Chapter 8: Sam Deeproot Writes Home Every Night

From the collected letters of Samwise Deeproot to his father, Hamfast Deeproot, and his sister Marigold Deeproot, of Millgate, Mirelands — recovered from the Deeproot family archive by consent of the estate, donated to the Aelindrath Scholarly Repository, catalogue designation SD-0033 through SD-0041. Condition of originals: variable. Letters SD-0033 through SD-0037 in good condition, ink stable, paper sound. Letters SD-0038 through SD-0040 show increasing compression of letterforms and minor irregularities in margin alignment. Letter SD-0041 is intact but was found folded incorrectly, as though refolded by hands that had lost their habitual orientation. Editor's note: all letters reproduced here without orthographic correction. Sam Deeproot's spelling, which several previous scholars have characterized as imprecise, is better described as phonetically earnest.

Dear Dad and Marigold,

Arrived at the waystation two days east of Var Aethon on the seventeenth, which is three days behind the schedule Mr. Arathas set out at the start of this leg, but that is partly the roads and partly the weather and partly on account of a delay at Var Aethon itself that I will explain once I understand it better myself. I have been told it was necessary and I believe that, though necessary is a word I find myself applying to more things on this journey than I expected to when I left Millgate.