Y'shtola,

Long has this letter existed, before quill met parchment, and though the time it might find you threatens passing, its message waits no more.

"I am the waves that bear." The first line of the sailor's requiem, the first words you spoke to me, the first time your kind smile warmed me, the first moment the softness of your voice filled the lonely hole in my heart whilst carved a new hollow that only you would fit. Our meeting perhaps lacked the weight to become a common recollection for you, but it was a constant companion to me when repose permitted musing. If either of us held to such notions of fancy, I would thank the red of Limsa for coloring fate's string that entwined our journeys. Ah, a jest!

... Even now, courage fails me and I am only able to disclose in allusion. Of all uncertainties and terrors faced, e'er has my resolve been brought to naught at mere speculation of a me without you, and that is thrust upon me. I shall, nay, must fain avert the settling of its veracity with all my being, and consume my every power to revoke your absence. Or so I am convinced, in the hopes that perhaps this draft might be free of the blot of my tears. To that end, transparency as a start ...

"Leave us." Two words, your last words to me, the hardest request you ever made. In the end, I was the one left behind, with so much unsaid and more to say, with my longings and regrets. Nevertheless, those shall remain with me, for if I might only send one wish to you, all it could possibly contain is my love, as I love you.

Your friend,

Sigrid

Addendum: From Gridania, hope! Dare I ...?

––––––––––––––––––––

Character: Sigrid Takagi
World: Ultros
Prize: Noble Barding