First Snow
--------------------
Winter has come early to Tortall this year. December has barely started, yet snow already covers the palace in a thin layer of frost. It muffles the warm lights of the palace, blanketing the area surrounding it in a white haze.
But King Jonathan IV pays no attention to the snow. The cold does not bother him; a fire burns in the hearth, keeping him warm. Instead, his mind is focussed on the paper that sits on his desk. It is the key to his daughter's future, and to Tortall's.
Jonathan stares at the roll of paper, lying unopened on his desk, for a long time. He knows already what is written on the thick, white parchment. It has been a long time coming, and he has anticipated its arrival with dread. But he can put it off no longer. Finally, slowly, reluctantly, he unrolls the paper in a crackle of paper and wax.
It is a very official-looking document, dripping in ribbons and wax and seals; the signatures of all of his ministers, and many more besides. His heart is heavy as he reads through the whole paper. It is all there, missing only one thing – his signature.
Jonathan considers throwing the wretched paper into the fire then and there. But it has taken years of talks and negotiation to come to this point, and in the end he knows that he has no choice.
It hurt him to think about it. He loves all his children, no matter how it appears to others. But he is King first, and father second, and his duty is to his country.
So he signs the paper and hopes that his daughter can forgive him.
Because soon she will be Empress of Carthak.
--------------------
An hour later, there is a tentative knock on the door. Jonathan calls for the person to come in, immersed once again in the never-ending stack of paperwork that was associated with Kingship.
Kalasin enters the room, bearing a silver tray with drinks. Jonathan smiles at his daughter as he surreptitiously slides that paper out of her line of sight – there were easier ways to break the news to her.
"I thought you might be thirsty, so I brought drinks," Kalasin says, placing the tray on her desk. Jonathan accepts the drinks with guilty thanks. It is in Kalasin's nature to be generous; he wonders if his actions are going to continue to haunt him the way they do now.
As Jonathan sips at his drink, Kalasin crosses the room to stare out the window. She stares out in wonder at the snow, her breath misting the cool glass of the window. "I can't believe it's snowing already." She turns to her father, face alight with excitement. "Can we go out to see it?"
Jonathan wavers. There is still a lot of work to be done before he can relax, but a nagging voice keeps telling him that he does not spend enough time with his family. And that he owes it to Kalasin.
Kalasin seems to sense his indecision. "Please, Father." There is a note of pleading to her voice, and her sapphire eyes, so like his own, gaze up at him beseechingly.
He hesitates for a moment more, manages a laugh. "Why not?"
--------------------
A short while later and Jonathan is standing in the snow, watching as Kalasin runs eagerly ahead to enjoy the pure white glory of the snow. She leaves a trail of footprints in the soft snow, which he follows at a much slower pace, breath misting in the cold winter air.
When he finally catches up to her, he finds her standing still in the snow, gazing up at the sky as snowflakes drift down to land on her clothing and her hair. Kalasin notices him watching her and turns to him with a smile. It is a smile untainted with bitterness or hurt, and he wonders if she will still smile at him like that when she finds out what he's done.
"Isn't it wonderful?" she asks, gesturing to the snow surrounding them. Sadness crosses her face for a moment. "Though I wish Mother could be here to see it."
Jonathan puts his arm around his daughter. "She would be here if she could, Kally. But she's busy now, so you'll just have to put up with your old dad instead." He ruffles her hair as he says it, and she grins and hugs him, wrapping her small arms around his legs. Jonathan is struck again by just how young she is, and realises that it's going to be hard to give his little girl up.
She lets him go after a moment, running off to play in the snow. He keeps a careful eye on her as she does so, watching as his little girl builds mountains and castles out of ice and smiling as she proudly shows him her achievements.
After an hour or more he calls out to her, feeling the cold nip at him through his coat. "Ready to go back in now?"
But Kalasin, preoccupied, does not hear him and after a moment he changes his mind and joins her in building the first snowman of winter.
After all, he knows that it does not snow in Carthak.
--------------------
end