A Collection of Correspondence Found in the Greenhollow Archive
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From Vance to Roy, Year 3 After the Breaking
Roy,
You won't believe what Father said yesterday. He actually told me he was proud of me. Proud! Of me! The disappointment who ran off to be a mercenary and nearly got himself killed a dozen times.
I didn't know what to say. So I just stood there like an idiot while he patted my shoulder and talked about how the family name meant something again because of what I'd done. What WE'D done.
I wanted to tell him it wasn't me. It was you. And Dorn. And Mira. And Elara. You're the ones who made me into someone worth being proud of.
But I didn't. I just nodded and let him have his moment.
Send Dorn my love. Tell him I found a rock that looks just like his face. I'm bringing it next time I visit.
—Vance
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From Elara to Roy, Year 5 After the Breaking
Dear Roy,
The school is growing faster than I can manage. We have students from three continents now—elves, dwarves, humans, even a few dumans who traveled across the ocean to learn. They all want to be healers. They all want to make a difference.
I tell them the same thing Marta told me: "The best healers aren't the ones who don't feel pain. They're the ones who feel it so deeply they have to fix it." Some of them understand right away. Others take years. A few never do, and they leave, and that's okay too.
I think about our party every day. The way Dorn would stand between us and danger without a second thought. The way Vance would charge in and trust us to have his back. The way Mira would appear from nowhere exactly when we needed her. The way you would just... be there. Quiet. Steady. Certain.
I miss you all terribly. But I know you're where you need to be. We all are.
Give Mira a hug for me. Tell her I said so. She'll hate it.
With love,
Elara
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From Dorn to Everyone, Year 8 After the Breaking
[This letter was carved on a flat piece of stone and delivered by a traveling merchant who'd been paid handsomely for the task]
Mountain good.
Carving going well. Made big rock man. Made little rock animals. Made rock of party—you all look funny in rock but good funny.
Miss you. Come visit. Bring food.
—Dorn
P.S. Elara, students keep leaving plants at mountain. Say you sent them. Plants growing good. Thank you.
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From Mira to Roy (Unsent, Found in Her Things After)
Roy,
I don't know why I'm writing this. I'll never send it. That's not who I am.
But I need to say it somewhere, even if only to paper.
You saved me. Not just from the bandits in the Maze—from myself. From the darkness I'd wrapped around my heart like armor. From the certainty that people like me didn't get happy endings.
I don't know how to thank you for that. I don't know how to be the person you seem to see when you look at me.
But I'm trying. Every day, I'm trying.
—Mira
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From Vance to Roy, Year 12 After the Breaking
Roy,
Dorn's gone.
I got word from the mountain yesterday. They found him under the memorial, peaceful, a smile on his face. In his hands was that carving he'd been working on for years—the one of all of us.
He was happy. I have to believe that.
I don't know how to feel. He was my first real friend. The one who showed me that strength wasn't just about hitting hard. He was... he was Dorn. There's no one else like him.
I'm going to the mountain next week. To see the memorial. To say goodbye. To tell him I'll carry his shield from now on—not a real shield, but the idea of it. Standing between people and danger. Being the wall.
You should come. We all should. Party 147 doesn't do goodbyes alone.
—Vance
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From Elara to Roy, Year 12 After the Breaking
Dear Roy,
Vance's letter reached me yesterday. I'm writing this by candlelight, my hands shaking, my eyes wet. I keep thinking about Dorn's smile, his quiet way of being exactly where we needed him, his hands—those massive, gentle hands—carving beauty from stone.
He was the heart of our party. Not in the loud way Vance was, or the steady way you are, or the shadowed way Mira was. Just... present. Always present. Always ready.
I'm going to the mountain. Of course I'm going. I wouldn't miss it.
Bring Mira. Bring yourself. Bring whatever piece of Dorn you've been carrying all these years.
We'll lay it to rest together.
With love and grief,
Elara
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From Roy to Everyone, Year 12 After the Breaking
Vance, Elara, Mira,
I'll be at the mountain three days from now. I'm bringing a Heartwood sapling to plant beside his memorial. Something living, growing, reaching toward the sky. Something he would have liked.
I've been thinking about what Dorn meant to us. To me. He was the first person I met who never made me feel strange. Never flinched at my eyes or my hair or my way of talking to trees. He just... accepted me. Completely. Without question.
That's a rare gift. He gave it freely.
I'll miss him every day for the rest of my life. But I'm grateful—so impossibly grateful—that I got to have him at all.
See you at the mountain.
—Roy
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From Mira to Roy, Year 15 After the Breaking
Roy,
I found something today. A letter I wrote years ago and never sent. I almost burned it, but then I thought... maybe you should see it. Maybe you should know what you meant to me, even before I could say it.
