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To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.

Marquis de Vauvenargues

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Chapter Two

Itwas 2 years, to the day, since Kel's disappearance. She had literally vanished without a trace. Excepting the precious few leads that they had had, which all ultimately lead to yet more dead-ends. The last sign had been anything but heartening.

As the snows had melted away, the ground had become little more than a mire of sludge. Making it extremely difficult to move on horseback or foot. They'd been forced to call off the search for a time, and head back towards the palace. They were exhausted, wet, and had been searching for months on end.

It was during this short break period that word had reached them that something had been found. The Third Company road out immediately, with Raoul at the head, who was just waiting for an excuse to pummel anything that got in his way.

They hadn't received much information about what exactly had been found, it might have had nothing to do with Keladry. It wouldn't have been the first time, for sure, that they'd followed a false lead.

So they'd rushed to the small village of Aerean asswift as aleaf on the wind. But the news that awaited them, was far from good. Apparently a local farmer's young son and friend, had been playing seek and run at the edges of the forest and had strayed farther into the woods than intended. While they'd been lost, one of the boys had tripped over what he thought had been a root. But on further inspection, turned out to be bones. The bones of a horse, Keledry's horse, Hoshi.

That had been over 5 months ago, and almost everyone was giving up all hope of ever finding Kel, alive or dead. She had been missing for two years now.

Two years was a deadline of sorts. If a noble goes missing, there is a certain timeline that is to be followed. Search parties may be sent out to look for the noble, two years is the maximum amount of time they are aloud to be sent out while still in service of their king. After two years have passed, the king is forced to officially proclaim them dead. By law, the king is required to declare the death publicly, and sign a death certificate at the end of a departure ceremony.

There were exceptions to this rule of course, if there had been relatively recent evidence of the noble's whereabouts, the deadline could be postponed, or at the very least, pushed back. But this was not to be in Kel's case.

Raoul and Dom's dread, as well as the rest of Kel's close friends, had been increasing by the hour as the cut-off date had drawn closer, and yet closer still.

And now…that day had finally come. Keladry's death would be legitimately affirmed at dusk. All of Corus would be attending the funeral service, with the empty casket… A few had been asked to speak, a shortepitaph in remembrance and honor of Kel. Of those who had been asked, only four had accepted: Raoul of Goldenlake, Nealan of Queenscove, Lord Wyldon of Cavall, and Domitan of Masbolle. Of those who haddeclined had been her mother, who was too overcome with grief and could not possibly cope with a public speech. Her father chose to stay with his wife, to make the service easier for the both of them.

The speeches were to be given at the "departure" ceremony, an hour before sunset. What would her friends say for their parting words? What could they say? They had waited and hoped for so long…but…now the time had arrived, that all of them had so profusely denied could ever happen…

---With Nealan of Queenscove; Squire's Quarters---

Tears slowly rolled down his face, as he fought to hold them back. But it was a fruitless battle, doomed to failure from the start. He couldn't hold them back any longer, if he didn't let the tears fall he'd lose all traces left of his sanity!

In the end, his fragile composure was shattered, and he no longer attempted to hold back the heart-wrenching sobs that wracked through his body.

It was a long while before he was able to cease his weeping. He was exhausted, and could barely breathe. Neal wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and huddle on his bed and pray for this hellish nightmare, to end, to will himself to wake up…But that wasn't possible…no…not possible at all…

It had been about two and a half hours ago, that he'd finally received word, of what he'd been dreading since the start of this torturous hell. It had come in the form of a soft knock at his door, and the soft scratching sound of a note being slid underneath it. At the time, he'd been reading a rather inspiring book of poetry, written by Andric Sanders. Being fully enraptured by his book, he hadn't bothered to fetch the note. So the message lay forgotten on the cool stone floor, with the small mark of the imperial seal, imprinted in blood red wax.

Eventually the need to use the latrine brought Neal out of Sanders' enchanting world of peculiar philosophy. As he passed by the doorway, he spotted the small letter, and froze. This—this wasn't what he thought it was…was it?! Panic took over without delay; he frantically snatched the note from the ground, and in a frenzy, nearly ripped it in half. Forcing himself to calm down ---for the most part--- he carefully hooked his fingernails underneath the wax seal, gently pealing it back, and unfolding the letter with shaking hands.

This is what it read:

Dear Nealan of Queenscove,

We are sorrowful to inform you that the bereavement ceremony of the recently departed Keladry of Mindelan, will be held at dusk this evening. We sincerely wish that you would honor her with your presence, and request that you say a few words in her 'membrance, if possible.

Thank-you,

Sir Turomat of Wellam

He'd had the oddest sensation, during that timeless moment, reading that note; it was as if ice water were pouring over him. At first all he had felt was cold shock, and then a sort of numbing sensation.But he was completely unprepared for the weight of total anguish, as the realization finally reached his soul. That feeling of utter and complete despair that still threatened to suffocate him.

Neal slowly uncurled his body, and deftly stood up from his position on the floor, where he had fallen, after reading the note. He shakily walked to his desk and grabbed a spare parchment and a fresh quill and ink. His eyes were tired and bloodshot as he began to sluggishly write, but soon furiously scribbling his thoughts down. For all intentions and purposes, he was dead to the rest of the world for that time, and was writing for Kel. And Kel alone…

A/N: I hope you guys liked it. It took me forever to write and rewrite this until I was finally satisfied! And just so you don't get ahead of me, Kel is not completely out of the picture. Since this is a Kel fic, it would make sense that she was actually in it. Although I can't say it's not tempting to kill off the main character in the first chapter! Lol. Just kidding! So if Kel's still in the fic, then is she dead? Well, I'll let you do the math! I don't want to spoil the storyline, so I'm not going to shout out the answers to all of your questions! Thanks to all who reviewed!