Unsent Letter to Jasmine, Written Approximately 30/02, Recreated Here

Spica

Metadata

Reference Number: BICI/SSP/CRJ1004/022

Title: Unsent Letter to Jasmine, Written Approximately 30/02, Recreated Here

Author: Spica

Date: Written approximately 30/02, Year 5607 A. o. W.

Extent: One letter, three pages long

To Jasmine, my friend,

The Branding Ceremony is not nearly as grand of an affair as I thought it would be. Yes, the friends and family of newly-branded Embers were invited to join. Abiegni’s entire family came: her smiling mother, her proud father, and the toddler cradled in her father’s arms. Ash also invited Undying Embers from the neighboring villages, and any location that could spare their Embers sent them. I even saw merchants in the crowd, standing alongside their wandering protectors. 

I make it sound like a grand event. It is not. The Tending Grounds, even when injected with new life, are nothing more than a sad smolder.

I saw them, the merchants and the family members who could spare the trip and the Embers, and wished I saw you, instead. I did not invite my father either. I couldn’t bring myself to send the letter.

The ceremony itself is actually quite simple. Ash and the senior Embers who oversee the Tending Grounds heat up a brand, carved in the shape of His Eternal Warmth’s sigil. The same mark you see on every Undying Ember. All it is, is a wrought iron stick and some fire. They press it against the trainee’s skin, imbuing them with His Eternal Warmth’s blessing.

It is symbolic, yes, although it does have some practical uses. It makes us better conduits for His magic. It allows us entry into His Hearth, the central headquarters of all Undying Embers. It completes the transformation our Sparks begin in us. 

The senior Embers stood in an amphitheater at the center of the Tending Grounds. Their orange uniforms made them look like glowing coals against the obsidian of the walls. The trainees waited off to the side, standing at attention. I was sweating from a combination of the heat and my own anxiety, but Abiegni was an unmoving statue beside me.

I felt so out of place. As her protege, Fir insisted that I receive a special uniform. Abiegni is like every other Undying Ember, clad in colors consumed by the flames. My armor is the same as hers, just as His Eternal Warmth’s sigil hangs off my stole, but my robes aren’t orange. They’re purple. Fir insisted that the color fit me better.

I don’t have a helmet, either. My every expression is on display. Instead, Fir referred to the bow I wore in my hair when we first met and insisted on keeping its legacy. A purple bow hangs behind my head, and from it flutters a veil half-eaten by everlasting flames. It’s warm against my head even now, when I have yet to fully disrobe from my uniform. 

There was a moment when my weakness prevailed, and I thought once more about running away. Fir seemed to sense something off about me, as she turned back and caught my eye. Her smile bled excitement. I knew, then, that I could not leave. I regret being set on this path, but there is nowhere in the world that can shelter me from this reality. 

Ash called Abiegni forward. She walked with her head held high. Fire that had yet to live in her body already blazed in her soul. As she stood before Ash, he praised her strength, her resolve, and her dedication to His Eternal Warmth. She was one of the brightest Embers he’s had the pleasure of training. Under his praise, she glowed.

She presented her inner wrist to Ash. He laid the brand carefully onto her skin. The distinct sizzle of burning flesh filled the silence, but Abiegni’s smile never faltered. She showed no sign of pain or of fear.

Instead, she was set ablaze.

When Ash lifted the brand away, she had changed. Her eyes, once a cool green, glowed orange in the pupils. Red tinged the ends of her hair. And her sigil, still fresh on her skin, glowed as brightly as a star in the crisp night sky. 

Besides her, I was nothing but burnt coal.

Ash called my name. I stepped forward.

There is no oath to swear when we are Branded. No, our acceptance of our initial Spark, our willingness to travel here and to be trained… that is an oath enough. Ash does not need to speak to us, but he must feel the need to say something. When I stopped before him, his mouth was drawn in a tight line. I knew he held no praise for me.

Ash stepped closer to me. His voice dropped to a harsh whisper. These words were not meant for Fir, standing just a little ways away, to hear. “You and I both know you do not deserve this. And yet neither of us have a choice in the matter, do we?”

I had nothing to say to the cold truth. 

“I hope you don’t die out there,” he said, and pressed the iron to the back of my hand.

