a cross in the void // christopher lightwood {4}

eight // missing in action

Cordelia,

I know that you are busy. Forgive me. You must be overwhelmed with research right now but this I must tell you. We still have not found Lucie. But a night or two ago I had a dream: a nightmare, really. I dreamed of a sandstorm, and an army of demons, and of my grandfather's voice, and he whispered, "They wake. Do you hear that, grandson? They wake."

I dreamed also of marble halls and of two women, one with red hair and one with black, asleep on a bench in Fenchurch station, but I cannot figure out if those were more visions, or if they were merely figments of my imagination as most dreams are and mine used to be.

I am worried. I cannot make you finish up your research and return to London, but I can beg you to please do it soon. At the very least, please send me some kind of reply. Tell me that you are alright, and whether or not things are going well.

With love,

James.

< & >

James,

I do not know where you are that I might send this letter, so I am sending it to the Institute so it will be waiting for you when you arrive. I am alright here. Weary and tired, but I don't feel too terrible. If anything, I feel lighter than I have ever been, Lilith or no Lilith. I know that must sound strange, especially considering that our research into the Amarna tomb has turned out to be a dead end for all of us but Pluto, who has continued on some track they will not speak to us about, something to do with secrets they need to keep to protect the future and work they have to do to make sure that all of us come out of this mess alright. But I do feel as if a weight has been lifted off me. I have never been to Scotland before and here there is only the Lochlyn estate and a tiny town whose name I do not remember and here it feels as though I am someone completely new and different, and I could start wholly over. It is a strange feeling and not an unwelcome one.

I will come back to London, I promise. Your visions do concern me, and I wish more than anything that I could help to search for Lucie, and we are wrapping up our research here. But Pluto and Christopher and Matthew are still here, and Seanan and Gloria, though they will be leaving together soon for São Luis, in Brazil. Seanan is turning over the estate to Pluto and they must wait for the paperwork to get back, and Matthew must wait for the belongings he forgot in Arles, so we will be here a little longer.

Please do not worry over me too much. I will be alright.

—Daisy

< & >

Papa,

Pass this letter on to Da, too, when you receive it: it's for the both of you to share. I'll be returning to São Luis soon, and I'll be bringing a friend. Remember Seanan, that I wrote to you about before? The pretty Scottish woman with the glasses and the red hair? She took me to visit her ancestral home at Taigh Liath and for reasons of her own to do with both her bad memories' and her parents' of the place, she is signing it over to Pluto to take instead, since they have a fonder recollection of the house. They've been doing a thorough inventory of it, to see what is and is not the same as it is in their time.

Seanan really does not want to go back to London again, and I think quite frankly we both need to get out of this place before the war comes, and it is coming. I can't lose one or the both of us to the carnage a Prince of Hell is sure to bring. We are making a strategic retreat before going for a visit to my fathers' house becomes defecting and she ends up in the Gard. Do not say that to anyone. You know this letter is warded—you had to break the code to open it after all—so you know how serious this is.