Work Text:
Pretty Girl,
It's with great haste, i must write to you today
. I miss you greatly , sweetling . The nicest time of the day is when
I write to you, only made worse by the shortness of it. You say you have a stormier time than I do but I miss
you as much, I think. I couldn’t bear to think of you crying
yourself to sleep. Oh! how I wanted to put my arms around
you in reality instead of in spirit. I went & kissed your
locket instead & the tears were in my eyes. Please
keep most of your heart in The Red Keep as long as I’m here
for most of mine is with you!
Dear one, I think of you always with tender love & everyday that passes brings you nearer to my mind's delusions and me to the madness i suppose is the inheritance of ambitions like mine. I don’t know just how I
shall manage to behave! A hug and a tear goes to you every waking moment, for in my dreams, we don't part, even for but a moment. Sometimes i dream of us strolling through the gardens, roses stretching as far as the eye can perceive, arm in arm, cheek to cheek, so close not a hair may fit between us. If only, I had the dragons to breathe blood into my dreams!
Fear not dear one, soon I won't need the dragons, at least not to write to you of my devotion.
We stand separation rather well! I am
always so much more optimistic than you are. I suppose
because I can afford to care so little about what they say.
Dear heart I would like to be with you when this letter
and each one after it reaches you, if only to see that pretty red on your face instead of your hair!
These days, all i survive off is my philandering oaf of a brother, lemon cakes and letters from you. Oh, sweetling, I do get so hungry for letters! Some days,it
seems that I can hardly bear it- this , I want some direct word
from you so much. It’s particularly bad in the morning, to
wake up with the realization that there’ll be no letter, no you, i barely am myself without the thought of you these days. It makes burning them more cruel to myself than ever. I savour each curve of your ink as if it were the twist of that polite knife you call a smile!
I must confess, love, i most ardently want you to
have an extremely happy life. To be sure I’m selfish enough to want it to
be near me but then we wouldn’t either of us be happy
otherwise, would we?
I only wish I could scheme better than i love.
All I’ve been trying today to bring back your face, to remember just how you look. Funny how even the dearest
face will fade away in time. Most clearly I remember your
eyes, soft with sadness and the feeling of
that soft spot just south of the corner of your left shoulder
against my cheek. I wonder what we’ll do when we meet, if we shall ever have to face each other as foes.
If we do, i shall be glad to die knowing that the hand that slays me is a soft one.
Perhaps you can find within yourself the strength to forgive my morbidity.
Dear one, Everything I fear it’s getting nearer and nearer and I am half too happy to
be afraid.
I must confess for all my caution, i do sometimes fantasize about being caught for my crimes and being freed from this wretched existence even if by the most unpleasant of people to grace these lands.
Do not fret for my sake though, Thorns always keep the Roses safe from both foe and folly.
Sweetling, I love you beyond words and long for you but i cannot refute how much i tire of my duty even though it's my very purpose. Perhaps in another time, I'd be brave enough to let love be the death of duty. Unfortunately for both our sakes, I have always been more powerful than i have been courageous.
If and when it comes down to it, you must not hesitate to cut down all the weeds that leech off your lands, no matter how much you are attached to their vibrant hues. You must know this if you are to ever master gardening.
And you must master it. If it's the last thing I can wish for selfishly, let it be for you to surpass my own skill in our shared family trade.
Father, Smith, Warrior, Mother, Maiden, Crone, Stranger.
Most devotedly,
Maiden Fair