*A well written letter is received*

[Whispers of Cove]

*The following arrives by carrier pigeon, written on good parchment in fine hand*

Dear Baron,
I, the Lady Rose, must say - I enjoyed my stay in your spit of land, and the wine was rather good for such a peasant infested hole. By now word may have reached you that we departed your establishment with something of yours. A girl, named Mela, under your jurisdiction. She will be slain and her bodily parts sent to each township in the area if you do not comply with our demands.

I will expect a pigeon to return to my cage with your reply, from there we shall arrange a meeting and I shall negotiate my terms.

Yours, VERY sincerely,

THE BLACK CASTE.

[Gregor Eason]

*a reply is sent*

Dear Lady Rose,
The little urchin is not to be harmed. We will comply with thy demands. Please state a meeting time and place of which to discuss this matter, and under which terms.

Signed,
Baron Octiovus

[Park Su-mi]

Roisin sat with a self-satisfied grin spread across her lips as she studied the maps infront of her. Their small organisation had already touched Yew and now it's name and influence would soon poison the waters of Cove with fear. Beneath her feet, locked away in the cellar, the whimpers of the lost little girl had silenced for the night - sharp relief; the endless tears and protests had started to splinter at Roisin's head.

Still, there must be someone in Cove willing to ease her pain, soon a time would be set and the girl would be let free for a handsome sum. But still, incase the Baron of Cove was truly a tight fisted meiser, the contingency plan would be needed.

Roisin grinned as she stamped her seal on another note, by later in the day - the slave traders of Britannia would be well aware of the young, fresh specimen up for auction. Mela's fate, was in Covian hands.

[Whispers of Cove]

[A recognisable and legible hand has written the following on sweetly scented parchment]

To whom it may concern,

We are ready to talk. Assemble yourself and whatever guardsmen your cowardice forces you to bring; on the raised terrain just North-West of the Trinsic moongate. We shall come to meet you there at the time of 8'o'clock on this evening. If we see that you have arms drawn, and if we suspect men be hidden in the shadows; we shall retreat to our hiding place and slit the girl's throat. Make ready the sum of ten thousand golden crowns, all will be explained in due time.

Yours as sincerely as ever,

THE BLACK CASTE.

[Whispers of Cove]

[A second letter, taunting, arrives in the desperate, shakey hand of a scared child. Tear stains are littered across the parchment].

Dear sir,

My name is Mela Da'ort. I am the prisoner of the Black Caste. I am very scared and want to come home. They promise to kill me should you not do what they say. So please do as they sir cos I dont want to die.

From.

[The scribbled signature of a child sits here]

[Whispers of Cove]

Dear Commander,

I thankyou for your obediance, Mela does too - you saved us the trouble of removing her tongue and eyes as punishment for your folly. None the less, you have one more meeting to see through with the most premium profesionalism. Do you know the cave in the pass through the mountains that lead to the dungeon of Shame? You shall assemble your men along the back most wall in that cave - a dead end, yes. I am not fool enough to let myself be easily trapped; I plan to get away from this alive.

You should be there ready at forty five minutes past the hour of eight. That gives you ten minutes to get there, if this reaches you when I expect it to.
Be there, or she DIES.

THE BLACK CASTE.

[Gregor Eason]

Mela, overjoyed by the sight of other Covians.

Mela has been reclaimed by the Cove Militia, alittle weary and frightened, but safe nonetheless.
Commander Eason

[Mela Arkay]