I do not know how Abiegni did it. The pain was unimaginable, and unlike anything else I have ever felt. All of the magic I had struggled to master during my training rushed into me all at once. I felt scorched from the inside out. If I opened my mouth to scream, I feared only molten lava would flow forth. Magma replaced my blood; steel replaced my bones. In the span of a few seconds, I was remade, forged into a creature far more blazing and brittle than I had been before.

Then Ash lifted the Brand away. The pain lessened with its absence, though the flame still licked at my insides.

I looked at His Eternal Warmth’s sigil. I was now His, forever. 

Fir approached me. “You’re perfect,” she said, and the warmth in her voice was nothing if not genuine.

She wrapped her arms around me. The world went quiet, save for the slight sizzle of my new Brand. Somehow, her embrace dulled the pain. 

“One day, everything here will be under your command. And until then, you and I will be inseparable,” she whispered to me. 

I realize now that the brand dominates my writing hand. Even holding my pen is agonizing. And yet, I must continue to write. I can’t let these thoughts cycle endlessly in my head. That, truly, would consume me alive. 

Fir says the pain will fade in a few days. That it is nothing to fear. It is simply a reminder that nothing is made in the forge without violence. 

It is an honor, she says.

An honor I know I do not deserve. An honor tied innately to you, I think. Though I wonder, just what do two young women from the edge of the world have to do with the honor of His Eternal Warmth?

Tonight will be my last night at the Tending Grounds. Tomorrow we are to set off towards the Hall of Kindling and Charcoal. It seems Fir has received a missive to go there, though she offered no explanation to me besides a deep sigh and a roll of eyes.

Perhaps there, hidden within the annals and tucked away between yellowed pages, I can find the answer to this sick game. 

From,
Spica

Journal Entry, Dated 30/02

Jasmine

Metadata

Reference Number: BICI/SSP/CRJ1004/023

Title: Journal Entry, Dated 30/02

Author: Jasmine

Date: Written approximately 30/02, Year 5607 A. o. W.

Extent: One journal entry, four pages long

30/02

For the first time ever, this village has a completed wall. It can finally keep its villagers safe.

But after today, it will have no more villagers.

Nico said they never built walls here before. The lanterns they hung from their roofs and their magic lancing through the air was enough. Nico finds walls stifling. I can’t comprehend that. Walls are the best things at keeping aberrations out. Yes, they can dig their way past a wall sometimes, but it isn’t had to keep them from popping up from the ground:: cobblestone, trees, ponds. 

This place is a meadow, free from anything that can protect their people from aberrations, and Nico loved it that way.

Maybe its fall was inevitable.

“The aberrations are vicious in the woods, but they weren’t bad here. It wasn’t a good idea to wander around alone, but we kept ourselves safe,” he told me.

I really don’t know.

So we finished a wall that isn’t meant to protect anyone from aberrations — just from a giant endless hole in the ground. Someone could easily climb over this wall, but maybe that’s a different form of protection. A wall on one side, and the chasm on the other.

We set out this morning, after Nico made me one final breakfast. He had run out of eggs, but I was more than satisfied with a final batch of milk bread and some smoked fish he had caught the day before. We packed our rations for the road to the Hall of Kindling and Charcoal: nuts, dried fruits, all sorts of unfamiliar smoked and canned meats, and even more. Nico loves food. The only thing he talked about during breakfast was what food he wanted to buy at the next village we’d visit.

Nico didn’t look back at the village as we left the meadow. I thought about asking him if he’d miss it, but then the more I looked at him, the more I realized that I didn’t need to ask to know the answer. I didn’t look back when I left Seabreeze Shoal, either. There was nothing left to look at for either of us.

Once we clambered over the northern wall, we were immediately attacked by aberrations. We took them out more easily than I thought we would. Nico fired his crossbow bolts off with ease, and even I managed to knock a few out with my staff. Nico thinks I should try channeling magic through it, but I’m happy to keep my staff as a melee weapon. I’d much rather beat aberrations into dust than learn how to launch a fireball. It’s grisly, yes, but the more I do it… the more satisfying it feels.

