"Dear Shinsou, if you are alive," she wrote.


"I have news. I have a daughter. No, I am not pregnant, but four and a half years ago now I gave birth to a young female faun. Her name is Celandine, and she is everything I ever hoped for her to be. It will surprise you, I know, for I have never mentioned her, and deliberately so. She was the idea of mine and Vaeron, so that if my legacy ever became something, which it has now, I suppose, then I would have someone to pass it onto.


Anyway. I have decided, finally, to make her mine. She was being kept in a brothel in Radasanth, under the guise that she was another whore's daughter. But now the day has come when I have claimed her as mine, and I know the rumours will begin. Very soon word will reach to my enemies that I have a child.


For now I have taken her to my fortress in the forest, the very same fortress which one of your men found all that time ago. Before we had the fight upon the shores of the endless staircase, before Beinost, before Amari. I have taken her there, Shinsou for the very reason that I fear that things are in motion. I have begun to hear rumours that the Crimson Hand is on the move in search of power, spreading its scarlet fingers in order to smite every enemy before they smite her. Thus, I made the decision to take Celdandine into my care, move her to the place I know she will be safe. Move her so that if I die, there will be someone to inherit everything I have worked so hard for.


Shinsou, I beg that you are alive. For I know the Crimson Hand will be seeking my death. Lye Ulroke has grown mad in his years of being a prisoner and then a wanderer. I have made my peace with Maddison Freebird, but Ulroke will not rest, this I know. I know you have your qualms with him, for he is the one who has poisoned Amari's mind and made her ... whatever she is now. I know she was once good, I know you once loved her. And I know you hate Ulroke. Thus, it is my intention to go straight for him, to kill him before he can get to me. To my daughter, to any of us. I am not taking my army, but I can take friends. And so it is I ask this.


I ask that you are still alive, Shinsou van Osiris, and I ask that you come with me to cut the head off the snake before it can strike. I ask that you and I did as we promised once to each other and end the life of Lye Ulroke for once and for all.


For I know where he likely is to be found. I was once part of their world, their secrets. You want revenge, and I can help you get it.


Please be alive, my dear friend.


Yours, Philomel van der Aart, Matriarch of the Gilded Lily


And PS: Vaeron is Celandine's father. Yes he still prefers people unlike myself, and yes he is human. But a child of a faun and any other race will either adopt the full genes of one or the other, it is written into our bodies."


The letter was given to a messenger raven. A raven used only in certain times, who was the Gilded Lily's direct contact with the Brotherhood. Their only contact, to be sure, but the bird was one of such a common variety that it would not be noticed very easily. It would head straight to the Brotherhood's home, and if there was a smart man reading the seal outside, they would know it was of high importance, and for the most confident eyes only. Philomel hoped it would find Shinsou van Osiris, well and true, but if not she hoped it would find its way into the hands of his trusted ally, Storm Veritas. At least with Veritas she was likely to get a reply, telling her if Shinsou was alive and well, once and for all.


But for the sake of her daughter's future, she hoped he was alive.