Correspondence Upon a Star

I sat alone, atop the world it seemed. Winter had just set in. A newborn snow bank filled the valley below me. I sat against a boulder, still pondering what to do about the letters that sat slightly crumpled in my hands.

They had found their way to me by a very confused courier mere hours ago. He had tried to explain their origin, but I knew. I knew the moment I glimpsed the seal. Like lips to paper, it was a sign as clear as any other.

The first letter sat atop the stack, a small date smudged in the corner.

“I guess I should start with you.” I spoke softly as the heat from my voice clouded my vision.

The seal was sloppy, the imprint barely recognizable as any one thing. It was easily puckered as the paper opened beneath my fingers. It was a small letter, short and stocky script lined the page as it tried to fit itself into the confines of its shape.

I took a deep breath before starting to read.

Dear Miel,

It has been quite some time since the two of us have set forth on this journey. I’ve never been one for writing letters, but father always said it was a good habit for recording your feelings. It made them easier to dissect.

I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about you the first time we met. You were so small and scared of everything around you. You could fit into my clothes with little issue. Although, that’s not so much the case any more I suppose.

Setting down the page, an image had formed in my mind. One of a young girl with deep chestnut hair. Parts braided and some not. Her bright amber eyes shining like the light of a new dawn. She had just arrived in Rodan from one of the Northern Clans. She’d never seen a river nor lake not sheathed in a coat of ice.

You grew so quickly. And, well, I suppose we both had to in different ways. Life in Rodan is quite different from living with my clan. So much more life and vibrancy. I still think about that trip to the forest. The one you said we HAD to take. I was so surprised when you told me about the trees. To think, there would be Rowan trees this soon in my journey. I think I’d like to keep that memory with me, at least for now. I do sometimes wonder which memories you chose to keep and why. But I suppose I wonder that about most people I’m close to.

Your friend, Rowan

A smile formed before the memory could fully distill in my mind. Rowan’s voice echoed around me as her words repeated from that day, “The tree must be quite sad, to sit here and do nothing while the world passes it by. To see time ripple in waves while it never quite makes a mark.”

How right she was.

I shuffled the letter back into its casing and organized it with the others. There were two remaining and the nip of the cold wind had turned the tips of my ears a deep pink. Rubbing some sense back into their long points, I began to venture back down into the valley.

After walking for a time, I came across a light in the distance. Flakes of snow had started falling, partially obscuring my sight of the tavern. The sounds of lyre ballads strummed through the night as I made my way through the threshold.

The merriment went stiff as I straightened my back. I was a strange sight for a room full of drunkards. My body was tall and lanky, my long hair a deep charcoal grey. My eyes were like jeweled emeralds and my skin was pale, aside from some scattered burns on my face. No, what truly set me apart were the two ashen horns that sat atop my head and the dark lines that trailed across my body. Although only the lines on my hands and neck were visible now. I must have looked like a reaper come to collect a soul to those too far gone for sense.

It took a few moments and looks of remembrance before the majority of folks returned back to their own business.

I was thankful for the lack of stares. I waved to the bar and found an empty seat towards the back of the room. Soon enough there was a tankard of ale in front of me and the second letter out of its envelope. I glanced back over the seal again, this time it was a tad bit cleaner, albeit still unadorned with a marking.

My Dear Friend Miel,

Its been a while since I wrote a letter to you. I hope you are doing well, if you ever actually read this. A lot has happened since my last missive. How close we’ve become, and how busy. I thought adventuring was going to be a lot more lucrative. Of course, you’d always say, “It’s just money”. But it didn’t feel that way later that same night when we couldn’t afford a hot meal nor a room to sleep in. We ended up having to sneak into one of the empty horse stables, do you remember? It was so cold that night and you were so warm as we laid against one another. I’d wished we could stay like that forever. Sometimes I still wish I could go back to that moment.

I swallowed a mouthful of ale as I could feel the heat beginning to stir in my face. Had I realized before how she’d felt? Surely not back then. But even so, the words were here and the heat was as well. The swell of emotion from an unfamiliar fountain, springing forth to life. How could I have been closer to Rowan than a human to a tree? When our lives are so different.

I held my head in my hands as I tried to gleam some other meaning from Rowan’s words. We had fought alongside each other, bled for each other, and at a time, lived for one another.

But I suppose you’ve never really expressed much interest in those sorts of things. You seem to wade through life, come storm or clearing.

What am I to the tree, but a puff of breeze? Gone as quickly as I came.

But I was here. And you were here with me. And so, whatever the future might hold, thank you for letting me be but a tiny speck in the weaving tapestry of your life. May this letter stand as another reminder that I existed.

Yours, Rowan

The heat returned as my face flushed red. I quickly finished off the rest of the tankard, leaving a few coins on the table I took my leave back out into the cold winter night. The chill did some good to cool my face. The lines on my hands ebbed with small strings of energy in between. Rubbing the skin, the light slowly faded.

Rowan’s words continued to recite in my head. Tiny speck? I nearly scoffed.

