Ten years later

On the day that he leaves the Material for good he writes two letters. The first he seals in an envelope and leaves with his secretary in Lastwall.

FOR THE LORD WATCHER’S EYES ONLY

Sir:

It has recently come to my attention that the Duchess of Chelam is being impersonated by an individual I believe to be Lilia Ramona de Montero, former spymistress for the Thrune regime and daughter and agent of the archmage then known as Myrabelle. The true Chelam remains in Axis and was never resurrected; the impersonator must have been in place even before the Constitutional Convention or her marriage to Lord Marshal Cansellarion. Montero has been Reincarnated but is not under any other form of magical disguise that I can discern; the lie appears to rely entirely on the fact that no one alive knows her true face or the face of the person whose place she has taken. (The familial resemblance to Myrabelle, however, is reasonably apparent.)

It is my belief, though I am not certain, that at the very minimum Her Majesty, and likely also the archmagi Cotonnet, must have been aware of this plot from the beginning. I cannot say who conceived it or why. To all appearances the Duchess is a faithful Iomedaen and one of the foremost political allies of the Church in Cheliax. It may in fact be the case that Montero is attempting to repent of her past evils in the only way that she knows how.

I do not think she poses an immediate threat to the interests of Good, and advise great caution in dealing with her. Of course, it is a monstrous harm to Alexeara, to allow him to share a bed with his enemy under false pretenses, but the greater part of that harm has already been done, and cannot be much worsened by allowing him to find out in Heaven. As for Montero, I fear that whatever repentance she may feel would be dashed by the Church presenting itself again as her enemy. Put it to the Goddess, of course, but my professional opinion is that Lilia Ramona de Montero is in some sense already dead, and Carlota de Chelam, for all that she isn’t the first person to bear that name, should be let to live.

The Inheritor’s blessings go with you always.

Jean Riudaure

He doesn’t mention that the real downside of this situation is that all of ‘Carlota’s’ issue, soon to inherit the Archduchy of Molthune and probably eventually some other places, are under Alfirin’s perpetual bloodline enchantment. It’s perfectly inferable from the information they already have, and one doesn’t put things like that in a letter, even if it’s marked FOR THE LORD WATCHER’S EYES ONLY.

The second letter he delivers himself, passing undetected into the ducal palace of Chelam and leaving it on the Duchess’ own pillow. Its recipient could probably prevent him from doing that or at least catch him at it, but the palace of Chelam has, of course, only the protections affordable by an ordinary third-circle duchess. The letter reads, simply—

You win.