Post by Sophine Shahrizai de Amodour on Oct 19, 2009 22:52:47 GMT -5
It was the first time I'd been back to my house since the fire, but something drew me back. Unfinished business? I stood where the gate to my house hung by one hinge, staring at the wreckage. Everything was covered with soot ... well, what was left of 'everything.'
I supposed I should see if there were anything to be salvaged. A grim task, but it gave me something to do. I ducked under the ruined gate, up the walk, littered with debris, and began to sift through the wreckage.
I found nothing of note, most things were burned beyond recognition, until I got to the part of the house that had been Ivolde's study. It came to me with a start that I had never once been in the study, it being off limits to everyone but my sister and her husband.
I don't know what made me bend forth to pick up the scrap of paper that poked out from the ashes. Perhaps that it was the only thing in the vicinity that wasn't burned to a crisp. It was a letter, and I might have simply discarded it, except that my eye was caught by the salutation.
Marc and Henri, the letter began, and I felt tears blur my vision. It was in Dyan's hand, and to my brothers in Tiberium. I wiped my eyes and continued reading.
My brothers, I am beginning to be concerned by your lack of response. It has been some time since you last contacted us on that matter in Menekhet. It is URGENT that we hear from you, matters are proceeding apace on our end.
There was more, but the rest of the parchment was burned beyond being legible. I stared at it for a few minutes, wondering what on earth Dyan was talking about. Marc and Henri were in Tiberium, not Menekhet ... and what matter were they about? I tucked the parchment in a pocket of my dress, and continued to root about where the study had been. My search turned up nothing further of interest, however, and I was forced to conclude that this bit of parchment was all I would know about my brother's connection to Menekhet.
Sighing, I decided it was time to get back to Guy, who had been worrying over me like a mother hen. As I turned to go, I stumbled over something soft. Digging around in the rubble, I turned up a stuffed bunny, remarkably unscathed. "Marie-France!" I exclaimed, recognizing it as Denise's favorite toy, the one she carried with her almost all the time. It seemed as if this trip, while opening up questions for me, would be a comfort for my niece.
Walking back to the North Borough, my shoes and the bottom of my skirt blackened by the soot through which I had been sifting, my mind kept turning over and over the parchment I had found, and before I realized it, I was heading away from the North Borough and toward Mont Nuit. There was one person who could help me make sense of this mystery, and so it was to Orchis that I headed.
I supposed I should see if there were anything to be salvaged. A grim task, but it gave me something to do. I ducked under the ruined gate, up the walk, littered with debris, and began to sift through the wreckage.
I found nothing of note, most things were burned beyond recognition, until I got to the part of the house that had been Ivolde's study. It came to me with a start that I had never once been in the study, it being off limits to everyone but my sister and her husband.
I don't know what made me bend forth to pick up the scrap of paper that poked out from the ashes. Perhaps that it was the only thing in the vicinity that wasn't burned to a crisp. It was a letter, and I might have simply discarded it, except that my eye was caught by the salutation.
Marc and Henri, the letter began, and I felt tears blur my vision. It was in Dyan's hand, and to my brothers in Tiberium. I wiped my eyes and continued reading.
My brothers, I am beginning to be concerned by your lack of response. It has been some time since you last contacted us on that matter in Menekhet. It is URGENT that we hear from you, matters are proceeding apace on our end.
There was more, but the rest of the parchment was burned beyond being legible. I stared at it for a few minutes, wondering what on earth Dyan was talking about. Marc and Henri were in Tiberium, not Menekhet ... and what matter were they about? I tucked the parchment in a pocket of my dress, and continued to root about where the study had been. My search turned up nothing further of interest, however, and I was forced to conclude that this bit of parchment was all I would know about my brother's connection to Menekhet.
Sighing, I decided it was time to get back to Guy, who had been worrying over me like a mother hen. As I turned to go, I stumbled over something soft. Digging around in the rubble, I turned up a stuffed bunny, remarkably unscathed. "Marie-France!" I exclaimed, recognizing it as Denise's favorite toy, the one she carried with her almost all the time. It seemed as if this trip, while opening up questions for me, would be a comfort for my niece.
Walking back to the North Borough, my shoes and the bottom of my skirt blackened by the soot through which I had been sifting, my mind kept turning over and over the parchment I had found, and before I realized it, I was heading away from the North Borough and toward Mont Nuit. There was one person who could help me make sense of this mystery, and so it was to Orchis that I headed.