Fourteenth day of the seventh month, 1253
Dear Ftangu,
Of course I will answer your questions – I would rather answer questions for my friend than for any of these Hureshan scholars who come and go at all hours and don’t seem to think our time is worth anything. Enclosed find my answers – I hope they’re detailed enough? Let me know if not.
Since moving in with Daodru’s family, I’ve improved my Hureshan by miles. Kenet and I chat about anything and everything now; Mother and Father ask me to translate for them when Daodru is away and they need to say something to Hetran or Kenet. I’ve gotten good enough that Daodru thinks I can go to school with Kenet soon, too – ordinarily I would be a year ahead of her, he says, but since I am so far behind on science and modern history, he will talk to the principal about letting me be in the same class with Kenet, once I’ve brushed up a little more on the subjects I know so little of.
I think I’ll take the museum tour guide job, but not long-term. I want to bring in some money, which the Earth Mother knows Father and Mother will not do any time soon, and not depend on Daodru and the government for everything. And explaining the “artifacts” from our home to visitors is the only thing I can earn money at right now, but I want to learn more and do something different, as you said. Something I could not have done a thousand years ago.
I am beginning to worry about Father. He has been downcast by the loss of his throne, and though in the first weeks after our waking, he tried hard to learn Hureshan and figure out the modern political situation, he has faltered and now seems hardly to care what happens some days. I have tried to help him, but I don’t know how. What do you advise?
Your betrothed,
Tailiki
1253/8/19
Dear Tailiki,
I hardly know what to say about your father. I am sure it must be a great shock to all of you, this sudden change of circumstances, and worse for him than for anyone. But if he does not bestir himself to learn Hureshan and learn enough of modern conditions to find work, he will be helpless when, as seems likely, the government of Huresh eventually cuts off the stipends it is paying to your host families. I don’t want your family to be homeless when that happens, though I hope Professor Daodru will not evict you immediately upon losing the stipend. I suppose I would advise you to encourage him in small ways each day, like asking him if he wants to go for a walk, or speaking to him in simple Hureshan (you may find it easier to speak in a way he finds it easy to understand than native speakers), or speaking to him about interesting passages in books you’re reading and asking him what he thinks about them.
Your answers to my questions have been most helpful! I enclose a couple more questions, hopefully less troublesome than the last. I think I’ve narrowed down my thesis topic to something manageable, now: “Stratification and Comradery in Third-Century Tupaskan Palace Life.” A mouthful, yeah, but that’s academic papers for you.
My mother and I have had terrible hassles recently from Hureshan monarchists, who have found out about my ancestry and are trying to persuade me to go along with their attempts to make me king. I have peremptorily refused to speak with them, but they continue to accost me every few days when I am at a tea-house with my friends or on my way to a seminar, or send me pleading letters, which I dispose of largely unread. Though perhaps I should turn them over to the police? I don’t think they are evidence of a crime, exactly, or at least I don’t know if it’s a crime in Kosyndar to want another country to have a monarchy. And I don’t necessarily want those people to suffer the harsh attentions of the police; they are foolish, for the most part, not evil. But if they try to get at me through my mother again, I think I may.
I hope you and your family are not experiencing such attentions. They might seem welcome to your father, but be careful; if any such scheme got anywhere near success, your father would almost certainly lose his head like my great-great-grandfather. And I fear that you and your mother might get caught up in that, too.
Your friend,
Ftangu
First day of the ninth month, 1253
Dear Ftangu,
I’m working at the museum! You remember they said I could come back and ask for a job when I was fluent enough in Hureshan, and I went back and had a long conversation with the director, and he said I could have the job. It’s very strange and not entirely pleasant, but what is pleasant is having money to spend. Every morning I go to the museum and stand around in the entrance to the palace exhibit, and when visitors come, I ask if they’d like me to show them around, and if they do, I show them each item on display and talk about it. I have a little nametag that says “Ex-princess Tailiki.” Most people are polite enough, but some say disparaging things about my family, or about royalty in general. And then there are the monarchists, who are possibly worse – it didn’t take long for them to find out I was working there and start coming to talk to me. But my boss told me if anyone tries to start a political conversation with me, to tell him, and he’s kicked them out every time. Apparently they haven’t had any success in contacting my father, since he’s nearly always at home, or over at Professor Tahon’s house visiting Uncle Kaspan, but now that I’m out in public several days a week they think I’m fair game.
I am trying to carry out your advice with regard to my father. I’ve shared it with my mother, and she agrees with you. I think we may be having a little success with rousing him from his depression, but I’m not sure – he hasn’t improved much. It is so sad to see him still lying in bed when I get home from the museum, hardly having gotten up all day.
Mother is talking about getting a job as well, but she’s probably not fluent enough in Hureshan yet. She is making progress much faster than Father, though.
I have spent most of the money I’ve made on books. It is wonderful how cheap and plentiful books are now! My family only owned a few books, and I had read them all several times, but just with my first paycheck from the museum I have bought more books than I had ever seen before I fell asleep.
Most of the books I’ve bought are history, though I’ve also bought one popular science book and indulged in a couple of novels. I want to learn everything that’s happened since I fell asleep. And I’m realizing there was so much history before I was born that we didn’t know about before I fell asleep, but that modern archaeologists like you have found out through digging up graves and things, and I want to learn about all of it. I don’t want to be a tour guide forever, but perhaps I can learn to do one of the other jobs in a museum, sifting through artifacts to study them and pick which ones to display, or designing exhibits and writing the little placards.
