The Seventh Letter
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Below is all we know about the scandalous and forbidden play, The Seventh Letter.
A disclaimer - some of the context of the play was given outside of the game, at player request, by Alexis Kennedy, who is disgraced and no longer at Failbetter.
In Summary
The actress playing the Raven 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 in the days before there was war in Heaven." (This Liberation?) The Shames are the children of the Mountain of Light, but it is unclear who the Ravens actually represent.
The Messenger - the Bazaar, played by multiple actors of multiple gender identities - is introduced. There is a mention of "the Owls" (the Masters), and of the Hunter (probably Mr Veils) as one of their number.
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, in AK's words, 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."
Excerpted
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!
Interpretation
The Seventh Letter is, at its heart, a retelling of the love story of the Bazaar and the Sun, albeit disguised in a layer of symbolism so that most Londoners can't quite figure out the truth. It also displays the most tragic possible future, in which the Bazaar, the Sun, their offspring, at least one Master, and for some reason time itself are punished and devoured for their crimes.
