User:MisterSinister/Stuff/Nealan's Letter

Captain,

We have intercepted this letter from Nealan White to his sister back home. We were uncertain as to whether this letter is safe to send without being censored. We humbly seek your judgment in this matter.

- Subcommittee for Mail Censorship

Captain's note: The fool knows nothing. Send the letter unredacted. However, I want SK to pay him a visit sometime - he obviously knows more than he's letting on, and this could become a risk to our security. As an aside, his feelings for Faith are cute - in a pathetic kind of way.

My dearest sister,

It's been too long since I wrote to you, and for that, I apologize - my studies at Academia Magica (or AM as everyone calls it around here!) have been keeping me so busy, I hardly have time to sleep! However, I am happy that I've finally found time to write to you. It is always a joy to read your letters, and I am happy that your marriage to Alexander is going so well. They say that it's a curse of nobility that you can never marry the one you love, but in your case, it appears to be a notable exception, despite our mother's initial concerns about you and Alexander having nothing in common. He is a good man, and seeing how you write about him fills me with happiness for your situation - as well as more than a little envy, since I could really do with something like this myself!

You asked in your last letter whether Faith and I were in a relationship. Unfortunately, this did not materialize - although she was impressed with the desert flowers I got her, her heart already belongs to another man. It's difficult for me - I have only re-awakened my emotions recently, and her and I have the most amazing time together, but yet I know that she will likely never be mine. It is the most horrible feeling in the world - and one of the best feelings in the world, at the same time. She is unlike anyone else I've ever met before - I want to tell her everything, and for someone as secretive as myself, this is very surprising. She is completely transforming me in every way - and this ties in very strongly with all the shifts in my perspectives that I described to you in my last letter. In fact, just last night, we spent a wonderful evening together in her room - although of course, nothing whatsoever happened, except my telling her of probably my most shameful story. No, you haven't heard it, dear sister, and I hope you never have to, but she proved amazingly kind and unjudgemental of it, which filled my heart with such incredible joy that I could hardly believe that such a person could exist.

But regardless, I'm sure you're more interested to hear of my other news! My studies are progressing wonderfully - although the work is becoming harder and harder as my time at AM goes by. Especially bad is Professor Ashe's class - I simply have no idea how anyone finds this easy. Having Faith there as a teaching assistant also doesn't help - just looking at her is distracting. However, I recently had a meeting with Professor Ashe, and I must say, she is an amazing woman. She is a real role-model for me, and has inspired me to pursue research in the more theoretical aspects of magic. You probably think I'm crazy for attempting yet another line of academic work (a feeling shared by our delightful grandmother), but this is different. Ashe has basically said that, after the first year, she wants me to have some actual, concrete work done, and also discouraged me in the strongest possible language from pursuing anything as theoretical as I had originally wanted to do. Instead, I will be working on something much more practical, but still of immense interest to me. It does mean I might not return home for the summer - I will hopefully be doing summer research work with Professor Ashe, and I can hardly wait. She also addressed my problems with finances, as well as my prior mental breakdowns with respect to research, extremely well. I had no idea that teachers like this even existed. So on that front, things are really great.

However, there is a problem in my life. I appreciate Gideon more and more as a friend for pointing this out to me, but it would appear that a certain individual wants to ruin me in front of my friends (and yes, that includes Faith), because he, like myself, is after Faith, but knows he stands no chance. Yes, I know - at our age, this is unbefitting behaviour, but knowing Salif, I'm not really surprised - and Gideon was the one who helped me see it.

However, that's not actually the problem - the real issue is that I think the reason he's doing what he's doing is because of Enforcement. This probably means nothing to you, so I'll explain. As always, it'll be a bit of a history lesson, but you already know how I am with these things.

Basically, Enforcement, or the Student Enforcement Council, are a very powerful group of well-connected and capable students. This group goes back almost to the beginning of AM's history, purely because the academic staff here quickly found that doing all the work of actually running AM, as well as dealing with all the students, became impossible quite quickly, even when they did want to do it. Enforcement were originally designed as the people who did all the jobs that the staff considered beneath them, and self-policing of the students was (and I think, still is) seen as an easier alternative. In return, they were given some limited authority over other students, although this wasn't needed for very long - nowadays, Enforcement run things through fear and connections more than any kind of official sanction. Over time, Enforcement gained much more power than what they started with - they have informers everywhere, and are very well-connected, to the point where getting most 'ordinary' things done is much easier if you have Enforcement on your side, or at least indifferent to your case.

While the official duties of Enforcement are the maintenance and (surprisingly enough) enforcement of AM policies from the student end, what they actually do is significantly more sinister than this. I know that they regularly abuse their authority, but nobody can actually do anything to stop them doing it - they're all too scared. Even some of the professors fear Enforcement, though probably not for the same reasons - Enforcement has no direct control over staff, but they can certainly make their lives a lot more difficult thanks to their connections.

I'm probably sounding really paranoid, but hear me out. Enforcement are quite brazen with their authority - they always get the best seats in a class, the best dorm rooms are given out by strict permission of Enforcement, and if someone's with Enforcement, you better treat them well, or the assignment you thought would get an A will 'magically' be replaced by one that would get a C at a stretch. Don't believe me? I've seen it happen to one of my classmates - and I know that what he wrote was definitely not what he apparently 'submitted'. The only possible cause of this was that he had offended Salif previously in my presence. It sounds like exactly the kind of spiteful act I would expect, knowing what I know now, and I'm sure Enforcement was involved. Even Professor Ashe was surprised (or at least, seemed like she was) - although she kept her cool as she usually does.

In any case, if Salif is Enforcement, this is really bad news, because what Enforcement guys want, they get - no exceptions. I'm sure Faith understands this, which is probably why she's been under so much pressure lately. I really wish I knew how to help her, but I can't take on Enforcement. They seem to have everything under their thumb here - so you either play nice, or you don't get to play. You also never know who's witht them and who isn't - it's just fortunate that Salif isn't the most intelligent of people and overplayed his hand. If it weren't for Gideon, though, I would have missed it - I never would have figured that people would want to go against me purely because of this. If Salif was half as smart as he thinks he is, he'd keep a closer eye on Gideon - but he doesn't.

Well, as Gideon told me - let him bring it. I won't fall for this, because I know for a fact that he won't get Faith - she'd rather die first. As Gideon said 'let him swing'. However, what concerns me is that Enforcement always protect their own - so I have to be careful.

But enough on that. I would love to have you and Alexander visit some time. AM is an amazing place, and I think that you would both enjoy it a lot - although I'm sure that you are far more used to the lights of the Great City, by comparison to which AM is a bit dull. I would love to write more to you, but I have to finish two assignments, and then I'm meeting a very interesting girl who apparently know an interesting place we can go hang out in Amtown.

Love,

Nealan