Epilogue: A Letter

Four months.

Spirit stared at his calendar forlornly. It had been four months since his little girl flew away from home. And since then there hadn't been one word from her. No phone call. No telegram. No letter.

He hoped she'd settled. Maka did promise him she'd only contact him after everything was in order. But that left Spirit lots of room to worry. What if she hadn't found a town? What if she was wandering around the country without anywhere to call home? What if her business (whatever it was) never made it off the ground? What if she'd encountered some shady characters? What if Maka was no longer the strong, beautiful little girl he'd raised and was just a husk of herself?

The more he thought, the worse it got. Spirit took a deep breath and willed the thoughts away. Maka was fine. She was probably very busy. And Maka had mentioned wanting to go to a big city, meaning a letter could take up to a month to reach him if she'd flown to the other side of the country. Knowing Maka that was more likely than not.

To take his mind away from the worry Spirit went to the kitchen and began to make some tea. He'd always been a coffee person, and "an aspiring alcoholic" as the other men liked to tell him jokingly, but Maka always preferred tea. Spirit had been surprisingly sober since his daughter left. He mused over this change in lifestyle as he poured his water and set the timer.

"Mr. Albarn?" a voice called from the street. "Are you in? I have a letter for you!"

Spirit flat-out dashed to the front gate, where a very startled postman was waiting. He probably looked a right mess too. His hair was still damp from the shower, probably knotted by now, and his clothes were definitely more than a bit rumpled. Still, the postman gave him a smile and handed him the letter before biking back to town with a wave goodbye.

Spirit looked down at the envelop in his hands.

Spirit Albarn
Häxanssätt 1
564 88 Litenby

The return address was what appeared to be in Dödenstad. That was quite a distance! Who in the world would send him a letter from there? Surely not Stein. Those two hadn't spoken in years.

Spirit pondered this as he walked back in the house. He continued to ponder as he stirred sugar and cream into his tea, walked into the living room, took a seat in his armchair, and put on an old record.

Then it hit him like a ton of bricks.

It couldn't be Maka, could it? Surely not! Not from so far away! Impossible, and yet…

Spirit picked up the letter from where he'd placed it on the coffee table and scanned the envelope a few more times. That penmanship, the way the "y" was swirled…he only knew one person who wrote like that.

He opened the envelope with shaking hands. There were several pages of neatly-lined paper with the same familiar handwriting. Taking a calming breath, Spirit unfolded the letter and began reading:

