[Filter: Private]

If this is my punishment, it is not unfair. I did know something was terribly wrong, and I did know Derek planned something, and yet I allow him to continue to plot. This is no one's fault but my own. Writing a single letter is a small price to pay.

I only wish you could say this all to my face, rather than in a journal. But I suppose you have every right to be angry.

Keran ... Derek ... Aiden ...

[Filter: Private]

Derek ... everything you say is true, and I couldn't doubt how much you love Aiden. Even his frustration promises me that my innocent son isn't gone forever. I want you to make him happy like Keran won't, like Keran refuses to.

But still something is wrong. Father's words in your pen, this cannot be all.

I love you so, Keran, and you know I support you more than you can know in almost all things, but this part of your world is so ... wrong, to me. I'm frightened.

[Filter: Private]

... Derek. I hadn't realized just how much I missed you until I had you here. Perhaps you can do something for my son. Perhaps

I should not

My brother is with me, and Aiden is happy to see him. That is what matters.

[Filter: Private]

Regardless of his reasons, it will be nice, to be among family. It has been so long. I've missed him.

[Filter: Public]

I suppose it would be nice to speak of this publically, though I have so few connections in these books it may not be worth the time ... Regardless, my brother is coming to visit my husband and I. He's due to arrive any day, now. It's been years since I've spoke to him face to face, and so I'm very much looking forward to the occassion.

The children are so excited to see their Uncle they all can barely sit still. Except Aiden, who i Rosie, especially. She's determined he's going to be a chivalrous Dentorian knight, for all I tell her he's nothing of the sort. Perhaps those fairy tales did her no good.

[Filter: Private]

... I should not be so worried. He knows how to handle this life. This is the life he has always lived. The life he has been taught to live. The life he is training Ai

He will be fine. He will not leave me. ... I don't believe I could live without him. How silly.

[Filter: Keran]

They certainly seem to want you dead.

[Filter: Private]

Another week, and my brother will be here. I haven't felt so homesick since the wedding. I suppose this is what happens when one feels everything fall apart. One wishes for things the way they were long ago.

Rosie and Devon love their bears. Aiden

He is so young ...

At the least, Keran seems to be pleased with himself. Haha, like a kitten in cream. This is the part of his game I can enjoy.

[Filter: Keran]

Overdramatic, perhaps, my love?

The snow is coming down hard, today. My daughter will be so thrilled. I'm having new mittens knitted for her as we speak; her old ones barely fit at all anymore. Time passes so quickly. Perhaps I can even take Devon out with her, if I watch him closely. The snow is beautiful.

[Filter: Private]

Will Aiden play?

[Filter: Private]

I am so sorry, Aiden. I am so sorry it has all come to this.

[Filter: Private]

Keran agrees, then. Derek is perfectly welcome here, as I knew he would be. Why would he not be? He is family.

But that is not all you want, Derek, because it is not you asking. I have no put off asking him about your request for so long for no reason.

... I should not be so disturbed by it all. What could he possibly want? At worst, Father wishes to see how Keran is treating me, and there is absolutely nothing to complain of.

I need to write this letter.

[Filter: Private]

... if I am to voice my concerns, I'm to voice them constructively. Surely, he will agree that there is a limit to pressure, only so much a young boy can take before results become the very opposite of what is desired.

Surely it is so.

[Filter: Keran]

Ah, my love.

[Filter: Private]

I think he truly is ill, Keran. He's been so tired lately, and it seems unlikely the boy would maintain the same story for so long were he lying ...

But I cannot say that, can I. I should not say that.

Perhaps you were right about this House, after all, Derek ...

[Filter: Private]

I should say something meaninful, shouldn't I? "I tire of these games, Derek, Father," perhaps. It would certainly adequately suit the circumstance.

But no, that would be untrue. The true is, these letters are a relief, aren't they? Keran will not give up until Aiden learns, and as sweet as he is, he will learn. And that is good, of course. My son will lead Sarrca to another generation of greatness. I am proud. I am glad for that.

I seem to be writing in circles. Mn, to the response, then, though I know not what I will say.

[Filter: Private]

Putting on a show for some journals, my love ...? Isn't it enough that none have truly ascertained who we are?

I suppose you think I made him soft. Perhaps I did. I want my son to know love and kindness. You can be so heartless, Keran. Is it wrong that a part of me wishes Aiden didn't have to become that?

... but he does. I do need a distraction. This isn't likely to change. It shouldn't change.

These months without snow are very strange. The long days are, of course, wonderful. It's lovely to have more daylight to work in. But the ground being bare and everything so very brown -- well, I'm afraid it's simply something I've never been able to get used to, even after all these years. Just yesterday, Rosie was asking when she could make snow angels again. It wasn't easy to tell her it will be at least a month and a half yet.

[Filter: Private]

Yet another letter than makes no sense to me at all.

You're trying to tell me something, Derek -- ah, or rather, Father is trying to tell me something through you. He never had a word to say to me when I was truly hid daughter, but now it seems he wants something and doesn't know how to ask, even with your letters, brother.

How long are we going to play this game? ... another reply, then.

The mystery does provide a distraction from less pleasant matters.

[ Filter: Myself, High Korin ]

He will learn.

[ Filter: Myself ]

He will learn, and he will learn quickly. Aiden is a sharp boy, and in the years to come Devon will be the same. I only wish he could remain a child a bit longer. My child.

I detest that I worry so far ahead of things like this. I wonder if Mother ever

[ ink blots ]



... Another letter.

It is almost like our daughter has forgotten I exist in favour of you, my love.

Well, with all this commotion, I'm almost afraid to say that my Moon Festival was nothing but joyous!