After the Ruin

Dear Phoebe,
 
Here is your promised follow-up: despite the wildly careless captain's best efforts at burying all of us under the remains of an old Giantkin ruin, I'm still alive. We all survived. We found what we were after, deep at the bottom of an ancient and still functioning automated facility, and I am utterly without words to describe it.
 
There was so much knowledge there, lost first due to the trajectory of the planet on which it was stored, and now far more permanently under tons of rock. Perhaps the Adamantine Authority will excavate it. They likely will, given their greed for such things. It feels strange to hope that what is buried there is unrecoverable, but what other recourse is there? The ruin once manufactured weapons, and the Authority already has an alarming amount of those. Given what its "discoverers" will do with such a wealth of knowledge, that particular ruin is better off lost.
 
I still don't know what to think of this man I've been forced to fall in with. I guess it probably doesn't matter whether I use his name, it isn't as if it's going to incriminate me further. You remember growing up and watching the news with our parents. We both heard about him from time to time. Captain Zellias Vance-Arland, the notorious, dangerous, bloodthirsty pirate. One of those descriptors is correct, but not, I feel, for the usual reasons something or someone is labeled "dangerous". He's dangerous in the same way an idiot teenager who's accepted a stupid dare is dangerous. Is he going to get himself and likely others hurt or killed? Without a doubt. Is he doing it with malicious intent? Absolutely not. He strikes me as a man who has either never suffered the consequences of his actions, or - perhaps worse - learns nothing from them. And somehow I have found myself in the uncomfortable position of keeping him alive. I'm sure you'll appreciate the irony for me, in this instance. I'm far too close to the cause of it to feel any appreciation for it, myself.
 
Thankfully he is not my only company. The two others I wrote of in my last letter are still with us, and as time passes I find myself more and more grateful for their presence.
 
Eo Tyr was my cell mate in Event Horizons. She was imprisoned for suplexing a dwarven diplomat who, I understand, was in talks with her family regarding the possibility of joining the Aether Council. The very first thing she did to me when we met was to suplex me. It's apparently just like a handshake to her. Thankfully she quickly realized that I'm not nearly as sturdy as your average dwarven diplomat, and hasn't attempted to do that to me since. She's a naturally positive, optimistic person, and I honestly do not know how I would have survived that month in prison without her by my side. I know there were a fair number of rumors circulating about me among the general prison populace, which likely was part of the reason I was left mostly to myself, but her presence definitely deterred any who might not have been put off by the idea of messing with an accused necromancer.
 
I don't know Galva's last name, but as her first name suggests, she is like a rock. The accusation of burglary with a side of murder is what got her sent to Event Horizons. However, much like the Captain and Eo, I don't believe she has a malicious bone in her body. You would laugh to witness Galva and I attempting to converse - believe it or not, I may have discovered the one person in the universe even more socially inept than myself. We only began associating a few days before breaking out of prison, though I had seen her around for several weeks before. She's as intimidating in appearance as she is awkward in conversation - she must be nine feet tall, and every inch of her frame is hard muscle. Eo, less than three feet tall by comparison, introduced herself to Galva in the same manner she introduced herself to me, and was - astonishingly - just as successful. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't witnessed it.
 
All in all, the company I'm keeping is not as bad as it could be,considering…well, everything. Also, I forgot to mention before, I was able to recover Wilhelm! After using him as evidence of my nefarious necromantic tendencies, they just stuffed him in storage with the rest of my possessions. He sends his regards, by the way. If nothing else, maybe being forced to run around the galaxy will reveal the missing puzzle piece to helping him move on. I'll keep you updated on that, too, if it changes.
 
All my love,
Finch