Departed

Chapter 34: Lessons Learned

Lloyd's POV

     The Bounty's air seemed stale even though my friends had been living in it during my stay at the hospital. It felt too clean, too lifeless. Even my bed was perfectly made, without a wrinkle or pillow out of place. Normally, it was a mess, a victim of Kai and Cole often shoving each other around. My chest twinged with each step I took, but it was a minor feeling compared to the relief of returning home. I had trust fallen on my bed soon after I saw it, only to get yelled at by Nya for putting my recovery in danger. The next few days were filled with warnings from my friends to not push myself too hard. However, it was difficult to just sit around after being in the small hospital room for weeks.

     Only a day into life back at the Bounty did Cole bring up emptying out Morro's old room. Apparently, none of them had touched it after the battle, partly out of respect, and partly because there was no need to. Now that Seliel spent her time sleeping in the Bounty's library, I assumed Cole wanted to give her decent set of living quarters. We hadn't told Harumi about the plan since she was still in a pretty fragile state.

     Cole had brought the cleaning supplies and I had brought a trash can. When we opened Morro's old door, we both immediately froze in shock.

     The bed was made. The closet was emptied out. Even the small desk in the corner had everything perfectly aligned on it. It was like Morro had known he wouldn't be staying in the room again. We cautiously entered, feeling incredibly suspicious. A thick layer of dust coated all the furniture, but other than that, everything was immaculate.

     On the bed there was a sack with a note attached to it.

     "Don't let her have these." Cole read it aloud, tearing through the bag to find Morro's old clothes and toiletries. He pulled out a chessboard and stared at it. "He had a chessboard?"

     I had moved over to the desk, which still had a pot of dried out ink sitting next to a letter. The only reason I had noticed it was because a single chess piece sat upright on the desk. It was a wooden pawn, intricately carved from an unfamiliar type of wood. I set down the trash bag to examine the piece, only to find a letter underneath it. I blew the dust off of the top of the paper.

     Harumi.

     I peered at the dirty envelope which encased Harumi's name in intricate letters.

     "What is that?" Cole asked from across the room, putting Morro's old items back in the bag.

     "It's a letter." I stared at it, suddenly realizing that Morro probably wrote this. "It's for Harumi."

     Cole muttered something inaudible as his gaze switched from the paper to the bag.

     "So, he packed everything up and wrote her a letter. I mean, it's almost like he knew he was going to—" Cole looked up in shock. "Wait a minute, do you think he knew?"

     I stared at the letter again, trying to make sense of the reality it presented us with. "I think we should give this to Harumi."

     "We have to read it first. If she gets her hands on this..." Cole sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Harumi was literally on death's door after she heard Morro died. If she learned he might have known and didn't tell her..."

     I shook my head. As much as Cole's point was logical, somewhere inside me I knew it was wrong to keep this from her. Morro had written this for Harumi; it wasn't our place to pry on his last words. "We're going to give this to her, and if she pleases, she can tell us what it says."

     Cole started to protest, only to stop at the look on my face. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you."

     He was right about Harumi. The minute she carefully opened the letter and started reading the contents, her face paled to an unhealthy shade. By the time she put the papers down, she was shaking. Before any of us could ask what Morro had written, she had fled to her room. She didn't come out of it for the rest of the day.