Death and Smiles.
Two things that seemed to have nothing to do with each other had, here in these strange circumstances, become an inevitability.
Soldrich had prepared two boxes containing different letters. Clearly, he had not expected his corpse to wear a smile. After being injured for certain reasons, he had already foreseen his own end. The day would come when that overbearing visitor caught up with him, so he had prepared this letter in advance. It was a farewell, an announcement of his death to Ruger, and also a signal to him: even his death had come with a smile.
But Soldrich probably had not expected death to come so quickly.
Perhaps, had it not come nearly half a year early, Soldrich could have recovered a little more from his injuries. Perhaps he could have endured it, at least this once.
But there were no more what-ifs.
It was settled now, a fact. The end had come.
A Wizard named Soldrich had vanished from the world.
Though he had died smiling, he probably had not wanted to die quite so much. A spell that made people smile as they died? How gentle. What a gentle, good teacher.
He really did smile!
Ruger's emotions still churned within him-at the news of the death, at the thought that Lord Soldrich had prepared a letter for him before dying, at the shortened interval, and at the smile on the corpse.
The waves came rushing in, washing against the edges of the Small Island.
The cool sea breeze brushed over his extra hair. He studied the letter for a long while, then could not help pursing his lips.
Footsteps sounded behind him.
Ruger stopped in the middle of putting the letter away. He moved back to the Old Recliner and sat down, pouring