Tags: F!Watcher
PoETober 2018
Prompt #5: Seasons
En pressed a hand to the window and sighed.
Autumn and winter, whole seasons, had gone without even a glimpse of any of the faces she'd once been so used to waking to every morning. She received letters on occasion, true, but words on a page simply couldn't measure up to a warm, familiar smile or a heartening laugh.
It was nearly five years now since that day. The day they'd laid the final blow to Thaos and his plans. Not long after she'd bid farewell to her companions as they went their separate ways, and she'd taken up the mantle of Lady of Caed Nua in full. A few of them returned to celebrate the first anniversary – Hiravias from his nearby wanderings, Aloth from his research in Defiance Bay, Edér from his fresh start as mayor of Dyrford – but most were too far or too absorbed in new ventures to return. She didn't blame them, and the four of them had toasted gladly enough with an aged bottle of Aedyre wine and recounted days past. But each year brought fewer to Caed Nua, till only letters and Edér's rarer visits or hers to him remained. Then even the letters began to dry up, no matter how many she wrote or sent this way and that, leaving her to sit and wonder from her keep.
Surrounded by delegates, supplicants, and servants and the stronghold bustling with trade and travelers every day, she couldn't help feeling… lonely.
"Is something the matter, my lady?" the steward's voice intoned.
"Ah, no, nothing to worry about," En answered, turning to walk the halls. "Just lost in my own head. Guess I never quite kicked the habit since my Awakening," she joked.
Skepticism hung in the air, but the steward only said, "Very well."
As the corridor quieted once more, En returned her gaze to the hedge maze it looked over, then to the wild forest greening with spring beyond. She hummed in thought.
Perhaps… Perhaps it was time to go out and find her friends herself, to take adventure by the horns and live anew again. It wasn't as though the keep usually needed her these days anyway; the steward already took care of most of the day-to-day matters. She could arrange things with her, tie up any lingering threads, and then she only had to gather her things and set out on the road. Just like old times.
En smiled. Yes, she'd like that a great deal indeed.