Pushing the tight bandana up from around her eyes Mela slowly gazed around the room, rubbing her eyes trying to regain her full sight. It hadn’t been a good day, from falling into a large man trap, to almost being taken captive by Kaldorians, too being taken hostage by fierce bandits.
The room was a large, dull looking room, with stained glass windows. It looked more like a cellar. It was oh so cold in the room, every breath formed a small white cloud and Mela could feel the cold numbing her fingers.
Mela gazed around again with fright as she heard a slight disturbance near the stairs. She held her breath, and hoped the higher being was on her side and it wasn’t the bandits. Unfortunately he wasn’t and down the stairs came, a women dressed in a black dress, Mela stared in slight amazement, she didn’t think it was possible for a woman who looked so friendly to be so cruel.
Looking up at the woman who stood before her, she sniffed and wiped away the warm tears from her eyes. She coward as the woman reached down and cupped the side of her face with her velvet covered hand.
As the woman spoke Mela noticed that they weren’t the only ones in the room, there was a man, with tanned skin and black hair in a ponytail, and another woman, in a dark green dress, who seemed to be tossing around a poison covered dagger.
Turning her attention back to the women she listened carefully. Her eyes filled with tears and her heart thumped hard as the words she spoke raced through her mind, was it all true? Did her father hate her? Was her mothers death, her fault? Sobbing she slid down the wall and sat in her corner, maybe she was right and it was her fault her mother died, maybe her father had run away because he hated her. Reaching over the sobbing girl grabbed at a bag the dark haired man had dropped. She opened it and took out a small piece of bread, and gnawed on it before lowering herself down to lie on the cold floor. As the room darkened she looked around and noticed that all had gone, so she thought. Standing up slowly, a  mysterious voice came from the corner,
“Try anything and I wont hesitate to cut you up.” Mela gulped sadly and sat back down.
“I was the nice one, so don’t annoy me.” The man sunk back into the corner and watched over her. Using her soft and dirty hands as a pillow Mela closed her eyes and desperately tried to sleep.
The next day Mela woke up some time in the afternoon. Looking around it was noticeable her skin was slightly paler and under her eyes the small bags had grown large. Sitting up and reaching into her backpack she pulled out a small lump of cheese and nibbled on it. She had hoped the night before had been a terrible nightmare, but unfortunately for her it wasn’t.
Looking around slowly she noticed there were a few more faces, including the one they called Uncle Ed. Mela shrieked with fright and moved behind the large trash barrel in order to stay clear of ed, she didn’t want to be eaten.
Luckily for her, she was too valuable to the caste to be damaged in any way, so Ed’s hunger was put on hold and he was told he could have a shepherd to eat later.
It was only now that Mela realised why they wanted her, to claim gold. She sighed helplessly, she was always such an annoyance to the guardsmen, why would they want to help out? The only people she knew would help, were Jemmy or Joe. She smiled weakly at the thought.
Mela reluctantly peeped her head around the barrel, the lady dressed in black garments beckoned her forward and handing her a piece of parchment and a quill she dictated what she wanted Mela to write. She bit her lip in concentration and tried to do all the spellings correctly and in her best hand writing, she was going to try her best not to annoy them, as she didn’t want to be hurt, anymore than she already was being. Handing over the letter Mela crawled miserably back into her dark and cold corner.
After the one they called Rose explained the plan to them all, they had decided her first babysitter was to be, Kiera, a pretty young lady who didn’t look as though she suited her job at all.
Mela sighed, the anticipation was getting to her, she glanced at Kiera and then back to the stairs, could she escape? Or was this a stupid idea? Standing up quickly Mela darted up the stairs and to the gate as quick as her little legs took her, only to shrink down and weep when she found the tall gate at the top bolted. Kiera grabbed at Mela and threw her back down into her corner, wiping away her warm tears Mela curled up and waited.
Later on that evening when the rest of the Caste arrived, Rose took Mel’s boots off her and tied a rope around her neck, while explaining.
“ If you pull back on this rope, this knot will tighten and you will be choked to death.”
The child sighed and got down on her hands and knees like instructed and they began their journey to Shame pass.
On arrival at the cave, Mela noticed a rather large line of guardsmen. She was shocked and grateful, but, now was the most frightening part, was the Caste going to stick to their deal? Or would they kill Mela or drag her off again.  She gulped and proceeded to gaze around, she noticed hidden away in the corner, was Jemmy, she smiled weakly and sniffed as she felt tears filling up her eyes.
Not much attention was paid to the everything else that was going on, she kept her eyes fixed on Jemmy, watching his every move carefully.
When finally the caste began to make their great escape, “Rose” threw Mela down and ran, with all the guardsmen running not far behind. Sighing Mela stood up and threw her arms immediately around Jemmy, she was so glad to be back.
After being blessed by a priest a guardsmen gated them both home where she went straight to bed.
And the bandits you say? Well, of course they in fact, got away.


*A note is pinned here, by the side of the writing two lavender flowers are stuck. The writing seems to be the hand writing of a child*
Dear gardsmen,
Thank you for resucing me from the bandits, and I promise to be good from now on. I want to say a really big thank you to commander Eason for being so nice to me and even bowing down to see me let go. I promise I wont ever be a pain again.
Love
Mela Da’Ort
XxxxX
*At the bottom of the note, seems to be a well drawn picture of commander Eason.*




(OOC: Sorry for this being so late, it takes a lot longer to write than I thought. I’d like to say a big thank you to The Black Caste for their fantastic role play. It was good fun and I hope to be seeing more things like this soon. Also thanks to the guardsmen which came)