One Shred of Light: Part Six

     She lifted her head from her knees and looked around. The garden was a mess. He had destroyed most of it with his spectral lightning. She slowly got to her feet and assessed the damage. She would need to harvest what had survived and preserve it, and then ready the garden for replanting.

     She could probably survive the two months on what she had and what she could forage from the fields around her, but she knew that not replanting would be suspicious, and the last thing she wanted to do was arouse Magax's suspicions again.

     She crept to the side of her house and peered around; his tree was empty. She sighed with relief, and dropped down at the side of the house. She held her hands out in front of her, they were still gloved. She pulled off the the gloves and looked at the purple, furry hands. She sighed, she missed the smooth white skin she had lived in all of her life. She dropped the gloves on the ground and walked inside the house, locking the door behind her and shutting the windows and drapes.

     She curled up in her bed, under her covers, and just laid there feeling numb. She pulled a mirror off her bedside table and looked at her reflection in it. A stranger looked back, a Faerie Wocky. Her blue-grey eyes were purple, and her face was so different it wasn't even worth comparing the differences.

     She wondered if Fyora would let her come back if she called for her. She had a way to contact them, and she was sure they would let her come back if she asked. She could leave all this behind. No one could blame her, no one would blame her; she was probably lucky to even still be alive.

     She fell asleep with that thought in her mind.

***

     Caelum walked along behind Anastasia. Anastasia was different somehow, but Caelum couldn't understand it. She had gone away for a few weeks, and the small faerie had missed her sister with a fierce ache that nothing had been able to distract her from.

     She had returned home the day before, and Caelum had instantly noticed the difference, but she couldn't understand what it was about her that had changed. She was every bit the loving older sister she had been when she went away. She had knelt down and hugged her tight, the warmth of the embrace had told the child that her sister had missed her as much as she had been missed. She had allowed Caelum to follow her around all day long, same as ever. Caelum had always been Anastasia's shadow.

     Caelum followed Anastasia as she made her way through the city to the palace. Anastasia had always worked at the palace, but there was something different about the way people in the city were acting about this fact today. They seemed strangely reverent.

     "Sister, why do they treat you strangely now?" she asked, slipping out of Anastasia's shadow and to her side.

     Anastasia looked down at her. She smiled and reached down to hold the young faerie's hand as they walked along. The smile was soft and wise, far wiser than it had been when she had left.

     "They treat me no differently than before, but they do see me differently now, Cae. Things have changed now. I have a duty; I have been chosen to protect them. I must be brave and strong for them now, because they must rely on me," Anastasia said.

     "You've always been brave and strong, sister," Caelum said, glad her sister was holding her hand. Caelum loved it when Anastasia held her hand; her hand felt so warm and strong. "You don't have to be, because you are!"

     Anastasia shook her head, her smile was now patient and loving. "Even I am not perfect, sister. I must strive to be more than I am. So must you. No matter what you are naturally, there will always be something that will put you to the test. When that test comes, you must be more than you are; you will have to be braver and stronger than you are naturally."

     Caelum looked up at her sister, frowning. "But, Anastasia, why would I have to be? Won't you be here, won't you protect me?"

     "Of course I will be. I will always be with you, Caelum, no matter what comes. Even so, there may be challenges that I cannot take on for you. You might have to fight some battles alone, even if I am with you. If I promise to be braver and stronger than I am, will you promise to be the same? We will become braver and stronger together."

     Caelum nodded vigorously. "I will be just like you, Anastasia! I will be the second bravest and strongest faerie ever, because you'll always be the number one."

     Anastasia just laughed and squeezed her sister's hand. "Perhaps one day, you will be braver and stronger and wiser than I. Until that day, I will continue to become better so that I might be an example for you to follow."

     Caelum just smiled up at Anastasia, thinking how silly she was to say that she could ever be better than she was. Anastasia was the best, and Caelum was happy to see her sister be the best. Still, she decided, she would honor her promise. She would be braver and stronger, no matter how scared or weak she felt, because she had promised Anastasia she would be.

      ***

     Caelum awoke with the memories of the distant past playing in her head. She sat up in bed and looked around, for a moment thinking she was home again in Faerieland hundreds of years ago. She was quickly brought back to reality. The sunlight was brightening the room even through the drapes; inside there was no sign of the destruction that had taken place that morning.

     She swung her legs over the side of the bed and picked up the mirror from where it had fallen among the sheets. The face in the mirror was not hers still, but in it she saw the face she had taken on when she had honored one promise she made to Anastasia.

     She had not accomplished that promise, and the other she had made all those years ago prevented her from just walking out now. She had to try to be braver than she wanted to be. Magax had terrified her that morning, but she couldn't give up at the first hurdle. Anastasia had never given up. She had given her life fighting for those around her, fighting to the last. Caelum could stick it out for the rest of the two months, to try harder to win over Magax, if she ever saw him again.

     She set the mirror on the beside table and got up. She walked to the door and unlocked it. It took an effort to open it and walk out into the strong afternoon sunshine, but she made the effort. She found that the world outside was peaceful and safe. Magax was still absent from his tree, though his handiwork still remained.

     She gathered her gardening gloves from where she had dropped them earlier in the day and pulled them on. She started gathering up the shards of wood from the ruined shutter. She took it down off the house where it was still hanging from one hinge, and took the ruins of it into the house. She placed the broken pieces in the fireplace for kindling. She would have to buy or make a new shutter at some point, though she wouldn't need shutters until winter, and her disguise would long have expired by that point, so she could probably get away with leaving it missing.

     She walked back out into the garden and began to collect what she could from it. Most of the ones that hadn't been pushed out of the ground by the attack were burned below the ground from it. The ones she knew she couldn't eat she placed in the compost heap. The rest she gathered into a basket to pickle over the next day or two.

     It was pitch dark and she was working by the light of lamps and the stars when she finished. Raking the ground and resetting the soil for replanting would wait for another day. She took her tools and her basket for produce and walked inside. She lit the fire and watched the shutter burn, wishing the memories of the day could so easily be eaten up by the flames and forgotten.

To be continued...