I have also bought a little book called Learn Kosyan in Sixty Days. Yes, I want to learn to speak your language too, so I can come to visit you in Kosyndar. I don’t know how long it will take me to save up my pay for a round trip, but I read a newspaper article which said that airship fares are falling every year, so hopefully not too terribly long? Or maybe I’ll take the train, but it doesn’t seem to be that much cheaper, winding all around the southern and eastern coasts like it does.
Your betrothed,
Tailiki
1253/10/2
Dear Tailiki,
If all your basic needs are seen to by the government stipend paid to your host family, and all your pay can go toward books and saving up for airship or train fare, maybe you can visit Kosyndar within the next year. I’ll speak to my mother or one of my female friends about hosting you, when it gets closer and we know exactly when you’re coming. You will probably want to visit in warmer weather; it gets colder in Kosyndar than you’re used to this time of year. But it’s possible, even likely, that I won’t be living in Kosyndar by the time you’ve saved up enough money to travel; I’ll graduate, if all goes well, in the second month of next year, and will be looking for jobs at various universities – I figure I’ll apply at pretty much every university with a decent history or archaeology department anywhere in the League. But that seems a long way off, as focused on my thesis as I am now, even though it’s really just five months away.
I would encourage you to continue focusing on improving your Hureshan for now, as it is crucial for your job and your eventual happiness as an independent citizen of Huresh, once you are no longer living with a host family. But studying Kosyan intensely for a few months just before your trip would be a good use of time.
If you’re interested in a career in history or archaeology, I’m sure you’ll be able to make contacts at the museum who can help you decide which university to attend and what courses to take. I am not as familiar with the Hureshan academic scene as some of the people you have met there, whether from the museum or the university. Professor Daodru can probably help there, as well.
I have not been bothered by Hureshan monarchists in several weeks, so perhaps they’ve finally gotten the message that I’m not interested. I’m sorry to hear that you’re having increased problems with them. I don’t think those things are related, but maybe they are? Like maybe they’ve given up on restoring the Hureshan royal line, and so they’ve turned to your family, which I think is distantly related. (One of your cousins was an ancestor of my great-great-grandfather, but I don’t remember which. Of course, that many generations ago, almost everyone alive then was an ancestor of most people who are alive today, so that hardly matters. Except in the eyes of monarchists, for some reason.)
My thesis is progressing well, and I expect to defend it on schedule near the end of the academic year, but it’s keeping me very busy, too busy to reply to your letter promptly or spend much time with my mother or friends. Sgensar and Dripota are writing papers using the palace data as well; Sgensar is working on a paper on the tableware and utensils, and Dripota is doing a comparison of the version of The Siege of Langturu in your palace library with the other manuscript versions. I hear that Mysen and his patron Gysar are trying to find a way to synthesize black dragon teeth and some other no-longer-available spell ingredients they found in Thailospa’s workshop, but I don’t know what progress they’ve made.
You said you would be starting school once you were fluent enough in Hureshan; any progress on that?
Your friend,
Ftangu
Fifteenth day of the tenth month, 1253
Dear Ftangu,
I enrolled at Kenet’s school just after the winter break. I am now working at the museum only one full day a week, plus three afternoons after school. It’s strange to sit in classrooms with twenty or twenty-five other girls, instead of being taught by a tutor who has only a couple of other pupils besides myself. But I’m getting used to it quickly – it’s not the first new thing I’ve had to get used to, by any means. I share two classes each day with Kenet, Civics and Geometry, and eat with her and her friends at lunch. My other classes are Rhetoric, History, and Remedial Hureshan, which is the smallest class – only nine other girls, five immigrants from Neshinark and the League cities and four girls who speak unusual dialects at home and need help with standard Hureshan. One of the girls, Ridra, is from Kosyndar, and she’s agreed to help me learn Kosyan in exchange for help with Geometry and History.
Several of the girls at school seem to hate me because my family is royal, and a few are fawning over me like visitors at court used to do. But most treat me like any other girl, which I am beginning to think I prefer. I would have liked to not tell anyone who I used to be, perhaps pretending to be an immigrant from a tiny country in Khareush or something to explain my accent, but unfortunately many of the girls from the school came to the museum on a field trip last semester and heard me give my talk about being an ancient princess recently awoken from an enchanted sleep, etc. So no going incognito for this girl!
I’ve talked to Sihao, my manager at the museum, about becoming a historian or archaeologist, and he is very encouraging. He says the University of Tuebak has a good history program, but if I’m willing to travel, the University of Kosyndar is even better – and that would bring me close to you, so if I can manage it, I think I’ll try to do that. I’ve still got two or three years of lyceum first, though, depending on how well I do in my studies.
Last weekend we attended a concert of the university orchestra. It was every bit as wonderful as I’d imagined based on the radio concerts. It made it so much better to see how the music is made.
My mother and I have been trying your scheme to encourage Father to get better at Hureshan, and our efforts are finally bearing fruit – he has taken to spending several evenings a week at a pub near Daodru’s house with Uncle Kaspan, talking with the other men in Hureshan and getting lots of practice that way. I worry that he’ll attract the attention of the monarchists who have been hassling me at the museum, but so far they haven’t seemed to find out where he drinks.
How is your thesis coming along?
Your betrothed,
Tailiki
