Do you remember winter? Do you remember the cold pricking at your skin and the endless desire to throw on blankets to keep warm at night, comforted by their sheer weight? Do you remember the fire-warmed stone hearth, the earth-toned woven rug in front of it, and a pair of mostly empty mugs, worn with age, emitting a gently wafting steam?
I guess… You wouldn’t, would you? That was a world apart from now.
Five thousand years couldn’t have changed a man as vastly as these few years. Do you remember the playing grounds—but I guess now isn’t the time for that. I’ve wanted to say, though, the saying of it isn’t easy for me… I wanted to… change… change with you. Ah, don’t give me that smile, sympathetic, cool and easy, like you know. You don’t know what not changing is.
…Oriay says hello. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be breaking down like this, just… He told me your mother and his go to Trebon Shrine daily to supplicate for your recovery. I used to go with them, but there’s nothing but pain there. You know that, right? Too many people with loved ones infirm or ill or dying. I just couldn’t keep going. Your mother understands, or so she said, but Oriay keeps pushing me to go too. With him. I’d rather not, I think. He’s… nice… charming, intelligent, funny. Not really someone for me.
That smile again? Don’t you remember? I told you…
They brought you in covered in blood and muck. They said you killed it, the monster haunting the village, killing children and adults alike. Hardly anyone could believe it. I didn’t believe that you could end up so… broken. I never doubted you would be a hero, just like you said. Years ago, though it must feel like eons, you swore in front of everyone that you would make your father proud. Even as he stooped himself in drink, even as he idled his way into infirmity and death, you fought to that end.
You did it, Kaell. You truly did it!
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