Seventeenth day of the fourth month, 1254

Dear Ftangu,

We hadn’t heard anything from the government in months, but a few days before I received your letter, we had a visit from someone in the Bureau of Antiquities, who asked us a lot of questions about our jobs and Father’s job hunt and my schooling. He specifically asked about mine and mother’s pay at our jobs. Then he said that our host family’s stipend would be reduced by half the amount of my current wages (because Mother isn’t bringing in anything at the moment, while the schools are closed) and I’d need to start paying Professor Daodru half my wages for our room and board. Which is fair, I suppose. He also said we need to inform the Bureau when Mother starts working again or if Father finds a job.

Father asked him why they’d never given us job training, like they’d said they would, and he apologized and said it wasn’t up to him – and that he thought the bureau didn’t have enough money for that, though he wasn’t sure.

And then, just yesterday, Father told us that he’d finally found a job! He will be the desk clerk at a hotel downtown. One of Father’s advisers, Kiskai, had gotten a job there as a bellhop, and recommended Father when the desk clerk job became available. Today was his first day on the job, and he returned somewhat grumpy but less depressed than he has been, I think. He had been getting very discouraged about how long it was taking to find work, as well as the necessity of doing so.

I’ve finished the history of Tupaska you recommended, but I ran out of library renewals on the Hureshan history anthology and had to return it. I’ll check it out again in a few weeks. Right now I’m relaxing with novels and science popularizations after those hard academic books. So much has been discovered since we fell asleep! I kind of want to share some fun facts from my reading, but I suppose you probably already know them all.

Your betrothed,

Tailiki

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1254/4/19

Dear Tailiki,

I didn’t get the job at Kesden Polytechnic, but my visit to the University of Sderamyn bore fruit. The head of the archaeology department said he didn’t have any teaching posts open right then, but he’d mention me to the other department heads. And not long after I returned home, I got a letter from the head of the history department, asking me to come back for an interview. So I did, and I got hired! I’ll soon be busy packing and arranging to move, but I wanted to drop you a quick note and share the good news.

Your friend,

Ftangu

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Fifth day of the fifth month, 1254

Dear Ftangu,

That’s great news about your new job! I hope you enjoy it a lot more than Father is enjoying his desk clerk job. He complains a lot in the evenings after work, but less than when he first got the job, so that’s a good thing, I suppose. The Bureau of Antiquities has reduced Daodru’s stipend again, and now Father is also paying Daodru half his wages; soon Mother will start work again and she’ll be paying him too. But looking at the rental listings in the newspaper, I think we’ll still have more income of our own than we would if we had to pay for an apartment.

When you get settled in to your new place in Sderamyn, you must write and tell me all about the city like you told me about Kosyndar. I see on the map that it’s even farther north than Kosyndar. Is it cold there even now, or only in the winter?

I’m going to check out The Corruption and Fall of the Kohesh Dynasty again and try to finish it before school starts up again in the sixth month. Could you send me some more recommendations now? I think I’d like to read more about the history of the League, especially Kosyndar and Sderamyn.

Your betrothed,

Tailiki

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1254/5/28

Dear Tailiki,

I hit some snags with moving my things – the shipping company delivered them to the south campus dorms instead of the east campus faculty housing – but I managed to move in just in time for the semester to start. I taught my first class yesterday, a survey course on ancient history for freshmen. I’ll be teaching a course on modern League history later today, and then another section of ancient history.

So far Sderamyn seems like a nice place to live; much smaller than Kosyndar, just over a million people, and more spread out. There are more trees inside the city, not just in parks but along many of the streets. I’ve been spending my free time (not much so far, what with making lesson plans and moving in) walking around the city and visiting various historical sites, which are clearly marked with little plaques – a joint project of the university history department and one of the more prestigious lyceums. It’s actually kind of hot out today, although I think warm weather tends to arrive a bit later in the spring here than in Kosyndar.

I’m glad to hear about your father’s job. I’m sorry he’s not enjoying it, but I suspect any modern job he’s qualified for would be an unpleasant change for a former king. (I was pleasantly surprised that you have found the museum tour guide job so tolerable, but you’ve struck me as being much more resilient than your father.) Hopefully he’ll get used to it and find it more bearable.

I’m not sure what I can recommend for the history of the League. The more in-depth histories are unlikely to have been translated into Hureshan. But Forged in Fire, though a bit sensational and missing the newest archaeological discoveries, is likely to be in any Hureshan library. Kosyndar, the Pearl of the East is another that’s decently likely to be available in Hureshan. It’s good on ancient history, but gets more obviously biased as it approaches the present day and the police corruption and organized crime that have plagued us for the past century. I’ll ask my colleagues what they’d recommend for a history of Sderamyn.

Your friend,

Ftangu

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Nineteenth day of the sixth month, 1254

Dear Ftangu,

Kenet and I are back in school. I finished the anthology just before school started back, and I’ve found Kosyndar, the Pearl of the East and started reading it. I just got to the chapter on how King Skysar was deposed.

Mother is back at work too, giving talks at different schools several times a week. Father is spending very little time at home now, drinking at the pub for a few hours after work most days, and going out to meet his new friends on many of the days he doesn’t have to work as well. I am not sure whether to be worried about him, or pleased that he’s making new friends. Mother has made a few new friends as well, among the teachers at the schools she is visiting, but doesn’t spend as much time away from home with them. Some of them have come to visit us at Daodru’s house.

