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Cali!
Please please don’t apologize for your letter! Or your gifts, it is so good to hear from you! Or read from you, I guess neither of us is really doing any listening. I can make you listen though! Once I finish this letter I’m going to cast this really cool spell I have so that I can find out where you are.
Well the spell doesn’t find out where you are. That’d be kind of creepy huh? Oooh I’m spying on you— ooooh. I could spy on you. I won’t though, I promise. This spell just lets me talk to you directly. I guess you know that by the time you read this. That’s okay. I want to keep writing you letters though, I think it’s more fun. I’ll just cast sending to tell you if I can’t write for a while.
I’m sorry that it took me so long to write back, it’s not that I didn’t want to, it just took me a really long time to get home to mama to see it. We’ve been on some crazy adventures.
I’m going to tell you what we’ve done but you have to promise by the pen pal code that you won’t tell anyone else, because some of it is dangerous. I’ll keep the really important stuff out of the letter in case anyone else takes it I guess. But if you have any questions I’ll tell you over sending.
Sooo the coolest thing that I think has happened so far is we became pirates! We had to go on this ship to stop this guy who was doing something totally evil, and then once we had the ship we needed to take control of the ship so that the crew would listen to us, and then that made us officially pirates! It was kind of cool and kind of sucked too because this really rude lady met us and she wanted to use Fjord to do evil things. (Fjord has this rock in his chest that connects him to an evil god. We’re working on taking it out though don’t worry!)
And Fjord didn’t do anything evil. Which was good.
It was kind of weird though— because he sort of kissed me when we were underwater? And I thought he was flirting with me but now I don’t think he was. I don’t know. He kissed me, too. Sort of. I don’t know if it counts. It’s all kind of silly. But it’s the kind of thing you put into a pen pal letter isn’t it?
We actually stopped something evil from happening! And then we got banned from the cool pirate island because the horrible lady tried to attack us. And now if we want to be pirates again we’re going to have to do a super secret stealth mission.
That was fun though! You should come with us next time we do a pirate adventure I think you’d like it. I also got this really cool paint that lets me paint like, whatever I want. I’ll paint you something fun!
Things haven’t been all good though. Yasha— Yasha got taken by something really bad. It’s someone she knew before and I think he mind controlled, or something and she betrayed us to go serve him. I don’t know. I know she’s not doing it on purpose no matter what anyone else thinks or what it looks like but it’s really hard. They’re trying to bring something really bad back to life.
We knew it was a trap and we walked straight into anyways, and now Yasha’s gone. We’re going to get her back though. I know it.
We’re working on the war too! We met the Bright Queen and she’s nicer than you’d think. At least kind of. Right now we have to figure out something for our new friend, Caduceus. Oh.
I guess I have another sad thing to tell. I’m sorry this letter is so full of sad things! Pen pals are supposed to be cheerful. I’ll make sure the next one is better! Hopefully.
Molly died a few months ago. These horrible people, the Iron Shepherds, kidnapped Yasha, Fjord, and me and while trying to get us back Molly died in battle. It happened while I was in a cage so there was nothing I could to stop it. I didn’t even find out until a couple days after—
I’m sorry. Beau’s going to keep the gift you gave him though. And we’re going to try to get him back eventually. I know we will. I just don’t know how yet.
I hope your journeys are better in the future! And I hope we can be best friends too. Write back soon! I’ll try to do the same!
Your pen pal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jester
Jester casts sending to Cali that night, and learns where she is. She tells Cali that she should send the next letter to the Xhorhouse, hoping that they’ll be back there soon. There isn’t much time for sending with everything happening, but she finds herself daydreaming about the next letter. Her hands will wander to her little lollipop necklace and she’ll think about Cali’s bright smile.
She does warn Cali a couple times that it’ll be longer than she thought before she gets back to the Xhorhouse. Every time Cali gives a chipper reply, and says she hopes all is well. Jester tells her when they get Yasha back too, and that’s the most excited she’s ever heard Cali. It helps.
Jester talks to her more and more, especially at night. She doesn’t tell her all the details of their travels, but she tells her when she’s worried, and Cali tells her the same. They promise to save all the big things for their letters though.
Jester misses Cali’s voice on the nights she doesn’t have enough spell slots to cast sending, and she misses her face too. She misses holding a letter and knowing it’s something that Cali held.
It didn’t seem possible, before all this to miss someone she’d only met once. But she gets it now.
When they finally return to the Xhorhouse to find a letter waiting for her, Jester wastes no time in ripping it open.
Jester!
It’s so good to hear from you. Don’t worry about the letter being late, it took awhile for me to write anyways if you remember, so it’s kind of a relief that you weren’t able to get it for a long time. That means it wasn’t my fault that I took so long to start writing to my very first penpal!.
You talked about a lot in your last letter, so if it’s okay I think I’m going to address some of the things you said, and then afterwards I’ll talk about the things happening in my life. Nothing too exciting has been happy to me anyways, at least nothing nearly as exciting as becoming a pirate.
First, I’m very very sorry to hear about Mr. Molly. He was so fun and vibrant and nice to me even when you had no reason to trust me and I looked so scary. I’m sure you already know about that. I hope you know too that it wasn’t your fault because you got captured and he was trying to save you. If any of your friends had gotten captured you would have risked your life in the same way, I’m certain of it. If you’re working on finding a way to get him back, well I’m sure that you will!
You already told me that Yasha is safe again, and I am so so happy to hear that. I remember what it was like to realize that the group I was with was doing more harm than good. It was really scary, and breaking away from that was really hard. Could you tell Miss Yasha that I am proud of her? If that’s something you think she would be interested in hearing.
