Chapter Two

By the way, Yelena does NOT have magic in this story. At all.

Yelena finished reading the letter that she had received from her correspondent earlier that day and frowned. Feelings of amusement were warring with the part of her that felt quite offended. How dare this stranger just brush her off like that and expect for her to take it meekly? She was almost tempted to stop writing to him, but had a feeling that this V. probably wouldn't even notice. Anyhow, she didn't want to let down Sitia. For all she knew, V. could be a really important government official that be would be very offended and stop all treaty negotiations if she was to write something rude. So tempting...

She sat down at her cramped table, made from dried lianna vines that her father made for her as a fifteenth birthday gift. The window in her room was large and let in a lot of natural light, but at this time of night, all she had was the dim glow of an almost used up candle stacked precariously on piles of books.

Dear V.,

I have to admit that I am slightly offended that you would simply choose to stop writing. Fortunately, I actually have manners.

Yelena frowned and scribbled out that last sentence with her worn owl's feather nib.

Fortunately, I have some free time tonight and will write my last letter to you now instead of just not replying.

I will have to disagree with you on one thing though, and that one thing regards the Emerald Mountains, which are obviously taller than the Soul Mountains. Whilte I admit that the Soul Mountains have a lovely name, they cannot simply be bigger than our mountains. For one thing, the Emerald Mountains are older, which means it has had more time to have dust or soil to accumulate on it.

I have also tried what you suggested with the juice at my cousin's wedding last week. She and her husband are both people that truly appreciate wine to the extent that they had abundant supplies of it during their reception and expected everyone to take at least one glass. Luckily there was some apple juice at one of the refreshment tables for the children and I quickly switched my glass. Unluckily, my cousin happened to be walking around in that area at that exact moment and while she didn't spot me in the act of switching the glass, she most certainly suspected me of it. This is how the exchange went:

COUSIN: Why aren't you drinking your wine?"

ME: "I am!" (Here, I gulped down the juice vigorously.)

COUSIN: "That didn't look like wine..."

ME: "Oh this? This is champagne."

It was only after the wedding that I found out that champagne was not served. Now my cousin either thinks that I snuck extra alcohol into her wedding or that I actually switched glasses. I don't know which is worse.

I know that you won't reply to this, but I just wanted you to know that even if there were consequences, you did save me from making a fool of myself at her wedding. And for that I thank you.

Farewell,

Y.

Yelena scanned over the letter that she had written and immediately decided not to send it. What had possessed her to write about such personal things to an absolute stranger? One letter from him didn't mean that she knew and could trust him. She decided that it must be due to her exhaustion. Yawning, she left the letter on her desk, planning to burn it in the morning, and went to bed.

The Next Morning...

"Yelena! Wake up!" Nutty shook her shoulder frantically. "Aunt Perl says that if you don't come down to breakfast now she will personally come up here and force feed you!"

Yelena frowned. "Really? She actually said that?"

Nutty rolled her eyes. "Well, I could be exaggerating the facts to get you out of bed more quickly. Anyways, you owe me one."

"Why?"

"I did my good deed of the day for you."

"What?"

"That letter that was on your desk? I put it in an envelope and mailed it to the Citadel to be redirected to your mysterious correspondent in Ixia. I was doing the same to mine and decided why not?"

"What?"

Nutty sniffed. "A simple thank you will suffice."

"Nutty, I...I wasn't planning to mail that letter! I put information in it that...I just can't let him read it!" Yelena flopped down in bed and covered her face.

"Ooh...it's a he?"

Yelena sat up and glared at Nutty. "This is not the time to be thinking about that, Nutty. I have to get that letter back!"

"You can't. The mail cart's already left for the Citadel and we both know that by now there's no way of you catching up to it." Nutty looked truly repetant and Yelena grudgingly forgave her.

Maybe it wasn't such a bad letter anyways. The man obviously wasn't going to reply so there was no harm, she supposed. On the other hand, she could only hope that he would burn the letter immediately after reading it. Her cousin Leora had an unusual knack for finding things out.

I was originally going to stick to a letter format all throughout the story, but then I decided that in order to get to know the characters better, I'd have to write outside the letter as well. Don't worry, Valek's response...or not, is coming up!

Oh, and yes I know apple juice and champagne aren't the same color. But there was no other fruit juice that I could think of that looked similar :(