Chapter Twenty-Eight
Letters
When Cobal woke up in the morning it was already light out and he realized he’d overslept quite a bit. Not that he had anywhere to go in particular, but his body must have been really exhausted after the previous day. After getting some quick breakfast in his room he went to sit down at the desk. Mana seemed to be long gone, presumably at the library, so he had a quiet room to himself. He took out his writing utensils and got started on his letter home.
Dear father,
It’s been a while since we last spoke. I hope you’re doing well. I am hesitant to say that I have found my brother, Sapher. The circumstances under which we met were all but good. I will save the details for when I return home, but I can confirm a couple of things.
Firstly, the Rilodar kingdom is in no way responsible for the disappearance of my brother. Having traveled through the land there seems to be a growing worry of war and nothing is a sign that our neighbors are preparing for a fight.
Second, I have reason to believe that Sapher left of his own accord and is not returning to Blueyerd. He has been caught up in beliefs that worry me and in the brief conversation I had with him he appeared to me like a changed man.
Myself and Mana have been doing well, although it’s been a harrowing few days. We are currently staying in Marsolin as Mana is studying at the Ruby Observatory. We will return to Saphestan soon with more information about what exactly is going on but I urge you to scale down aggression at the border while that’s still possible.
Best Regards,
Cobal Blueyerd
Ps. Selvia is here in Marsolin as well. Would you be so kind as to send someone to tell her father, the jeweler Dorgan, that she is doing well and will be coming back to Saphestan at her earliest convenience.
Cobal folded the letter up neatly and sealed the envelope with his signet ring. Satisfied, he made his way downstairs where he found Eliana at the bar, chatting with Clara. “Morning sunshine,” he said to her.
She just grinned and winked at him. He turned his attention to Clara. “If I want to send a letter back home to Saphestan, where should I go?”
“I think there’s an office across from the Observatory where you could go. Shouldn’t be hard to find and else just ask someone.” She smiled. “Writing a letter to a lover back home?”
Cobal shook his head. “To the king.”
Before Clara could respond to his comment he was already out the door. The late morning air was already quite pleasantly warm as he made his way through the bustling street. The chaos of last night seemed so far away already. It all seemed surreal. Grac and his wife immediately left and he had no idea how to sit down and talk to Selvia later. So his quick little walk and delivery of the letter was a good excuse to postpone that a little bit.
The office that Clara was talking about was easy enough to find as a large wooden sign with a letter on it decorated the front. The inside was quite busy. With a city that’s so far away from the rest of the country and hidden deep within the forest there was a larger than average need for a mail delivery service and they’d definitely built this place to make sure they could keep with the demand. After waiting in line for a couple of minutes, a middle aged man with a clean shaven head helped him out. He asked for Cobal’s name and the destination and didn’t bat an eye when the palace in Saphestan was the answer to that second question. A true professional. After rummaging through the back for a little bit and checking some of the ledgers underneath the desk the man came back holding a letter and a small parcel. “It just so happens that someone left something for you the other day.”
“Oh? I don’t expect any mail.”
The man shrugged. “It’s addressed to Cobal Blueyerd, third prince of the Blueyerd Kingdom.” The man smiled. “Not everyday we get a prince come through town, are you here on official business, your highness?”
Cobal put up his hand. “Stop that, I’m not here in an official capacity, please just address me by name.” he took the letter and the small parcel from the man. “Do you have an express delivery option? It’s a bit of an important matter so some haste is appreciated.”
The man nodded. “I have a recent hire that’s incredibly fast, but he’s quite expensive.”
“Money isn’t an issue in this case,” Cobal said, well aware that although he had brought quite a bit of money with him from home, it was quickly running out.
“Very well.” Cobal signed and paid for the parcel that was there for him and then paid the exorbitant sum for the express delivery before leaving the post office behind. After wandering through town a little bit he found a nice bench in the shade of a large tree with beautiful large leaves and sat down. He put the parcel on the bench next to him and opened the letter.
Dear Cobal,
I know we only spoke briefly but I did some digging into your person. I hope you can forgive me for the intrusion of privacy. My name is Zegred Solin, one of the last remaining heirs of the Solin family. When I told you that I worked at Solin Manor that was only half true. I did work there for a little while, under a different name of course, but I also spent some years there when it still belonged to my family. I was glad to see that someone was interested in my family’s history for two reasons. First, it hurts to have one’s name be scrubbed from history so much. Our family disgraced itself and that is not a truth I avoid, but I believe that much of what my father did has caused the people in charge of writing our story to change some details. You see, our family was deeply embroiled in a scandal that involved the royal family and a search for immortality. As you are certainly aware of by now, the Solin family was looking into Shifeth, the undead wanderer. The goal of our search was to figure out how to bring immortality to the royal family of Rilodar and allow them to rule for many centuries to come. What exactly my father encountered in his search was never made clear to me, but I know that it drove him mad. Eventually we were ousted for our misdeeds and the rest is history.
I am hesitant to write about this next part and if our family’s history was able to stay just that, I would love for nothing more. Unfortunately my niece, Petriya Solin, has been going around with the aim to finish what my father started. Not for the sake of the royal family, but for her own sake. She believes there is a way to reach immortality and she needs Shifeth reach this goal. I tried to stop her once but she almost killed me. So instead I wrote my soliloquy and waited for someone to appear who showed interest. Now that I have found someone it is time for me to find my niece and try one last time to convince her to change her ways. I have provided a gift for you that should surely be of aid in your travels. I hope you manage to stop my niece and prevent war between our two nations.
Best regards,
Zegred Solin
Cobal sat in silence for a little while, unsure what to think of the letter. So the old man we spoke with in the inn was secretly a member of the Solin family. He looked over at the parcel that came with the letter. He’d gotten quite curious about its contents and decided to open it. It was quiet enough in this part of town. To Cobal’s surprise, the parcel held quite a small object. It was light in weight so he hadn’t expected something big, but perhaps something that was light and big enough to require a parcel of this size. Instead, in the small wooden box, sat a single signet ring. He recognized the symbol on the ring immediately, it belonged to the Solin family before they fell from grace. “What does he want me to have this for?” Cobal pondered. Unable to come to a conclusive answer, he tucked the ring away in his pouch, together with the letter, and got up to return to the inn.
Bit of a short chapter this week, couldn’t quite figure out this one so I decided to just leave it as is instead of force something out of it. Thanks for your patience 🙂
Opal Kaharis 