MEMORANDUM TO Q
Re: Xanthe Chance
By: AH
Xanthe Chance is an enigma. Is the young woman dwelling in the Garden Tower at the Ministry of State Security really Xanthe Chance. Is a living young woman at all? Is she Inigo Chance’s masterpiece? A beautiful automaton that can pass for real.
BACKGROUND
Xanthe Chance was born 18 years ago on Midsummer’s Eve. Her parents are uncertain. Her father was from Chance family. Her mother has never been identified. Her place of birth is contested. The consensus is she was born on Hryggeskerry island, but equally she may have been in the White Tower in Lundun.
Xanthe Chance was made a Prisoner of State in the hour of her birth. Why is unclear. Earl Gresty, the then Prime Minister of The Isles. had an interest in her. What that interest is remains obscure. Gresty never mentioned Xanthe Chance in public.
Making someone a Prisoner of State is a rare occurrence. It overturns an individual’s rights before the law and imprisons them for life. The legislation underpinning POS status is ancient, yet it has never been revoked or updated. Draconian penalties for attempted escape remain in place. Traditionally POS status was a way to deal with those too close to power, but too important to despatch in a clandestine way. I refer you to the attached extracts of 36 Edw. III c. 15, 11 Leo IV c. 9.
Xanthe Chance was on Hryggeskerry within weeks of her birth. It is not known if mother was with her, or whether she cared for by foster parents. With the coming of the Civil War, the control of Hryggeskerry Prison passed into the hands of incompetents. The child was mistreated and abused and enclosed in the prison fortress itself.
Xanthe Chance fell ill in her twelfth year . A précis of the medical records is attached. Arrangements were made to evacuate her to Deva and to smuggle her through the Dislocation Barriers to the White Tower. This did not happen. The next news of her is 6 years ago when she sought sanctuary of Felix Skryker, Minister of State Security in Mercia.
Xanthe Chance has lived at the Ministry of State Security for the last six years. During her first year in Deva Skryker foiled several attempts on her life and contained her enemies
At Midsummer this year, after six years of enclosure, the Regent of Mercia, her great-uncle the Archbishop of Deva started to bring her into the public eye.
ANALYSIS
A child, Xanthe Chance, lived on Hryggeskerry. However, it is uncertain if she survived the brain fever in her twelfth year. It is uncertain who, or what, is living at the Ministry of State Security in Deva.
Possible reasons for the Prisoner of State status include:
1.The Chance family is all but played out. Halcyon Chance has no children. The five sons of his brother Germander are dead. Xanthe is said to be the daughter of Germander Chance and his unnamed third wife. She is heiress to the Chance Estate.
2. It is rumoured Xanthe Chance uncovered secrets of the automata created by her great-grandfather Inigo Chance. By the time she was seven people saw her with two remarkable automata, an owl and a mouse. There’s an energy system here and Xanthe Chance, young as she is, knows what it is. Knowledge of that energy is desirable
3.Heresy runs deep in the Chance family. Most recently Tom Chance, youngest son of Germander, and Yumie Sumitomo of the Jappan Archipelago, wrote a subversive paper arguing the Deity Sol Invictus is a star like any other in the sky and subject to processes of ageing and decay. Chance and Sumitomo were tried for heresy and exiled to Hryggeskerry. Xanthe Chance is suspected of having heretical beliefs.
These – wealth, secret knowledge, heresy – could account for the child being accorded POS status . There may be other reasons. The mother’s identity is unknown and the girl’s POS status may be linked to her.
As for the young woman in Deva, little is known. The creature appearing in the Octagonal Hall behaves like a doll. Some say she is Inigo Chance’s masterpiece: his dead wife, Arkady Yelenkova. brought back to life.
RECOMMENDATION
Xanthe Chance must be investigated. She is heiress of the Chance Estate. She has secrets the authorities must know. Further investigations are necessary, in Deva, on Hryggeskerry, here in Lundun. We need to know her mother’s identity.
What are you waiting for? Uncertainty, uncertainty, uncertainty. Bring me certainty.
DEVAWORLD 