Ridra is coming over to Daodru’s house once a week again, to help me study Kosyan and to get my help with History. She is really sweet and I think you would like her. Perhaps you may even know her family? I know it’s unlikely, with so many millions of people in Kosyndar, but you never know. Her uncle who still lives there is Dasgar and he lives in the Nydru Hills.

Yesterday afternoon Kenet, Ridra and I took the tram to Trakoda Park and had a picnic. It was so much fun! And while we were there, we ran into Pethoti, one of our old servants in the palace – she was there with a boy and girl, brother and sister, from her host family. I haven’t seen many of the people from the palace in the past year, except for Uncle Kaspan and Aunt Datai. It was strange and uncomfortable – she seemed to half-want to defer to me and half-want to stand up for herself, and couldn’t decide, and I was just as confused. We parted ways as quickly as we politely could.

I am afraid my visit to Sderamyn is farther away than ever. With having to pay rent to Daodru now that his stipend has been reduced, it will take about twice as long to save up enough for airship or train fare. But I am determined to manage it sometime.

Your betrothed,

Tailiki

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1254/7/7

Dear Tailiki,

No, I don’t think I know Ridra’s uncle, but as you said, there are millions of people in Kosyndar and I might know a couple of hundred of them by name, at most. I’m glad you’re making more friends, though.

Are you still getting occasional scholars coming to ask questions? When they come, do they speak with you or only with your parents? I ask because I have heard that the Bureau of Antiquities is restricting access to you and the other ancients still living with host families, only allowing scholars with the right political leanings to interview you – that’s what people are saying, anyway. Some Hureshan historian complained about that in a letter to one of my colleagues.

I should tell you about my colleagues here in the history department. The department head is Dengyr, a specialist in the later years of the Tukun Empire, who’s been teaching here for more than forty years and will probably retire soon. He speaks too softly to be a great teacher – his students have to be utterly quiet to hear him, and that’s not always possible – but he’s a good administrator and a great researcher. His wife Perydra, who teaches geology and chemistry, was one of the first women to attend the University of Dyram fifty years ago, and a very formidable woman; I mention her because I often see her visiting Dengyr’s office to share lunch with him.

They’re babes compared to Tuilen, who is an immortal sorcerer, I kid you not. He’s been teaching here for over two hundred years, give or take an occasional sabbatical, and claims to be even older than you, about eighteen hundred years old – he can’t say exactly because the people of his home village were not much for record-keeping in those days. Some years he teaches history and some sorcery and sometimes both, but he generally takes a lighter course-load than the other professors – some say he’s wealthy and just teaches because he enjoys it, and indeed eighteen hundred years would be ample time to earn a fortune without ever gaining an extravagant amount in one year. There aren’t many like him left; the spell that made him and a few other ancient sorcerers immortal hasn’t been possible since the last amphisbaenas were killed, probably centuries before you were born.

There is also Seridra, a woman of about thirty-five, who specializes in Khareushi history. She’s traveled there several times, interviewing old people to gather oral histories and consulting with Khareushi historians. Besides her academic books and papers on early modern Khareush, she’s written a popular history of Khareush and three historical novels set in various Khareushi kingdoms, two for adults and one for children. She says one of the adult novels has been translated into Hureshan – Star of Anmura.

As for the history of Sderamyn, Tuilen recommends Sderamyn, City of Contradictions. Despite the cliched title, he says it’s a good introduction to the city’s history and he can vouch for the accuracy of the bits he was there for (the last two centuries and most of the eighth century). I haven’t read it yet myself, but I’m planning to.

I could also tell you about some of my students, but I’m running out of time – I need to grade some papers and I don’t want to put off sending this letter yet again.

Your friend,

Ftangu

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Twenty-eighth day of the seventh month, 1254

Dear Ftangu,

Yes, we’re still getting scholars coming to Daodru’s house to ask us questions about life in our day. Not as many as before, but still several times a month. They speak with all of us sometimes, but a little more often with Father than with Mother or me. And none of them have tried to persuade Father to try to become king of Huresh, like some of the people who’ve accosted me at the museum, which matches the rumor you heard.

Just a few days ago we had an author, Taenash, saying he wanted to write a popular book about us. He says there’ve been many academic papers, and someone is working on a scholarly anthology, but he wants to write something that will sell on newsstands and not just in university bookstores. If he sells the book to a publisher, he says he’ll pay us for the interviews, which is more than the academics have done. So Mother and Father have said yes, and he’s come to interview all three of us several times since then.

Your colleagues sound like fascinating people. I’d like to meet them sometime, although I suppose if I were to visit while the university is in session, we wouldn’t have as much time to socialize. Do tell me about your students next time, please.

We had an immortal come to Father’s court once, who called himself Plalu. He let people shoot arrows at him and slash him with swords while he was bare-chested, and they didn’t hurt him. I don’t know if he was really ten thousand years old, as he claimed, or cursed to wander and never stay in one place more than three nights, but he was obviously invulnerable. Father gave him fifty leptons (which was a lot of money back then) and a new suit of clothes before he moved on.

I finished reading Kosyndar, Pearl of the East a couple of weeks ago. I’ve found Star of Anmura in the school library and started reading it, but haven’t found Sderamyn, City of Contradictions. I’ll look for it next time I’m at the university library or a bookshop.

Your betrothed,

Tailiki