Noble had no idea what she was thanking him for until she explicitly named the letters; they had felt like the literal least he could do, because he could not actually talk to her. "Of course," he said, tone a little stiff. He'd written her because they'd been attached for so long, and because reading the article in the Prophet felt like he was getting punched in the gut. "Thank you for writing back."

She would have been well within her rights to ignore him.

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