My Dear Antonio,

I hope this letter finds you fat, dumb and happy -- much the way I looked when you saw me last in the arms of that vivacious young lass at the Countess' tawdry affair. Gods above! Has a whole year chanced to pass since we've last traded words?

You and I are relics, my friend. The Age of Duels is all but dead and men of our craft aren't as sought after as we once were. Oh, I don't lack for the odd young, rich whelp whose father thinks "the weight of a well balanced sword in hand"; will do his son some good. But the hysteria of calling a man out over the slightest trifling, the least provocation, that, for all of Love, is on the wane. And in my considered opinion, I say good riddance.

It's been a while in the making, but at last society has stumbled upon something that we, men who truly appreciate Athena's graces, have known all along: Might doeth not make right. If I were foolish, unwary, besotted with wine, or otherwise impaired, I could fall easily to the throes of anger and be quick to shed blood at the least transgression done unto me. And would the skill I have been bestowed by nature, the Italian D'Angelo, the Spaniard Zamora, the Irishman Maturin, or the Turk Gahzali, render me with impunity? No. Of course not. Truth is not the byproduct of conflict.

If I had a silver coin for every occurrence I have imparted that to a student, I could pave the road from here to your family estate in gold. Ah, if but I were required to pay the lowliest copper for each time this bit of advice was ignored, I'm afraid the attention drawn to me by no small number of bill collectors would force to me to have to send this little letter to you from such a distance that your great grand children would probably be its recipients. Pray, forgive me, I ramble.

So I hold that the sword can, at times, be an instrument of justice, not its maker. Right and Wrong can both deliver the fatal stroke with equal mettle.

What say you, friend Antonio? Come, show me your pen is every bit as deft as your wrist. Until such time, I remain your loyal and devoted friend,

- -de Verdin

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