To Our Friend in the North,

We’ve verified that you are who you claim to be. You’ll understand our hesitancy. We’d heard your entire order was wiped out; the Lord must have been watching over you. Knowing who you are, we are happy to welcome you into our ranks as our newest hobgoblin. We ordain you as ‘Steelheel’ under the rites of Dee. May you crush the necks of our enemies, the savages who have claimed this land.

Perhaps the Lord brought you to us for this hour. Something is brewing in Missouri. We’ve been scrying the North for any malfeasance, in the hopes that the next Booth who strikes in our name doesn’t meet so tragic an end. The seers see something broken in the town of Henshaw, like a mill constructed upside down and inside out. More mundane surveillance has seen several letters about a n***** doctor coming into town and raising trouble - some scheme of the previous Jew doctor, no doubt. Our initial guess was that the North was setting secret commands in the bones of common white folk, like what killed Booth. But one of our cryptfathers recognizes this hexcraft. You’ve heard the rumors of Prince Remus, I’m certain, a clever tricksy field n***** who stole the secrets of the South and sold them to the North. He was no rumor; he was how the Union learned how to dispell our hexes; he caused the cracking of Cleburne’s last seal, leading to his horrific unravelling. But before all that, he was pulling smaller schemes in Illinois and Missouri and Kentucky. This is one of his tricks from back then, according to Wigfall. If he’s involved, who knows what fresh new hell awaits the South?

I’ve conferred with the other Grand Drakes and you are uniquely suited to investigate this matter. The North and their marshals watch us closely, us and the Klan and the Knights. As you were not disgraced in the war in the eyes of the North, like most of the other wizards in our ranks, they will not suspect you and you may move freely in Union territory without scrutiny. As one of our hobgoblins, sworn to the order by hermetic oath, your loyalty is assured. Capture this so-called doctor, extract his secrets and execute him. We will send this letter with ‘Thorn’, another hobgoblin skilled in subterfuge who will help you get close to the target without raising suspicion. We ask that you accept Thorn as your superior here and that you do not draw undue attention to our machinations; we trust your pedigree with all other details. Take care, Steelheel. Missouri is middle-ground in our forever war, but Henshaw’s mayor is not to be trusted, and the US Marshals are everywhere. But be not discouraged. Like John Dee to Elizabeth, we are the secret-keepers of the one true race, bound to President Davis and his Pale Circle, and our hidden guidance dictates the will of the world. What is the North to us, who keep the true faith, who set the stars in motion?