The Knights Return

The two knights had returned. Their mission alongside the Queen of Lumna had been successful though there was some surprising news they brought back. The queen's husband apparently wasn't dead. It took a while of explaining from the two for Heron to understand what apparently had happened there.

He had known King Arrion was a shapeshifter, though it wasn't talked about a whole lot. Apparently that had been the root cause of how they had assumed him dead only for him to go with them to Nix'Ryl with no one the wiser.

Heron had a feeling that incident would be talked about for years to come.

Anyway, Heron told the two to take two weeks off as they had done good and probably needed a break. Kion cheered as his brother shook his head with a smile.

They left, Aklane bowing as they did(Kion was too absorbed in his plans for the time off to remember the etiquette) leaving Heron alone in his study. The young king smiled to himself. He was glad that that trip of vengeance had been so successful. None of their number had died, though they had mentioned one of Jarenkul's scouts had been surprisingly accident prone.

As he leaned back in his chair, deep in thought, Elswyth entered. She walked over and dropped a parchment on his lap. "It's from Kur." Was her only explanation.

But just that immediately brightened Heron up as relief flooded through him. He had been worried about him, and it was a relief to know he was up and able to write.

The letter itself was warm, if it had a note of loneliness. It appeared Tira was one of the rangers who had gone, so Kur was missing her. He didn't say much on it, but Heron was familiar enough with the other wizard to read between the lines. Kur was despondent to not have his best friend/crush nearby.

Heron smiled to himself at his friend's lonely feelings that bled through – even though it was obvious he was trying not to let it show. He wanted to comfort Kur so he wrote something encouraging back that was filled with all the warmth and affection he could convey on a piece of paper.

He was aware as he wrote that Elswyth was peering over his shoulder. But he didn't really care. It wasn't that private that he felt uncomfortable with Elswyth seeing it. Other people would be one thing but with Elswyth he really didn't have a problem with it.

Well, other than with his sister's letters, but that was more because of a very specific topic that was highly uncomfortable.

But he didn't mind for anything else. Elswyth was a very close and dear friend after all.

After sending the letter he pulled some papers closer, ready to go over them. However Elswyth laid her hand on his and suddenly starting scolding him, "I get that you have work to do, Your Majesty." Lots of emphasis on those last two words. "But you also haven't eaten all day."

"Yeah. I suppose you're right." Heron had gotten too busy. "But please Elswyth just call me by name, otherwise it gives me goosebumps."

She laughed.