The Seventh Letter

Below is all we know about the scandalous and forbidden play, The Seventh Letter.

Knife-and-Candle's Orders

Order Vespertine: THE PRESBYTER SAITH: you shall harm no thing that flies, for they carry with them the airs of the Garden. No bee, no bird, no bat. Only to my servants is it given to hunt them, and that only for my table. Yet I am generous: all shall feast. THE PRESTER SAITH: The Thief-of-Faces shall not be suffered to return to the Garden, nor its chattels, nor its children. It has taken from us that which is precious and returned only lies and empty fires. It shall be locked in a prison of flint, and it shall know no light. THE PRESTER SAITH: When I die, yet shall I not die. The hour of my death shall be chosen, yet no man shall choose it. I am eternal, and yet my reign in circumscrib'd by law and Fate. I will feast at my funeral, and my child shall be my cup-bearer. THE PRESTER SAITH: in the Garden is the Design; in the Garden occured the Ascents; in the Garden were selected the Shames. Therefore none shall enter it without that they be blinded with thorns and bound with the Three Oaths. And should any seek to alter the Design or repeat the Ascent or uncover the Shames, they shall be given to the Wax-Wind. Order Serpentine: ONCE UPON A TIME there was a little snake, no bigger than your finger, who lived behind the mirror. The little snake was very lonely, and the only friends he could find behind the mirror were old memories and strangling roots and the grumpiest bee above or below the world. And so... ...THE LITTLE SNAKE asked the grumpiest bee in both worlds for help. And the bee said, why should I help? And the snake said, I will give you one-fifth of all I gain thereby. So the bee thought, and he said, in a far place there grows a rose. And that rose... ...THE ROSE, WHICH IS CALLED EXILE'S ROSE, has a property of passage. So shall I brew a honey from its dusts and pollens, and the honey shall be sweet, and it shall bring those who taste it, here to your dwelling. And sometimes they shall stay forever. And the little snake was very pleased with all the new friends the honey brought, but... ALL THE LITTLE SNAKE'S NEW FRIENDS spoke fondly of the place outside the mirror. And the little snake thought: what if I could walk there among all my friends-to-be? They need not leave. We would be all so very happy. But I may not walk in my own skin. So perhaps my friends shall lend me their skin... Order Ovate: RAVEN: Truly my voice is sweeter than the song of the stone, the swan, the storm.... (Enter a MESSENGER beribboned with RAGS of CLOUD.) RAVEN: (in haste) ...yet no sweeter than yours, great master. I acknowledge it so. MESSENGER: O blackness, o blackness, wherefore should I sing? When all of my songs are seared on my skin? (Exeunt.) -- MESSENGER: What do you among my spires? OWLS: Why, great master, we watch. We wait. We eat. MESSENGER: You watch and you wait and consume, you say. But is there not one who will make you his prey? OWLS: ....pray, great master, preserve us. Let us hear his shriekings no more, and we will serve you always. MESSENGER: Ah, were it only my unfettered choice. But I owe him his hunts and the joys of his voice. -- PHOENIX (to herself): I am so very tired of flames. I will drown myself in snow and emerge in perfect serenity. Or emerge not at all. MESSENGER: What’s that? You have no more use for flame? PHOENIX: Oho! A visitor! MESSENGER: A pleasure. Will you guess my name? PHOENIX: I know you. All we things of fire do. You are the ragged messenger who carries a troth from the Sun to - MESSENGER: -name her not! Name her not, the b___h! PHOENIX: Aren’t we touchy! I had no idea. -- MESSENGER: You, again. DRAGON: Yes. I remain the servant of your master. As do you. He awaits you. MESSENGER: Do not. I beg you, do not. He cannot yet hear what I have to say. DRAGON: (carelessly) You have a little longer. Should this place fail, two remain. (Exit) MESSENGER: Not yet enough. Not yet enough!

Lilac at the Panopticon

No story details here, folks. We just have a few phrases that are actual lines from the play, and we hope that's okay. The snippets in the non-fate-locked spoiler above go somewhere in between these. We also have some interesting information from the pen/keyboard of Alexis Kennedy, who is no longer at Failbetter, given at the request of fellow player Drake Dynamo. The actress playing the Raven (possibly one of the Masters) is introduced. She sings her aria, the Hymn of Shames. "The glowing-hearted mountain/ the river in the sky / the near night and the deep night...' According to AK, the Ravens - there are multiple - are "the lesser Incarnates of the Liberation [of Night?!] in the days before there was war in Heaven." The Messenger - the Bazaar, played by multiple actors of multiple gender identities - is introduced. There is a mention of "the Owls" (the Masters, according to AK) and the Hunter (perhaps the Vake, though this is unconfirmed). The Phoenix, played by a beautiful Khaganian woman, gives her soliloquy: "I am so very tired of flames. I will drown myself in snow, and emerge in perfect serenity. Or emerge not at all."  Rather than undress before her dramatic immolation as would be expected, she simply bursts into Correspondence flame. AK explains that the Phoenix is "an untroubled star, busy at the melodramas of the High Wilderness." In the final act, the seven Dragons punish the Messenger, the Sun, their daughter, the Hunter, and Time itself. "The Seventh Dragon recites the crimes of the Sun and the Messenger – Betrayal of Messages, Undelivery of Words, Vile Breeding, Conspiracy in Darkness, and Unlicensed Love."  When the Dragon recites this last crime, the others scream in what can only be Correspondence, injuring the audience's ears. The curtain falls as the Dragons feast on their prisoners. The dragons, by the way, are "the enforcement-emanations of Law." And "Time is (as Aulus Gellius knew) the father of Truth, but is also of course in turn the child of Law."