Oh cómo mi corazón se rompe….

Oh how I have wept since I lost sight of your horses! I weep for the tragedy that is our empty bed and our lack of heirs. I often wonder why your heart draws you out to wander our wilderness while mine is content to explore and bear witness to the scripture that we are - through divine right - prophesying here in our palace. But I can not deny that your adventurist nature has brought great wealth to Spain both in the vast gold and copper mines to the South but also the fields of wild grapes that have been discovered in the gilded hills of Cordoba.

It does bring me great joy to share with you that open borders have been established with our neighbors the Khmer and the Vikings - Though do not fret I have ordered walls blessed by Buddha to be built around every city to ensure the safety of our people and treasures. My diplomacy has not only led to an exchange of goods along the Tajo but the exchange of ideas and truths. Through their desire to taste the bounty that is Spain, they have also come to recognize that there is only one way to salvation and that is through Buddhism. I have heard news from merchants and sailors that the words of our lord have begun to flow through our rivers like those grey bony fish the peasants feed their thin children or more importantly the boats weighed down with gold from Barcelona that come to pay tribute to Madrid and Buddha.

I know that my faith has kept you safe these many years and I pray hourly that you will return with more riches and tales of distant lands before the high holidays in the spring. I also hope that in your travels you may find a solution to a growing problem in our cities. . . Los Secularistas . . . I believe that if their evil and contemptuous ways continue – always with the speeches and the marches - I maybe forced to find a way to reform their vile and blasphemous movement that will show the real power of Spain. I pray everyday that Buddha shows me a way to crush their evil radical spirits. . . So they will no longer suffer the indignity that is their godless existence.

Te amo siempre . . . Isabella