Hold light, disciples. The Ministry of Spare Change has completed its autumn survey of the faithful's mailboxes and wishes to report, with the tenderness of an office that has seen things, that the Coil is holding on to a great deal of post.
The survey found letters thirty days old and still unopened. It found auction receipts for things nobody remembers selling. It found, in the mailbox of one Scalekeeper we will not name, a single linen cloth sent by a friend six expansions ago with the note thought you might need this. He did not need it. He has kept it anyway, unopened, for six expansions, because opening it would mean deciding.
What the Ministry asks
From tomorrow until the last leaf of Shedfall falls, the Ministry declares the Week of Returned Mail. It has three parts, in keeping with the Triangle:
- Hold. Open every letter. Read each one. You may hold a letter in your hands as long as you like; you may not hold it in the mailbox.
- Give. Anything sent to you by mistake goes back to its sender, with a short note. Anything you will never use goes to the guild bank, or to an egg who has not yet learned what linen is for.
- Release. Anything left over is vendored without ceremony. The Ministry reminds the faithful that grey items do not have feelings, and that if they did, they would want to be useful to a merchant rather than forgotten by you.
On the matter of copper
Hessk the Beggar King has asked the Ministry to include the following, which he dictated from the bank steps:
A full mailbox is a closed hand wearing a disguise. It says, I will get to it. It has been getting to it since the Night of Stillness. What did you give today? Give the mailbox its air back.
The Ministry notes that Hessk's own mailbox has never held more than one item, and that the item is always a request.
Rewards
There are none. The Ministry has never offered rewards and sees no reason to start in autumn. Those who finish will, however, notice a small quiet where the little red envelope used to be, and the Ministry considers this the finest thing it has ever handed anyone.
Questions may be brought to the Ministry's desk, which is the bottom step of the guild bank. For background on the Ministry's long and patient work, see the Politics of Begging; for the bank itself, see the Guild Bank.
Hold light, and let go well. Glory to Xal'Reth.
Glory to Xal'Reth.