(⚠️) Earth Song | FE Fates

(/\) 15: Mass

Mass

She did not get much rest that night. She stayed up late, scratching out a letter to Iseabail, trying to describe all that was going on as calmly and reassuringly as she possibly could, all while being grammatically correct. The end result was a blooming headache and a letter still afflicted with spelling errors:

Hello, Old Mother, this es Catoena writeeng. I have not ben doun to visit you and the others becase I have ben relocatet to Castle Crakenburg, a strongholt just outside the Nohreen capital of Windmyre. Pleese do not worry. I am perfectly fine. I did not now that I would be coming heer until I had already left, els I wood have told you.

I don't know how long I will be staying heer, but I expect that I will not be seeeng you aneetime soon. I am so sorry, Old Mother, that I have left you and the others in that place, alon and with no one to vowch for your needs. Beleeve me when I say that I am constantly thinking abowt you, and how I can help you from afar. I am working on secyuring you some time to excersise, but so far, I have not ben given that approoval. However, I have ben given permishon to send you a letter from tyme to tyme, so please come to expect regoolar updates from mee. I will write to you as often as I am allowt.

I love you. Please tell the others that I theenk of them.

When she finally went to bed, putting the letter aside, she found that she could not sleep for thoughts of Leo. His willingness to help her communicate with Iseabail made her see him in a different light. A light that made her heart pound when she imagined the planes of his face, made her skin prickle at the image of the pale gold of his hair, the sweetness of his rare smiles. She felt weak inside, achingly weak at the memory of his touch.

It was little wonder then, when she finally drifted off, that he invaded her dreams. In them, he wore white armor, the color stark and divine against the hard green of the grass underfoot. A warm, delicious breeze swept his long cape out behind him and brushed his bangs out of his eyes, and he gave her a sweet, kind smile as he held his hand out to her, to where she knelt on the grass.

When she took it and rose, he guided her forward, to the top of a green hill from which they could see a windswept field bursting with wildflowers. Petals sweetened the air, twisting up in eddies around them into the cloudless blue sky, blustering Leo's cape and Katonah's skirts all around them. Leo said something to her, but his words were lost over the wind, carried off like the flower petals. When she asked him to repeat, he instead pointed with a white glove to the bowl of the valley. She fought to make out his words, but couldn't...

Then, it was morning. She sat up to the sound of three housemaids begging her pardon and coming in, stoking the fire, as Matilda had back at the Northern Fortress, and lighting the candles she'd blown out last night. As the third helped her out of bed, pulling back her blankets, Elise appeared in the doorway.

"Up and at 'em, Kat!" she called, stepping into the room. She was dressed in a long black gown, a lacy shawl sitting overtop her bare shoulders. Her hair was wrung out into one long, golden twist that fell over one shoulder, cinched at the end with a black ribbon. Her makeup was well done, the kohl around her eyes and the skillfully applied redness to her cheeks making her appear several years older than she actually was.

"You look lovely, Elise," Katonah commented.

"Thank you! You will too, in a moment. Look at what Camilla's rolled out for you today!" The girl patted a dark length of cloth she had pinioned under one arm. "Another donation from her massive wardrobe."

"Thank you," Katonah said, frowning. "But...what's the occasion?"

"Mass," Elise explained. "It's Sunday."