Dear Papa,

How are you? I actually hope your doing well. It's been so long I'm afraid you may have died of grief by now! I'm doing quite well myself. I'm sorry I haven't written in so long. I'm sure you were worried. Rest assured I'm fine now, though this has been a very busy three-and-a-half months.
My apprenticeship is going very well. I've set up shop in Dödenstad, as you probably saw by the return address. It's a big city right by the ocean. Do you remember Tsubaki and her family? They actually moved here! Though I'm not staying with her. Don't worry, I'm living with a great couple: Dr. Franken Stein and his wife Miss Marie. Miss Marie owns a coffee shop and Dr. Stein has an apothecary next door. They just had their first child last month — a little girl. (Stein keeps calling her his little guinea pig, which Miss Marie doesn't care for at all.) Not to mention they adopted my best friend, Crona. They're even my age!
Is it true that you and Dr. Stein knew each other from school? He mentioned it the first day in passing. If so, you'll have to tell me all about it because he's absolutely refused to talk about it and is really tight-lipped! Grr! He did tell me you stopped talking after he left Litenby though… Still, I want to know what he was like as a kid!
Going back to work. It was really hard to get clients at first. I set up a delivery service since the only thing I could do well was fly. But I'm still working on soul perception, and I've even learned a bit of potion-brewing, though I guess I don't have the same talent as Mama did. It's hard work, and Dr. Stein is very precise. I'm hoping to master a few simple ones for Halloween next month since Kid and I want to try an old magic tradition that day.
I have a lot of friends. Don't worry, no one's my boyfriend. I did keep that promise. I mentioned Kid just now—he's the mayor's son and a warlock. There's Tsubaki of course, and her boyfriend Black*Star. And then Soul and his older brother Wes. Liz and Patty are sisters and they live with Kid. Then there's Harvar and Ox who work at the café, Kim and Jacqueline who work at Stein's, and Kilik who is a window cleaner and mechanic-in-training. I've also babysat with Tsubaki. She watches Kilik's siblings Brasa and Åska and Kim's sister Angela. As a group we've gone to the beach, seen a movie together, and started to build a car! I really don't understand why the boys are all fascinated in that thing, but Liz tells me it's just a guy thing and to leave them be.
It's been very busy lately now that business is starting to pick up. I've even had to set up hours and long-distance rates. People have also started giving me window-to-window messages, which are fun if I know where I'm going! It's been a bit boring since all my friends have started school again. Everyone's gone during the day, and I tend to be busier from lunchtime to supper.
According to Mifune (he's Kim's father, and a teacher also) Crona's been adjusting well to school. It's so good to hear, especially with everything that's happened. I know that both Dr. Stein and Miss Marie are doing a wonderful job getting them settled as well.
Don't be alarmed Papa, but I lost the ability to use magic for a couple of weeks. It was quite a shock since that's all I knew how to do. It happened after a big event I don't want to go into details about. All I can tell you is that the Witches Council was involved. I wasn't hurt, but a few of my friends were in the hospital. We're all okay now, and it's something that's hard to sum up in a short letter like this one. Still, you're my papa and you have a right to know not everything went swimmingly.
I promise I'll explain myself better in the next letter. It should be there soon. I will say that it involved the misuse of magic by one of my clients. My first one too! It was quite a shock since she seemed so nice.
But because of everything that happened I found out what my type of magic is. It's the healing of the soul. I mentioned to Councilwoman Yumi how Crona's wavelength changed when they were around me and the Council ran a few tests. It ends up I have a grigori soul that can free souls from past burdens and purify them. It's a very rare type of soul. Only one in fifty million people possess it, and the chance a witch gets it is only harder. There are only three in history. I'm going through special training to control this ability. If I get better I may even be able to help Crona's twin brother, Ragnarök. His soul is so damaged it's not even human anymore. Again, I'll explain more about it in my next letter.
Besides that, everyone here in Dödenstad has been more than helpful. Liz is like a big sister to me too, always giving me advice about how to avoid boys. I think you'd like her, Papa. She's always a fun person to be around. And Kid and I are friends who also practice magic together. It's nice to have someone who understands what I'm going through. But I think Soul and I get along the best. He's always there to just talk, and he's never demanding in any way. That, and he always helps me when I'm too stressed! We've just hung out because (and I quote) "You need some fresh air, tiny tits." Don't worry, he's not as awful as that sounds. And he was the one who helped me find my magic again.
Miss Marie gave me the best advice of all, though. She said that I have chosen a road less travelled, one that most people wouldn't take even if they were given the opportunity. I never really thought much of it. I always assumed being a witch and following traditions just like Mama was the only path I would ever take. Now I see that I chose it all by myself. Miss Marie was right. It wasn't the easiest path to take, but I know deep down it was the right one.
It's been hectic here, yes, but I wouldn't trade what I've gained from it for the world! I've learned so much, not to mention I've made the greatest friends of all time.
Hope to hear from you soon!

With love,
Maka

P.S. I've also included some photographs of everyone and everything I could think of. I also had to wait for the film to get developed which is also why it took so long to mail this letter.

Spirit sniffled a bit, taking out his handy handkerchief and dabbing away at the tears that had mysteriously gathered around his eyes. He reread the letter before setting it aside and flipping through the neat stack of photos. Each one was labeled on the back as well with things like 'Miss Marie's cafe,' 'Crona's first day of school,' 'Soul and Black*Star with their new flying bike,' and 'girl's night out.'

The very last one was labeled 'Everyone.' It was a group picture.

Maka was in the very center, sandwiched between a white-haired boy labeled 'Soul' and her old friend Tsubaki who Spirit was able to recognize. She had a huge smile on her face and was surrounded by a group of teenagers she had labeled carefully with pen in the margins. By the looks of things, it was taken just a few weeks before.

"Oh Kami, if you could see her now. You would be so happy."

Spirit gathered up the letter and the photographs and headed to his study. He put the letter on his desk and pulled out an empty photo album from the bookshelf. He slid each photo in one by one, leaving the labels blank for the moment. Spirit would fill them in later, once Maka was home. He went through all of them again with a smile before putting the album away.

He sat down at the secretary desk that faced the garden, pen and paper already out from the stationery drawer. Spirit sat, staring out at the fading countryside splashed in the colors of late-autumn. Brilliant reds and yellows were fading to greys and browns. The last of the apples were scattered on the ground for smaller creatures to forage. A crow cawed from down the street.

Spirit smiled.

He put his pen to the paper and began:

My dearest Maka,

I'm so glad you wrote. I can't even begin to express how proud I am of you…

FIN

Thank you so much for reading. Though they may never see this message because they're not in this fandom, a big shoutout to my former-roomie, my best friend, and my lil sister for dealing with all my stress during the writing process. May you never have to go through this again with me because next year I'll have my shit together, ahaha!

The biggest thanks to tinycatsandfruitsnacks/smolscythe/Amy for being an amazing artist and doing everything despite the fact that my inbox ate her reply to my email and I didn't see her sketches until November. She definitely deserved me gushing over her work every week and didn't get much on the communication side of things so I'm sorry and super grateful.

I hope you enjoyed this monster-length fic I somehow wrote in five months. And maybe I'll see you again in future works.

tamashii-resonance