For Ell

A letter, unaddressed, found on the desk of Peer Louis de Valois following the destruction of Eidolon. Held by Retainer Stateus Minasous, Sophise School, for use in interrogations.

To Ell,
I know there is no hope for us. The world is ending, the circles draw near, as I watch from my window I can see the glittering sea of steel which will soon fail. I tell myself that I can see you from this distant perch, for in your wake the sea parts and the world trembles. I expect that I am lying to myself, assigning order to the chaos in the hopes that I might keep you here one moment longer.
But I cannot keep you. I never held you, long though I wanted to.
I do not know why I am writing this, yet another paper to burn as an offering to a god of love who does not hear or speak. If there are gods then perhaps they will bear the message to you or perhaps you may feel it written in the smoke from the fireplace or see it drawn in the stars. I am terrified for you, for us, for all that was and all that will be. What we have made may alone survive and I pray it does for in it you will still live.
For years we danced together, we have always danced together and our dancing was the one thing I looked forward to in any party. No argument, no grievance, no petty word would hold me from those dances.
When I was still a young man and believed in fairy stories of love I often dreamt that in our ceaseless dancing you might love me as I loved you. Your beauty is beyond compare, your will as firm as any steel blade, clever and wild and free. I watched you fight in competitions and I knew that there was nothing which could ever stop you. I know now that as I look out on this hopeless battlefield there is one dream I might still hold, that you will shine in all the glory of your ancestor in this last hopeless moment.
Will roses grow for you and hide your grave? Will we tell stories in a hundred years of your last moments? Will you think of me one last time? 
When the sun rises you will be gone and I will watch that sunrise and find it pale in compare to the light that you bore. Whatever awaits beyond the Shift I hope that you find an adversary truly worthy of you and I hope that when I join you we might dance one more time.
Farewell, LV

Type

Text, Letter

Medium

Paper