Castles in the Sky

Letters

Warning: Character injury
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

~~

'Ciel, my heaven, my little Queen.

Forgive these clumsy words, I am no bard or poet, I have no sweet sonnets or beauteous ballads with which to woo, but only a humble heart, that is full of you.

So much love, omega, that it aches until I gasp out your name into the silent night: Ciel, Gulf. My arms reach for you. Your scent, your smile, your bodily warmth.

In the cannon crossfire of bloody battle I am wondering if you ate well - did Narong pick the wineberries from the garden's hedgerow for your breakfasts as I asked? Are your baths warm and your blankets soft? And beware the summer nettles' sting if one day you should visit our cliff's loveseat.

Do you...long for this silly old brute the same way? Do you pine for your King with every lung's breath?

I want to tell you that I found my soul's mate in you. I once called it 'bollocks', but however we came to be betrothed, out of the myriads of people in this world, there was only you for me.

Be safe, darling.

Solaris'

//

"Lord Orion, come quickly, it's the King - he's not himself"

Mile abandoning the lute he strummed to the rowdy rabble, distracted with the diversions of a regiment who had been delivered new kegs of brewery's potions and poisons that very night.

"What is it? What's happened?", the royal directed to Anan, young palace guard and messenger.

"I cannot say for certain. A letter arrived by courier-"

"-A letter?"

"Yes. He read it once, then began to move in a most peculiar way. It was as if he had been possessed by some spirit of leprechaun, jigging this way and that in fleet-footed fandango"

"How unsettling. What then?", puffed out as they hurried through the army base that balmy, breathless midsummer night.

"He turned back to the letter with trembling hands and a light of lunacy gleaming his eyes, only to begin to sniff at it, up and down and up again"

"Scenting the page - then the sender is all but confirmed"

"And that's not all"

"Not...all?", as they neared the King's abode.

"He lay straight down on his mat with the letter clutched to his chest, lids closed, and started to, well, began to sing. A babe's lullaby or demon's degenerate chant - it wasn't clear which"

"What did the other men do?"

"Scarpered, my Lord, afeared of fending accusations of mutinous madenning of their own King. So I came for you..."

"You did well, boy" - then Mile, under his breath as he unhooked the entrance cover to stride into tent's vast space - "I had thought the letters would help"

The scene inside was much as the guard had described: King stretched out alone, flat on his back with a folded document clasped to his heart, cheeks shining a tell-tale dampness by that juncture too.

So Mile - not one for pussy footing...

"What is it Sol? Bad news?"

"Orion!" - the elder suddenly bolt upright, and what was this strange giddiness? - "The Queen wrote me a letter"