Vivacious Vindication

[phantax]

‘Your sun was always so much kinder than mine

Brighter

Larger

If only we could share a similar warmth from that distant star’

--

In the upstairs attic of a hidden home somewhere in the countryside is a chest that currently houses several letters of note. The oldest of them is dated back to the final four months of 1826, while the most recent still has fresh ink with the top marked for fall of 1827. They are each sealed with black wax and a single V sign centered within the emblem.
The one atop the others placed there just this night has yet to be sealed, and with a deft hand and a curious eye, it could still be read by those it was never meant for.


Dear Father,

You wouldn’t believe how wrong they all are. My theories were, as usual, correct. Here in the warm glens and sunny streets I have discovered exactly what I had sought to find. The wonders here are doubled, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. I hope you take pride in knowing that our final conversation before I left is one that was proven true. Your explorations, your stories, your trials, they are all what I will aspire to follow. As a sword on my own, I must be tempered, and as one aspiring for something great, I must be as a candle in the storm. Diamonds are only made from such pressure, and the greatest of evolutions occur only from facing terrible adversity.

Even if I face absolute failure by the end of things, I will know that this moment was worth it. To meet her, to see her, it was something that only you might have known. The others don’t understand us, nor do they understand the world. And how could they? Their imaginations are as limited as the walls of their manors. How can they see what we do when the grey clouds cover the night sky that might otherwise inspire them?

I pray our example sparks some change. Though I know such a transition isn’t your wish and desire, it has always been mine. It doesn’t do right to hide our feathers, or however that saying goes, nor can we ever find progress if we confine ourselves to enclosures of our own making.

Your challenge to me was to dream greater than the all of the rest,
I will not let you down.

Your sunshine,

W

[phantax]

'I reached out for your sun, blinded by expectation,

Only to recognize the falsehoods of believing

in the light when it's storming'

--

Among the rubble of the House of Wonders a chest is pulled. Two workers promised pay to retrieve it do as they were bid, and soon it arrives in a far more secure location. The men are given their coin and sent off on their way while the recipient takes the small box up to her room. There she brushes the ash off of it, and with careful hands, she opens the box. Within are her letters, those that have yet to be sent and those that she has received. They are counted once, then twice, for she couldn't abide the chance that she might have lost one. Once she is certain they are all there, a new letter is drafted and soon to be sealed with the same mark as all of the others; a black wax V that bears the promise that the message will only be read by a single individual.


Dear Father,

I have played my first hand. Despite all that happened, I found myself shaking afterward. I couldn't quite understand why. I think you would say it was a weakness to find something that actually made me... pause? I wasn't nervous, never, nor was I afraid. It could have been the excitement at seeing the plan come together, but then again, something didn't feel quite right. There was a failure, a part that went wrong. You told me to plan for such things, you said that nothing will ever truly follow some organized list of events and outcomes. You always reminded me that it did not matter how, it only mattered that at the end my enemies were dead.

Well they are, quite a few of them at least, but I don't think they knew they were my enemies. As I write this, I believe that has something to do with these trembling hands. I so despise my days of wearing a mask. I despise the days of lying and hiding. You never had to hide, YOU never had to play nice with politicians. Luckily I believe such a time is coming to an end.

Our attack must have cost us our cover, but I don't see that as an expense that will be missed. Instead, new opportunities have come before me. Doors soon to be opened beckon me forward, and so I will continue on to find what I've ventured this far to discover within myself. There are secrets here I intend to unearth and power that I will come to understand.

They can run to the edge of their shores or into the peaks of their mountains,
I know that the hunt only ends when we decide it's over.

Your sunshine,
VV