To Faucon: A Suggestion

[YakaryBovine]

The message arrives at the Temple of the Triumvirate for Sir DeOmbre. It is written in a practiced but otherwise unpleasant-to-read hand.

DeOmbre - as is my duty, I've sent a message to Melchior regarding your penance. In the interest of not acting behind your back, I wanted to make the contents of the message public to you.

To Melchior

This message regards Sir DeOmbre. Let it be known that I was not to the events described here.
Recently, DeOmbre smote down an unarmed elf. I'm certain this knowledge has been passed on to you.
Triumvirate philosophy states that Ilmatari should attempt to temper the justice and aggression of Tyrrans and Tormtar.
As a dedicated Ilmatari, I then suggest the following penance for DeOmbre: to help with the preperation and distribution of food in the Port Avanthyr Sanctuary.
There, he will learn humility, temperance, and give life to the weak.

From Initiate Arden Doraine, dedicated Painbearer of Ilmater

[Tamha]

"What is troubling you, my love?" Presea asks, finding Faucon at his desk with a note, scroll and quill. He hands the letter over, and she quickly reads it. "I see. Allow me to pen a response? You have other matters to attend right now."

The Ilmateri sits at her own work table, gently pushing aside a white and yellow scarf in progress. Taking quill and ink to parchment, she writes the following response:

Dear Initiate Doraine,

My name is Presea De'Ombre, Adorned of Ilmater, and wife of Sir De'Ombre. I am concerned about your understanding of a few things from the letters you have sent to both the Revered Father and to my husband.

To begin, Sir Faucon De'Ombre, Knight of the Amber Leaf, is indeed a member of the order of Triadic Knights. However, he is firstly of the temple of Tyr, and as one of Lord Tornbrook's commanders, he answers only to the Judicator. Furthermore, it is not the duty of the Revered Father to assign penance to any member of our allied churches, as the Triad is an alliance of three separate churches and not one as a whole. Thankfully, his wisdom and guidance benefit us, as well as our brothers and sisters following Tyr and Torm. As such, should the Revered Father make a suggestion, it will in most cases be considered by those allies, however it is generally not considered a mandate to the other churches.

As an initiate, especially one who has not actually met Sir De'Ombre or even all of the members of your own temple, suggesting penance for a revered Knight and Templar could be construed as presumptuous and even prideful. I would suggest you deeply consider what prompted you to contact the Revered Father on this matter in the first place, and why you assumed that both his superiors and your own would not be able to handle it.

As you were not present at the event, I think you likely have an incomplete understanding of what happened. Stating that "DeOmbre smote down an unarmed elf," you risk slandering a highly respected member of the Triad by oversimplifying what happened. I do not know who conveyed what happened to you, however did they mention that the elf was evil? It had such dark skin under the hood and mask it refused to remove that both Templar Dovenian and Sir De'Ombre thought it a Drow elf. Were you informed an actual Drow had been spotted in the same location but days prior, and were you told that Sir De'Ombre struck only once, without calling on the might of Tyr against evil? Sister Winters, who was witness to the events, administered healing to the elf as soon as it was unmasked, revealing the mistake of identity, and he survived the incident. What you provided not only failed to account for these factors, it also implied that Sir De'Ombre intentionally slew a member of the Good Races without provocation, which was not the course of events.

Sir De'Ombre does not deny making a mistake, nor striking an unarmed personage. He began penance for his actions the day after the incident, which is at this time ongoing. He has also petitioned for audience with a ranking member of the Legion to accept his debt to the laws of Sundren, whatever they might be.

Additionally, while the work of Sister Abigail Winters is a boon to the valley at large, when she abandoned the Triad over a petty squabble with the Templars Dovenian and Sir De'Ombre, she also forsook direct assistance of our allied temples at large. Any work done in Sister Winters sanctuary in Port Avanthyr is on a purely voluntary basis. I do encourage you to continue with your own volunteer work there, however it is not a holding of the allied churches and crucial resources of the temples will most likely not be diverted at this time.

One final matter: While all Tormtar are Tormish, not all Tormish are Tormtar. The Tormtar are a specific order within the church of Torm, those of the Order of the Golden Lion. To make a comparison, it would be the same as calling all monks of our own temple "Broken One," even though that is only one of many monastic orders in service to Ilmater.

I hope this letter has helped your understanding.

Presea De'Ombre
Crusader of the Broken

After finishing the letter, she makes a duplicate copy. One she leaves on Faucon's desk, which he left shortly after she began to write. The other is sealed and sent to Arden Doraine by the contact information he would have left with the temple when he became an initiate (perhaps left on his bunk in the barracks upstairs).

[YakaryBovine]

Arden, on one of his rare trips into the city, finds the response awaiting him at the cloister. He reads the letter over, frowns, reads it again, and pockets it for later reference. It seems it won't be any time soon that I might watch a Paladin scrubbing dishes, he bemoans silently.