So, before I post my actual work just a quick apology. Two reasons why this post is so very late. I have been struggling with some medical issues. Fairly minor but exhausting nonetheless, leaving me the past three or four months will a lot less energy then I actually need to take care of everything.

The second is both part of why this post is late and also partially about the post. I have started reading the old, The Elements of Fiction Writing, that was produced by the Writers Disgust. Some of these books have writing exercises along with them. I’m not going to do all of them but I am going to attempt some of them when presented and that is actually what this post is about.

The first book I’m reading is Voic & Style. One of the excersies I did was to model a type of story written as short letters at a shrine, trying to be purposeful in making each character differently voiced. Trying to write this was difficult for me, hence part of why it took so long, but also enjoyable. Hopefully it’s at least a little interesting.

In the capital city of the Sidhen Empire stands the First Temple of the Foundational Gods.  Here, not only did the residents of the capital come to pray, but also many citizens of the empire would make pilgrimage in order to deliver their most heartfelt desires to the Gods.  Inside the temple at the Wall of Entreaty one could submit, once a year, a letter of petition to the God’s, in the hopes that it would be seen by one of the Great Deities and answered.  And every year, the young priests and priestess were tasked with taking the old petitions and releasing them in the ever-burning fire in the central hall.  Yet every year there was at least one or two who, through mere curiosity or an itch to understand others, could not help but peek at what was asked of the Gods.   

Dear Brinnor, 

It’s my thirteenth birthday today and for my present my parents agreed to bring me to the Temple as my present so I could write to you.  I know I’m still young, most people don’t become God touched until they are at least sixteen, but could you perhaps, please, consider me in the future?  In truth, even if I were to be Touched by one of the other God’s I wouldn’t be able to serve them very well.  We don’t have much, it’s why it was so easy to convince my parents the only present I needed was a trip to the Temple, since we live here in the city, so I wouldn’t be able to go to a good school and I don’t want to leave my parent’s to train at a temple.  I’m all that they have, after last year.  

But you’re the God of Dreams, so you could help me to fulfill my dream, right?  I just want to keep my family safe and happy.  So please, Brinnor, could you help me make my dream come true?  I wouldn’t need anything big, just a little skill that I could train on my own that would help with, what mom calls, our situation.  Even if you don’t Touch me you’ve always been my favorite God and I will always pray to you.  

Love, 

Andraste

Oh Great and Magnificent God of Death, Atanaso,

This humble man does here beg for your assistance.  That skink of a man, Cherio, has continued in his obstinate desire to see me done in.  Not only did he dare to open another store on the same street as mine, but he has declared that he will branch out his business to Oriola as well.  He dares to steal my business with his underhand tactics and split tongue.  If only he were to maybe befall an accident soon, then all will be well again.  Oh, and I am considering making a double donation this year.  

Your Humble Servant,

Vertio of Culinar 

Oh Holy Luthania, Goddess of Life, The Holy Mother and Healer,

I beg of you this day to give me succor and aid.  My child lies at Atanaso’s

Doorstep, sick with the fever and boils.  We have sought out what aid we could but our funds are meager and the healer’s hearts are cold.  Even now my husband labors day and night with the meager hope of securing enough funds to see our child healed, but I fear it is too much for him and I will find myself without either.

Please Holy Mother, save my child.  Lift this burden from our shoulders.  I will do anything you ask of us.  We will give all that we have if you will but spare our little one.

In your Love and Grace always,

Selia Domur

Oh Goddess of Love,

I have found the one for me.  He is the most handsome man I’ve ever seen and so strong, too.  He works hard and I’m sure he will be a good husband.  Only, just, could you make my Pa see it too.  

For Love and Beauty,

Genelia 

* * *

Brinnor,

Why?  Why did you have to send my cousin such a gift?  If you had just given her something simple then she wouldn’t have gotten support from the temple and my mother would never have recognized her.  Now everything is ruined.  Can’t you take the blessing away?  If she fails, then maybe they’ll all just leave again.

Luster

Luthania,

I pray to you today as the Goddess of the Hearth.  My parents have arranged a marriage for me and my heart is afraid.  I know I should trust my parents, they are always good to me.  But I do not know this man.  Mother says he is a good match.  I wish to believe her.  She has told me all that we know and I must agree that he sounds good, and honest, and strong.

Yet I worry still.  What will he be like when I meet him?  Will he truly be strong, or will that strength merely be arrogance?  Will he be good?  Or is his goodness a set of numbers on paper to make his family look good?  Is he truly honest or simply one who bribes those around him to speak well of him?  

I am anxious, yet I have no desire to disappoint my family.  So I pray to you, watcher and protector of the family, if he is indeed good, let this marriage happen quickly, without issue.  If not, then please send a sign to my father, let something go wrong.  

