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24.
We are now, upon the final month of Dahlia's pregnancy and you are expected any day now. The changes in my life are expected to continue mounting. Char Lohengrin has effortlessly purchased the media's favor and in effect, the sympathy of the masses. He dances them like puppets now, as if a practiced artist. I observe very little of the man I knew in earlier years in him anymore of late... He grows obsessed with the question of what a 'Dark Immortal' might be.Â
When I question him as to the origin of such a phrase, he only rests a palm against my shoulder and tells me that I may one day soon discover the answer. I am unused to such maneuvering around topics from him, and suspect our friendship is now in question. In truth I am eager for your arrival, my child, if only to relieve myself of the burden that is this mass of intrigue. I am well into my mid-years and cannot imagine such stress to be tender upon my heart.Â
Per my proposal, he has agreed to dismiss me outright with a sizable bonus paid to myself and my wife for the sacrifices made in support of the company and in recognition of his own safety. His last assignment is but fifteen days long... I am to oversee the delivery of a package to Eorzea upon the airship 'Absolution'. The journey will take naught but a day's time and the remaining thirteen days are merely to establish the Eorzean research branch's presence.
I am informed that such an endeavor is sure to be dangerous as it presents our competitors an opportunity to wage an industrial shadow war, as it were, and strike a decisive blow; I remain skeptical to such an outright attack. If we are to suffer such a critical strike, it will be caused from within, not from without. I have in company my finest colleagues and each is worth the salt of a thousand armed men. They all field the latest magitek weapons and armor. Loathe as I am to even consider the thought - we are truly better prepared than any who may think to lay us low. I refuse to be denied what I am rightly due - I will not falter. Not with the thought of meeting your gaze very nearly realized.
