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Dearest Father,

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Ever since I began life on this continent, I can't identify with the girl that left those wintry shores.

If everyone has multiple faces, consider this letter written by my second.

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I have been shown kindness I'd never expect in our frigid homeland, I've made countless friends of hair pink, white, blonde and blue. I smile cheek-to-cheek when greeting my neighbours. I can endure, no matter how wrought with dangers this land is. I've experienced my first love, my first falling out, my first best friend, my first failed crush, my first business, my first confrontation with a Chieftain, my first foray into a life of independence, and my first true fall. I never knew the chilling nature of zealotry and the pride of a soldier until now; the obsidian-forged philosophy that plunges the mind of a man into a reality flavoured with red-hot passion that renders his senses to simple life blind. I had never experienced the aroma of rotting flesh; seeing the pallid hand of a time-worn warrior wither into wrinkled, pus-oozing bone. I had never experienced a dual-edged betrayal coated in the floral notes of good intentions; a man's want to right what he himself believed I thought was wrong. I have never been put against a blade of death until now; I have never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever died. I had never experienced cunning duplicity and betrayal until this moment. I will die on this still hour, guilty for nothing. You told me that fate would guide me to a promised path, and everything happens for a reason. That is why my betrothed walked the line of death twice over, lost to course grain and mud. That is why my best friend wears his blood and yet vies for this muddled, still-born heart. And that is why bloodlust was held behind a warm, silver-haired smile that I should have known full well to check over thrice. It is why this message will not reach you. If you were right, I pray that the happiest lives are what was reforged in furnace-hot flame - I can't bear to move on with this one anymore.

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With a love and affection,

Your beloved second Daughter,

Estelle