As for Mr. Fjord, (I learned how to spell that from you!) I can’t say whether or not he was flirting with you. What I can say though, is that he would be really silly not to like someone like you. He’d be especially silly to get to kiss someone as pretty and sweet and generous as you and not appreciate it. So if he didn’t— I think he’s the dumb one, not you. If you don’t want to count as your first kiss, then you should get a do over. I’m granting you one do over kiss.
My adventures aren’t nearly as exciting as yours, but I did do something that I think is pretty important in helping defeat Tiamat. There’s these masks, and if they manage to get them all in one place they can essentially bring Tiamat back. It’s really dangerous, and there’s a few of them out there. I managed to team up with another adventuring party and destroy one of them!
The black one specifically. With enough time they might be able to recreate it, but for now they’re pretty weak. It was really fun to accomplish something like that!
I didn’t like this adventuring party as much as you guys though. They didn’t trust me when they saw my dragon arm, which I understood, but because of that they made me sleep outside of their dome. Nothing happened, but it wasn’t very fun out there in the cold and wet all alone. They were nice enough besides that though, and we managed to destroy the dragon mask, so alls well that ends well.
I’d like to see you guys though! Let me know if you need help with anything, I’m in between finding artifacts to destroy and it would be really nice to talk to you in person. The sendings are nice too, but it’s different.
You hugged me when I left. I’d like to be hugged again.
Yours,
Calianna
Jester holds the letter tight to her chest and thinks for a second. Cali probably shouldn’t come to the peace talks, those are going to be really dangerous. But! She can tell Calianna about Traveler Con. She might not be able to make it but it would be the perfect place for them to meet if she can!
Cali!
That’s so cool about the dragon mask! You managed to actually destroy something that would have summoned Tiamet??? That’s awesome.
That adventuring party sounds horrible though. There’s no excuse for treating you like that, no matter how scared they were. I hope I run into them one day so I can give them a piece of my mind. You’re so wonderful, and so good and you deserve to be treated well. I can’t imagine making someone sleep outside where it’s dangerous just because they’re different.
Oh my gosh so much stuff has happened since we last wrote. We’re about to go to these super important peace talks, between the Dynasty and the Empire and it’s going to be a whole thing, but if they go well the war will end! So, worth it!
I miss you! We should find a time to hang out again, I know you said that we should too! Speaking of that, you should totally come to Traveler con! It’s like this awesome convention that I’m running for the Traveler. There’s a lot of complicated stuff going on with him right now
Like he isn’t really a god. He kind of lied to me about that, but he told me so it’s okay! I wish he hadn’t lied, but it’s hard to know who you can trust with important secrets like that! And I’m the only person he’s ever told so that’s really important. Oh! He’s not evil or anything he’s just a really powerful archfey so don’t worry.
Anyway! Traveler con is going to be totally awesome and the best thing ever and you should come! It’s on this island called Rumblecusp and it’s on the 26th of Unndilar. It’s going to be like the coolest event ever!
I’m sorry this letter is so short! But hopefully I’ll get to see you in person soon!!!!!!!! And you can have that hug, I want to hug you too!
Yours,
Jester
They’re packing up the last of the supplies to help the islanders leave. Most of the people who came to Traveler Con have already left, and the sun is just peeking up over the horizon. Jester’s trying not to be disappointed. The convention was mostly a success! Even after all of the drama last night, and her talk with the Traveler took some weight off her chest. Still though, she was really hoping Cali would make it.
It’s okay though, and she’s still smiles with the rest of her friends until Beau pipes up, peering at something in the distance.
“Is that— Is that a boat?” Beau asks.
“Where?” Jester perks up immediately, squinting in the same direction as Beau.
Sure enough, there’s a boat, more of a dinghy really, tearing its way through the waves towards them. It’s as impressive as it is scary, the waves are no joke. But the dinghy doesn’t tip, beaching itself on the sand before it does.
There’s only a second to question who would be crazy enough to use a boat that small to get to a beach like that before a half hooded figure tears herself out of the boat.
Her hair is wet from the seawater and she’s out of breath, but even after months there’s no question, that’s Calianna.
“You’re here!” She starts running towards Jester as she’s talking, “I’m so sorry that I’m late, it was much harder than I anticipated to get a ship to take me all the way out here, and the sea wasn’t very kind to us. I was very worried that I’d missed seeing you Jester, and that would have been a shame.” Cali says, stopping in front of her.
Jester grabs both of Cali’s hands in hers, squeezing tightly. She can’t stop smiling, at finally hearing the voice in her head come out of Cali’s actual mouth!
“It’s okay! The first couple of days here were kind of a mess anyways there was this whole monster that stealing memories and— they weren’t very fun. But you’re here now! And I get to see you!” Jester can’t help it, she lets go of Cali’s hands to wrap her in a hug.
Cali hugs her back, shyly at first, then more enthusiastically. The rest of the Nein have taken the hint to disperse. It’s a long, wonderful few seconds before they pull away.
They stare at each other without saying anything for just a moment before Jester blurts out what she’s been thinking for weeks.
“Would you want to be my do over first kiss?”
Cali pulls away, stammering, and Jester’s certain she’s going to be rejected.
“I— I would like that very much but I’m not sure you would enjoy it nearly as much as me. I have scales, and well, I’ve never kissed anyone before. I can’t imagine I’m very good at it,”
“That’s okay! I like scales, and I’ve only kissed one other person and I was drowning, besides, if it’s bad we can always grant each other another do over, and figure it out again?”
Cali smiles, closing the distance between them. Their first kiss is a little awkward, their noses smush together wrong, and someone opens their mouth too soon. But they get a do over, and over, and over.