The letters had appeared in odd places over the last few years, one tucked into a book he was reading, another somehow slipped into his coat pocket when he wasn’t looking. Each beautifully written in ink so dark blue it seemed to glitter, every one a piece of art in its own right, and always signed simply "-Yours." The letters appeared around him as if by magic, often discovered after meetings with emissaries or following banquets and balls. He would leave a response wherever the leading letter instructed, and it always vanished before he could glimpse the sender.

At first, the letters were little more than small talk, though he never minded the pleasantries. Soon, they were filled with stories of their lives, as though he were writing to a friend he had known his entire life. Often, the writer complimented his attire at a ball or commended his actions as the new emissary to the Night Court. They knew him... and yet he knew only their flowing ink and the faint scent left behind on each piece of parchment. He yearned for more, but every request to meet in person was met with silence.

Five years of letters, each carefully kept in a chest beneath his bed. He had read every one a hundred times, especially during those first lonely nights after leaving the Spring Court. How could someone who wrote so beautifully to him stay so far from his reach? Why had he only been allowed their words as silent stains on parchment and not whispered to his ear? By the Cauldron, he yearned for their voice…

Lucien stood on a balcony overlooking the gardens of the Spring Court; the first ball held here in nearly a century filled the estate behind him with music and laughter. Letting the cool evening air ease his nerves, he gazed out over the dimly lit courtyard below. His silent reverie was broken at the sound of glass striking stone, followed by a soft curse. Leaning over the balcony’s edge, he caught sight of spilled ink a blue dark as the star-filled night sky.

His mysterious correspondent stood just a floor below him, their form hidden just out of view…