The letter
Four to six pages in Den's own hand, folded, addressed to you by name. Nothing is reprinted online.
The enclosure
A pressed leaf, a ticket stub, a torn map corner. Small evidence that the mountain is real.
The seal
Wax, pressed with the Draig crest. It breaks once, and only for you.
Den
Twelve letters from a keeper of a dying beacon, written across one turning of the year. Begin at letter one whenever you join.
Y Ddraig, and the country beneath it.
A mountain kingdom that keeps its records in letters because its roads are too poor for anything else. Den keeps the last beacon on the northern ridge. His post takes eleven days to reach the coast, which is why yours takes a month.
The dragon is seen once, over the northern ridge, and the beacons are built to watch for it.
Caer Fain wins the right to tax the light. Six beacons go dark within a decade.
The Ferrymen take the post routes. Letters become the only record the kingdom keeps.
Den writes to a stranger on the coast, because a beacon-keeper is not permitted to write to anyone at home.
How the correspondence begins
Every subscription starts at letter one, whatever month you join. The arc closes twelve letters later.
You will not know me, and I have been told that is the point. The Ferrymen take one letter a month from this station and I am permitted to fill it however I like, so long as I name no one in the valley.
So: the fire is lit, the winter is coming in from the west, and there is something on the ridge that is not weather.
We write letters, and the post carries them.
The Draig Dispatch began with a question: what if a story arrived the way news from a friend does — slowly, in an envelope, in handwriting you come to know. Each series is written to be read once a month, at the pace it was set down.
There is no app, no feed, and no archive. If you miss a letter we will post it again. Sagasmith LLC does business as The Draig Dispatch, from a small room with a very large map on the wall.
Patient
One letter a month is the whole product. Nothing is dripped, bundled, or upsold.
Physical
Paper, ink, wax, stamp. Written to be kept in a drawer, not a folder.
Specific
Den has a name, a village, and a debt. The world is drawn narrow so it can be drawn well.
Three steps, then the post does the rest.
The first letter is on its way.
We've noted the order — nothing is actually charged on this preview site. Watch the post at the start of next month.
Write back, and we will answer by hand.
Missing letter, changed address, a question for Den. One person reads all of it, usually within two days.
PO Box 1149
Aberystwyth SY23 1AA
Tell us the issue number and we will post a second copy at no cost.