Solo Letters from a Stranger

Madeira receives an unexpected letter

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The Diamond of Kalea is located on Kalea's extreme west coast and called as such because its completely made of a crystalline substance called Skyglass. Home of the Alvina of the Stars, cultural mecca of knowledge seekers, and rife with Ethaefal, this remote city shimmers with its own unique light.

Letters from a Stranger

Postby Madeira Dusk on November 25th, 2018, 1:39 am

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L"Miss Craven, I have a letter for you."

Alexander Mirihar, secretary of the Dusk Tower, stopped Madeira as she
made to breeze by his desk and out into the late Fall sunshine. The
words, ever polite and cold and formal when dropped from Alexander's
lips, shot through the Spiritist's spine and reached like roots
through the marble floor, holding her in place. The Dusk family's more
hearty gardens blew the sweet, heavy decay of fall through the open
front doors to rustle about her heavy skirt as she paused and turned
on slippered feet.

"Is that so?" her smile was warm, a kind of habitual attempt to inject
some levity into the serious secretary, though her blood was running
cold in her veins. "I hadn't expected something from Alvadas to arrive
so soon after I did." Alexander's raised brow was his only consent to expression
as she tapped her way back to his desk and received the tightly wound
scroll with delicately gloved fingers.

"It's not from Alvadas. This came with the trade eagles of Wind Reach."

A leather thong held the windblown parchment together. And dabbed at
its close was not the black crow stamp of the Craven family crest,
but an unidentifiable smudge of deeply red wax. Madeira turned the
letter over in her fingers, dumbfounded but secretly relieved. The
black would be her doom, as correspondence from her family would
require her by the bonds of obedience to send back word of her bastard
child. Whom her uncle Rune-Cartiff would have to record in the
meticulous kept genealogy records, without the long black line of wedlock, and
beside the name of its father, the mad kelvic Allister Useless. But
the relief did not dampen the curiosity. What did Wind Reach, that
secluded mountain home of the Inarta, want with her?

"If you mean to reply you should do so quickly", Alexander mentioned
offhandedly, his bored gaze dropping back to his desk and its neatly
stacked documents. "The riders don't linger long here."

Off centred, her frosted blood having suddenly turned to fire with
unanswered questions, Madeira could only nod her thanks and leave with
her letter held like glass in her soft hands.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••


The Infinity Manor greeted her warmly when she returned. A wash of
affection lifted from the floor she walked on, and a fire sprang to
life in the hearth. From the common room came a lazy mewling of her
mad cat and the dignified coo of her pretty blue pigeon.

"Hello", she greeted her house aloud, having decided to
start weaning it to recognize verbal speech. "I have a letter all the
way from Wind Reach, would you believe it?"

She hung her cloak by the front door and ascended her little manor by
the ringing metal staircase. The tight spirals moved up and up until
she could push open the trap door to the master bedroom and climb
inside. In here the fire was already burning and the drapes pulled back to admit the gilded afternoon light. There was a writing desk in the hexagonal room, as yet unused and lurking with the spiders she had yet to suss out properly. Madeira sat on its padded seat, and with the briefest pause finally cracked the seal of the letter and began to read.


Dear Madeira Craven,

If you recall any of your childhood playmates, I would hope that
Leavou comes to mind. I’ve been graced by Aquiras with relocating to
the center of the Wind Eagle trade routes, here in Wind Reach. On a
whim, I thought to send you a letter at your home in Alvadas, although
I was returned with directions to your new accommodations in Lhavit.
Warm regards from the second city that raised me, I do hope you find
those chilly mountain tops to be just as fascinating as the illusory
streets of Alvadas. I doubt the Okomo smell any better than when I was
there, but luckily you needn’t ride them much. Although, should you
have the chance, they are a joy to!

If I recall correctly, Lhavit is far more open to magic than Alvadas
ever was, and I hope you are finding peace with that cultural shift.
Before I forget, I am told I must congratulate you on your ‘renown’
with the Dusk family, but as I am who I am, I must ask your opinions
on the matter. Did they select a man for you, or did you happen to
fall madly in love with a Lhavitian all on your own? Did you threaten
Dira’s kiss to the sailors who brought you or welcome the city with
open arms? You can imagine I am curious on your views of the city that
raised me just as much as Alvadas, and I am excited to hear your
reply.

Warm Regards,
Leavou Daughter of R’yse



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Letters from a Stranger

Postby Madeira Dusk on November 25th, 2018, 1:41 am

Leavou? Suddenly Madeira was eight years old again, a somber child with a secret friend. In her mind she was running through the city she had left behind, pulled along by an adventurous girl with glittering black eyes and a mouth full of laughter. It was so unexpected, the deluge of memories so visceral, that tears sparked in her eyes. She wiped them away, angry and ashamed for the slip in composure, though there was no one there to see it. Well, almost no one.

The Architectrix in the bones of the house gave a sluggish stir, a questioning air to its attention as it focused on its creator.

"I'm not sad", she assured it, feeding it the reassurance that the words couldn't reach. "Never sad. It's just reminiscence." She blinked upwards at the ceiling until her eyes were dry, steadied herself with a breath and read the letter more closely.

That ten year old girl with gilded skin and scabby knees from her memory a decade past was writing to her now? What prompted this? She had even sent a letter to Alvadas first, and when she was redirected she took the trouble to write to her childhood friend in this new shining city. The girl... well, woman now, she told herself, had not included anything of what she had been doing in their years apart. How long did she live in Lhavit, why did she leave? Where was her Konti mother?

