Chapter 55 — Eldrin’s Letter
The letter arrived on an otherwise ordinary morning, delivered by the guild’s regular courier alongside a handful of quest postings and a small, unremarkable stack of correspondence for other adventurers, and Arlen recognized Eldrin’s careful, cramped handwriting immediately.
Arlen,
I hope this finds you well, and that your recovery from the events at Millbrook has been complete. I’ve thought of you often these past weeks, given your part in uncovering the connection between the ruin and everything that followed.
I wanted to share what little progress has come from continued study, both my own and the capital archive’s, though I confess there’s less resolution here than either of us likely hoped for.
The sealed site remains under guild observation, as you know, and Corrin’s residual detachment reports the strange lingering trace he identified after the creature’s destruction has neither faded nor intensified in any measurable way these past weeks. Vessa’s own assessment, relayed through official channels, suggests this may simply be the nature of whatever "containment" originally meant for a being of that sort — not a clean ending, but an ongoing, indefinite state requiring continued vigilance rather than any final resolution.
I won’t pretend that’s a satisfying answer. I suspect it isn’t meant to be one.
My colleague at the capital archive has identified two additional sites, in considerably more distant regions, whose old records describe similar "deep echo" markings. Neither has been properly surveyed in generations. I’ve petitioned for resources to investigate at least one of them properly, though I don’t expect approval anytime soon — capital bureaucracy moves slower than any forest creature I’ve ever had the misfortune of studying.
I mention this partly because I thought you’d want to know, given your role in all of this, and partly because I find myself, more often than I’d like to admit, thinking of your own particular curiosity about the wider world. You struck me, even on our first expedition together, as someone who wants to understand the full shape of things rather than settle for comfortable, incomplete answers. I suspect this unresolved thread will bother you as much as it bothers me.
For what it’s worth, should you ever find yourself traveling toward those distant regions someday, I’d be glad to correspond further, or even accompany you, resources and old bones permitting. The world holds more mysteries than any one lifetime properly allows for, and I find I’d rather share that particular burden with someone who takes the work as seriously as you do.
Take care of yourself. Eat something interesting on my behalf.
— E. Vale
Arlen read the letter twice, sitting alone at his usual corner table, the guild hall’s ordinary morning noise settling comfortably around him despite the letter’s unsettling content.
He thought of Vessa’s own uneasy words from that final briefing, of the pale, colorless shimmer that had lingered over the burn site long after the fire itself should have finished its work. Not a clean ending, but an ongoing, indefinite state. The phrase sat with him uncomfortably, a reminder that some threats, apparently, simply didn’t resolve themselves neatly, however hard-won the immediate victory felt at the time.
He found himself, turning the letter over in his hands, thinking also of the other two sites Eldrin mentioned — distant, unnamed regions holding their own versions of the same old mystery, waiting for someone patient and curious enough to finally investigate them properly.
The world holds more mysteries than any one lifetime properly allows for. He turned the phrase over carefully, recognizing something of his own private philosophy reflected back at him in Eldrin’s careful scholarly words.
He wrote a reply that evening, taking considerably longer over it than the letter’s modest length probably warranted, working through several drafts before settling on something that felt honest without revealing more than he was ready to share.
Professor Eldrin,
Thank you for the update, and for thinking of me. I confess the news doesn’t entirely surprise me, though I’d hoped for something more conclusive.
I think about that night often — the sound it made, the way it looked at us before everything happened. I don’t think I’ll ever fully stop wondering what it meant, or whether we actually resolved anything at all, versus simply postponing whatever comes next.
I’d be glad to correspond further, whenever you learn more. And I meant what I said, back at your first ruin site — I do want to see everything, eventually. If that ever includes those distant regions you mentioned, I’ll remember your offer.
For now, I’m still building toward that — training, growing stronger, trying to make sure that whenever I do finally go looking for the rest of the world’s mysteries, I’m actually prepared to face what I find there.
Eaten anything interesting lately myself, as it happens. A hawk, this time — leaner than I expected, good with sage. I’ll spare you the full details unless you’re genuinely curious.
Take care of yourself as well.
— Arlen
He sealed the letter carefully, arranging for the guild courier to carry it back toward Eldrin’s usual circuit, and sat for a while afterward simply turning over everything the exchange had stirred up in him — the unresolved mystery of Millbrook’s creature, the two distant sites waiting somewhere beyond his current understanding of the world’s shape, the quiet, growing sense that his time in the Ashen Frontier, however formative and necessary, wasn’t meant to be permanent.
Four abilities now, he wrote in his journal that night, the familiar rhythm of reflection settling over him. Real training under Garrett, genuine progress there too, even if formal Awakening hasn’t arrived yet. A goblin camp cleared, a secret partially exposed but carefully contained, thanks to Fennis’s quiet discretion.
And now this letter, reminding me that even the mystery I thought we’d resolved at Millbrook isn’t actually finished — just paused, waiting, the same way Eldrin says the two other sites are waiting for someone to finally investigate them properly.
I used to think the Ashen Frontier was enormous, back when I’d never seen past the outer forest. Then the boundary expedition showed me otherwise. Then Millbrook showed me the world holds dangers I’d never properly imagined. Now Eldrin’s letter reminds me that even the answers I thought I’d earned are only partial ones, with the rest waiting somewhere out past every horizon I haven’t crossed yet.
I don’t know when I’ll finally be ready to go looking for those answers properly. But I understand, more clearly with every letter, every quest, every quiet hour spent testing what I’m becoming, that the day is coming regardless of how patient I choose to be about it.
He closed the journal, the guild hall’s evening rhythm settling comfortably around him, and found himself looking forward, with the same steady, patient anticipation that had carried him through every stage of this life so far, toward whatever finally proved strong enough to carry him past the last horizon the Ashen Frontier had left to offer him.