The letter is written in a slightly messy hand in pencil on the back of an old sky map. The map indicates a set of worlds very distant from the Floating Temple.

Hey Monks,

I'm writing to you because the supposed "grownups" are all too proud to ask for help, but since I'm only an apprentice I can ignore all the garbage. Anyway, I'm Melanie Tay Vodoss and I'm an apprentice Storm Watcher of the Stormwatch Fleet. And we really need your help.

In case you don't know, the Stormwatch Fleet is this large collection of skyships that follow the Immortal Storm around, warning the worlds in its path so that they can prepare for the storm and limit the damage it does. As for what the Immortal Storm is, well, it's a huge, violent storm that travels the airs between the worlds, and it's much, much bigger than any world we've ever heard of.

Warning people about the Immortal Storm is the whole reason for the Stormwatch Fleet's existence, and it's also how we make our living. You see, the worlds we warn are usually at least a bit grateful, so they supply us with supplies, food and money. And that worked pretty well for a long, long time. But for the last few generations, it hasn't worked so well.

That's because the Storm's path took it into a great void where there are no worlds. No, you might think that's fine, no worlds, no danger, no problem. But there is a problem, because the Storm is almost done passing through that void, and there are plenty of worlds on the other side. Not to mention that without contact with worlds to weaken it, the storm has gotten even stronger. And the fleet's falling to pieces.

With no worlds for support, we've had to exist on sky whale and air plants and ship's gardens (and occasional monsters that come out of the Storm). But the sky ships need wood, metal and rope to keep them in repair, and all we've had for the longest time is whale bone. Needless to say, the ships are all falling apart. We've managed to keep some of them in repair by disassembling others, but you can only do that so long before things get real crowded on the rest of the ships. Anyway, our engineers have determined that our ships will have all broken down by the time the Storm reaches the next group of worlds. Which is, you know, really bad.

Anyway, the Grand Captain (that's my dad, Trevarian Tay Vodoss) and the command council have decided that we have no other choice, but to abandon the Storm and head our fleet to the nearest inhabited world.

There's a lot of problems with this idea, the first being that the nearest world is not one of the worlds threatened by the Immortal Storm, or even very close to it, so it's a useless destination from the point of view of warning anyone. The second being, that this world will have no reason to help the fleet, so we'll either have to sell our ships and settle down leaving the Storm without any guardians (my dad's plan) or we'll have to raid for what we need like sky pirates (my Uncle Jack's plan). Frankly, both of these ideas stink like month-old pickled whale meat. So I'm hoping you guys can send some pilgrims to come up with another plan that isn't entirely stupid, bad or wrong.

Thanks!

Melanie Tay Vodoss

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I wonder if this letter ought to be somehow connected with Daniel's Fluttering Menace: The Butterfly Conspiracy letter, since the organizations seems sort of similar. Of course, it's a big universe.

An additional danger you have to consider is that the only thing that can weaken a storm are the very worlds that the fleet are trying to protect, so after so long in the void, the storm has only gotten more fierce.

Good point! I've added that.