My heart is overjoyed at your safe arrival in the Alpha Centauri system. It is beyond description the way I have obsessed over your wellbeing. Dark thoughts have been my constant companion over the last months and the relief felt now that the burden of these has lifted is indescribable. Of course this worry could not have come at a more inopportune time. The bleakness of the landscape around the research station was detrimental even for a balanced and sane individual, but in the state I was delivered there, it was near disastrous for our project. Worry, depression, hopelessness and a limited diet all have taken a toll on me. It was a true test of the influence remaining in the work I produced and it screams insufficiency in its failure. As I said before, I will need to rethink the materials I have used and the amount of time the piece will need to remain in this quadrant of space before it can be used elsewhere.
I cannot help contemplating what my state now would be if I did not have the utilization of the painting during my hiatus at the research station. I assume I would be in a further state of neural decline, but the effective extent of the works presence is still not sufficient to deem the piece a success.
As to your cryptic description of where you have been and why you worried me so, I will leave that for another time. I can tell from your letter that it is not a thing to discuss over any type of electronic communication. A very concerning subject, but I can wait.
I do not regret the time I spent at the research station. It proved the useful application of the work we are doing, and also put a spotlight on the inadequacies. I now have a direction for improvement, and that was not clear to me until the end of this encounter.
I now return to my work. Maybe a bit more unstable, but determined as ever and happy to have you back in reality, and not in my mind alone.
How can I describe the feeling of being in contact with you once again after such a long period of one sided conversations. As I write this, you should be speeding back to your studio and the full influence of the creature we both are obsessed about. I am sorry for the worry I have caused you by my delay, but since you were out of communication range at the research station, I could not contact you upon my arrival at the Phycoduras 8, and no Louvre currier was available to personally travel with my news. I will relay to you in a more detailed letter the cause of my delay, although I myself are still unclear about what occurred during those lost months. I have been informed it had to do with stasis complications, but I doubt this conclusion. Multiple theories about what occurred and why have been swimming around in my head, but I want to sort them out myself first before trying to explain them to you. I also want to utilize a more secure communication system. Even with the encryption here on the station, I do not feel safe to share my concerns. Even a trip in person may be warranted to discuss this information, so I may wait until I have a natural break in my work before arranging a trip planet side. I am allowed two planetary visits during the duration of the project. I think this reason warrants one of those precious commodities. It will also allow us to be together after our long absence and that is a welcoming thought to get me through the next year. I was planning to make my first visit two years into the project, but I may use an opportunity to escalate the timeline thanks to professor Simona’s project. I will inform you as soon as I know more.
My sincere apologies for the cryptic conversation to start our first real contact in three years. I myself am not sure what has happened to me and what results will come from it. Let us just say it is all about time and how we perceive it.
The snow covered hills are flying past, drawing me nearer each second toward the full influence of the Equine and the close of this chapter of the project. I have so missed the creative spark provided by the creature as I open my carriage window curtains to the morning and the vision of my New London companion. The isolation from the influence has been hard to bear, but the work I performed at the research station and the conclusions that were made will be paramount to our work. I now know which gaps need to be closed in the current rendition and the technical challenges that must be overcome. I hope once I am back under the full enchantment of the Equine, that I will completely solve the short comings of the interpretive piece. This will open the doors to the next stage of the project.
As I draw nearer to the studio, my hopes are that the weather will improve. It has been cold throughout most of the return journey and I can feel the bitter temperatures during this leg of the trip biting through the glass. The outside world is dead and bleak as only the winter world can be and I long for the temperate environment of the equatorial zone. I am still fourteen hours north of the Medici train station so as soon as the train descends into the desert valley the weather should become more climatic. Addison will meet me at the station to convey me the remaining kilometers to the studio site. It will be good to be home and give me time to concentrate on catching up with you on your adventures. I know from the messages sent from the Louvre representative that you have finally arrived at the Phycoduras 8 after a delay of almost four months, but she was not forthcoming about the nature or cause of that delay. The total communication dead zone near the research station was something I knew about, but was not mentally prepared for. I am hungry now for news of you and the outside world. During these last isolated months I would like to know more about the current situation than the little I could delve out of the monthly Louvre courier who supplied me during my stay. I feel like I was isolated on a desert island. I know this was what was planned out for this portion of the project, but as I said, I was not prepared. The news that you had finally arrived only reached me during the first leg of this train trip, and no other details; nothing about the nature of the delay or the state of your being. I hope all is well with you after your long slumber and also the functionality of your new limb. I assume if something was wrong the Louvre rep would have informed me in the message, but I am not certain.
I cannot wait until I am back in my studio to finally connect with you after all this time and to catch up on all the messages you have sent since my departure. It makes me wish we had arranged a more timely way of sharing updates. It would have been an astronomical cost for that type of communication method, but waiting over a year to hear what you were up too on Earth before you left has been torture. I can’t imagine what it has been like for you. At least I know you were safe on Earth for part of that time.
