(Emerald's POV)
Dear Ruby,
Oh, and the others too.
How have you been? We've been fine, stuck here in a basement like confinement room that's kind of musty and smells like cheese... well on Tuesday it smelled like cheese, or feet, I couldn't tell. I also don't know if it was Tuesday, the days are starting to meld together.
Citrine's been on a cleaning kick, and the couple that live up stairs don't really come down here much so it's just us four.
Lee seems lost in thought these days, all he does is sit in his little corner with all his books and read. He barely moves and he forgets to eat so Ames and I have to force feed him at times.
I hope you're doing well, hope Ruby hasn't destroyed anything, or anyone.
Oh and I hope your Kings are doing well too.
We're fine, fantastic even. I managed to make some cooked rabbit... I think it was rabbit, it looked like a rabbit- okay a rabbit mixed with a squirrel. Something like that, it tasted okay though. The Guards check on us now and then so don't worry. I know everything will be good, one of the guards will be bringing this letter to you since I guess one of the Kings ordered them to be switched out. I hope to see you soon!
Love,
Emerald.
"Well what do you think?" I asked out loud.
"I am not on a cleaning freak thing.." Citrine whined.
"Do you see what you're doing now?" I asked as I waved my hand over at her. "Down on your hands and knees.... With a scrub brush and a wooden pale with soapy water to get the floor clean? Yeah, you're not a clean freak. Not from that... But how about you asking for an old toothbrush so you can clean the grout?" I responded. She huffed and went right back to scrubbing the floor.
I sent my letter off and a few days later a letter was returned, delivered by another guard who came to change places with the other one. I read it out loud to everyone.
Dear girls,
I'm glad you're doing good. Everything here is so damn strange, Tour and I essentially got married, hope you're not mad but we couldn't have you for safety reasons. I know you guys wanted to be there, I'm sure you'll be here soon, or at least I hope so. Tour's a full Dragon, like Pearl and Sapphire. I think that's kind of cool. You guys should see Pearl's son, oh my fucking god he's the cutest thing.
I can't wait for you all to be here, I really hope to see you guys soon. Tell Lee we all miss him too, Pearl claims she misses him most but we know she's only saying that to still be his favorite. I love you guys, I'm sure we'll see each other soon.
Love,
Ruby and the gang
"I don't have favorites when it comes to you girls." Lee tried to defend but the three of us laughed at his reply. He shook his head at us and continued reading the book in his hands. I took a bit of the parchment paper we had and sat down next to Amethyst and began writing a response.
Dear Ruby and the rest,
We're happy to hear of your news. I guess this means you're a queen now, right? A full Dragon? So like Lee? Wow, that's awesome. At least it sounds awesome! You'll have to tell me more about it when we see each other again. Better yet, Tour better show us. I think it would be cool to see a Dragon in full Dragon form. We didn't really get to see Lee when he did it, and we ended up passing out and not waking up till we arrived. So I still want to see one, I'm sure the other girls want to see the three of you in that dragon form. Anyway, Lee is as stoic and grumpy as ever. He talks to himself a lot more in these past few days. I think he needs some fresh air before he goes mad.
Love,
Em, Ames, and Citrine
I looked at Ames and she was still silently reading what I wrote. She smiled at me and nodded.
"I'm sure she'll reply quickly too." Ames smiled, I liked her cheerfulness in moments like these. When the guard came around again a few days later I sent my letter, this time I got one back a lot faster than I expected.
Dear Girls and Lee,
Sapphire and I are on route. Please wait for us.
Love,
Ruby
It was the shortest letter she had written so far. I didn't understand why she was coming here, not that I wasn't happy she would be visiting but... well... why?
"I wonder why they're coming here." Ames spoke my thoughts.
"Maybe they just miss us and feel guilty about leaving us locked in a basement?" Citrine replied as she brushed her hair.
"I have a feeling it won't be a very long visit." Lee spoke. The three of us looked at him with similar curious expressions.
"And that means what?" Citrine was the first of us to ask. Lee sighed and tossed the book he was holding down onto the table we were sitting at. It looked like a normal book from the outside but as we looked at the pages they seemed to be hand written.
"I still don't get it." I added. Lee chuckled a bit and leaned over the table, patting my head.
"You will my little Emerald, you will." He let out in another sigh. I looked up at him and then looked at the book again.
"Letters?" I said as I gazed at the book, almost forgetting to blink. Lee looked at me and smirked a bit.
"You can understand them?" He asked. I noticed Ames and Citrine squinting at the book. I was confused at their expressions.
"Okay, All I'm seeing is a bunch of nothing. Well not nothing but scribble." Citrine chimed in.
"Wait, what? Scribble?" I asked, more confused now.
"Yeah, I don't know... symbols maybe?" Ames commented.
"Symbols? No, guys they're letters. Not like alphabet letters.. well I mean they contain those kind of letters but their letters written by someone to another someone. Someone named Orin. The letters are for them. They're all addressed to this Orin person. "I said, sliding the book in front of me. Lee looked at me amazed.
"Astounding.. You're not even a Dragon and you can read this?" Lee seemed amazed and a little taken aback by my ability to read.
"I do have an education Lee, I know how to read." I commented.
