Letter to Zoltun

I arrived at the Battery a fortnight ago, frost in my beard and not a morsel in my belly. Barely had I unhitched the horses when your Komendant Exandru came to meet me. The priest told me that I would be made welcome but my ‘profane’ business would not. In short, I would have to leave at first light, my wagons empty.

Certain that this was but a negotiating tactic, I told Exandru that I would of course see him compensated along with you. He left in a huff, and when I presented myself at the door, it was Komendant Marunn — your armswarden! — who met me. She told me to leave at once, that she wouldn’t have my ‘coin-grubbing’ hands tarnishing Durgan steel.

Now, I appreciate forceful bargaining as much as any man of coin, but I was cold, hungry, and put off by her vehemence. So, I showed her the letter you had sent inviting me to examine your latest stock of Durgan steel. Komendant Maroon drove a rapier through the letter and sliced it in two! She then warned me that her blade — a fine weapon, indeed – would be the last I ever laid eyes on if I did not hie back down the mountain at once.

Never have I endured such humiliation and expense only to return home empty-handed! I do not understand what has passed between you and your associates, but I urge you to take charge. I fear the other komendants will be your undoing — indeed, that of all Durgan’s Battery — if you do not deal with them swiftly and decisively.