, however, are given to pets.

I followed up on my promise to Harlmut, Regent of Grabentod, to visit King Graben. He is an enormously fat man living in a prison such as you or I would call a palace. He is surrounded by the finest of everything—silks, furs, jewels, women—and wants for nothing. He dines nightly with merchants and their noble-born visitors. If chains he has, they are silken.

I feel no doubt that he could escape, and easily, if he so chose. However, life here is so comfortable, why should he? He lives better than he did in his own castle. Poor Harlmut—I grieve for him and his people. Perhaps they would be better with someone like Parniel Bowspear as their king.

I have decided to write none of this to Harlmut, however. It might serve to discourage him. He is a good man, and very loyal to his king. Alas, he no longer has a king worthy of such loyalty.

I have decided to press on from here. I have found a merchant willing to take me as a passenger to Anuire, where he plans to trade for wines. (His cargo will be furs and silks.) As soon as I arrive, I will write you again.

The pull of adventure calls me, and I feel my destiny may, in fact, lie in Anuire. As I listen to the way the name rolls from my tongue, my mind conjures images of decadent ports, ancient cities, and mysteries to be unraveled. I long to explore the unknown.