A/N: I hope this makes sense. It is a little bit odd. Based off an idea I had ages ago, but I've rewritten most of it completely. Hope you enjoy it~
: Letters :
This was the way it always was. A young boy writes letters to a girl who no longer exists. A piano teacher reaches for memories long forgotten. And things begin to change in a way neither of them can imagine.
Dear Emilia,
You've woken up. I know that. You're not there anymore. But I wish you were.
It's not that I don't wish your new self happiness, but I miss you. In fact, Emma Tolly seems like a lovely girl.
I miss you.
Love,
Gabe.
Fingers ran over a piano, striking the notes in perfect rhythm. Chords and melodies swirled around, combining in a melodious harmony. A small boy reaching up to his father. A beautiful wife smiling, cooking in the kitchen. Now the woman cried desperately for her husband and the boy searched relentlessly for the father he had never known.
Why was it so far away?
Emilia,
It's been almost a year since you woke up. I can't believe it's been that long since I spoke to you. Those hushed conversations in silence seem like just yesterday.
You've found something else for us to be involved in – another rescue mission of sorts. Apart from this person's not hypnotised, but rather invisible. Life at Bloor's keeps getting stranger and stranger. Ollie Sparks – I'd ask if you remembered him, but I know he was before your time and his legend hadn't spread around the first formers. He's the boy we have to save. Charlie and Emma are working on a plan.
There's a new girl as well. She's endowed, and her eyes keep changing colour. It's unnerving. Goes by the name of Belle Donner. She's most likely as poisonous as her namesake. Charlie says she's living with his aunts as well. Can't be good news.
Mr Pilgrim's become madder and madder lately. No one understands why I choose to have my lessons with him – Miss Chrystal teaches piano perfectly well Fidelio keeps telling me. But he's brilliant. And there's an understanding there.
You know what I mean, Emilia.
Love,
Gabriel.
Bartholomew,
My sister's are up to something. Beware on your trip to the Himalayas.
Paton Yewbeam.
One day while playing, he had a rare moment of sanity. He remembered those who he had left behind. Scrawling on the back of an old, unused music book, a message to remind himself.
"Amy. Charlie. Lyell. The Cathedral. Tolly."
Later, he would stare at it and wonder what it meant.
Dear Emilia,
You've done it again. Or rather Charlie has. Ollie Sparks is back visible in the world. Little Billy Raven convinced the Blue Boa to turn the Boy visible again.
Charlie thinks he might have found his father as well. The mysterious man who he can't even remember, the one who he believed was dead until I told him otherwise. It's an odd feeling – I've never felt the emotions of anyone like that before. Someone so lost and confused; it almost reminds me of Mr. Pilgrim. There was a piano in one of Charlie's Aunt's houses, and Samuel Sparks reckons he heard someone playing it. Beautiful piano tunes.
Everyone's off to Sparkling Castle tomorrow. Charlie's Uncle has hired a people carrier to take us all down there – including your Aunt. I reckon Paton has a thing for her. But what would I know?
I'll write when we get back. Otherwise Tancred or someone will wonder what I'm scrawling, and I'm not sure I want anyone to know about these letters.
Love,
Gabriel.
Lyell,
How are you, Amy and the baby? I'm sorry I've haven't been able to come and see Charlie yet... I've been busy doing research about the Red King. I've unearthed some stuff about Guanhamara and the Red King's portrait that her descendent painted. Seems like it was brought back over to England at some point – do you know if there is a family called Salutati is the city?
I'll come and visit you soon, I think. I have some stuff to do regarding Amoret's history, but I won't have that arranged for a while so I should be able to come for a visit.
Paton.
P.S. - I think my sisters are up to something. Tell Amy to be on her guard. I wouldn't want anything to happen to her.
There was a scrap of paper, an old letter that had long since faded. On the back of it was scrawled two lines of music, hastily written down in a fit of remembrance. As he sat and played, he felt the hypnosis momentarily break, and remembered the joyful laugh of his wife and pad of his young sons feet.
He copied the music out afresh, and added to it; memories of times long past, a life forgotten. When the piano boy came to practice, he saw the sheet of handwritten music sitting atop the piano, and began to play. And in the corner, his teacher listened, silently recollecting.
To Emilia,
Mr Pilgrim's disappeared. No one knows where he's gone – I asked Dr. Saltweather about it and he didn't know. Says there's a replacement who's all over the place. I even went to the lengths of asking Manfred where he was, but I was ignored. I don't know why he's still here. Surely he should have gone off to college?
