Vagabond

Dearest Lorena,

Only the brave dare to cross the bridge between reality as we know it. Only the foolish follow the ocean's waves when the sun sets. But when the storm comes, why does the butterfly continue on its journey? Because it knows somewhere out there, it preys on its next target to enter the loop. Its journey to the target is a long and winding road, and it must persevere through the struggle. No matter the cost.

Once the answer is clear, perhaps we will all return together. The Knight's Guild, for now, is at three of its four members. Or, maybe, you will face temptation one day. You will follow through on that temptation, and you will reach us before we are done. Then, The Knight's Guild will officially be one again.

Why does the butterfly go on its journey? Because it has a destination to reach, and it will persevere through the struggle to reach that destination. You have always said you had an unfulfilled journey to find. In a sense, you are the butterfly, and you need to determine both the journey and the destination.

No matter the cost.

Best Regards,
Ultima Knight.

Hours. She'd been sitting, standing, shifting around her desk for hours, wishing for once in her life, things would make sense.

Sometimes, she believed it did. Back in a simple, now distant past, where four knights ruled their dainty village with all the grace in wisdom in their world. Four wanderers, all brought together through fate and its unconventional circumstances, all descendents of broken legacies, broken creeds, and broken prophecies, left to band together to rule. They were mentors, scholars, always teaching the concept of honor and how it was not sought, but came to you through selfless acts and good deeds.

Wanderers could not be bound for too long, she realized. It was only so long before they became restless, before they had to travel again. So when one by one, they left behind their very teachings, she tried to tell herself that's just how it went. That was how it had to be. The world could not sustain their insatiable greed for glory, so they betrayed their duties and themselves, leaving her the only member of The Knight's Guild. Left to carry on their tarnished legacy.

Abandonment. A single, bitter word to describe what they had truly done to her, which she had denied for so long. When the scroll was found, she hoped it would give her real answers. An explanation to why they fell apart over the years. An apology regarding how after claiming to be one, they disappeared without ever saying goodbye. Something, anything to bring a glimpse back to better days and quiet times, in the weeks it spent learning to trust again with people who seemed to care for her so much.

The eldest had finally reached her again. Her heart stopped when at last, she reached the end of the letter, and there it was: in the same beautiful cursive she remembered, his name. One she hadn't heard in so long... and in all the eloquent words above, he decided to speak to her in cryptics.

All she could make sense of was the mention of the butterfly. That damned creature, the gateway to each knight's disappearance; the "opportunity," the temptation to live a more glorious life. She had seen it herself, and the memory was hard to relive. Then there were all the other things. The "loop." The "bridge between reality." All something from a tall tale, a bedtime story, a legend. She would never understand any of it. The meaning behind all these strange terms. Why someone who was always clear and simple would write to her in riddles.

Why three people who always preached about small victories could suddenly no longer tolerate a small life.

She reread the scroll. Five times. Ten times, until her head spun and she had to stay sitting; until she determined there was no direct answer behind the crazed words of Ultima Knight. She picked up the portrait atop the desk, which gleamed to her under the dimmed light of the hall. Her glimpse to days happy and carefree, before one by one, they vanished.