I'm not good with words. You know that. But I'm good with truth. And the truth is: I love you. I've loved you since the Maze, since the mountain pass, since every moment you refused to give up on me.
I don't know what comes next. I don't know how long we have. But I know I want to spend it with you.
If you'll have me.
—Mira
[Attached: the unsent letter from Year 8]
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From Roy to Mira, Year 15 After the Breaking
Mira,
I read your letter. Both of them.
I've loved you since the Maze too. I just didn't know how to say it—didn't know if you wanted to hear it, didn't know if someone like me deserved to say it to someone like you.
But here we are. Fifteen years later. Still alive. Still together. Still fighting.
I want to spend whatever time we have left with you. However that looks. Wherever that takes us.
Party 147 doesn't quit. And I don't quit on you.
—Roy
P.S. The Heartwood says you're coming. It's been humming all day.
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From Elara to Everyone, Year 20 After the Breaking
Dear Party,
Vance is gone.
I got word this morning. A raid, a skirmish, a stupid pointless fight. He died protecting a village that would have been slaughtered without him. Of course he did. That's who he was.
I keep thinking about that first day in the Academy, when we were all strangers thrown together by chance. Vance was so loud, so arrogant, so desperate to prove himself. I was terrified of him.
Now I can't imagine my life without his laugh.
I'm going to the mountain. To the memorial. To where Dorn waits, and where Vance will wait now. I'm bringing flowers—the ones he always said reminded him of home.
Come when you can. Say what you need to say. We'll be there.
With love and grief and gratitude,
Elara
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From Roy to Elara, Year 20 After the Breaking
Elara,
We're coming. Mira and I. We'll be at the mountain in five days.
I've been thinking about what Vance meant to our party. He was the spark—the one who kept us moving, kept us fighting, kept us believing we could win. Without him, we might have given up a hundred times.
He'd hate us being sad. He'd tell us to stop moping and get back to work. He'd make some stupid joke and expect us to laugh.
So I'm going to try. To remember him with smiles instead of tears. To carry his fire with me.
Thank you for being the one who holds us together. Always.
—Roy
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From Elara to Roy and Mira, Year 30 After the Breaking
Dear Roy and Mira,
I'm old now. Older than I ever thought I'd be. My hands shake, my eyes are dim, my steps are slow. But my heart—my heart is full.
I think about our party every day. Dorn's quiet strength. Vance's blazing courage. Mira's shadowed love. Your steady presence, Roy, like the Heartwood itself.
We saved the world together. Did you ever think about that? A bunch of misfits and outcasts and broken people, somehow holding the line against darkness itself.
I'm proud of us. I hope you are too.
I don't know how much time I have left. But I wanted you to know: being part of Party 147 was the greatest honor of my life.
Thank you for letting me heal you.
With eternal gratitude,
Elara
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From Mira to Elara, Year 30 After the Breaking
Elara,
You taught me that healing wasn't just for bodies. It was for hearts too.
I was broken when I met you. Wrapped in shadows, certain I didn't deserve anything good. You healed me anyway. Slowly. Patiently. Without ever making me feel broken.
I don't say thank you enough. I don't say a lot of things enough.
So: thank you. For everything. For being the heart that kept healing us long after we should have been beyond repair.
I'll see you at the mountain someday. But not yet. Not quite yet.
—Mira
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From Roy to Everyone, Year 50 After the Breaking
To whoever finds these letters,
My name is Roy White. Some call me the Gardener. Most just call me Roy.
I've lived a long time—longer than I ever expected. I've watched friends grow old and pass on. I've watched children become parents become grandparents. I've watched the world heal, change, become something new.
The letters in this archive tell the story of my party. Vance, Dorn, Elara, Mira. They were the best people I ever knew. Braver than me. Kinder than me. More worthy than me.
I'm old now too. Old enough that my Mira—my Mira—is gone. She passed in her sleep last winter, a smile on her face, her hand in mine.
I thought I'd be ready. I wasn't.
But I have these letters. These memories. This proof that we existed, that we loved, that we mattered.
If you're reading this, know that you matter too. Whatever your potential, whatever your class, whatever your limits—you can be more. You can grow. You can love.
The System was wrong. The gods were wrong. There are no ceilings but the ones we accept.
Grow well, little gardeners.
—Roy White, the Gardener
Year 50 After the Breaking
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[The Greenhollow Archive contains hundreds more letters—from students, from friends, from strangers whose lives were touched by Party 147. These are but a few.]
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Bonus Chapter End
Author's Note: This chapter offers an intimate look at the bonds between party members through their correspondence across decades. It traces the arcs of each character after the main story, showing their growth, their losses, and their enduring love for each other.