Ladies, Gentlemen, Fae-folk,

I am pleased to inform you at this time that the first of the missing nine sketches has been retrieved. I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to all those who responded to the apparition that appeared in Lake Narcisse and attempted to resolve the strange situation of its confusion. Even if you were not present 'til the end, you were there to help in your own way, and for that I am grateful.

As suspected, the imps have found some foul way to breathe a semblence of life and, in this case, self-awareness, into the sketches. It is very likely others will be more harmful than this one, for this was a work of great sorrow and grief, not outright danger. The painted girl knew not what she was, for she was a manifestation of the memory captured by the artist--and the emotions held therein. And it was only accepting the hard truth of her existence that could undo the spell that brought her about.

It is a cruel trick indeed, to give existence to such feelings, feelings that are self-aware and yet not self-aware, believing themselves to be real when they are but shades of reality. But this is the power of Art, corrupted. Art exists to give existence to the imagined, to give voice to the unspoken, to give the powerful feelings and thoughts held deep in our hearts shape and share them with one another. This is a gift, a boon granted to us by the Lord Bard that elevates and enlightens mortalkind, and it is not meant to be toyed with so maliciously and frivolously.

I ask for your continued assistance, and I thank you all for your continued respect for the Art that this realm births.

In Song,
Taelle Starling

Penned by my hand on the 6th of Phaestian, in the year 958 AF.