This letter is penned in the spring of 1223. It is written quickly in a casual, familiar hand, with rather thin letters, on a plain parchment; the impression in the wax seal has been made with a coin of some sort.
Dear Thamik,
It is late in the evening, but I promised myself I would write my dear friend this week, and tomorrow is the Sabbath. Truly I am tired, and a bit ill from this new climate - not that the relative warmth is unpleasant, but there are many plants flowering all around, and some of them seem not to agree with my breathing. The journey itself was without trouble, other than steeling myself for Tria's unique mode of travel. And her sodales here at Le Maison d'Levrier have been cordial enough, though none particularly effusive. No, it is simply the new location, and knowing that I don't really have a home right now.
Did you finish the cabinets for your laboratory? I never did get around to prying out of you how you intended to enchant them. I regret not being able to see the finished product, sleek and aesthetic as they would surely be under your hand. I wonder if I should be regretting, more generally, my decision to resign from Nigrasaxa before I heard back from Apollodorus. Perhaps it was still the right choice ... but I miss the lowlands, and our sodales (distant as they can sometimes be), and even that penny-pinching chamberlain of ours. Of course I miss my conversations with you most of all ... you, who have been most understanding about my peculiar condition.
Speaking of which, I have pondering your theory that my ability to perceive magical creatures and locales is related to the mystical bonds inherent in Arcane Connections. It does not seem likely to me (no insult is intended - I know you advance it only tentatively), but let's see how far we can go with the idea. Magical auras, for example, are manifestations of the Realm of Magic, as is the vis that saturated my body during my apprenticeship; thus theoretically, the aura could be said to be a part of me, or more precisely a part of part of me. Immediately though, we come to the undeniable fact that I cannot sense objects that are Arcane Connections to myself - not with my sensitivity to magic, at any rate. I do grant your point that this theory helps to explain why sensing Hermetic spells is nearly impossible, while sensing even lowly magical creatures is not uncommon for me.
Ultimately these questions return to the proper definition of the Form of Vim. That we know it when we see it is of no theoretical help (regardless of your prowess in the laboratory, I say to forestall your sure reaction!): the typical foundational writings on the topic are circular at best. "If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way," to quote Aristotle; and so we should conceive of that definition of Vim with the property that it is the best possible manifestation of Vim. Consider for example an empty regio, containing a magical aura but no recognizable landscape.... The letter continues for another page or so, running through a thought experiment about the nature of Vim. I know you will quickly find problems with this conclusion, dear friend, with your detail-oriented mind. But perhaps "that which can alter the nature of other" is a step in a forward direction.
Do please write soon, if you can. Our friendship is dear to me; and in my mind, distance already threatens to decay it.
Yours,
Tranquillina