Chapter Text
Dearest Yaya,
I hope this letter finds you well. It’s been so long since I last saw you!
Azura noticed that I wasn’t doing great ever since you left. So, she had this idea that I should write letters to you! And now I’m writing to let you know that everything is currently a-okay here at home!
Well, mostly.
Don’t worry. I get to that later.
Anyway, Miressa’s taken to woodcarving while you’ve been gone and she’s been getting better and better every day! She’s mostly stuck to carving me; but recently, she’s started to branch out into carving birds! None of her figurines are what the others call good – they mostly call them “weird abominations,” (don’t worry big brother Hooty’s put a stop to that) – but they’re perfect in my eyes, and I’m sure that you’ll love them too!
Damien’s… still not doing as well as he could be, but Clara’s been getting so much better!
She’s back on her feet and better than ever! Even started to play hide and hunt with Steve and the triplets, although… She always, uh, ‘cheats’ when it’s her turn to hunt them down.
Don’t worry, she only bruised the others the first time she did that, and she’s been doing better about hurting them ever since! You’ll be happy to know that because of all of this she’s been getting better at plant glyphs too and that she always brings the flowers that her vines grow to Damien because she doesn’t want him to be “too lonely.”
Isn’t that just the cutest?
It’s a shame that I kind of have to check as to which ones wouldn’t be dangerous to him; don’t worry, everyone’s been perfectly safe so far. No injuries and everything!
My method’s kind of a hit and miss though, since I accidentally let him have a dandelion that actually turns into a lion. I mean, it didn’t start attacking me when I gave it the good ol’ One-Hoot before I gave it to Damien, so I genuinely thought it was okay.
Speaking of Damien, you’ll never guess what he did yesterday!
He drew glyphs using potions! Obviously, it didn’t end too well, made some sort of purple slime monster thing that I had to throw out the window – and then off a cliff, because it kept trying to come back into the house – but he’s actually using glyphs now! Ones that actually work!
Kind of.
He doesn’t actually carve them like Merissa, or draw with charcoal and parchment-like Azura, or use the glyphs that are already around the house and on tools and stuff like the others. (Actually, I’m pretty sure he still can’t use those for some reason.)
No, instead, he’s been using water to make his glyphs. They don’t work quite like the ones that the others use – his light glyphs glow blue, isn’t that so cool? – but they still work and he’s not making any weird monsters anymore, so I let him have his fun.
Miressa – when she’s not carving – is kind of adamant about being there whenever Damien draws glyphs nowadays though. Something about “unprecedented glyph usage” and “research on what the effects of different material bases have on magic.” You know fancy stuff like that.
I’ve limited them to wood, water, and parchment so that I don’t have to protect them from weird monsters anymore, but other than that, I’ve left them alone. It helps Damien catch up on the others in terms of magic and Miressa knows when to stop so that she doesn’t wear him out. So, it’s a win for everyone!
Moving on, Steve!
He’s still doing just about the same actually. Keeps challenging me to spars – don’t worry I make sure he doesn’t overdo it – and he’s still as clumsy as ever. He’s picked up cooking though, and he’s really good! He remade your griffin stew recipe into something that’s actually edible. Which is making me really hungry because I don’t get many leftovers now, but you’ll be happy to know that we don’t have many bugs inside the house anymore.
The triplets still haven’t chosen a name yet. I think they’re waiting for you to come home before they pick one. That, or they’re waiting to do some great feat for them to name themselves after, like how Steve always says that he’ll defeat me and become “the Conqueror of the Great House Guardian.” Which is a really weird name to want to have if you ask me.
Azura… Well, I want to say that Azura’s still her stuck-up flowery self but that would be lying. Azura’s been so reckless since you left. Always sneaking out at night and coming home late. I tried to follow her one time, but she just waved me off and then ran away when I didn’t leave! Which, rude.
But – and don’t you dare tell her this when you get home – I’m actually getting worried about her.
She’s staring off into space all the time! One of the triplets had to call her name five times before she answered – five times, and he was her favourite triplet! She’s almost entirely stopped writing as well, just doodling at the edges of her work with charcoal. She even gave Miressa some extra parchment that she needed for writing down her notes on Damien's glyphs and you know that she never does that!
Anyways, sorry for letting the kids break so many rules and ending the letter with Azura’s weird behaviour. I just wanted to make sure that you now know that leaving me in charge of the house is a bad idea so that you don’t go away as often. Plus, with the knowledge that Azura’s not doing too well at the forefront of your mind, you’ll be coming home even sooner!
Love, Hooty
Don’t worry Baba, we’re actually doing okay here at home. Hooty doesn’t let us break any rules that he can’t save us from the consequences of, and Azura just got a crush on one of the girls in the nearby town.
By the way, before you head home, can you pick up some never-melting-ice and Snowbell leaves from the Knee? We now know that glyphs activate differently depending on the material base because of Damien. But the fact that we didn’t notice until now despite Azura’s insistence on only drawing her glyphs has got me thinking about what the cause of those differences might be.
I’ll tell you more about it when you get home.
Miressa.