Three Hundred Years Ago
Arlo,
I miss you so severely I sometimes wonder if I can see straight anymore. I’m sorry for caring more about my time with you than about our time apart. I don’t know what I’ll do without seeing you for an entire century. My love for you will not wane though.
Caedmon
Arlo,
I haven’t received a letter from you in many months. I miss you. I hope that your mage assistant time is not too difficult. My heart is only desiring you more as time continues on.
Caedmon
Arlo,
It has been a year and you haven’t written back to my letters. I am beginning to worry that you have lost interest in me. I won’t deny that the thought hurts more than I can describe. I hope this isn’t true Arlo, because I am still so desperately in love with you.
Caedmon
The fire in Arlo’s private hearth smoldered gently. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He slowly shut the book he was reading and got up, crossing the small room to the hearth. He knelt down to see the letter now resting on the cool stone. His name was written in deep purple. He wished he could ignore the letters entirely, but somehow that felt more painful so he grabbed it and walked to his bed, sitting on its edge. Caed’s words hurt to see, he hated that he was slowly hurting Caedmon because he had been too much of a coward to tell him the full truth, that he couldn’t respond or speak to him at all. He folded the letter and placed it with the hundreds of others in his drawers.
Arlo,
Please I need you more than ever. I received my commendation this evening. I am to join the hunter guild. I am terrified and I feel like a complete failure. I don’t know what to do, I feel like the lowest of creatures and my only desire is to know that I still have your love even though I have failed as a faery. You are the only friend I’ve had in life, and I know now more than ever that I’ve never deserved you, but I can only hope that you can still see me for something other than this horrible title.
Caedmon
Arlo’s hands shook as he read the letter. He raced to his small desk and pulled out a fresh roll of parchment and his owl quill only to hover over the parchment, never letting his quill touch the paper beneath him. He had taken a vow, he had sworn an oath to the mage guild. Wet droplets of water fell to the parchment instead of ink. He threw the quill to the ground and ripped the parchment to shreds, tears now streaming down his face. He was desperate to tell Caedmon that he still loved him, that he would never stop loving him, but instead he was forced into this dreadful silence.
Arlo,
While I understand your silence, know my heart is breaking. I know that you are probably exhausted from seeing my constant letters, but I am feeling so incredibly alone. No one will speak to me, the tavern in the middle rim no longer allows me passage. I feel as though I truly have become the lowest of faeries. I think I always knew this was the fate coming for me, although I will admit I had hoped not. And I had also hoped that it may be less painful with you by my side. But now I no longer have you either. I truly am alone. I know that it must be incredibly shameful to you that your once best friend is in the hunter guild. I have told myself that I will release you and stop writing to you, but I keep finding myself with quill in hand. Desperate to know whether or not I still have your love. Know that through all of this my love for you is steadfast.
Caedmon
Arlo was walking home from the inner rim’s library with a pile of books he carried for the high mage floating gracefully in front of him. The mage stopped and stared at the inner rim’s gate. Arlo looked as well, there seemed to be some commotion. He followed his mage to the gate’s entrance where they could clearly hear a sentry arguing with a belligerent drunk about not giving him access into the inner rim. The drunk faery was pleading with the sentry, his black hair falling unkempt around his face.
The high mage crinkled his nose. “Hunters are all scum.” He said loud enough for the faery to hear him.
Arlo’s face sunk and turned more pale as he looked closer to the faery who was hanging on the gates of the inner rim. His heart dropped from his chest looking at his best friend pleading to be let in, tears streaming from his green eyes.
“Have some dignity, hunter. Your kind isn’t allowed in the inner rim except upon invite and no one would invite you.” The sentry said.
Caedmon looked over at the high mage and his assistant before his eyes got bright. “Arlo!” He called.
Arlo’s cheeks became hot immediately and his breath caught in his throat and he wished nothing more than to have been capable of hiding behind his books.
“Arlo, please!” Caed cried reaching out to him. “Please. I just want to speak to you.”
“Hunter, you are drunk and my mage assistant wants nothing to do with you.” The high mage said.
“Why don’t you let him speak for himself!” Caed said swearing at the high mage. “Arlo! Please!”
Arlo bit at his lip but looked down to the ground below him.
“Come Arlo, we are leaving this filth.” The high mage began walking away. Arlo met eyes with the green ones now filled with new tears.
“Please... don’t forget me...” Caed whispered out.
Arlo took a deep breath and turned away, leaving the hunter behind him calling his name once again. He could taste blood in his mouth.
It had been almost twenty years before he finally heard that familiar smoldering in his hearth. He almost didn’t notice it at first, but eventually the purple writing caught his eye. He inhaled sharply at the scrawled writing that he recognized immediately and sat down slowly at his small desk.
Arlo,
I can’t say I fully understand why I’m choosing to write to you. It has been made clear to me that your disdain for the hunter guild was well hidden over the years of our friendship. I suppose you must have always felt superior to me even if you hid it well. I feel like a fool for having wasted so many years believing it. I wish so desperately that you would tell me why. Why you chose to stop writing to me, why you chose to turn your back on me. I know I won’t receive these answers now. I thought that I would be by your side for all of our long lives, but I realize now that this was never your intention. To me you were my everything, but to you I was merely a distraction. I wish desperately that I could with complete honesty end this letter with nothing but disdain for you. But as I do not expect a response from a mage so high, I will burden you with truthfulness. My love for you has not waned, and I hate you most for that.
Caedmon the Hunter
Arlo held the parchment in his hands, his head swirling with its words inside. He had thought about Caed every single day since coming to the monastery, and what were once dreams of their time together had turned into dreams of the look of betrayal on his face when Arlo had turned away from him two decades ago. He hated himself for hurting his friend. He hated himself for betraying Caedmon’s trust and affection. And he hated being a mage.
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