One aberration appeared so suddenly that it took us both by surprise. My body moved instinctively, and before I realized what was happening, my staff was slamming the creature’s head into the ground. The moment it connected with the dirt, it exploded into ash. Nico and I looked at each other, shocked, until Nico burst out laughing. 

“You’re talented!” he said.

I felt bad about killing it so quickly until I remembered that these creatures aren’t truly alive. They’re not animals. Just abominations.

We didn’t make as much progress as we thought we would have. There were just too many aberrations. But at least I could be confident that this time, I wouldn’t get lost in the woods. Nico, and especially Nico’s compass, wouldn’t let that happen. 

Looking back, maybe I wouldn’t have gotten so fucking lost if I had thought to bring one myself… but I didn’t think to. And honestly, maybe it’s all for the best now. I would have never survived on my own. 

And as far as companions go, Nico is… not bad. Not at all. It’s nice to not have to be so alone. 

Most of the forest blended together in a blur of green. Trees, brush, dirt — it was all the same to me. Nico moved through it without a care. It was boring, but I’d take boring over dangerous. 

And it continued to be boring until it suddenly wasn’t. We reached a small pond, nestled between the spindly trunks of the trees blocking most of the sunlight from view.

The sight made me stop. Little grasses grew at the edge of the pond. The water was clear like glass, reflecting all of the round little stones that lined the bottom. Fish and small tadpoles darted around, sending ripples cascading along the water’s surface. Small flowers in pale yellow and vivid orange grew along the pond’s edge. I saw a couple of turtles trying to sunbathe on a small stone jutting out into the air. 

There was a deer at the other edge of the pond. It froze when it saw us. I didn’t want to scare it, but it tore off into the forest when Nico’s boots crunched over a bundle of fallen leaves as he turned to face me.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” I told him. I couldn’t stop looking at the pond. Small birds flew down to bathe at the edge of the water. “It’s just… beautiful.”

I had never seen anything like this before. Of course I knew what a pond was. But the ponds in Seabreeze Shoal were disgusting, full of sand and stinking of kelp and rotting fish. Ponds are just seawater that the ocean couldn’t take back, or leftover rainwater that froze overnight. It wasn’t anything like this. 

This was a home. To so many.

His eyes softened, and he gave me a smile I was starting to recognize. I think it’s the kindest one he has. He never shows his teeth with this smile. It’s just a small tilt of his lips upward. 

He turned to face the pond. “It is, isn’t it? I never stopped to think about it. This sight stopped mattering to me, but seeing it for the first time must be special.”

I walked to the edge of the pond and crouched down. From this low, I could see the sunlight filter through the treetops, dappling across the ground. It refracted off the surface of the pond, bouncing across every ripple. I dragged a finger through the water, watching as the tadpoles and fish darted away from my disturbance. 

“Is it like this everywhere?” I asked.

“Not everywhere. Only some places.”

Something in me changed. Like someone plucked a string inside me, and only now was it settling back into place. Like when Blossom would pluck the small ropes in the lighthouse and use their steady vibrations as the rhythm for her songs.

Blossom would love this. Maybe she’d even want to sing about it. I don’t know how else to possibly capture the way it feels otherwise. Plain words don’t feel strong enough.

For the first time, I understood why she sang.

And it made me want to try singing, too.

We’re resting for the night; I’m writing this all by firelight. I have the first watch; Nico is taking the second. He insists that the Undying Ember wards he set up around the camp will be enough to keep us from being slaughtered in the dark. I want to believe him, but staying in this forest at night still makes me nervous. I’d rather stay up, at least for a little bit.

And I appreciate him staying up for me, too.

Besides, I don’t mind staying up late. I’m used to it. That, and it’s the only chance I get to write. 

Honestly, I’ve been passing the time by… ugh. Warmth above and below, even writing it in my own journal is a little embarrassing.

I’ve been thinking of Blossom’s favorite song. There are so many missing lyrics. I…

I want to fill in the gaps. Singing her songs, and working with them… it can’t bring Blossom back, but it makes me feel closer to her. Like a piece of her is still alive.

It feels good to imagine how happy she’d be if she knew. 

So I’ve been writing lyrics to try to capture what I saw today. I haven’t settled on anything I like enough to keep yet. But… it’s fun to try.