Chapter 25 — The Letter She Left for Him
Lyra returned to the Heartwell just before dawn.
The stars were fading, the sky softening into pale blue. The pool shimmered quietly, still holding the memory of their last embrace. She knelt beside it, her shawl wrapped around her shoulders, and placed a folded letter on the stone ledge.
She didn't wait for him to find it.
She just… trusted he would.
---
She had written it the night before, curled in her chamber with the moonlight spilling across her desk. Her hand had trembled slightly, not from fear — but from tenderness too big to hold.
> *To the one who let me see,
>
> I dreamed of your sorrow.
> I saw the broken wing.
> I felt the silence you carried like armor.
>
> And I wanted to hold you.*
She paused, letting the ink dry.
> *Not because you are cursed.
> Not because you are king.
>
> But because you are you.*
She had pressed a small flower between the pages — a frostbloom, the same kind she had once sung open with her glow. It was her way of saying: I remember. I believe.
> *You don't have to protect me from your past.
> I want to walk through it with you.
>
> I want to be the one who stays.*
She signed it simply:
> *Lyra — the girl who listens,
> the girl who glows,
> the girl who loves.*
---
When the Dragon King found the letter later that morning, he didn't open it right away.
He sat beside it.
Touched the flower.
And closed his eyes.
Because some letters don't need to be read to be understood.
Some are felt.
And this one — this quiet, glowing thing — was a promise.
Not of fire.
Of forever.