Khaeris Dawndancer

Special

(( From a prompt on Tumblr ))

Khaeris slid onto the bench under her fold-down table. Her tea sat nearby, steam dancing and swaying as it tempted, trying to pull her focus from the envelope in her fingers. As much as she loved her tea, the envelope held her rapt.

This was the 135th envelope.

On her first day back in this timeline she had opened a flurry of them. She had been crying and her heart had swelled with emotions she could hardly name at the time. She opened one most mornings, savoring them now. Her heart continued to swell every time she opened one. Even now, months later. Even after reunions and hugs and more tears.

Khaeris let herself remember how displaced she’d felt that day, crossing the Bazaar toward her wagon. The door to her vardo had been shut tight for months. She had not been there to be home. The mountain of envelopes and rushed notes on stationary of every sort had been her first greeting. They had spilled in a tidal wave of parchment and relief out as she opened the door the first time. The sound of paper hitting the paving stones and whisking over each other had seemed so loud.

Even now her ears twitched with the memory. She drew her fingertip over the blank front of this envelope. She knew who it was from. Who they had all been from. Who had come by every day for months with some sort of words for her.  With the thoughts of her and missing her. Toward the end it hadn’t been daily anymore, but he’d still come by frequently.

Her finger slipped under the fold and she took out the note. They had gotten shorter. They had gotten sadder. As time had gone one, Helal’s handwritting got heavier against the papers. He had only signed them erratically. Her heart was in her throat as she read the only words on the small card:

Come back.

Her eyes misted over and she swallowed against affection, smiling deep and glad for the privacy of her wagon.