Part 24

                                    

                                          

Time is a cruel thing. Winding and coiling around the fates of man, toying with their insolence and dancing with their fears. Time never stops, relentless and merciless, but it can choose to drag along at the pace of a snail.
In exchange for that miserable speed though, time promised those trapped within its inescapable grip that with time things would change.
Alver had a deep and ongoing respect for his personal guard. Amongst those who he considered his true allies, Han was one of the very few on that list who wasn't in some way connected to his maternal family and heritage. It wasn't a dramatic trust that had birthed between them but rather a slow and consistent one.
The years that passed by with Han's reliable presence at his side. Han was loyal and sometimes naive, still managing to the aura of an innocent man coming from a small village even after years of living in the capital, but he was also bright and observant.
Han was a simple person. That was just the best way to put it. He didn't have a tendency to think in complicated and winding paths. His way of thinking balanced out Alver's nicely. While Alver was busy winding his way around a problem with all the stealth of a snake coiling around a branch, preparing to strike–Han would find the simplest possible solution to a problem and march through with the grace of an elephant.
It wasn't even that Han didn't understand the necessity for tactical thinking, he had great respect for his liege's ability to think around problems, but there was just something so brash and straightforward about Han. And he was certainly at his best when he was just being himself. Attempting to change Han into a sly and tactful person would only ruin some of his best traits.
Not to mention it would be nearly impossible considering Han's complete inability to act.
All of this was a very long way to say that Alver well and truly appreciated Han for all that he was and he would never dream of changing him.
But sometimes, he very much wished that Han wouldn't be quite so straightforward.
"You're writing another letter to young master Cale."
It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Alver knew that Han couldn't see what he was writing from his position across the room and by the door. There was also no other possible reason that Han ought to have known. There wasn't even a hint or topic of Cale or the Henituse territory today. Alver had merely been filling out his paperwork as peacefully as can be when he'd had the sudden impulse to send Cale a letter detailing a funny thought he'd had.
He'd pulled out a fresh parchment, that much was true, but Alver also wrote plenty of letters over the course of his work. It really was a mystery how Han managed to notice what he was doing every time.
And this wasn't the first time he'd noticed. Nor the first time he'd brought it up.
Han was simple and tactless so he pointed out, with all the delicacy of an elephant, that it was strange that Alver was sending out letters to Cale Henituse despite never receiving a reply. Those had been some really cutting words from his well-meaning personal guard and Alver tried not to hold it against him.
Except Han brought it up again the next time, this time stating how strange it was that Alver was the one to end the engagement. Alver really didn't even have the words to engage with that one so he hadn't.
And so, Han made a habit of pointing out the irregularities in Alver's behavior and Alver just about dreaded every time that he brought it up.
What was he supposed to say? As you well know, young master Cale hates me and I've been sending him letters despite his explicit request, sent to my alias, that I no longer contact him. I justify this to myself with the logic that he never actually told me as myself to stop mailing him but I'm also certain that he's been burning my letters. As for why I engage in this exercise in futility, I really don't have an explanation. I considered Cale a close friend and despite the fact that those feelings were never reciprocated, I find myself reticent to let go of that friendship. I am foolishly clinging onto a friendship that doesn't exist with a person who can't stand me.