The Letter Elowyn Left
1520 Words
Ashen.
That told me enough to know it was not time.
Not yet.
I kept reading, but my chest felt tighter now.
Find my uncle. If he still lives, he will be north of the old border, beyond the three frozen rivers, where the pines grow black and the moon turns blue over the ice. He knows why I left Frostveil. He knows what I carried when I came to SilvaFrost. He knows why your birth was both blessing and warning.
Why I left Frostveil.
I read those words again.
And again.
My mother had been a ruling princess.
A crown ruler.
Why would she leave a kingdom for my father?
Why would she leave Frostveil for a man who would reject her, hide her children, and let her memory rot under another woman’s cruelty?
Had she loved him that much?
Had he been different once?
Or had she gone to SilvaFrost for another reason entirely?
What had she carried?
A prophecy?
A curse?
A bargain?
Me?
The questions pressed harder than the wound had.
If you have found your mate, do not let fear teach you to punish her for reaching you. The Frostveil heart is slow to trust but dangerous once it loves. Be gentle with the one the Moon Goddess places beside you. She is not your enemy because she sees you.
I stopped reading.
The forest disappeared.
Only that line remained.
Do not let fear teach you to punish her for reaching you.
Moon went very still beside me.
She had heard.
Of course she had.
Heat crawled up my neck, but it was not embarrassment exactly.
It was shame.
Quiet shame.
The kind that did not shout.
The kind that sat down beside you and reminded you of all the times you had stepped back from the one person brave enough to step closer.
I looked at Moon.
Her eyes were soft, but not pitying.
That somehow made it worse.
“I didn’t know I was doing it,” I said quietly.
“I know.”
Not as a dismissal.
As forgiveness she had already decided to offer.
I looked back at the letter because if I kept looking at her, I might not finish it.
You will want to carry every wound alone. Do not. That is not strength, my little prince. That is fear wearing armor.
My jaw tightened.
Solan made a thoughtful sound. “I like your mother.”
I ignored him because I did too.
And because the ache in my throat had become dangerous.
There will come a day when kingdoms try to name you before you have named yourself. Monster. Heir. Weapon. King. Traitor. Savior. Do not accept every crown or chain offered to you. The truth of who you are does not live in their mouths.
Monster.
Heir.
Weapon.
King.
Traitor.
Savior.
The words felt less like warnings and more like things already circling me.
The kingdom had already chosen monster and traitor.
The cabin had given me heir.
Dorian wanted weapon.
Moon looked at me like I was something closer to person.
That one frightened me most.
I loved you before I held you. I loved your sister before she opened her eyes. Whatever you have been told, whatever was taken, whatever sleeps inside you, know this first: you were wanted. You were cherished. You were never the shame of my life. You were its light.
The letter blurred.
I lowered it.
No one spoke.
The forest had sound. Wind. Branches. Someone’s quiet breath. Lord Pebblewick rustling his feathers.
But inside me, everything had gone silent.
You were wanted.
I did not know how to hold that sentence.
It was too large.
Too late.
Too kind.
I had spent years making myself smaller in a house that treated my existence like an inconvenience. I had learned not to ask for seconds. Not to bleed too loudly. Not to look jealous when Callan received praise for doing half of what I was punished for failing to do perfectly.
I had learned to survive as if survival was the closest thing I would ever get to being loved.
And my mother had left a sentence waiting in a hidden room that said I had been wanted all along.
My hand shook.
Moon reached for me.
This time, I reached back first.
Her fingers slipped between mine.
The bond warmed so gently it hurt.
I forced myself to read the last lines.
Go north. Find my uncle. Trust the ring when blood lies and trust your wolf when silence breaks. Auron is not gone. He is waiting beneath what was done to him. And when he rises fully, the world will remember why Frostveil wolves were feared.
Auron.
My wolf’s name on my mother’s page.
A sound moved in my chest, but I swallowed it before it escaped.
I am sorry I cannot give you every answer here. I am sorry this letter must hand you a road instead of peace. But if you are reading this, then you have survived long enough to choose your own path. Choose it, Ashen. Not as Torren Drakewood’s rejected son. Not as SilvaFrost’s broken omega.
The final line sat alone at the bottom.
Choose it as my little prince.
I stared at the words until they burned into me.
Then I folded the letter carefully.
Slowly.
Because if I rushed, I would tear it.
If I tore it, I might break with it.
Nara had tears on her face.
Veyra was looking at the ground.
Solan had gone very quiet.
Moon still held my hand.
I did not know when I had started crying.
Only that my face was wet and I could not make myself care enough to hide it.
“My whole life,” I said, and my voice sounded strange to me. “My whole life was built on a lie.”
Moon’s fingers tightened around mine.
“No,” she said softly.
I looked at her.
Her eyes were bright too.
“Parts of it were lies,” she said. “Cruel ones. But not all of it.”
I wanted to argue.
Then she looked toward Nara.
“She is real.” Her thumb moved against my hand. “Your love for her is real. The way you protected her is real. Auron is real. Your mother’s love was real. The lies do not get to own everything.”
Something in my chest cracked.
Not like Auron’s chain.
Quieter.
More painful.
I bowed my head, still holding the letter.
Moon moved closer.
Not asking this time.
Not because she was taking.
Because I needed.
Her arms came around me carefully, and I let them.
I let my forehead rest against her shoulder.
I let the letter press between us.
I let myself breathe like someone might hold the pieces together if I stopped gripping them so hard.
“I don’t know who I am,” I whispered.
Moon’s hand moved once through my hair.
“You are Ashen.”
“That is not enough.”
“It is enough for me.”
The answer undid me more than any prophecy could have.
Because she said it like truth.
Not comfort.
Truth.
I closed my eyes.
North.
My mother’s uncle.
The old border.
Three frozen rivers.
A blue moon over black pines.
That was where the answers waited.
Why a crown ruler of Frostveil had left her kingdom.
Why she had loved or followed or trusted a man like Torren Drakewood.
Why Auron had been chained.
Why Dorian’s false moonlight mattered.
What destiny had been buried beneath every name I had been forced to wear.
I did not have peace.
I had a road.
Maybe that was all my mother could give me.
Maybe that was all I needed to start.
When I lifted my head, Moon did not let go of my hand.
I did not let go either.
“We go north,” I said.
Nara wiped her face with her sleeve and nodded.
Veyra looked up, eyes older than the forest. “Then we do it quickly.”
Solan sighed and pushed away from the tree. “Wonderful. A secret bloodline, a cursed wolf, a mysterious uncle beyond frozen rivers, and a kingdom hunting us. I was worried the trip might be dull.”
Veyra gave him a flat look. “You are welcome to return to the palace.”
He glanced toward the dark trees behind us.
Then at Moon.
Then at me.
“No,” he said lightly. “Apparently I have developed an allergy to sensible choices.”
Lord Pebblewick cooed.
Solan pointed at him. “Do not judge me, feathered nobility.”
For the first time since opening the letter, I almost smiled.
Almost.
Then I folded my mother’s words and placed them against my chest.
Close to the ring.
Close to the bond.
Close to the wound that was gone but had somehow opened something deeper.
My mother had called me her little prince.
The world had called me monster.
Somewhere north, one of those names would have to become truth.
- Writer
