It is first and most most paramount of all for you to know that you are revered and loved. In time you will be visited by the several spirits of my household, but for now it is my task to explain to you what has happened, answer your questions with patience and candor, reassure you that no further harm will come to you, and most of all comfort you in this time of ultimate and final grief.

I imagine that you are most certainly and understandably alarmed to find yourself in a featureless void, lacking in corporeal presence, perceiving not even the blackness nor the silence of vacuum, not experiencing even the sensation of touching nothing, nor the flavor of tasting nothing, but are absent the possession of these senses altogether. In spite of this you may smell a faint aroma, at this time perhaps of ozone. You may wonder how, without the avail of any senses, the words of my letter are passing into your awareness. All of this is normal and expected, and I promise to do all in my power to explain — clearly, gradually, and respectfully.

In my next letter I shall begin to bring into view just what has happened to you, to your kind. Alas, it will come as bad news, but it is my solemn and seemingly impossible task to transform it for you into good news. And I shall explain the project I am undertaking, that I humbly ask your participation in.

Please accept my highest regards, V.F.