Gallimaufry

Writing Prompt: Letters

As he flicked through the letters, a small, handwritten envelope caught his attention and his heart began to thump...

Even though the rest of them were old, soft from years of use, the paper of the smallest one was crisp, fresh, new. It was impossible, she had been gone for centuries now. No one had entered this office since the day they had found it in shambles, windows smashed, blood splattered across the walls of books. 

With a shudder, he glanced up from the letter that looked as if it had been written by her only hours ago, the smell of ink still in the air as he glanced around the dusty, forgotten room. The last of the Knights had disappeared four hundred years ago from this very place. They had cleaned up the blood, re-organized  the books and papers and replaced the windows, hoping that she had merely given chase to whatever had come for her that night. 

Her body had never been found. 

His ancestors had finally sealed up the office as the last of those who remembered her lay on death beds from old age. The Knights had been immortal, they had saved humanity from destruction, and then they had disappeared. Even the one who was supposed to stay behind, to remain and watch, had eventually left. 

The books remained on their shelves, though he feared if any of them were to be pulled down, they would simply begin to fall apart from old age and lack of proper care. Most of the paper was yellowed and brittle, the floor and decaying furniture covered in more dust than he had ever seen. 

The rest of the letters were dispatches, intelligence of forces moving throughout the country. In the two hundred years that the Lady Knight had served the regents of this country, she had become a military advisor of sorts, as the Knights had killed all of the evil creatures that they had been created to fight. He knew that from his family's military history. They had even kept the title of Knight-Commander for the Regent's Military commander.  He gingerly went through the opened letters, avoiding that other one, that fresh, impossible letter that pressed into his palm under the rest of the ancient papers, telling him of things he had learned about in history books and lessons. 

Finally, there was nothing else left to read but that small, sealed envelope. 

To the Regent who needs this.

He shuddered at what that could mean, glancing around the room, watching the dust motes float through the late afternoon sunshine, from where it filtered through the heavy, mouldy drapes that miraculously still hung over the windows. Two villages had been found destroyed in the past month, everyone slaughtered, traces of Cael-fire  streaking across the ground. He had opened up this nearly-forgotten office in hopes of finding a book that could tell him what they were dealing with. 

Instead, he had seen the pile of letters sitting on the desk and hadn't made it to any of the bookshelves, which lined all the walls and were filled with scrolls, old tomes and leather paper sheafs in a haphazard manner. Had it been the Knight's way? Or had it been a hasty cleaning job?

He didn't want to need the letter. Seeing it, he realized that his hopes that the villages had been attacked by raiders who were seeking to hide their existence by pretending to be monsters out of myths, were very unlikely. 

With a shudder, he put the other papers back down on the desk with one hand as he turned the letter over, frowning as he saw the seal of the Lady Knight on the back. A lion with the wings of an eagle, surrounded by stars. She had been called the Dark One. She had been the fiercest fighter of them all, an outsider amongst the Knights, she had maintained the humanity of the Knights, despite being the least human out of the group of them. She had saved and protected four generations of his ancestors, and then she had abandoned them all. 

He opened the letter, running his finger along the top edge, dragging the hidden claw of his royal signet ring across it, before slipping his fingers in and pulling out the thin, folded piece of paper. Surely there was more than this?

Majesty, 

If you're reading this, I was right. They weren't all gone, though the Council of Knights would not respond to my insistence that they return. The one that came to attack me tonight, was not a one off, a lone survivor.  

I need to trace its steps, find its portal, and fight them in their own lands. To seal the way here, and prevent this war from restarting. 

I have hope that I can hunt them down before they truly make a come back, but if I can't, this letter will call me home. I know you would have preferred if I had brought your Commander with me, or even made a report in person, but the trail is disappearing. 

Xeya.

"Majesty." The voice of Bonnie jerked him out of his reverie, bringing him back into the present moment to notice that the room had become dark, with only the light from the hallway helping to illuminate it. 

Bonnie was his top fighter, his friend, the General he had been certain that he was going to appoint to Knight Commander in the coming weeks, since the retirement of his mother's own Commander, who had remained to help him as a young Regent the past couple of years. She had zero tolerance for nonsense, barely believed in the mythical Knights or the monsters that they had fought, but she was smart. She was tactical, she was reliable.  And she was watching him with a dark, thoughtful expression, her brown eyes dropping to look at the letter in his hands, "What's that?" 

"A letter from the past." he murmured softly, before handing it over to her, raising that hand to run through his hair now that it was free. 

"I'll investigate, to find out who had broken into this room before you arrived here." Bonnie said simply, folding the paper up and glancing around the room, before turning towards where a couple more of the Royal Guard stood, waiting for commands. 

Before she could open her mouth to give them, however, the hallways beyond were filled with the noise of running feet and excited yelling.