Letters, Scene v1

She looked panicked, her eyes seeking shelter from his gaze. “I-I’m sorry, Lucas. We didn’t mean any harm by it. We just wanted to protect you.”

“How could lying to me about this protect me? Don’t you know how worried I was about her? Please tell me what’s really going on.”

Maria rubbed the back of her neck and sipped her cocoa anxiously. She turned her cup around nervously in her hand. “Last fall, we told you that we were attacked by a group of bandits when we were on our way to Levan. But…that was a lie. We never even left for Levan.”

“So what happened?”

“The morning before we were supposed to leave, Isella was missing. She left a note on her bed saying that she was sorry, and thanking us for all we have done for her.”

Lucas’ brow furrowed, unable to comprehend why Isella would leave so suddenly.

She seemed to love it at their shop, greeting every day with a smile. She was like the daughter his mother never had, and shared what he believed to be a strong, loving relationship with him. “Why? Why would she just leave like that?”

“Since her parents lived in the Republic, they were exiled along with the rest of her people. She heard about Hazalin joining them to try to find a new home and decided to return to her parents.”

“Why couldn’t you tell me this before? All this time…I wanted to know what happened to her.”

Maria gazed at her son with regretful eyes. “We were worried that if we told you, you would’ve gone with her.”

Lucas knew she was right. He probably would have gone with Isella if he had known back then, but it’s not as though the Kival didn’t deserve some help. Although, with how things are now, he too could’ve been stuck in the dungeon, a traitor. “What about the letters?”

Maria froze for a moment at the mention of the letters. She wracked her mind for a lie, but the guilt gnawed at her stomach. “Wait here.”

Lucas heard his mother’s footsteps ascend the stairs and walk into her room. Not long later, she returned to her seat across from him. In front of him, she placed four envelopes labeled with his name. He ran his fingers over the unbroken seals, touched that she would respect their privacy enough not to read the letters. Maria held his hand in hers and looked him in the eye. “Please, Lucas. Whatever those letters may say, don’t do anything rash. I say this because I understand how much you love her. Don’t throw away your life for her.”

He returned his mother’s gaze with a small nod. He placed his hand on top of hers. “I’m going out for a bit.”

Lucas scooped up the letters and left the house, his mother’s worried gaze weighing down his shoulders. He walked to the river just west of Yuin. A bit upstream, away from the road, he sat on a large boulder resting under a green willow which hung over the edge of the river.

Staring out over the shimmering moonlit water, he remembered the times when he and Isella would sleep under the starry sky under the willow. He looked down at the letters in his hand, uncertain at whether or not he was ready to read what she wanted to tell him all those months.




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