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The Soul Garden had never been so bright, sofullbefore. It was vibrant and beautiful, but this sort of beauty was always tainted with misery. Each new flower that glowed was a new soul that was lost.
At least my sister’s flower wouldn’t be lonely anymore.
Beside her, two new flowers stood a little higher than her, both radiating a type of glow that indicated how recently they’d been planted. But even their radiance couldn’t hide the ugliness tainting their beauty.
Charred leaves. Discoloured petals. Signs of how they’d been scorched to death instead of passing naturally.
My father’s favourite flower, a white tulip, and my mother’s flower, a blue and white carnation, stood tall and proud, their charred leaves fluttering gently.
“Ironic, isn’t it, mother?” I whispered, a small smile stretching my dry lips. I caressed the damp soil where my mother’s flower stood with one hand and reached for the soil where my father’s flower was with the other. “You worried about me leaving you one day, but it didn’t occur to you that you would be the one to leave me first.”
Rain continued tapping my back, sinking into my body like mild sunshine. My skin glowed, strength and energy humming inside me.
It rarely rained in our world. For us, rain was a tragedy. It occurred only when new flowers had been planted in the Garden, usually lasting for a few days until the soul grew accustomed to its new life.
Today marked the third day since their arrival.
Exhaling a shuddering breath, I resumed weaving my mother’s flower crown. The petals were wet, the stems slippery, thorns still attached and prickling my fingertips. I kept my scratched fingers away from my family’s flowers for fear my blood would stain their soil.
“Anaria made me the srygi stew in the end, mother,” I said, keeping my eyes on my creation, fingers slipping and fumbling, lacking the refined grace I usually had when weaving a crown for my sister. “It didn’t taste the same, but I didn’t tell her that. I think Faelyn noticed the difference as well, but he, too, didn’t speak about it. Perhaps Anaria knew, too. It was an awfully quiet meal.” Not the same noisy conversations as ours. I sniffled and shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t think I’d be eating srygi stew for a while now, but it is all well.”
I wouldn’t be eating many of my favourite dishes now, because they wouldn’t taste the same. Because no one could ever make them the same.
I shrugged again, swallowing past a tight throat. A thorn sliced into a wound on my finger, and I barely managed to bite down a flinch.
Keia chirped quietly, hiding under my hair to avoid the rain, since it didn’t affect me the same. It didn’t drench me the way it did her or anyone else. It simply sank into me, making my entire being glow—hair, skin, eyes. Strength would hum in my veins for the next few days. I wondered if it would be enough to numb the hollow agony biting at me.
“Faelyn is doing well with his Elder duties, father. Young as they both are, he and Ayen are proving to be very reliable,” I told my father, a sad smile twitching on my lips. Two of the youngest Elders in Elf history, but they were filling their roles with all their strength. “Ayen being a plant child makes it a little easier. He and some earth children have been rebuilding the herb garden. It won’t be the same, but it isn’t terrible.”
Nothing would ever be the same again.
When Amnestria had left us, mother, father, and Faelyn had been there to lessen her absence. But with two more missing, Faelyn and I wouldn’t be enough to soothe each other. Especially not with him now having a mate.
Once finished with my mother’s flower crown, I gently placed it over her flower. Three fresh crowns sat side by side—one for my mother, one for my father, and one for Amnestria, whose blue hydrangea was in the middle of our parents.
“They are with you now, Am,” I murmured, giving them all a wide, wobbly smile. “Care for them well.”
Without another word, without another glance, I stood up and walked away from the flowers. Only with my back to them could I let my tears fall and wet my face, because with the rain sinking into me rather than soaking me, they would have seen my pain and suffered because of it.
They’d suffered enough. This world held nothing for them anymore, and even if their loss pained me, at least my parents were finally united with my sister. At least she would no longer be on her own.
The silence that followed me as I walked was eerie and strange. Even with the echo of the drenching downpour and the whistle of the wind, it made my spine tense. No one was out of their home, and if they were, they were in the herb garden, helping however they could to restore the peace.
I marched towards the portals, looking around and listening before I made my way into the Fairies’ gate. Once in their lively and colourful world, I scanned around me again before stepping into the Spiders’ portal.
Not one cell in my being believed it, but if Eon had anything to do with that fire that had ravaged my home three days ago…
My chest seized, and I inhaled a sharp, painful breath.
I would not even ask. One look. One look and I would know if he’d betrayed me, even if my instincts recoiled at the thought.
Stepping into his world brought another pinch to my chest. Because where my world was crumbling, this one was alive and thriving. This world, the one that was said to be of nightmares and monsters and brutality, was in full colours and soft wind and calm skies.
My feet moved quickly and surely, hands suddenly gripping dark rock to hoist me up the tall cliff leading to his territory.
Reaching his land was like finally taking a breath of fresh air. My eyes warmed, watered, chest aching with another pain that had nothing to do with the loss of my people, my parents.
More than confirmation for something I didn’t believe in, I just… wanted to see him. Seek his comfort. His reassurance. Have him hold me in his arms and take away this loneliness gnawing at me like starved beasts. Five days without looking into those red eyes and being surrounded by his warmth feltwrong.
