Letter to a foreign country

[castorlion.livejournal.com]

"I wish you were here." Tor said, quietly.

The person he was talking to couldn't hear him, of course. She was sitting on a hillside, staring up at the sky. It was later there than it was in London, and her red hair was muted almost to black in the pale light. Still, from this angle it almost looked as though she was looking up at Tor, and that was almost good enough; Tor could pretend, for now.

"It's all gone a bit wrong, you see" he explained. "Lady Astraea, she... it turns out she's been telling people that you raped her. And Galehaut, well.."

He paused for a moment, remembering, rubbing at the strange runes in the ornate gilt frame with his sleeve distractedly.

"He was horrified, as you might expect, the way he worships the paragons. He didn't know what to think. His holy saint, pronouncing from on high. He doesn't know who to believe."

Tor realised this was likely to provoke an explosion, and hurriedly continued, to forstall a bout of Alex's famed temper. "He's just confused. You know how he feels about the seasons, of course."

"And Lucan... You'd have been proud of him, I think. He called out the person saying those horrible things about you - and the guy backed down."

Abruptly, he slumped slightly. "But... it's been said, now, and publically. And I don't know how to answer that. I'm hoping it's going to go away, but I don't know how to make it go away. Normally I'd talk to Gale about it, but... we argued, last time I tried. He shouted at me, told me my attitude was bad. How can my attitude be bad? You didn't do it!"

"If you were here, she'd never have said it. If you were here, none of this would be happening, and Gale wouldn't be all wierd." Tor wiped a wet smear off the surface of the mirror. "If you were here, I would be able to talk to my sister."

Tor laid his cheek against the surface of the mirror. It was cold, and unyielding, and made of glass.