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Hey Mitya!
Your last letter took forever to get here. They said there was a snowstorm up in the mountains and the messenger was stuck up there in a lookout post for days. Maybe the next time I visit you in Fhirdiad, there will be a storm like that! We'll be trapped inside the palace. Maybe it will last months and I'll just have to stay there with you all that time. oh noooooooo ;)
Remember that time I showed you all the constellations here in Derdriu? Well, I know you can't see the stars most of the time from where you are, so I found someone to paint the sky for you and draw all the constellations on it! So you can look at it even when you're not here. (I'm going to tell the messenger to be really careful with this package. I hope it's not ruined by the time you get it...)
Speaking (or writing) of the stars, I was looking at Garreg Mach Monastery on a map and it's up in the mountains, so I bet we'll be able to see the sky clearly all the time when we get to the Officer's Academy. We can go stargazing whenever you want. I also bet we'll get snow there. So it will be like we're in Fhirdiad and Derdriu at the same time. The best of both worlds! My grandfather says they have a pond there, too, which means you can keep teaching me how to skate in the winter.
I wish you were still here. Recently, I've started attending meetings with my grandfather, so I can get up to speed on current politics and meet all the lords. It's an etiquette nightmare, they all find new things I did or didn't do to complain about. I'm pretty sure most of them hate me (what else is new), although Judith von Daphnel seems different. I like her. And I heard that things in the Kingdom are getting worse, with bandit attacks and rebellions and whatnot. Not to scare you, and I'm sure you know this already, but when things get like this, the first targets are always the ruling nobles. I know you can protect yourself and you have Rodrigue, but still. Stay safe, Mitya. Have you discovered anything more yet about you-know-what? I haven't, but don't worry. I'm still looking.
I did find a new book in the downtown library, though, about Crests and their symbolism. You know how House Riegan's coat of arms is a crescent moon? It's because that's the shape of our Crest, but there's more to it than that. Throughout history, bearers of the Riegan Crest have been associated with various aspects of lunar mythology or phenomena, especially those with Major Crests. Mine's only Minor, but don't you think I'm mysterious and enchanting enough to be like the moon? ;) The book says the Blaiddyd Crest represents justice. Well, I could have told them that, just from knowing you! But if I'm the moon, then you're like the sun. Bright and warm. [Here there's a little drawing of a sun with Dimitri's shoulder-length hair and a smiley face and a lance, beside another little drawing of a moon with Claude's curls and braid, a smiley face, and a bow.]
[Another couple of pages follow, describing everything from meals Claude's eaten, to conversations he's had with the shopkeeper at the tea shop Dimitri likes, to a new kind of ship he saw in the bay that he's never seen before. Finally, on the last page:]
I miss you. I can't wait until we get to the Academy and I get to spend every day with you again. I've met a few of the other Alliance kids who will be there with us, in my house, but I don't think any of them like me. One of them wouldn't even look at me let alone talk to me, one of them called me an "ignorant fool," one of them gave me a huge fake smile and a bunch of empty flattery (she obviously wanted something), and one of them said he didn't believe I was the real heir at all and his father was going to prove it. Sometimes I think about going back home, but then I'd never achieve my dream, and besides, you wouldn't be there. Then sometimes I think about running away to Fhirdiad. Do you think Rodrigue would mind? ;) Don't worry, I'm only kidding. (Mostly.)
Your friend always,
Claude