Lonely from Andstella

Sister,   Are you well? I miss listening to your music and playing tag in the trees. I was alone for so long and yet now that I've become a ruler, I find that I'm still alone, even when surrounded by others. If not for Dawn, I'd feel even more alone.   I'll be happy once the rest of our people have joined us. The Seasonal Court is wearisome, and discussions with them are dragging on endlessly. Publicly, they've acknowledged us as different, but there are still many who believe we should be subordinate to the Court's rule. Frankly, I think it's been too long since the Court has needed to engage in real diplomacy. Some people are just stalling until the equinox in the hopes that they can sleep and wake up to find that other members of the Court have solved things. Others forget that I won't be rushing home to sleep any time soon… it's like they think that I'll be somehow easier to deal with if I just go through a cycle of dreams. They don't understand that after this many decades, I know exactly who I am.   Dawn's tongue is sharper than mine and there are days I wish I could bring her with me to these endless meetings. Even if she didn't verbally skewer these politicians, just her presence helps to bolster my own spirit. That's the selfish part of me though. She's found her own battlefield and she's thriving there.   Can you imagine? There are parents and families that have been organizing to prevent their children from coming to Dreamfall to join the rest of the Vanguard. Dawn has been visiting our people who are still Seasonal, convincing families where she can and stealing back our people when there's no other way.   I miss her when she's not here. Some days, she'll slip into my bed in the small hours of the morning after I've gone to sleep. When I wake, she's already gone to rush towards the next one of our kin who needs her. The coming of Autumn weighs on her, perhaps more than it does on me. She refuses to see any of our folk left behind if they can be brought home. The nights that she makes it back to me before I sleep are treasures, and we’ll stay up until long after the sun rises. Even when we don’t manage to spend waking time together, I’ll still wake to a flower on my pillow or a bowl of fresh fruit and a little poem. She calls herself the moon in my night sky and I’m finding that moonless nights are restless and full of longing.   It hasn’t been long since I yearned for the next time I would sleep, to drown myself in memories of times with friends, family, and lovers. Now, I’m reluctant to sleep because I might miss something. The illusory paintings you send are some of my most treasured things. I know it won’t be this year or even the next, but I’m looking forward to traveling with you and seeing so many new things with my own eyes.   While I’m not traveling, Dawn and I have something different for you - I hope it brings as much of a smile to your face as your paintings bring to mine.   Be well sister, I love you and I miss you. Give my best to Lilliallis and Jaeril. Andstella   (The letter comes with several charcoal drawings of young Fae preparing for their move to Dreamfall, some of which carry notes of thanks for sending Dawn to rescue them, restoring their trees, or just excitement for getting to go ‘home.’)