The new piano teacher seems extremely odd. In a different way to Mr. Pilgrim though – there was a brilliance to him. His name's Tantulus Ebony. He seems to be in three department's at once – Music, Drama and the regular teaching staff. He's Charlie's form tutor as well.
Billy Raven's managed to get himself adopted. There's something fishy about it. Charlie thinks so as well. It's good to know that I'm not the only one. I think he goes to his new parents on Saturday or something.
We've got new endowed children as well. There are three of them; Zelda Dobinsky's cousins, a pair of telekinetic twins and a young boy named Joshua Tilpin. The twins freak me out. At least Zelda's gone so we don't have to deal with all of them.
I guess we'll have to wait and see what this term brings.
Love, Gabriel.
They had locked him up. Manfred had all but lost his powers of hypnotism, so they brought in the other hypnotist. The one who would replace him at the school. He was too close to waking up; too close to the boy who could feel things in clothes. Sooner or later he would remember, and Charlie Bone would be reunited with his lost father.
They could not let this happen. With the new endowed children, they looked to finally be winning the war of terror that had been started all those centuries ago.
Lyell Bone would not some to the surface now.
Dear Amy,
I love you. I'm sorry I've been gone so long.
I shall be back soon. Take care of the boy for me.
Love,
Lyell.
Emilia,
I'm sorry I haven't written in so long. I haven't been able to. I've been hospitalised for the past few weeks, and before that we were all caught up in saving Billy.
I can see the expression on your face when you read hospitalised. The look of worry that flicks across your face. It's not anything to serious; just an enchanted cape. Much like the belt that almost killed your aunt. I'm fine now, they just want to keep me here for another few days to make sure I don't have a relapse or something. The guys even brought Rita in to see me.
I've been talking to Lysander more and more of late. I almost confessed that I was writing these letters the other day. Anyone else would think it was strange, label me even more of a freak than I already was. But I think Sander would probably understand.
I miss you. I don't even know why.
Gabriel.
When she saw the letter drop onto her doorstep, the letter from her long gone son addressed to his wife, she burned it immediately. She called the Bloor's, wanting to know why a letter from Lyell had appeared on her doorstep. No one could explain it.
They all knew he was escaping the hypnosis, but none thought he had escaped this far. They needed a new plan. And this time they knew exactly what would do it.
Enchant Amy Bone away from her husband.
Dear Emilia,
I think I love you.
Gabriel.
Dear Emilia,
Mr. Pilgrim's back. Which is a relief. He seems... different, somehow. I don't know how.
All my gerbils have gone missing. Every animal in the city has. Billy Raven's terribly upset, and Charlie's friend Benjamin has returned to find his dog missing. You've lost your duck, Nancy. Olivia's busy comforting you, but she's lost her rabbit as well.
I'm confused. Nothing seems to make sense anymore. Me and Dad are going through the attic and we're finding some really odd stuff. I'll tell you about it later.
Love,
Gabriel.
He was back. Back in the castle that had been his home for the past ten years. Back under the watchful eyes of his aunt, under the watchful eyes of the Bloor's. Back locked in that room at the top of the tower, with only the piano for company. He hardly got any students these days. Every year there would be a new batch that came to him for lessons, but half of these left after only a lesson or two and more and more made requests to have a different teacher. The ones who were good stuck around, but mainly because they recognised that he was an amazing pianist.
Gabriel was one of the few kids who constantly came. And liked coming. He would have to try and be nicer to the boy. He was friends with Charlie, wasn't he?
Manfred frequently locked him in the tower room. Said he was interfering, said it was none of his business. So fingers ran over keys, eyes filled with worry for the young children of Bloor's Academy.
Lyell,
I'm sorry I didn't do anything to help you in those years. I just kept my head down, not caring what was happening around me. I know it's futile writing to you now, that it's too late to do anything.
I know how you felt now. I've fallen in love with the most amazing woman. I owe your son for it. For introducing us and for persuading me that all hope was not lost when it came to her. I live in fear that someone will hurt her. I know what drove you to marry Amy and run away.
It is already too late for apologies, but I feel the need to anyway. I'm sorry.
Paton.
Dear Emilia.
I love you. At least I'm fairly sure I do. I've been talking to Lysander about it. He seems almost certain of the fact.
I miss you everyday. Even the fact that you're here doesn't make up for it. I miss what we used to be. I miss the way that your face lit up in recognition when I played to you, in the midst of the hypnosis. You still knew the music.
