A letter addressed to Tivlyn is slipped into her mailbox, the cloaked figure sighs remembering this person. Her friendship was the first and most precious relationship she had forged, back when she was a 16-year-old with her younger sister in tow and faced a new life in a new place, the death of her parents and becoming a woman.
Dearest Tiv,
I fear this may be goodbye for us, dear friend, and I could not set out with Alairif to forge something new without telling you how sorry I am for this happening.
We sensed as we spoke to you in the splendor of greenfield on a bright spring day, it was not gay or happy. It was filled with your cautiousness and our grimmest fears. Well, I know your fears that day, I had them too, but I was just a bit further along in my belief. Deorla would crush your heart before you even saw it coming.
I remember your laughter. It filled the boardinghouse like a field of magpies in the bright summer sun. I remember you all talking at once, the cacophony of your voices chasing away my loneliness, and the shadows that haunted my heart. I remember us picking out dresses, it seems like such a simple thing. And there is nothing simple about someone who was everything to me, who gave me the strength to navigate life, and well yes how to pick out colors for dresses.
I remember your happy greeting on the day I came back, it filled me with hope. That hope has grown and now only Alairif’s outshines yours… You know how I feel about him. He has become the promise of the future. Of all that is good.
These last days are the hardest I have ever spent, because of the evil and our own disbelief she would choose the path she did. It has changed me to my core, it rocked much that I believed and turned it sideways.
We know you may stay, hanging onto hope that she will change and come crawling back, bearing false assurances and promises. Just remember though, what are the simple people of The Company to someone so evil, who worked for Sauron, who destroyed Gil-Galad, Elendil and Thrain. Will you live your life always waiting for the knife to turn in your back?
We will not be near, we will live trying to wipe our souls free of any influence of the Company, and of her. We will never be far, you of all people know how to find us.
Love,
Guriwen
Taking one last look, she heads back toward another house, her heart heavy but held in the gentle hand of hope.
