A second letter arrived, and again with the i in Albite dotted with a little heart. Whether the writer had gagged inwardly a little again at such a thing I leave to the imagination of the reader.

Albite -

I neglected to consider that you would have no way of expeditiously answering my first message. You will forgive me, of course, not that I'm asking for any forgiveness.

I was very pleased to see the level of effort you put into getting into touch with me. The sword in the stone was really a lovely touch, and your art skills are improving by leaps and bounds.

However, given that you have by report been very naughty of late, I think you, as an intelligent man, will likewise forgive me for not wanting to accept the gift of the phone, as I do not know what those clever little cats are capable of doing to one on your side, and I still need proof that you're being a good boy. Thank you very much for the choice of stickers, however. You have wonderful taste.

Like I mentioned in my last, I did in fact manage to track down the lady you were looking for, and we had an interesting discussion. As I have foreseen a way to be useful to both of you, I have stepped in to do so. You can thank me later, by way of your continued good behavior towards me.

I have in my possession a certain item that will allow you to meet Grieve in the medium of a dream, and you can hash out your differences there with safety. You have my honor as both a Lady and an Earth Knight that you cannot come to harm there. I will dispatch the item with instructions for its use when Grieve has signaled that she is ready to meet you. All you'll need to do is don it and sleep. I am not Grieve's keeper, and don't set any restrictions on how that meeting goes. I do have one small favor to ask of you, however, if you will be very good to me.

I will let Grieve know that you're ready for this as soon as you can leave me a message - via dumpster, if you like that medium best - promising me that you'll be on your best behavior waking, and that you'll return my property to me unharmed. Please do so as quickly as you can manage it.

Who knows? Maybe there will be a little reward in it for you. I like to let a man know when he's pleased me.

Trusting you to continue being, at least as far as I am concerned, a good boy,

Guinevere

It was not sealed, this time, with cherry juice. It was in fact sealed with lipstick, which had the patchy creased quality that suggested she had kissed the ring before dispatching the message. This, too, had resulted in some inward retching.

What she did not tell him - as he did not need to know - was that she didn't really need the pledge of the safe return of her property. It would return to her magically, as she had discovered, as soon as he woke up - so if he woke up in a majestic rage or (horrific to think of) smug triumph from that dream and decided to set fire to it like he appeared to set fire to almost everything else, he would find that it was already safely out of his reach. By not telling him this, she reasoned, she stood a better chance of his not somehow destroying it before even using it.