Imperial Correspondence — Sealed Dispatch From the Office of the Chancellor Valerius Caelum, Konigsheim To Jarl Gerverg, Magistrate of Alendria
Jarl Gerverg,
The matter of House Landon is concluded. King Theodor, along with his kin, was presented before His Imperial Majesty and made to renounce all claim to Alendrian sovereignty. Their words were recorded, their submission witnessed, and their lives extinguished. Such is the fate of kings who do not protect the legacy of their fathers.
Let it be known that the Emperor does not delight in blood. The execution of a royal house is not a gesture made lightly. It was necessity, not wrath, that guided His hand. And it was Alendria’s failure to secure its own princess that made such necessity unavoidable.
Princess Elara’s absence at the time of surrender is a stain yet unwashed. Her whereabouts remain unknown, and that ignorance is intolerable.
You are hereby instructed to exert every resource at your disposal to recover the princess, should she have returned to Alendrian soil. If she lives, she must be found. If she has perished, proof must be procured. Rumor will not suffice. The Emperor requires certainty.
Let no ambiguity remain. The empire has no patience for ghosts.
—V.C.