My Good Friends,

I take plume in hand tonight to write to you of a matter, which has vexed me greatly as of late. From whatever disparate point of view we may come I am
sure that we all agree on this point. If we can claim success to any of our endeavors as of late then the honor for such claims should go to the one man among us who has made it possible; my dear friend and manservant Laurent.

Laurent has been my good and faithful companion throughout many trials and tribulations both those we have encountered together my friends and many more
before. He has clothed me, bathed me, shaved me and in all ways cared for me since my childhood. He has been both father and mother to me. The thought of life without him is unbearable. All this being said I am sure you can see why I never would have considered beginning this mission without him and at the same time I am sure that you can see how recent events and situations weigh heavy on my soul.

While I have tried my best to keep him out of harms way the situation on the long boat with the Vesten proved to me the impossibility of that duty. I thought I lost him then but thanks not in part to the stubborn will his people possess he survived, but that event weakened him I know. He has not complained nor would he ever but he does not have to. I hear the creaking of his bones late at night and the groans and whimpers he thinks he disguises, the wheezing of his breath and the fits of coughing which he tries to contain lest he wake me from my slumbers. He does not know that I am already awake. For his condition weighs upon me such that my sleep of late is light and fitful at best.

I have done my best to keep him busy lately for his kind are truly happiest when they are busiest. (Indeed if you yourselves have any tasks or chores for him feel free to ask them of him as he is grateful for any opportunity to serve.) I am sure that you have all noticed his slight but persistent cough. It would not do him well to know that I notice but I would be remiss in my duties to him if I didn't. In sooth each cough, each creak every whimper and groan is as a dagger through my heart reminding me of how I have failed in my duty to him. So my friends I implore you, we must return to Montaigne with all due haste and with no more side trips or errands. I will not have Laurent die in this foreign land without his family by his side. I know that we have several tasks, which press us sorely, but if you agree that we all owe him our lives you will agree that this one task for him should be our utmost priority.

Again, it would not do for him to know any of this or of our actions on his behalf or even of my knowledge of his condition. For truly he would feel as if he failed me when in truth it is I who have failed him. Providence saw fit that in this lifetime I was the master and he the servant. As such it is time that I fulfill the obligations that such status imposes on me. If you will not return with me I will not judge you harshly, for indeed there is much to fear there upon our return.

But I will see to this task alone if necessary for it is with him that my first loyalty must lie as his has been always with me. On a parting note I must remark that the return to my home will reveal more to you than I am comfortable with but I know it is inevitable and must be faced.

Thus I sign this missive,
Pierre du Gilles, le Compte du Fountainbleu (in exile)
known to you all as Valliere du Paix