Cherished Zann,

My longcoach was just leaving Blackfloors Square this morning when I heard a loud crack! behind me.

I looked out the window. My angle was bad, but I could see a lot of people running around a carriage that had fallen over on the other side of the square. Something was smoking. I tried sticking my head out the window but by the time it was open wide enough, we had turned a corner.

I didn’t find out what had happened until I got to the palace. Everybody was talking about it. Of course they’ve got magic that can send information back and forth to the city; that’s well known. It turns out that some fellows, humans, at least one of them a wizard, had ambushed Chancellor Shonalea’s carriage, hauled her out, and executed her.

You see, the city is run out of Blackfloors. That’s where the mayor and all the councillors are. But now that the laurans, or I suppose the greenfolk, rule Crideon, the Valnelatar family has appointed a chancellor to watch over the mayor and make sure everything goes according to how the Valnelatars want it to. But now the chancellor is dead.

Not only dead. She was killed with a soldier’s spear, and her mantle of office was torn in half and scuffed into the mud. I’ve heard guards and greenfolk saying that this was to signal that humans are at war with laurans, and that humans reject the palace’s authority over Crideon. Which seems obvious, but I suppose they would have done it differently if it was just a matter of intrigue or a dislike of Shonalea’s specific policies.

Candur called us guards together and told us that this doesn’t change anything as far as we’re concerned. We still have the same job to do and we still have to do it the same way. There were a lot of expressions on people’s faces wishing he had said more than that.

We heard rumours of riots and other calamities throughout the city but none of them sounded true. I hoped Wande and Jhus were all right.

Love,

Ybel