Something isn’t right, I’m losing faith in everything I know Who: Aurora and Neveah (NPC) Where: Ad Gustum When: Mid-afternoon
There was not very much in the world that actually bothered Aurora. She was a light-hearted air elemental who had angelic blood to help offset all of the things that she had seen in the world. Well, not seen really, but experienced. Most people who had gone through the same things that she had with Aetheria would not have come out in near as good of shape. Although… it was difficult to call it good, really, because it was never fully evident whether Aurora was the same as she had always been or if she forced herself to be that way because that was what was expected of her. She and Aetheria were the angelic air elementals who knew how to play their respective parts and that was why they had been hired on here. They were actually paid and that was a first. It was a good thing. It meant that they could take care of themselves.
Aetheria was happy. Or happier than she had been; it was hard to tell which was more true unless the weather turned to wind and rain. But what mattered was that Aetheria went out and made friends with boys and enjoyed the things that she then did with them. Something that Aurora, try though she might, did not actually understand. She understood what they did. Usually for vampires who enjoyed their blood every bit as much as what they did with their bodies. Had a regular human requested the same then of course Aurora would have complied, but there would have been a little flicker in her mind wondering why. And there was always a reason to do it. That reason being because she was told to, or because it was the only way she really knew to thank people outside of her family. Hence her offer to that blind man who had saved her from being struck by a car. “He had a dog,” Aurora remembered aloud as she sat cross-legged in front of the large window, brushing out her long hair.
‘You don’t need a dog,’ Neveah remarked. Had Aurora been anyone else then she may have been able to pick out a note of sullenness there. Or had her familiar actually been able to sound more than a little sullen. Naïve air elemental plus restrained familiar meant that there were quite a few misunderstandings between them. ‘What you need is to learn how to listen when I tell you to not do something. I do have eyes and they work very well. I’m not going to let you get yourself killed.’ A pause. ‘Aetheria would be furious with me and then never stop crying if I did.’ The barn owl was notoriously not fond of tears.
Aurora threw a pout in her familiar’s direction, lower lip jutting out in a way that she had been told more than a fair few times was adorable, before turning her attention back to her hair. “At least if that happened you wouldn’t be hurt.”
She may not have been able to see it happen, but Neveah ruffled her feathers and her sensitive ears did pick up the sound of claws clacking as the familiar shifted on her perch. ‘It may not kill me but I wouldn’t want to have another elemental or witch. Their minds couldn’t possibly be as interesting.’ It was as close as she would ever come to ‘I’d miss you’.
“My mind isn’t interesting. There’s never anything going on in there.” Aurora had mastered the art of clearing her thoughts away. When they overwhelmed her she would break down, yes, but so long as she could bring up another topic then she was fine. Yet another advantage to being as fluid as the wind with a nature that simply gravitated towards the lighter side of everything.
‘On the contrary, your mind is never silent. Even when you sleep.’
“Does that mean I’m interesting?”
‘More than you know.’
Aurora’s response was a beaming smile that made her familiar pleased with herself for having brought it about. Neveah would have challenged anyone, except those of demonic blood, to see her elemental give them that smile and not feel as though they had just managed to make the world a better place. Even if she knew that she was about to make it go away. ‘When are we going to see your family again?’
Had Aurora had a natural control over the wind that was not tied into her voice, and had she been like either her mother or Cheila, then the wind would have come swirling in to disrupt whatever loose articles were scattered about. But she did not and she was not so the only thing that happened was that she stopped brushing her hair for a moment before starting again. Like a hiccup in an electrical system. “When I have the time.” Not today. Not tomorrow. She wanted to go every single day of her life and never come back. She wanted to curl up next to Cheila until her sister no longer flinched away from her, practice her element and rituals with her mother, take her father tea until he got all the way better, pet Dashiell’s hair while listening to him talk about whatever subject came to mind… tears sparkled, unnoticed by her, at the corners of her eyes. It was far from fair that her family would finally come and she would be separated from them because of what she and Aetheria had become.
‘When do you want to see them?’
“Always. You know this, Neveah.”
‘So go.’
