21 Súlimë, 3018

Boromir –

We have arrived, though I will not break protocol to tell you where and with what company.  Suffice it to say all has gone as you intended it should -- to the letter, in truth, so apt in every particular were your plans.

We have made camp unmolested, perhaps even undetected; only time will tell.  Morale is high, supplies sufficiently laid up, and each man has quickly made himself as comfortable as may be.  I could wish myself in no other company unless it be yours.

In truth, it is not possible I could set you by even if I wished to:  the men, my company, wear your love and training like a badge beneath their cloaks and want for no greater armor.  I see it in every polished sword, every ready bow, each easy watch, the sorties that return whole and victorious.  They do you great honor, my brother.

I shall strive to do the same, though I cannot help but feel I have somehow usurped your position in leading this small force from the city while you stay behind.  Yet, how else could it be?  You must remain at the head of your army as you are their strength, even as you alone could captain our father’s unfathomable reticence and prepare our people for the storm we know must come.  Meantime I will console myself that were you here sleeping rough as you love, in the company of men you hold dear, you could not be easy playing our hide and seek – you never were one for games.  So, we take our parts, my brother, Swordsman and Archer.*

The day will come sooner than I would wish when you may ride openly before the Enemy and he will quake to see it.

But before then I will hope we two may meet again, as I am –

Your loving brother,

Faramir