Calytrix's Journey

Part II: Fiancé

I was half a day's walk away from the citadel when somebody stopped me. It was a blonde man dressed in light armor on a horse that presented himself as a postman. He handed me a big box full of letters. They were all invitations to my fiancé's estate, from Leo. I immediately turned my attention to the letters and the postman disappeared suudenly, without giving me a chance to talk with him. How did he find me and why am I getting this letter now?

Leo never got a single reply to any of the letters but he kept writing them. I couldn't have sent my replies even if I wanted because this was the first time I received them. The strange thing is that I never changed my address but the fiancé didn't know it. He kept sending the letters at different, wrong addresses. Did the messenger make a mistake or there was more to it? 

It was customary for every witch to have a fiancé decided at the time of birth, but it was an ancient custom. Nowadays, I don't think anyone of the paired ones actually married. Some of them even never saw each other faces. Immediately, after a witch's birth, a messenger is supposed to arrive at the fiancé's house to inform him, but now that I think that, I had no idea who the messenger was, or how the pairs were made. I could send my parents a letter to ask them, but asking about it out of the blue would be awkward. I'll postpone it until I meet them again face to face when I come back to visit my old home. 

Truthfully, I never planned on going there, but after seeing all of them I felt an obligation to go since there were so many of them. There was clearly a reason I had to be there. Perhaps one that didn't have much connection with our fiancé status, but rather with my magic. He could have written me a normal request or he could have sent it to any other witch, but he chose to do it in such a manner. It might have been because this was supposed to be a secret, but my previous reasoning could be completely wrong. Anyhow, I was curious so I decided to go to the place and check it out. It was close to the main road I was currently at.

Luckily, the weather was good. I took my time walking, it was a warm spring day. Green crops filled my sight as long as my eye could see. The road had a few bumps here and there but nothing that would present a major obstacle. According to my map, I already entered the premises of his estate. Leo's family were farmers for generations, but in the last three generations, their wealth increased tremendously by some new agricultural techniques that brought them more quality and quantity to their products. Since this was a world partially ruled by money, their current ambition was to rise ranks and become aristocrats. That would certainly be impressive to many girls but not to me. I am a witch and we witches have our own hierarchy. Separate from non-magical humans, but the big decrease in witches over the last century led to a quasi anarchic state where almost all the witches had the same social status. 

I checked my map once again to see if I was going in the right direction because I didn't encounter any workers or animals. I thought I'd see at least someone, but maybe they were doing something else. I'm not knowledgeable enough about agriculture so this could be normal. My direction was right. I just needed to keep going straight and I'd arrive at the main house. The big walls surrounding the house started to become noticeable very soon. I looked at Leo's picture from one of the letters again hoping I'll be able to recognize him as soon as I see him, but the first people I encounter will probably be servants. I'll have to explain to them who I am and they should take me to their young master.

It got colder all of a sudden and I immediately regretted not having a warm cape. The fog started to rise. I was confused with such a sudden weather change. None of nature's element's informed me about this. As I pondered about it, the fog surrounded me to the point I could only see whiteness in front of me. I knew something was wrong, but I lost my orientation so I just kept walking straight hoping I'll get somewhere from where I could tell my position.