Dearest Elin,
I am sorry it has taken me so long to write - you must have been quite frantic! Unfortunately it seems that the means I used to enter this city from the surface had its effects - particularly on my memories. I awoke in a deeply unsanitary prison cell (you would not have approved at all) and it was several days before my wits returned to me.
In that time, you will be pleased to know, I managed to find lodgings and gained possession of a map. I won’t call the lodgings ‘suitable’ - I reside at present in a room above the most dreadful bookshop, crammed with revolutionary texts and I am certain, black market manuscripts. So, in answer to the letter you sent to me just before my journey, no. You must not seek to visit with me in this place.
I am quite serious Elinyra, I would never forgive you.
And so we will move past that unpleasantness. Yes, we are separated by a matter of surface and the underside, but were we not always separated before? I do not wish to bring up any sense of guilt for you in this my love, but you are a married woman. A married noblewoman, in fact! We both knew our dalliances were fleeting, while that awful husband of yours was overseas. Now he has returned, the safest option for you is to enter back into that society and try not to kill your weedy little brother for ratting us out.
As for me - it is safest I remain here, for the time being. I will write, of course, and be sure not to use anything but this pseudonym in your replies, if you would, as I have already received notifications that ‘associates from the surface’ seek me out. They shan’t find me, I have already worked hard to develop a network amongst protective urchins, the constabulary and some… unsavoury characters, all designed to ensure I have favours to call in as necessary.
I will write again in a few days, when I have adventures to tell. I will not tell you I miss you, I will simply tell you that I breathe again down here, in the knowledge of your safety.
Yours, of course,
Vial Laudanum.