Letter to Blossom From Spica, Sent Roughly 01/02

Spica

Metadata

Reference Number: BICI/SSP/CRJ0102/005

Title: Letter to Blossom From Spica, Sent Roughly 01/02

Author: Spica

Date: Written approx. 02/02, Year 5607 A.o.W.

Extent: One letter, two pages long, sent

Transcript

To Blossom, my own sister in all but blood:

Please forgive me for my delay in writing this. My heart has been heavy as of late. I find myself approaching a crossroads with no sign to guide me forward. The path I had been so set upon has all but disappeared. That loss is a grief of its own. A feeling I know you are intimately acquainted with. 

Enough about my own sorrows. I was delighted to receive your last missive. Your penmanship has improved greatly since we last exchanged letters! I hope the practice has been helpful for you. I know you are fond of neither reading nor writing, but I admire your determination to improve in both. I am certain you will excel before long. Please let me know if you’d ever like me to lend you one of Father’s books. They are difficult reads, but I think you will find them fascinating. He wrote mostly of smithing jewelry, and how the practice has evolved over the past few centuries. He included many visual references in his work! Hopefully those will serve to break up the text in a way that will aid your understanding.

Thank you for inviting me over yesterday evening. I think Jasmine would have suffered through trying to prepare and cook the seagull herself once again had you not let me know. I’m sorry that this happened to you yet again; I know how fond you are of the seagulls. Your sister’s temper is poor even on her best days, and it only grows all the more wild the closer we approach the new moon. I’m sure she’ll come to appreciate that you were willing to make the best of a bad situation. 

Gull is a hard meat to work with. For a bird, it is incredibly… fishy. Father tells me that is why it’s so rarely eaten. Unfortunately, I suspect that this will not be the last time Jasmine will feel obligated to eat gull meat. If I were a better cook, perhaps I could have salvaged the meal. I hope to improve my cooking skills so that the next meal will be palatable, at the very least. You and I both fear that this may not be the final time you’ll be asked to eat gull. 

The meal may have left something to be desired, but as always, your company did not. I always cherish the time I spend with your sister. (And you as well, naturally!) It had been several days since I had last spoken to her. If she ever wants help tending the lighthouse, please let her know that I am willing to accept any task she feels comfortable assigning me. Keeping your lighthouse may be your family’s legacy, but loved ones have always been drawn into the fold as well.

I don’t mean to imply anything… Hopefully you understand what I mean. I won’t be presumptuous. That, and I’m sure you understand my sentiment. When she refuses to let you help, please do not take it as a slight against your own capability. You may have been too young to remember this, but Jasmine once dreamed of seeing the world. Her duty to her family — to everything your parents left behind, and to you — keeps her in place. She knows you love the lighthouse, but she wants to give you the opportunity to leave should you so choose. 

She keeps her burdens from everyone. But she loves you dearly. Never mistake that. If she did not, she would have left long ago.

When you do see Jasmine next, please pass along one additional message for me: let her know that I would be delighted to keep her company after the new moon, should she desire it. You may ask why I did not mention that last night, after you had gone to bed. 

The truth is that we hardly spoke at all once you were gone. There’s often so much I wish to say to her that I don’t know how to express. Most of the time, I simply stay silent. We linger in the gaps between everything I wish to say, and everything she wishes not to.

I hope that some more time together would loosen both our tongues, and bridge the gap between what my heart wants to say and what can escape my mouth.

The new moon is tomorrow. Jasmine will be busy throughout the evening. You are welcome to stay with Father and I should you feel lonely. I’m sure Jasmine will prepare something for you that isn’t leftover seagull soup, but know that our food is your food, and our home is always open to you.

Until we see each other again, may His Eternal Warmth bless your hearth and forge you into something spectacular.

Love,
Spica