Every day, someone wanted access to Palmeni Temple.
Elena never was on guard duty herself, of course, and she never saw any of the visitors firsthand, but she heard the guards' complaints. First a traveling monk, then a merchant, then a homeless man… Always someone wearing a cloak, that was odd, but more important was how insistent they were. Palmeni Temple had been picked specifically for how few visitors it had, so why were all these people showing up now?
The heron had been hidden upstairs for months. No one knew that she was here… right?
It was a few weeks after the daily visits started that Elena returned to the upstairs room carrying a tray with Lillia's dinner, expecting the familiar sight of a pale heron lying upon her bed.
Instead, she saw a cloaked figure leaned over the bed, quietly conversing with Lillia in that foreign tongue that the heron spoke in.
In her surprise Elena dropped the tray; it fell to the floor with a loud crash. Startled, the figure looked up, revealing a flash of blue (hair?) before it (no, it was probably a he) clutched his cloak further around himself.
"…" Elena busied herself with cleaning up the mess. As she worked, she spoke softly. "How did you get in?"
"Bribed the guards," he answered in the beorc tongue. As he spoke, Lillia attempted to sit up, but relaxed as the man again cooed to her in the heron language.
"I did always say they should have paid them more…" Elena murmured, not looking up from the broken dishes. "Ah, I've spilled all your water, Lillia…. I'll have to get some more. Excuse me."
The spilled water was easily explained - Elena had tripped over the stairs more than once - and soon she returned to the room, finding it almost exactly as she left it.
"If you want to rescue her," she told the visitor quietly, "I won't stop you."
"…It wouldn't work," he answered without looking at her. "She's too weak to move, much less fly, and the guards will shoot her if we try to escape. I'm surprised they haven't shot her already."
He slipped back into that foreign tongue, and Lillia looked up at him and murmured, "Naesala…"
"I finally found you, and there's nothing I can do to help you…" he replied gently. "Such is life, I suppose, but… if only…"
Lillia smiled and whispered something else, but he shook his head fervently. "I am not leaving you here to die," he insisted, repeating it in the other language.
The heron answered him in a soft voice.
"…If that is what you want me to do." He stood, and turned towards Elena. "Thank you," he said simply. Then he brushed past her and exited.
Elena sighed and placed the glass of water on Lillia's bedside.
"Elena…" a soft voice called.
Elena knelt by the heron's bedside. "Lillia?"
"Paper…" Lillia answered weakly.
Elena pressed a sheet into her hands, followed by a quill and ink.
Slowly, Lillia wrote her letter. When she finished, she handed it to Elena. "Naesala."
"The man who came by?" the cleric asked.
Lillia nodded.
"If I see him, I will give him this," Elena promised as she took the letter. "Now please rest."
"Your Majesty," Elena began. "May I request a favor of you?"
"Say it, and it will be done," Caineghis answered.
"I have a message I swore I would deliver," she explained, "but I know nothing of the intended recipient except that his name is Naesala and he was the friend of my close friend."
"The king of Kilvas?" he asked.
"I don't know," she answered truthfully.
"One of my messengers will take it there - it is no trouble," he replied.
She bowed. "I am in your debt, Your Majesty."
"Sir, there's a letter for you from Gallia," a raven announced.
"Read it, then. Probably a rebuke or some such thing," Naesala muttered without looking at the soldier.
There was a shuffling of paper, and then, "…I can't read it, sir. I don't know the script."
"What? Then Reyson has - no, what would he be doing in Gallia, he's in Phoenicis with that hawk - perhaps Lorazieh has recovered at last and - bring it here!" he ordered.
Wordlessly, the messenger handed him the page.
Naesala,
This will probably be the last thing I ever write. I would write to my brother, but Elena wouldn't know where to find him.
I will die soon. Don't blame yourself - you couldn't have changed it. At least I spent the last months of my life with someone who cared about me. Elena has been so very kind to me - you would have liked her, I'm sure.
Tell Reyson I love him. Tell Father, too, when he wakes.
I'm sorry for worrying you, but I'm so glad you told me that my brother lived. Without that knowledge, I don't think I would have survived this long. Thank you.
I love you.
-Lillia
"Sir?" the raven interrupted after a few moments had passed.
Naesala looked up. "Find me something to write with," he replied shortly.
"Lillia wrote that you came to her once," Reyson told him. "On the walls of her room."
"I noticed that writing when I was there," Naesala answered. "I tried to tell you that she was still alive, but you refused to speak to me. I have Lillia's last letter, if you'd like to read it."
"She wrote a letter?" the heron asked. "But - how did you-?"
"From what I understand, she gave the letter to her beorc friend, who gave it to King Gallia, who sent it to me," Naesala explained, digging it out of his pocket. "Here. It's a little worse for wear - a decade and a half has not been kind to it - but still readable."
"…you didn't save her." Reyson's voice was flat.
Naesala sighed. "She asked me not to. I don't think I could have even if she hadn't."
Wordlessly, Reyson took the letter from him and read over it silently.
Then he looked up. "Ike is Elena's son, you know."
"I suspected that," the raven answered nonchalantly. "There's a certain resemblance. I wonder if she ever got that letter I sent her…"
Elena,
I trust Caineghis will be able to deliver this message to you. If not, there's not really much point in me writing this, so…
She told me you were her only companion for those long months, and the only friend she saw in her last days. Whatever poor measures of gratitude I have are yours. I don't say this often, but I am truly in your debt.
Lillia asked me to tell her brother that she was still alive, but he won't see me, and now… Perhaps it's best that he thinks she died quickly.
If you see her again before me, tell her I love her, too.
-Naesala