Lysander says that it's not weird to write to you, but I can see it in his eyes that he despairs sometimes. No one gets it. You would.
Love,
Gabriel.
He could feel that he was losing himself. He could no longer see the visions of the young woman cooking quite so clearly; he was being forgotten by all those who knew him. Lost by the one who missed him most. Trying to defy the Bloors and his Aunts daily now – he was under constant watch unless he did anything. It wouldn't be long before he was lost forever and they wouldn't have to worry any more that he would wake up and escape the hypnosis and he and his son would be reunited and the boy would be stronger than ever.
The piano went on and played, mournful tunes of a better time.
Emilia,
I haven't got long to write. Something's going down in the city today, we all can feel it. Olivia Vertigo (she's endowed – you knew that before we did, of course) is going to steal the mirror from the enchanter. Charlie desperately hopes that he'll be able to find his father from it.
Our old attic did hold surprises. The Red King's cloak being one of them. Just wearing it is amazing it truly is. There's so much magic and emotions and history and amazement stored up in this one item of clothing. I've never found anything quite so awe-inspiring.
I can hear Lysander's drums and Tancred's storms echoing across the city. They need me.
Love,
Gabriel.
He stepped into the old cathedral chapel,up to where the organ was and sat down, striking the keys gently. Something in the balance had changed, though he had absolutely no idea what. No one had stopped him coming down there, which did strike him as strange, but he thought no more of it. All he concentrated on was the music that echoed around the chapel.
A woman and one of the boys he recognised from the academy wandered into the chapel, and the woman ran towards him, yelling a name that stirred his memories deep inside him and yet he had no memory of. The boy offered him a glass bottle, and he heard the chimes of the clock strike twelve as he took the bottle into his slender fingered hands. Even as he did so, there was a man who ran into the chapel - the very one who had put him under all those years ago - and the bottle of liquid was on the floor.
The liquid spilled on the floor, glass pieces splintering into a million shards scattered across the floor. Blind to what was happening around him, he knelt down to pick up a piece of the bottle. Somewhere, he'd managed to forget that the glass would be sharp, and he managed to cut his finger on it, dropping the shard instantly as he did so. He looked up at the two people before him, the memories finally being unleashed in his brain, and found that he knew them.
They were the son and wife he'd lost long ago.
Dear Emilia,
Mr. Pilgrim was hypnotised. I should have known. When I start to think about it, he was exactly the same as you were – glassy eyes, forgetfulness, silent and quiet almost all the time. He was Charlie's father.
He and Charlie have been reunited at last. The tears of the King helped break the hypnosis.
Everything seems to be back to normal now. It's odd not having a mystery to solve. Something just seems to be... missing? I don't know.
Love,
Gabriel.
He was free at last. No longer would he be confined into that dim tower, with only the piano for comfort. He had his wife and son back, and that was all that mattered anymore. Memories kept coming flooding back to him, and though everything was still a bit vague, he was now aware of so much more.
There were so many of them; family (he noted with fondness that Paton was there, sitting very close to a woman who he did not know), various children that had helped to save him – his favourite student, looking melancholically around the room as always – his own son's friends, and most of all, his wife who had gone for ten years without him. He was back home.
Emilia,
You're in love with Tancred. I can see it in your eyes. It's obvious to anyone the way you look at him – everyone but him, anyway. He doesn't deserve you.
My heart is breaking. I still love you. I don't know what to do anymore. I can't even talk to anyone about it.
I love you.
Gabe.
Dear Emilia.
This will be my final letter to you, I've decided. It was a ridiculous idea to start writing to you anyway, and I've realised things in the past year or so.
Emma deserves her happiness. She's been robbed of so many years of it. I can't stop her from moving on. I've talked to her; her memories of what happened while she was hypnotised are vague to say the least. I have no right to stop her.
If you love something let it go – Lysander told me this. And I think it's time. I'm letting go.
Bye,
Gabe.
It was in the King's room that night, rules relaxed since Manfred was no longer in charge, that the pianist slipped a note to the storm-bringer. If he could not have the girl (and in truth, all he wanted was to see her happy), he would make sure that she was treated well at least.
Tanc,
You hurt Emma and I will do everything in my power to hurt you back. She's precious – look after her for me, kay?
Gabe.
Gabe, what the hell are you on about? Shouldn't you be doing work or something?
Over and out – Tanc.