This letter was found in Deorla’s old desk, along with some others, in the Company of the East Road kinhouse.
To all my kin in the Company of the East Road,
I suppose by now you have all heard the news. The Company has failed.
We were supposed to make the East Road safe, to protect it, to ensure it remained a river in which travel and commerce could flow, to allow it to be the means by which Eriador could be built into a land to rival the Old Kingdoms. But it was all a lie.
The Enemy was in our midst. The woman we knew as Deorla, who for many of us meant a new purpose, a Symbol of all the good the Company could do for this world, is now gone. Whatever good could be found in her has been extinguished, consumed by the Flames of Mordor. Her past, which she had hidden from us, is now all that remains. For she is Deorla no more. She is Daelach, the Shadowflame, Herald of the Unseen war, Lieutenant of Sauron.
It is for this reason that I must leave you. She has left the Company, but it is still corrupted. It bears the Mark of the Enemy, created by His servant, and has allowed His evil to grow within its ranks. It will never succeed. I know many of you will disagree, and I really hope that you are right. But I know that you are not.
Fortunately, I am not alone. Guriwen has agreed to come with me, as have some of my closest friends and allies. I know not what we will do in light of these recent events, but I know that we will not stand idly by.
If you are reading this, Shadowflame, know that we are not done. I am coming for you. And I will find you. I gave you the chance to redeem yourself, to stop running, to make your past stay where it belongs, in the past. But you refused. You have made your choice, and so have I.
I am also fully aware that most of the Company will not care about what has happened. Most of you are, after all, mercenaries, sellswords and merchants, and care little of how something was built as long as it fulfils its purpose. But know that it is tainted, as all that the Lord of Lies and his Servants touch, and it is doomed to succumb to darkness.
And lastly, to all that still care, I wish you the best. It has been an honour serving with you. Goodbye, friends.
Alairif Nordhcoll.
