Private message to Miss Perks

[alt_antonin]

I had intended to write this PM earlier; I apologise for having been distracted with this weekend's upset. I likewise apologise for the length of time it has taken me to finish arranging this. You have been most patient, when I know you are undoubtedly beginning to get nervous.

If you are amenable, over the Easter holidays I would like to invite you to my home for tea and a chance to make you known to Healer Ekaterina Petrovna Korotkova, with the agreement that (should you suit) she will take you on for a summer internship. Ekaterina Petrovna was a friend of my mother's, instrumental in helping to welcome my mother and brother when they first arrived in this country fifty years ago. Her speciality is ophthalmancy, both the treatment of eye disorders and the manufacture of eyeglasses and prostheses. While this is not an area I have heard you express much interest in, and you may be doubting my wisdom in seeking her out for an internship for you, I do believe she is the best choice.

Ekaterina Petrovna is an exacting, stern woman, and the word used to describe her most often -- by her friends; her enemies have far stronger epithets -- is "persnickety". She is also a highly experienced Healer, with eighty years of experience in providing patient care; she has forgot more about the profession of healing than most other Healers ever knew. She forms her opinions of people based more upon deeds, and less upon background; I believe she will look favourably upon both your diligence and your knack for crafting things (that being a large part of her practise), and she is willing to trust my assessment of your worth and your work ethic enough to at least consent to a meeting. (The delay in arranging it has been based largely in the length of time it has taken me to convince her it is worth her time to take in someone at all, not due at all to any characteristic of yours: it has easily been thirty years since she has agreed to accept an intern or apprentice. I am certain she will hold forth on the reasons why during our tea-time. At great length.)

The other reason I believe she would suit for your summer placement: Ekaterina Petrovna is a woman with considerable influence at St Mungo's. She is one of three Healers in the Protectorate who practise her speciality, and easily the best; she is also a close personal friend of several of the administrators, including the woman who makes the principal decisions about acceptances to the apprenticeship programme. If you are able to favourably impress her, she has the power to open a great many doors for you as you arrange your professional future.

Should this suit, she has indicated she is available on the afternoon of the 21st for tea and introductions. If you are unavailable then, let me know and I will see if it can be rescheduled; if you are available, let me know and I will send both you and her a formal invitation to tea. (A courtesy upon which she holds steadfast.)

Comments

[alt_sally_anne]

Oh, thank you very much, sir. Yes, I can come on the 21st -- here? or to your house in New London? -- and I'm grateful for the introduction.

I'd not thought about opthalmancy but it sounds like it would include both healing, and making things. I did some reading last year about magical eyes, actually, the kind people use when they've lost their natural one -- how they're made. (It's magic more advanced than I have the skill for right now. Or the facilities. I mean, to make one that would actually see, and not just look convincingly like an eye.) Are there any books you can lend me to read in advance of this meeting that would let me sound suitably knowledgeable on key subjects?