I read the new letter that Elro had been able to send, a tear silently sliding from my eye.
"What? What's wrong? Is Elro alright?" My mother asked, watching me with concern. I had moved back into the main house after Elro had left. I didn't want to be in the guest house without him, and Mother had no desire to be in the main house alone without Father. Still silent, I handed Mother the hand scrawled letter from Elro. It was my turn to watch her as she read it. Where I had shed just one tear, Mother instead gasped at the last two lines of the letter. I was concerned for his safety, but her reaction was one more of fear.
"What is it, Mother? How bad must things be for him to not want to write anymore?"
She shook her head before answering, "Its as bad as your Father had always warned us."
It was the first time Mother had mentioned him since... Well I tried my hardest not to think about it, but it was hard not to. Elro hadn't even been allowed to come home for the funeral. The King and his men called his death a casualty of war, but those of us in Villam knew better.
"They just don't care," I mumbled under my breath.
"Now dear, you know that isn't true. It's just that everyone has lost so much lately," she said, sadness in her voice, but she gently forced me to look at her as she spoke.
I nodded my head. "How long as it been now, Mother? Since our world was normal?"
In the past, Mother would have said that normal was relevant. Instead she sighed. "Well, its been about one æon since Elro caught that nasty death plague...and he had already been here for roughly one..."
I nodded slowly, "Two æons since things were normal then."
"You have changed much my daughter. Grown," Mother said. 'Bitter' would have been a much better word, they both knew it but neither said it.
"Its just the way of things, Mother."
"I wonder what Elro will say when he comes home."
"If," I reminded her.
"Of course he will! You musn't think like that!" She scolded. "Father sai-"
I quickly cut her off, "If Father knew so much of what was going to happen then why is he gone? And Elro too?"
She pulled me into a hug. At first, I attempted to resist it, giving in as she sighed. "You still don't understand, my child."