"No, Em. You don't understand. This book is the journal of a previous Queen, one from a very very very, very very long time ago. Her kind of people knew this magic, well this way of writing. They called it the hidden word. Only a See-er could see it and read it. To others it looks like... well like what Citrine and Amethyst are seeing. But you, you see it in its true form. I wonder why.. or how." Lee looked confused and yet curious at the same time. His eyes scanned over me and he sat back in his chair.
"I don't... know what's going on." I replied, he wasn't the only one confused as hell.
"It's fine. It isn't a bad thing, it's impressive... but it also means you might be a descendant of the tribe this Queen was once apart of. A tribe of people many thought were lost. Then again, not everyone can test themselves when no one writes this way anymore. None here in Song use this anymore but this Queen did bring this way of writing to our people, and it was quite handy in times of war." Lee informed us.
"So Em's some ancient reader chick?" Citrine asked. "I mean, not my choice of a super power but hey I can see how it could be cool." She added with a shrug of her shoulders. I sighed and looked back at Lee.
"What exactly does this mean?" I asked him.
"We'd need to see an Elder about that." He replied. "But first, we should prepare for Ruby and Sapphire's visit." He changed the subject and stood from his seat, he was starting to gather up books as I pulled the book only I apparently could read, closer to me. I started from the beginning and found myself getting lost in the letters that this woman sent to this Orin. I learned a lot from just the first letter, Orin was a he, a King. She wrote pretty words that expressed her desire to be with him, but the Elders were keeping them apart for some reason, in the second letter that reason became more clear. They were to be united and it was tradition that the two stay away from each other for weeks prior. This was their way to increase the possibility of Heirs being created on the night of Unity. It sounded a bit sketchy if you ask me, but I'm a believer that having children should be a choice between the couple, together. Not ordered by someone else or because of a title.
I didn't realize how late it was by the time I set the book down, the only reason I had was because I had forgotten to eat lunch and dinner was now sitting on the table, awaiting me.
"Learning anything?" Lee asked.
"Yeah... too much maybe." I sighed and picked at my plate a bit before eating. My head was swimming, there was just a lot to take in. Some letters I felt were a little too private as this woman wrote about her longing for the Kings touch. The way it was worded made me blush. The letters changed to little short love notes that she wrote after they were united, even those contained some things that could make even the roughest, toughest dude blush.
A few other letters were from when he was away checking the borders of the land. She missed him, wrote about her day and claimed to have news when he returned.
Her nest set of letters were about that good news- a baby. I was only half way through the book and she'd had two children and they were working on their third... or.. she was working to get a third, her letters got rather lusty again and I skimmed over most of them. I notice a few letters were missing though. In particular between the letter she wrote a week after their unity and a week before she began to not feel well, which prompted the letters about her good news- which was her pregnancy. Another letter was missing between the birth of her second child and an incident she wrote about with a man in a crimson robe.
That night I fell asleep with the book in my hands. There was a lot to decipher and I didn't know enough about these Dragon people or this land to really understand much of it at all. I was taking as much of it in as I could though, something told me I needed to read this, all of it.
"Are you going to sleep all day and miss the girls coming to visit?" Citrine tapped my foot and I rolled off the small makeshift bed and landed with a thud on the wooden floor.
"Ouch, I'm okay... Just let me... get up." I responded as I scrambled to my feet. "They're not here yet are they?" I asked as I tried to fix my hair and straighten myself up a bit.
"No, silly but your breakfast is getting cold." Ames said from across the room I smiled and nodded, walking over to the table and taking a seat. The plate in front of me full and still warm. I ate everything and cleaned up.
A few hours later the door to the upstairs opened. And down the small hall into our bigger space came a flash of red and deep blue. Soon Ames and I were pounced on by the brilliant red headed Ruby, and Citrine was tackled by Sapphire.
"You're here!" I couldn't believe it, I didn't know if they were actually coming but now they were here.
"Um yeah, We sent you a letter and told you." Sapphire laughed and I ran over to her and hugged her tightly.
"You guys look great, love the dresses." Citrine commented as she looked them both over.
"Oh! Those rings!" Ames lifted Ruby's hand and Citrine rushed to check out the ring on Sapphire's hand.
"Whoa.... Flashy but not overly so." Citrine responded to the rings.
"Yeah, well you should see the crowns. Completely opposite." Ruby said with a light laugh.
"I must say, you two look well." Lee finally chimed in. Ruby pointed right at him and her smile fell.
"You! We need to talk- Like right now." She said to him, still pointing at him.
"Hm?" He replied. Sapphire sat down at the table and Ruby joined.
"You've been keeping secrets Mr. Lee.... And it's time you answer our questions." Sapphire said, Ruby sitting right beside her. Lee grinned and nodded. He sighed and took a seat across from them, resting his hands on top of one another.
"Alright. If you're sure you're ready for it." He said to them. Ames, myself and Citrine just watched on in silence.
"Oh we're sure." Ruby replied. "So spill."
"Where should I start?" He asked them calmly.
"The beginning." Sapphire answered. Lee nodded and drew in a deep breath, letting out a long sigh.
"Well then...." He started. "The beginning...."