“We have a deal with Domina.” Was it called a contract? They had been bought by Mr. Lex and brought here to do just as they did. Twin angelic air elementals who could do whatever was asked of them were far from common and letting them go wasn’t something she foresaw happening. Would it be like breaking a promise to break a contract? Aurora never wanted to break a promise even if it had not really been her choice to make it. All she wanted to do was go back to the temple. Everything made sense there. They could all be fixed there. “I don’t think you’re allowed to break contracts. And Aetheria, I think she likes what we are.” It certainly did not cause her as much pain. Sometimes Aurora wished that her body had followed her twin’s cues and become numb to painful stimulus, but it had not. If anything it had become more sensitive and the ones who wanted tears and knew them knew to come to her. And Aetheria did things outside of Ad Gustum, and was happy about it. Aurora’s mind could not wrap around that. It was one of the things that set them apart and sometimes, rarely, she wondered if that same difference would have arisen had they stayed in Greece.
A heavy weight settled on her shoulder as Neveah drifted over, nuzzling briefly against the side of her face. ‘If you went, Aetheria would go.’
“Would she?” Aurora had not spoken of this with her sister. Only last week she had stayed over at their family’s new home without Aetheria. There had been no panic, no waking up in the middle of the night with tears streaking her face because she was terrified, because she had slept through the night. Aetheria had not been there, but Cheila, Dashiell, Diana and Barnabas had been. But it had only been one night. “I can’t ask her. She’s so happy when we go and spend our money! And if she didn’t go then I wouldn’t.” Normal twins could separate and live their own lives, but Aurora and Aetheria were different. Aetheria was Aurora’s eyes, her better half, and the elemental could not begin to imagine a life without her. It would not be much of a life.
An irritated clip of the beak. ‘I know your mind, Aurora. This life doesn’t make you happy even if you trick yourself into thinking it does. You’re more serious than you let anyone believe. More hurt.’
“Please don’t talk about that.” Even with her familiar there were things Aurora would not say or willingly think. Neveah may have been able to know all that she thought but that did not mean that she had to speak it aloud. Just thinking of hurt made her think of the faces of her family and what she had seen in their eyes when Aetheria showed her their faces. All haunted, pained, damaged. Just that brief moment cracked her heart and she dropped her brush in favor of covering her face with her hands. “Look what you’ve made me do. Now my make-up isn’t going to be perfect when he gets here.”
‘So you should go.’
“I can’t.”
‘There’s no armed guard to stop you.’
“Ae’s here. This is my client, he asked for me, and this is my job. You knew that this was what I did when you came to me.” And Aurora saw no shame in it. She wished that she could stop, yes, but since that was not possible so far as she could see there was no reason to keep going over it. Picking her brush back up she rose, a little saddened when Neveah flew off her shoulder. “I have to get ready.”
‘It’s going to hurt. I hate it when you hurt.’ Others never saw this side of Neveah, if indeed they saw any side, and Aurora could do nothing but reach out blindly until she felt soft feathers under her fingers. The tears continued to fall and she bowed her head to conceal them. ‘If I brought your mother…’
Aurora rarely glared. She even more rarely raised her voice. But the mention of her mother coming anywhere near this place inspired her to do both. “No, Neveah, you will never do that. Our mother will never see this place. Nor our sisters, father or brother.” She may have been spacey but she was sure she had covered the people of import who she never wanted setting foot in this place. That was for her and Aetheria. “Now go so I can be ready.”
‘I’ll know when it hurts.’
“I’m sorry, but I can’t help but feel it. Please go.” After this conversation she needed time to compose herself, try to fix her face and clear her mind completely. She could not do what she was supposed to if she was thinking of her family and how wrong it was to miss them when they were within the same city at last.
‘Two hours.’
“And a half.” Already Aurora’s mind was clearing, the tears fleeing her eyes as though they had never been. “I’ll need to clean up. You don’t like seeing me bloody.”
‘And a half.’ The soft beat of wings and Aurora felt as Neveah grew further away. With no one else around, no one to poke at the delicate parts of her mind that she left alone for good reason, Aurora sighed and got ready.