TASK ONE

❝ THE SURVIVOR'S LETTER ❞

10 PM — DINAH'S BEDROOM, NORTH WING, RUCIA'S CASTLE.

        The melancholy illumina of the night sky kept her at bay, as the trickling dew dripped down her windowsills. The day hath ended and all the ruckus of before soon distilled into the quaint quietness of the twilight hour, the chaos that had previously been ensued all together at the start of the previous week seemed to have made the woman quite reluctant to even call this occasion a royal selection. I mean, all that seemed to happen were mere fiascos. Oh, well, life was not always so easy, even for the ones on top.

Whilst Dinah gazed profoundly onto the dampened window, with the moonlight seeping through the cloudy mist that sprayed all over it, a knock on the door triggered her attention and drag it away from the stormy clamor. Her onyx optics drifting past the dark sheets and soon to the spruce wood door, her bare face prompted towards the large furniture. Gliding softly with her bare feet, the woman laced her delicate hands around the door's knob and finally parted it open for the affiliate to pass a letter into her hands. One of which seemed to be a sort of task.

" Thank you." As the noble lady gave her thanks, her eyes quickly paced onto the inked parchment, only to be fixated with a slight change in her elegant expression, " someone... I love? " it seems that Dinah looked quite a bit dumbfounded and was caught off guard by this statement, she found it odd that the royals themselves had requested upon this peculiar theme. But yet again, all things in life were unpredictable, even by great minds. Soon, she found herself being fitted back into the realm of reality outside of her bewildered state, hollered on by the maid outside her doorstep as she gave a sweet smile towards the selected in a daze.

" indeed my lady! " the lively spoken staff supported, her tight kept locks in the lifted updo bouncing along with her jolly expression.

"I see," placing back down the piece of announcement, Dinah gave a soft hum to the exuberant and robust brunette, her taller figure having to knob down a bit before acquainting in a subtle effect of a smile. It was not a properly outstretched one, such as that Rachel held, but it functioned adequately with her sophisticated features." well, thank you yet again, Rachel." Saying their little goodbyes, dinah found herself a bit occupied and rather perplexed upon what to do. 

hesitation and a long pause had confined the girl from dipping her pen into the ink, her blank orbs shifting onto the fresh parchment before she can only lace with calligraphy, a letter of few words and a story. One that only the person she had acquainted this to specifically, can predict and discover whatever emotions she carried onto it;

' dear Euphrates,

I've learned to live now, be at ease.

sincerely yours,
Dinah. '

how mysterious indeed. It was not only short but oddly abrupt of a message - yet at the same time, it felt complete - like she did not need to add on more or cramp in a speck of further salutations. It was undeniable that Dinah was someone who held a mystery to her, maybe more so than others, but that might just be Kalum's charms.

Picking herself up from her vanity's chair, the lady in velvet robes seemed to have had raced towards her door as to how the maid that addressed this letter to her was still prancing about on her way to the staff's portion of the bedroom hallways, or of the castle. " Miss Rachel-" the ravenette's vocal chords escalated a bit in a higher and louder pitching, her eyes widening and hand held up to plot the attention of the matter towards the missive and the letter.

"oh my! lady dinah what is it?-" Being frightened herself, Rachel held a stance that of a dear in headlights, all before finally progressing into a more stable and understanding composure, "oh! the letter? and another? but!" and yet, as the maid desired to press on for more queries, she was held back when dinah secured the items into her hands and folded over them with her own.

" it is completed, not need to fret." was the aristocrat's docile admonision, eyes oozing with steadfastness in the agreement of her very own statement.

With a gaze and confidence such as Dinah's, the maid no longer needed to do what she desired before, "Ah, I see, then pardon me! Have a good night's rest, my lady!" Holding the pieces of handwritten gifts onto her chest carefully, the sunny persona had fleeted towards her destination.

" How foolish of me," soon after locking the room's entrance and having placed herself back within the unit of her lonesome chambers, the selected weaved out some words of - what seemed to have been -  frustration. " to send letters to someone who is no longer living.." Shocking! Had it been because of her lack of parents and relatives? Hm, it might just be so. How, somber.

" oh well, who else to entitle but that ancient soul." Depositing herself underneath the thick, comforting layer of cushions, the tranced lady positioned her thoughts about her regret in composing such an idiocy of a letter. People might just call her crazy if the messengers of that letter found nothing but a grave, but at this point, Dinah could no longer turn back. It was done and finished. Completed and executed. Ugh, it made her embarrassed knowing the questions she would have to face for not just the brevity of the contents, but also for the abnormality of the reciever's lack of presence.

But nonetheless, the contemplating female tossed those thoughts aside and prepared herself for whatever mental scar she would have to endure the pain of by tomorrow. Now, she had her sights upon the person that was 'Euphrates'. Who is this chap anyway? I would like to know as much as anyone else would, since nothing in the letter specified if the two were just associates or relatives or maybe even lovers.

" I wonder how it'll be if the circumstances were different." Dinah's voice echoed off her bedroom's walls, eyes chained to the floor and then moved on up to the void of a ceiling with the flickering actions of the chandelier. Her mind was just like the item, flickering back and forth from being blank to being filled up by a spontaneous amount of scenarios about this mystery person.

" Will you laugh and tell me to do the same?" Whilst she spoke she had shook her head before she could continue any more further in her statement, heaving out another hefty sigh full of solemness in it, the selected tossled and turned within her covers.

" or perhaps," And there it was the start of how she had realized that she was once more, alone in this world,  and that looking up from her bedroom window, she felt her heartache and the familiar cloudiness of her perception. " you'd help me realize my frailty once again."  The feeling of the synonymous element that was compared with the storm had dragged themselves across her delicate features, dampening them like the pattering rain of the night sky, also pit pattering down to her rich duvets.

" When will I ever feel unempty? "

That night, dinah wrestled once more. And unfortunately, had lost the fight of depression's taunting, soon finding herself weeping in a phase that seemed unending.

END.