10. Knight

Kupferstadt, 13 Mai 969 P.A.

Esteemed and Honoured Hochmeister,

I trust this letter arrives as it is sent. I believe I may soon return from Thuringia. There remains little to do now that the Häretiker have been disposed of. I have taken the liberty of preserving the fetish, that you may examine it or destroy it as you wish. It is a pathetic thing, hardly worthy of the wild tales told about it. The glass is a dull green and it contains nothing more than scraps of paper and material. The heresy was deeply ingrained in all of rank in the Thuringian Bailiwick. We confiscated all exemplars of The Lindisfarne Testament, including those found in several exquisitely bound and illuminated copies of the Holy Book. Although these tomes were quite beautiful, I felt sick to my stomach to see the misbelievers' fantastical nonsense alongside The Old, The New and The Apocalyptic Testaments. The volumes burned passing well, as did the Komtur of Thuringia himself.

Our order has been quite correctly accepted as the most ancient of all, Hochmeister, and it is with this in mind that I ask that you permit me, once I have delivered my report in person, to continue the work of the Heiliges Büro. Who knows how many recusants there are? They must be eradicated. Is it not written in the Second Book of Merkel: “We feel bound to the Christian image of humanity - that is what defines us. Those who do not accept this are in the wrong place here”? Kavalier Gimmler has drafted a very interesting proposal, which I enclose. I am sure you will agree, Hochmeister, that the Endlösung has much merit.

On a personal note, if I may presume as your oldest friend, I should like to take another wife before one such would no longer be of use to me. I do not complain of the vocation God and the Order have placed upon me, but I need the warming effect of young flesh on old bones. Besides, the Komtur's widow does not suit the weeds.

To matters of supply. Despite my misgivings – I remember the problems you and I encountered as young knights with the slave trains - the experiment with the single-person wheeled vehicle has, on the whole, been a success. Some of the younger members of the order allowed their enthusiasm to lead them to risky endeavours. The mastery of a horse is no indicator of prowess on the Vaporcycle, it seems. Nevertheless, they are the future - the young knights and the Vaporcycles - so I request that instructions are sent to Saxonia to provision us with twenty three replacement cycles and a new string of horses for myself. In addition, have I your permission to demand of the Kanzler of the Bailiwick of Saxony sufficient funds to enable the use of informants? Any intelligence gathered en-route to the capital will be invaluable should I be required to complete our task in other Bailiwicks.

Yours in God, The Saviour and The Apocalypse.

Gottschalk Tiefhammer.
Knight Of The Order of Teutonia.