Now we can concentrate all our attention on the next phase of our project. The anticipated (but still disappointing) results from the study of the current production away from the influence of the Equine has given me many ideas on how to improve the technical workings of the material. I believe that if I increase the concentration of natural materials in the paint elixir, it should improve the saturation of the equine experience. As I reported to you in earlier letters, I used as much nature products as I could, but I might need to change the proportions of off world sourced material. Even as far as eliminating them all together or waiting until these imported materials have been under the Equine influence longer. This will mean additional study needs to be carried out for new local sources and alternative material or a delay in the next production, but it will be worth it.
The first thing I will do is try and clear my pallet of the preconceived ideas that I brought with me from Earth. Not exactly starting from scratch, but opening my mind to new ideas and perspectives. I wonder if you have encountered any material under study on the space station. I believe during my brief stay there, someone mentioned that there is an entire lab dedicated to material studies.
It is getting so hard to wait. Only a few more hours and I will be home.
The faint laughter of a child disturbs my sleep and I awaken to find myself standing on the edge of a dense forest. A dark haired girt stands on a path leading into the shadows beneath the trees, beckoning me to follow. The boughs create a mythical tunnel over my head as I follow the child, and the path is scattered with the first leaves of autumn. The sound of water greets my ears as I make my way further, just keeping the girl within my sight. Her simple gown flows behind her as she races down the track, and her long flowing tresses mingle with the colorful ribbons adorning the flowered crown about her head. She disappears through an archway of trees, once more turning to beckon me before racing from sight. The arch opens onto a sandy shore and I realize it is your lake. The air is heavy and I can see a storm brewing across the water. Black clouds heavy with rain engulf most of the lake and a distant rumble mixes with the sounds of the lapping waves. The girl is nowhere in sight, but the discarded crown lies on the edge of the water, slowly being encroached by the waves. A bolt of lightning hits the water pulling my eyes from the forgotten circlet. A torrential curtain of water drops from the sky, slowly making its way toward the shore. The view of the further shore seems to disappear from existence as the storm nears and I run back to the forest in hopes of escaping the deluge.
The archway through the trees is no longer there and I find myself facing a dark stone escarpment, climbing high into the sky above. The darkness of the coming storm and the shadow created by the stone barrier, closes off all light from the beach, and the world dims to a vague vision of ghostly images. I drop to my knees in terror, feeling like a trapped animal with no way to escape. My eyes drift upwards at the black strip between the oncoming storm and the imposing heights of the rock wall. Millions of stars shine through the narrow gap, no longer diminished by the light of the sun. I realize that this is my only path of escape and I leap to meet the sky.
Dearest Annalis,
It was not how I had hoped to be united, but you have returned to my dreams. Sadly it was only you as a child and I was not able to converse with your avatar, But any contact is welcomed during this distressing time.
I have delayed as long as I can, but I must now leave the studio and travel to the next stage of our project. There is still no update on your arrival although the scheduled date for your journey’s end has come and gone. Your transport is now a month overdue and even the reassurance I have received from the Louvre rep of the normalcy for this type of delay has not alleviated my worry, I have put off my departure for the remote research station to the last moment, hoping to hear news of your arrival, but the time has come where any more delay will jeopardize the project. The completed rendition has now been away from the full Equine influence for the allotted timeframe of two months and I must join it to continue our work. I had so hoped to have your support during this difficult stage, but it seems not to be. I am also missing Katryna. She still has not returned to the studio and my messages have also not been answered. The silence from her side is as deafening and disturbing as the silence from you. There was never any set agreement between us about her continued involvement here, but I cannot help but worry that her silence is not voluntary. If my mind was not so preoccupied with your delayed arrival and the eminent departure for the research station, I would investigate further. Even as far as making the journey to find her. Unfortunately I would not know where to start if I could. I do not even know her family name or what region she is from.
My greatest concern now is you and the effect your absence will have on our project. I will try and keep the worry at bay in the coming months so I do not skew the results of the research. It will not be the same as when my emotions distorted my art after you accident, but I will have to be cautious anyway. The neural scans will be paramount to proving the strength of the painting and you know if I am distressed, no amount of involvement from the Equine essence embedded in the work will eliminate this interference in the experiment. Your prompt arrival would alleviate these stresses, so please hurry. My imagination is creating every type of horror story it can. The dark dream was not a comfort. The fact that you disappeared into a black storm leaving me no escape but to leap into the stars was also not encouraging. I only question where that leap would lead. It seems somehow to prophesize something I must conclude for myself. If only my mind worked well enough at the moment to figure it out.
I leave first thing in the morning for the remote location. It is not the best time to be away from the full exposure of the equine, but I do have a substitute. Let us hope the rendition delivers on its promise and provides the full power of the Equine experience. If I do not hear of your arrival during the trip out, I will have to wait till the first supply deliver two weeks into my stay for any news. There is no contact at the station since the dead zone is definitive. No type of radiation can penetrate that area. Not even the influence of the Anomaly.
A friend asked me to repair a pearl necklace for her. It is the first time I have tried pearl knotting. Completely remade the piece. I like the way it came out.
The Beaded Tapestry 
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