Questions and curiosities swirled around her head, pecking at her thoughts like a brood of chickens at grain. But in this tumultuous time of her life, arriving lonely and despairing to the peaks of this shining city she didn't know, this felt like a gift from above. She didn't leave everything behind, it seemed. Some of Alvadas left before her, was scattered to the four winds and some of it had found its way to her again.

Madeira pulled a sheath of parchment and an inkstick from her half unpacked belongings.

Dear Leavou, Daughter of R’yse she began, and for a moment could do nothing but stare at the intimidating blankness of the page. What should she write? The polite platitudes deserving of this half stranger she hadn't seen in over a decade? That would be the smart option. But there was nothing but warmth in her remembrance of that little half blood girl. She wavered, indecisive, before her ink bloomed on the page.

Of course I remember you, Leavou. Your friendship was the great delight of my childhood. The fact that your wandering heart has lead you to a place as exotic as Wind Reach comes as no great surprise. I hope you are happy there.

The scratch of her ink and the soft crackle of the fire was the only music, but in her mind Madeira was dancing to a different song. The Red Noise, a beast she had thought Allister had beaten for good the night he renewed their bond, was humming low and sweet. It was a kind of distant, helpless rage that woke when she was thrown headfirst into reality after two decades in the lap of Ionu's madness. It woke and sniffed hopefully at the air as her heart opened to these memories.

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Madeira Dusk
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Letters from a Stranger

Postby Madeira Dusk on November 25th, 2018, 1:43 am

I have done some travelling myself, first visiting Riverfall to try and put to rest a soul that once lived there. From there I was beckoned to Lhavit, and this city has been kind to me. The Diamond of Kalea is aptly named, I have never imagined a city more beautiful. The opportunities for study and the receptiveness of magic and all its branches here astounds and fascinates me. But I am not the wanderer you are, Leavou. Alvadas will always be my home, and I miss it dearly.

I have found these cities all dead, and their people living in the pretty corpses, the Red Noise purred its poisonous words. It pushed at the open wound of her madness that came to full fruition in Riverfall. It was there where she first discovered the realities of living so far away from Ionu's grasp, in cities that did not bend or sigh or shift, but stayed static and clinging to the land they were built on. She shook her head of the intrusive thought and continued.

Though I must correct you. This 'renown' is not from marriage, wanted or otherwise. I've been given the opportunity to serve my family further by solidifying an exchange between the Craven and the Dusk families. I have been sent here to teach them the art of Spiritism, and in return they will send one of their own to school us in the art of Auristics. I could not hope for better hosts as I find my footing in this city.

I was sold to the highest bidder by my cousin who discovered my machinations to usurp his position as favoured. I had turned my head at the wrong moment and the politics of my legacy family tore me to pieces. I was sent to the other side of Kalea to keep me quiet and out of the way. The Dusk family make generous gaolers, but gaolers none the less.

I do, however, bring joyous news. My bondmate and I are expecting a child this coming Spring. I hope this city will raise it as well as it has raised you.

I will raise a child I don't want in a strange city that doesn't love me, and I fear what that will do to it.

Madeira's fingers found her temples and massaged hard, like she could erase the noise if she just applied enough pressure. Gods, she thought she had left this behind when Allister had broken through her stupor on their long journey at sea. She shivered, though the room was warm. Why, when there was a feather bed behind her, a fire in the hearth, and she was surrounded by the trappings of an easy life, did it feel like she would open them and see the hard bunk and narrow, joyless cabin of the Belipotent?

No, that part of her life was over, she told herself. As was the time before. This letter was a gift from the gods, a last farewell from her childhood, and she would't waste it entertaining this useless noise. What had ever happened to this girl (a woman, now) who had filled her early years with a childish lust for adventure? Curiosity for that dark-haired girl was never far from her thoughts, as she had given so little information in her letter. Ten years separated that little girl of her memories with the reality of what she was now. Her inkstick found paper once more, and the pale page bloomed with colour.

But I would hear more of you, my friend. How did you come to the volcano of the Inarta? What of your gentle mother? Where has your journey taken you, and where will you go? With luck I will travel no more, and raise my family in peace on these peaks that have treated you so well. Yet part of me would live through you and your travels, if you would share your stories with this playmate of your past. Tell me what has become of the girl who once dared me to look into the Emerald Pond, and ran laughing with me through the tents of the Bazaar.

Yours sincerely, Madeira Craven


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Letters from a Stranger

Postby Madeira Dusk on December 14th, 2018, 8:29 pm

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Madeira Craven

Skills
  • Architectrix: 3xp
  • Teaching: 1xp
  • Writing: 2xp

Lores
  • Architectrix: teaching to speak
  • Architectrix: emotional maturity
  • Teaching: enforcing behaviour
  • Lani Stranger: childhood friend
  • Lani Stranger: an unexpected reunion
  • Lore of a letter for Lani Stranger

Awards & Retribution
+Item gained
+Trait recieved
-Injury
-Mizas spent

Notes
Notes here.
User avatar
Madeira Dusk
long may she reign
 
Posts: 1774
Words: 1599220
Joined roleplay: October 11th, 2016, 7:45 pm
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 11
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (3)
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
Donor (1) One Thousand Posts! (1)
One Million Words! (1) Lhavit Seasonal Challenge (1)
2018 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)


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