To Captain Lukos of the Aceton,



While I fear it may lead to your distrust in my missive, I am unable to provide my name to you at this time. This being said I feel that you are no less likely to believe me address and title any more so than my assurances that they are worthy of note. As such, you will have to trust me when I say that reading the following will be of prevalence to you and for your crew.



We have a mutual acquaintance it seems in one Lord Elias of Stravos. A man who I choose not to express my opinion of as he seems perfectly able to offer up the worst of his personality within a single meeting. You shall have to trust me when I state that I have had a lifetime to bear such attributes and hold no love lost for this man. This feeling is mutual and seems to have transfered to your own dealings with the man. I hear he has been trampling your name through the Athenian Senate as one to be hunted and admonished. It is in this manner that I came to know your name, your ship and your birthplace.



I can assure you, however, that if I had meant you harm I could have easily sent a regiment of the finest Athenian soldiers to apprehend you and your crew.



This, I have not done.



Instead, I offer you a chance at retribution which my limited knowledge of privateers suggests may be within your interests. Not only can I offer you a return against a man who is comfortable with betraying his own royal blood - let alone that of a pirate he has hired for misdeeds - but I can also offer payment for you to complete such a task. One that I can assure you - like my name - will outrank anything that a Stravos can provide. I wonder, Lukos of Magnemea, whether you have ever seen a deed to provincial lands before? They can be quite decorative when mounted on one's wall.



If you have any interest at all in my offer, I can assure you that I will be available to discuss our dealings four weeks from the date of this letter on the fifth night of the week at a tavern in the lower wards of the Athenian capital. I have enclosed the directions.



I can assure you, Captain Lukos, that betrayal or deception is not my intent with this letter.



Through such communication I can only offer you my words, even if the content of it explains my inability to name myself.



If nothing else, I offer you my blood vow. I know that such promises are made in the mines of Colchis and that you may find some trust in these words the print of my thumb that I have offered at the bottom of this letter.



Please consider this offer a chance to claim that which you most desire. For I am open to admitting to desperation. And my authority knows no bounds...





Signed,



A Friend