Work Text:
It's all wrong.
Tonia stares at the letter in her hands.
Dear Tonia, -wrong.
Your letter made me feel like we were still enjoying our time in Snezhnaya together. -wrong.
I'm currently admiring the scenery on the streets in front of the opera house... -wrong.
More nonsense her brother would never write, and then the icing on the awful, suspicious cake:
Love, Childe
Wrong, wrong, wrong!
It's not even a good imitation of his handwriting. Maybe, if not for the rest of it, Tonia could believe that he dictated it to someone. But she knows without a doubt that whoever sent this letter wasn't her brother. Whoever wrote this knows nothing about him at all.
In all his years writing home, he has never once signed off as "Childe". That name, an alias for his work, never crosses the border into his family life. He's always been Ajax, or her loyal knight... never Childe. And he's never started a letter with anything other than "Dearest Sister".
She knew the second the letter arrived on its own that something was wrong. There were no gifts, no snacks, nothing but a plain envelope with their address in the wrong handwriting.
Tonia crumples the forged letter, throwing it to the ground.
Something is wrong. Something has happened to her brother, something drastic. In all his years away, he's never once failed to respond to her letters himself.
Is he hurt? Did they send him on a top secret mission where he's forbidden all contact with the outside world? Why is the Fatui trying to cover it up?
A vacation, he'd written in his last letter home. He was going to Fontaine for a vacation. Tonia knows him well enough to notice something has been off about him; during his last visit home a few months ago, he was quieter than usual, and she'd caught him staring out at the frozen waters where they went ice fishing with a pensive expression that looked so out of place on his usually exuberant face. But when she asked, he just smiled brightly at her and made an excuse about being tired from his last mission.
She hadn't pushed, but now she knows she should have. Not that he'd have told her what was really on his mind, but still.
Tonia picks up the crumpled letter with a sigh, smoothing it back out again, checking the return address. It's a hotel in the Court of Fontaine, something fancy-sounding - a place she knows her brother wouldn't have chosen for himself. He prefers more modest accommodations, so he can send the extra money he's been allotted for lodgings back home.
Generous and thoughtful to a fault. That's her brother.
Tonia swallows hard, fighting back sudden tears. She looks down at the forged letter, and a surge of anger fills her. She needs to know what's happened to him. And she needs to know which of his colleagues thought it was a good idea to try to cover it up.
So she storms back into the house, brushing off Teucer and Anthon's questions about the letter with a terse, "Not now." She stomps into her room, slamming the door shut and locking it. And she sits heavily at her desk and begins to write a response.
To the Fatuus who dared impersonate my brother:
Nice try. I don't know who you are, but clearly you don't know him at all.
Where is he? Why can't he write back himself? I'm not stupid; you're covering something up. Is it a mission? Is he hurt?
I know you most likely won't bother to reply to this letter, but whoever you are, you cared enough at least to forge a letter on his behalf, so... if you hold any regard for your Eleventh Harbinger, please.
Tell me what happened to him. Or if you can't... just make sure he comes home to his family.
-Tonia of Morepesok
Tonia sits back in her chair, taking a deep breath. Maybe the letter is a little more aggressive than she'd originally meant for it to be, but she doesn't edit it at all. She stuffs it into an envelope and addresses it to "Childe", just to make sure the person who'd stolen her previous letter grabs this one, too.
With a grim nod of satisfaction, Tonia seals the letter and puts it in her coat pocket. She'll post it tomorrow, and then... all she can do is wait.
She closes her eyes, her head sinking into her hands, and she prays for her brother.
Please. Wherever Ajax is, please let him be safe. Please... bring my loyal knight home.
And finally, in the privacy of her bedroom, she lets the tears fall.