ASHES OF VALOR

Special chapter

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SEASON 2 FINALE: KAEL'S PROMISE

That night after meeting Sera on the bridge, Kael couldn't sleep.

She sat in her room at Valor School and wrote three letters.

The first letter was to Jace's mother.

"Dear Mama Jace, Your son was not weak. He was the bravest boy I knew. He saved my life with a black box that had the truth. He wanted to be a teacher. I built a school for him. Every child who learns to read here learns because of Jace. He is not gone. His dream lives in every book we open. I promise I will keep his dream alive. - Kael Drax"

The second letter was to Mira's little sister, the fifteen year old girl who came to the school with Mira's eyes.

"To my little sister, You asked if Mira suffered. She did not. She was brave till the end. She was singing when it happened. She was talking about you. She said you were good at drawing and that you wanted to be an artist. I keep her knife on her grave, but I keep her laugh in my heart. You can stay here as long as you want. This is your home now too. We will make an art room for you, just for Mira. - Kael"

The third letter was to Colt's baby girl, who Kael had never met but whose picture Colt always carried in his pocket.

"To Baby Colt, I never met your father, but I knew him for one day and that was enough to know he was a good man. He was strong and kind. He talked about you the whole time in the depot. He said you had his eyes and your mother's smile. He died so you could live in a world without war. I will make sure that world happens. I will build it for you. I promise you. - Kael"

Kael folded the three letters carefully. She would give them tomorrow to the families.

Eli knocked and came in. He had hot tea.

"You are writing again?" he asked.

"Finishing," Kael said. "So I don't forget why I started."

Eli sat next to her by the fire. "Sera's peace meeting... are you scared for tomorrow?"

"Yes," Kael said honestly. It was the first time she admitted it. "If peace fails, ten thousand soldiers come from the North in spring. They will burn this school."

"And if peace works?" Eli asked.

"Then we have to teach ten thousand soldiers how to be teachers, farmers, builders. That is harder than fighting. How do you teach a man who only knows how to hold a gun to hold a book?"

Eli laughed softly. "You can do it. You taught Kane how to be kind. If you can teach General Kane, you can teach anyone in this world."

Kael laughed too. For the first time in a long time, the school felt warm and safe, not like a bunker.

Outside, snow fell on the three graves behind the school. Jace, Mira, Colt. But inside Valor School, thirty kids were sleeping, safe, dreaming of being teachers and doctors and artists.

And on the broken bridge to the north, Commander Sera was also writing letters in her own language, to her own dead brother, promising the same thing: No more war.

Two women, once enemies, writing the same promise on opposite sides of a broken bridge.

Tomorrow, they would try to stop a war with only words.

Tonight, they just wrote letters to the people they couldn't save, so they would never forget why they were trying so hard to save everyone else.

THE END OF SEASON 2

NEXT: SEASON 3 - THE PEACE WAR

By NIMCO !