Act I, Part XI: A Letter to Commandant Zaknu

By Valen Vedrano, Councilor of House Redoran

Zaknu,

You have failed me time and time again and yet, every time, I’ve overlooked it or dismissed it as being a simple lapse in judgment. You see, I always gave you the benefit of the doubt because it doesn’t feel so long ago that I found your tribe on the cusp of extinction. Do you remember those days, Zaknu? The days when you all were starving to death and were being slowly picked off by the Spiders? I do. I remember those days like they were just yesterday and I remember the pathetic little runt you were, malnourished and begging for just a crumb of my bread when I stumbled upon your miserable lot. You were nothing and your tribe was nothing when I found you all, but I gave you all a new life—a new purpose—and this is how you repay me? You repay me by allowing some rat to come into my city, to come before the council I sit on, and tell them all about the things I showed you and taught you? Tell me, Zaknu, why? Why would you allow this to happen? Why?

Make no mistake, I have already resolved the issue of this squealing rat, but that still leaves the issue of how I am to handle your repeated, incessant failures. I just don’t understand it—I simply lack the comprehension necessary to understand how someone can squander all that I’ve given them when I have given so much. There was a reason that I killed the Chieftain and put you in his place. There was a reason I poisoned the guards’ rations so that you all would have no challenge in sacking the city. There was a reason I have done these things and that was not for you to allow some squealing little rat to expose everything I’ve worked towards for centuries, so tell me, Zaknu, how should I resolve the issue of you jeopardizing everything I’ve dedicated my life towards?

My ancestors were betrayed at the Red Mountain, Zaknu. They were betrayed by the False Gods my people flocked to as they cast down our leader and finally, finally I am so close to restoring my true house to its proper place, and you piss on everything I’ve worked towards. A part of me doesn’t want to be angry at you though; you can’t possibly understand what it is I have lost. I lost my homeland before I was born in the Landfall. I lost my birthright countless millennia ago at the Red Mountain. And now, Zaknu, I have lost my trust in you which pains me more than anything. So, I will meet you in the Fallen City and we will discuss our next steps moving forward and if there will be next steps, but first, I must watch the rat hang and then I’ll make haste to meet with you.

Think wisely on what you’ll say at our meeting, Zaknu; it would be a tragedy if your tongue got ahead of you this time, as it so often does.

-V