A hopeful bride,

Tasia 

Atanasio, God of Death,

You have cheated me.  I found for once a worthy opponent and a man I could truly speak openly to.  Vertio was truly a calculating man and shrewd, to boot.  He pushed me to be even more cutthroat and with his competition driving me, I was able to not only have one of the best shops in Culinar, but to also expand to other regions.  That he was taken by thee so early in life is a true tragedy.  I will miss him and wish him a swift journey through the nine gates.  May he find a grey ship at the end to ferry him to his next conquests.

Forever,

Merchant Cherio

***

Oh Holy Brinnor,

My Patron and God of Dreams, the One who Sees, and Mediator,

I give unto you all the thanks for the gift and dreams you have bestowed upon me.  You have opened my eyes and even in the midst of the distress I now witness as the future, I still rejoice.  Without you, I would have never met my mother’s family.  I would not have been able to help return us to their loving embrace.  I never would have met my cousin or made the friends I have now.  

Now though, my heart is heavy.  The next step I have to take is not easy and others, I am sure, will see it as cowardice or, worse, betrayal.  Yet I will not back down.  I will not turn away from Order or what is asked of me or the joy you have shown me.  I will forever miss all that is here but I will gladly raise a new hope for our world. 

Inderial, Goddess of Love, guide my heart to one who will uphold me.  Luthania, Goddess of the Hearth, guide my hands to raise my future children with love and strength.  Atia, Goddess of Wisdom, give me the foresight to do what must be done.  Kian, God of War, give me strength.  

Nadria, Goddess of the Long Night, do not turn from your brother.  The sun may set, but he will need to rise again.  Atanasio, God of the Final Sleep, turn your face from me and mine until our time is done.  My Patron Brinnor, leave me not alone and I will walk thy paths of dreams and Order.  Farewell Calinor.  Farewell Aldera.  

Andraste of Calinor,

High Priestess and Chosen of Brinnor

Holy Mother Luthania,

Why did you save me and not mommy?  Dad says I have to write and thank you because mommy prayed to you to save me.  If you saved me, why couldn’t you save mommy?  I hate you

Atia, Goddess of Wisdom and the Hunt,

My men and I pray for your guidance.  Every day we find recent evidence of streams drying up and rivers receding.  The animals grow more scarce and what is worse, the mana in the wilds is beginning to fluctuate.  Our best hunting grounds that we have cultivated to flourish with spirit beasts begin to instead bring forth monsters that are crazed and inedible.  Please, give to us your wisdom and guide us in this peril.

Your Humble Servant,

Huntsman Aldric

Oh Goddess of Beauty, Inderial

I am the prettiest girl there is.  I thank thee for such gifts of beauty and grace.  Please help me to even greater heights so that I can put Briel in her place and show how homely she really is.  If Richar could fall in love with me instead of her that would be even better.

Your most Glorious Petitioner,

Valeria 

***

***

***

I don’t think anyone checks these letters anymore.  I highly doubt anyone has even written one in a decade or more.  Yet here I am, writing to the God’s that no longer listen.  The step I am about to take seems too drastic, too big, to undertake without at least putting my thoughts down first, so here I am.  

First, I apologize for cursing at Brinnor.  My cousin and her family returning was the greatest thing to have happened to us.  I was a short-sighted child who felt threatened by his mother’s attention being turned to another.  There, I said it.  I bet Andraste is laughing, wherever she is now, at me.  Though I know it would be followed up by the best hug in the world.  If only she were still here.

I hope that what she said is true.  That she really is somewhere safer living a good life.  Seeing that everything else she has ever said came true, I’m going to believe that she is alive and safe on some far distant planet.  Here, things aren’t so great.  Some of the particulars were not exact as what she said, but everything that mattered happened just as she foresaw.  

The Great Seals and their cities are gone.  Swallowed up by some magic that has completely erased them.  Whether they have been eradicated or simply veiled, well, the scholars are still debating that one.  Calinor is all that remains to us, but it stands only because of God’s sacrifice, sealing the monster of light below us and using it to power the wards that keep the twisted Lauta from changing us.  Now Chaos is running free.  The lush grasslands and grand forests have turned to dessert and I do not know if Aldera will ever recover.

Andraste believed we would.  Not now, not in a decade, not even in a century.  But perhaps in a millennium there would be a chance.  All we can do now is spread the prophecies and put as many books and historys under seals so they may stand the test of time.  And I, I will follow my cousins’ spell.  It seems ridiculous.  To go to sleep for a Millenium to awaken when I will be needed?  But . . . I will trust her one last time, for there is nothing in this world left for me. 

Goodbye Andraste, Perhaps we will meet yet again in a new life.

Your Dear Cousin and Friend,

Luster