Chapter 3:
Celebratory Cheers
PEOPLE SHOW CHANGE IN the length of their hair, their height, their physique, and their facial structure. Change happens day by day, however subtle. Be it growth, aging, or deterioration, every change, no matter what it is, shows.
So, when someone steps out of their small, unchanging world, the three years spent in that world will have a human impact that shows just how long those years were.
Violette was reading in her room when Marin popped in with a beautiful purple envelope for her.
“Lady Violette, you’ve got a letter.”
“Thanks.”
Just seeing the lovely color of the paper in Marin’s hands immediately told Violette whom the letter was from.
“Is it from Rosette?” Marin asked.
“Yes. The big day is almost here, so she won’t be able to reply for a while. She’ll send me a letter once things settle down.”
“Wow. It’s that time already.”
“Yes. Yulan told me that before. Still, time does fly.”
Violette opened the envelope with a golden letter opener to find a much shorter message than usual; it contained a brief update. They’d been corresponding by mail for several months, and the last time they’d seen each other was before then. At that point, Rosette herself had been unaware of how things would unfold, so naturally Violette hadn’t known either.
“What shall we do to mark the occasion?” Violette asked.
“Master Yulan says he’s making arrangements.”
“But I want to give Rosette a present just from me, not from our household. I know her little bundle of joy will probably receive piles of gifts, but I still want to.”
“I understand… Shall I call a merchant, my lady?”
“I’ll think about it and tell you.”
After Marin left her room, and Violette was alone, she opened the desk drawer. A pile of stationery of the same color sat there. Beside it sat a freshly opened stationery set.
Atop her desk lay a shiny amethyst-hued fountain pen. That was one of the pens she and Rosette had promised to get during their school days; Rosette had its twin. When they wrote each other letters, they always used those special pens. They hadn’t set a fixed frequency for those messages—over the last year, the twice-monthly letters had waned to one every month or two. The reason was quite simple: Rosette was with child.
“Her first baby…”
In Rosette’s third year as crown princess, news of her pregnancy spread all throughout Duralia. Ignoring the complaints elders hurled at them about rushing irresponsibly, Rosette and Claudia poured themselves into their public duties as a married couple. Once Rosette had acclimated to Duralia and her life in it, she sent a letter to Violette informing her of the happy, surreal news.
Violette had a hard time imagining it. That was partly because she was never around pregnancy or babies, but somebody her own age being pregnant was even more difficult to fathom. That was exacerbated by the fact that she never saw Rosette. Ever since the princess had shared the news with her, Violette had sometimes gotten updates from Yulan, who did see her friend occasionally. Although the two girls didn’t see each other face-to-face, they exchanged gifts now and then. And Violette recalled Rosette mentioning in a letter a while ago how she was so overprotected that just strolling in the garden was an ordeal.
Yulan is preparing a special gift for the crown prince and princess from the Cugurs, but I want to give Rosette something just from me…
She wanted to give a gift not to the crown princess but to her friend. What would she like, though? Flowers or jewels were typical, but Rosette didn’t particularly care for such things.
Violette sat in her desk chair, letting her sinking body weight spin the chair around. Leaning against the backrest and crossing her legs, she resembled a mob boss. The intense aura she exhibited even when she was slouching hadn’t diminished one bit over the years.
“Wow… It’s already been a year.”
Technically, it had been a little less than that—ten months. She and Rosette hadn’t seen each other for a long enough time for a baby to come to term.
Even the day she’d stood far off while the rest of the kingdom erupted in celebratory cheers was a faded memory now. Very soon, Duralia would raise a glass to a new blessing, the celebration of which would extend beyond its borders. Violette felt like the whole thing was just a dream, and she was watching it as an outsider, far, far away.