“Oh, but to me, you were never just a speck. You were everything, those long short years. My tapestry woven into a picture of you, and you alone. But I haven’t done much weaving since that day…”

A dull ache echoed out from my chest. Right where an old battle wound laid. It was as if the weapon was still lodged deep within the flesh. It made me feel like a hole had been taken out of me.

My knees hit the shallow snow as frost began to melt around me. “I need to get away.”

I tried to collect myself the best I could. My legs feeling heavy as I trudged back out into the night.

Before too long I found myself in a nearby grove. Not unlike the one that I had taken Rowan to see her namesake.

I stumbled upon the roots of a large Rowan tree, the red of its berries still barely able to be made out in the pale of the moonlight. I laid back on the trunk as I fumbled around in my pockets for the final letter.

Stealing a glance at the seal before cracking it open, the motif imbedded in the wax was that of a tree surrounded by stars. A symbol I still carried with me.

Dearest Miel,

We are to head out tomorrow for the Kingdom of Rodan’s newest subjugation campaign. I know how it pains you to see the King use us adventurers as pawns in some grander folly. But it is our duty to the people to help keep them safe.

Unfortunately, if you’re reading this, that means I didn’t make it through to see your shining face again. If I had, I would’ve replaced this letter with another. I hope all my letters reach you, few as they may be. It’s not everyday that I get enough time to write them, especially when that time is better spent with you, living our lives.

Instead of dwell, I’d rather reminisce.

I still remember your tales of when you first arrived here. A fallen Starseed that crash landed on our soil. And the horrors you endured after. The experiments and magistrates and pain, pain, so much pain. They stunted your growth in order to feed off of your power. And for what? To be turned to ash once you understood how to wield it. Or, enough of it.

You were still so small when we met. How was I to know that you would out grow me in half the time we would spend together?

I wiped away some frozen tears from my eyes as I stared fondly at Rowan’s writing. I twirled the small braided strand of hair that framed the side of my face as I thought back to all the time spent with her. It was hard not to look back on those years with fondness. A light in the darkness of my life. And now, cast back into darkness I’d gone.

But even after I knew about what you were, I tried not to think of you any different. You were Miel. My Northern Light. You radiated kindness into a life that had none, and I can only hope that you felt some of that same kindness returned.

I hope you don’t see me as rude, seeing as I’m not around anymore, to ask this.

If I had told you how I truly felt, would you have replied in kind? Did you even know, one way or the other? You once told me that it sometimes takes decades to work out your feelings. I’m afraid we simply didn’t have the time. But for me, and my short existence, I knew. I knew from the second I saw your smile, I would love you forever and always.

My hands framed my face as hot tears streamed down my cheeks. The base of the tree underneath me had melted of snow. The power inside my body coursed through my skin as it flowed through the lined channels of my body.

It was painful to continue, knowing that these would be the last words Rowan ever said to me. I didn’t know what I would have said to Rowan if she were to have told me all those years ago. I was younger then, with still so much to learn about the world and myself.

I didn’t want to face the fact that perhaps my feelings had grown since the years of Rowan’s passing. In her absence, feelings of love had both bloomed and withered on the vine. Replaced by the solace of loneliness. I was tired of the loneliness. I longed for her touch and her warmth, that even seemed to rival my own at times. I wanted to hear her voice again, for her to read these letters to me with an embarrassed grin on her face.

I never asked the same in return. I never expected it. The same way I didn’t expect you to bend to my whims, with whorls of power, the same way those men used you all those years ago.

So please, let me ask a favor of you now.

Would you split the sky open for me? Even if it meant we could only have one more moment together. I don’t even mind if you care not to stitch it up afterwards.

Yours, ever and always, Rowan

I could hear a sharp crack as the ground shifted. Feeling my horns, the ridges of black had turned sharp and white hot with power. I could feel what Rowan asked of me within my grasp.

The world around me seemed to vibrate with such voracity. As if it planned on tearing itself apart before I had a chance to.

I made my way to the center of the small clearing I’d found myself in. Looking to the sky, I could see large ebbs of green dancing about as an aurora formed above the valley. Drawing my hands towards the heavens, I could feel my power pooling at my fingertips. With a burst of light, I could feel my horns shatter, shards cutting through the arms of my coat as they flew outwards.

A few moments later, a large rift formed in the sky. Large enough to fit an army. It loomed, almost like an eye, watching from beyond the veil of reality.

As if to blink, an amber bolt of lightning railed through the sky, arching and curving in spectacular fashion. It seemed to notice me as it curved towards where I stood. Before it could strike me however, it darted towards a nearby tree, striking it dead center.

I blinked as my eyes refocused.

The tree stood, charred and smoking as little flakes of embers drowned in what remained of the snowbanks around it.

I stooped low, as I cautiously approached it. A thud came from what I believed to be the inside of the tree, giving me pause. Another came as a small piece of bark flew off, revealing movement. I drew closer before clamoring to help rip the shield of bark from its flesh. Behind it laid a young woman, whose eyes shone like the start of a new dawn and whose skin was now laden with rings of lines, not unlike Miel.

Dearest Rowan,

Oh how the world has changed since you were last by my side. But at least now, we can experience it all together once more.

Yours eternally, Miel

The End