A Bardess' Journal

To My Dearest Candle (In Reverse...You're Getting So Big),

There's so many wonders in this world. It breaks my heart to wake up every morning, and for you not to be bathed in them. I was just like you when I was small – bright, inquisitive, always singing little songs. I cried just as much as you, too. Yes, I cried...I still do. One day, you'll read this and I hope it'll bring you a tear. There's one or two already on the page. Maybe we can cry together this once.

This story's one for happy tears, though. I know it's an old one, but I never get tired telling you. It was the full moon of the first harvest. I was in Valibard – by Eranthis, you'd love it. The streets are bigger than our little field and the buildings and plazas rise higher than all our trees put roots to branches. Mystical lights flicker and dance with your steps. The city light dances with you, little candle. And it had danced for me...it was my turn.

The stage was set, and it was my stage...my first real stage. Valibard was my city that night. You should have seen the crowds...elves and dwarves and gnomes and every vast and little thing your eye can dream of. Look in my books, and you'll find the pages clapping and waiting for me, candle. It was the largest crowd I'd seen. The finest night of my life, the stars promised.

And boy, but did they ever deliver...

I was adorned in moonlight, in every sense. My gown of silver caught the light by the gifts of magic and little stars kissed my skin – all along my arms and brow and belly. I felt bathed in that light, nude in it. I felt so beautiful...and with all of those eyes on me, I felt like the moon herself. My song came unbidden, and the poor band had to recover and catch me. I was calling out, a lover's song, one of the gifts of my lonely nights just like yours, crying out from the soil of a village too small for my voice.

And he heard. There he was – the second box on the right. Alone...shining. His eyes burned like the sun as he watched me, his chest shook like it could not contain his heart, and with a flicker of his hand, I could hear him sing along. His voice was low and full of meaning, full of sorrow like a sunset....a sunset voice just for me. My tone turned to a duet for just the two of us, while the rest of them listened in oblivious awe.

I sang my heart that night. There is a magic there beyond the arcane, beyond tone and breath. I revealed my first and only love song to a breathless crowd, and they gave me their love in return. The moonlight comes from the sun, dear, and I shone like a silver flame. I dazzled and I burned. The night was as bright as the noon for me and my sunset serenadist. I was his.

I hope you see the dancing lights of Valibard one day, little candle. Those lights will never forget me.

I'll never forget your father.

With All Of My Love,

The Bardess Elaine