Many Stories Later
Tandri opened the door to Legends & Lattes, and a spring breeze just this side of a winter chill followed her in. She unwrapped the scarf from around her neck and swung a canvas bag from her shoulder, setting it on the counter.
Viv looked up from where she was wiping down the gnomish coffee maker.
"Thimble already gone?" asked the succubus.
"You just missed him," replied Viv. The rattkin baker had scurried home only moments before. "Still a few of these left, though." She nudged a plateful of Thimblets with the back of a hand.
"I'm just back from the post, and the orders are out, but this was waiting for you there. I saved them a trip." She searched her bag and withdrew a brown envelope with a red wax seal. "I don't recall any business we've done in Murk?"
Viv put down the rag with a prickle of surprise.
Taking the envelope, she studied the Territorial post marks that charted its path to Thune. The wax on the back bore the impression of a page and quill.
She cracked the seal and withdrew a folded letter.
Viv,
It's been many years, and I don't know how to sum them up, so I'm not even going to attempt it.
I thought of you often and hoped you were out there alive.
I confess, sometimes I doubted it, because the life you chose is a hard one.
Imagine my delight when I heard you were well, and more than that, your life took turns I never could have imagined.
I received the news of your shop, and your success, from Zelia Greatstrider, of all people.
Coffee? I'm afraid it hasn't arrived on this sleepy end of the Territory, but I'm intrigued.
I'd love to say that my life has been perfect, that I've seized every moment, that after you left there were no struggles or doubts, but that wouldn't be true. It has been satisfactory, though. There have been many good days.
But hearing word of your ambitions made me think of the book I gave you. Crossed Purposes. It made me think of the story past the story. I think you found yours. And knowing that, it makes me imagine that I can find mine, too. And that I need to seek it out.
I love what I do. I know that. Once, you showed me how much. But I want to smell different air, to see different faces, to forge new connections. I cannot tell you how much you've inspired me.
Satchel is gone now. And I'm relieved that he chose to do more than stay here with me, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't lonely in his absence.
I will be traveling to Thune in Maias. A sabbatical, you might say. I do hope to see you when I arrive. I can picture you in my mind, with your sword and your impatience, and so look forward to holding a new image alongside it.
Have you been reading since you left Murk? I hope so. I find myself wondering if a seed was planted in you when you were stranded here so long ago, and maybe it took a long time to blossom. If I helped water it in any way, then that would make me very happy.
Yours,
Fern
P.S.—Maylee is well. I think you helped her understand who she needed to find, and then, at last, she did. I thought you might like to know.
"Fern," murmured Viv.
"That must have been quite the letter," observed Tandri with a curious smile. "Your face went a few places, anyway."
Viv laid it down on the counter and gazed around Legends & Lattes.
At the shop and the home she'd built. In her mind, she could see Thistleburr and the red door and the hurricane lamp and the warm press of books on all sides.
She glanced at the stack of chapbooks and novels tucked under the counter.
"I never told you about Murk, did I," said Viv.
"No, you didn't." Tandri joined her on the other side of the counter and squeezed her shoulder. "But by your expression, it's a good story."
"We'll probably need a drink or two. It's not a short one." She could already imagine Tandri's amused expression when she recounted her fumbling summer romance with Maylee.
"Start talking, I'll fix us both a hot cup."
"Yeah …" Viv trailed off as a series of gears meshed in her mind. Something interlocking after twenty years. "Hey, that place next door is still for sale, isn't it?"
"Jeremiah's place? I think so. Why?"
Viv did some sums in her head, thinking about the savings they'd amassed over the past few years and about old connections and little windows.
"Just thinking. An old friend is coming to town. Could be she decides to stay, and if so …" She glanced at Tandri.
"What do you think about maybe … a bookstore next door? I wonder if Cal is up for another renovation … ?"
"A bookstore?" Tandri blinked. "Is this to do with that letter?"
Viv thought of the words Berk had said to her all those years ago. Sometimes we aren't the right people yet.
But now, maybe she was.
"Yeah, a bookstore." Viv stared at Tandri, and without thinking about it, tucked a lock of hair behind her wife's ear. "You know, books are what brought me to you."
"Mmm. Not coffee?"
"Long before that."
"I guess I'm thankful then."
Viv thought about that for a moment.
"Actually, it was probably getting stabbed in the leg that did it."
And as Tandri laughed, waiting for the full story, Viv was grateful for all the wrong times that had led to this right one.