Diana didn't believe with Aetheria wrote. Or rather, she believed that it was true but she didn't want to. She knew what they did. Or part of it. She also knew that Aurora came to their home and cried. One twin wanted to make everyone happy and the other clung to them until she felt like she didn't have a choice but to leave. Diana wished they both felt the same way as Aurora. It'd be easier to keep them from going back and she would be damned by the dark gods if anyone took her daughters away again unless they wanted to go.
But she couldn't say that. Her throat wouldn't let her.
"Aurora comes often," Diana corrected her daughter, smoothing back another piece of hair. Accepting the banana split, or what she assumed was it, Diana turned to locate a seat. "She takes comfort being with us, especially with Cheila, and it's good for her. You should come with her." Picking up a spoon she took a little bit of the ice cream. It hadn't ever been her favorite treat. "You would be every bit as welcome and you might want everyone to be happy where you are... but what about your twin?" Diana wasn't cruel, but she was a priestess and she'd spent her life teaching lessons. "Aurora is not happy, Aetheria, and you should care more for how she feels than anyone. She stays where you are, does as you do, and doesn't remain with us because she would never leave you." Diana tilted her head as she studied Aetheria's face. She may have been the younger but if there was a leader between the twins then it had always been her. Diana knew her children. She knew what she had told them, not just once but multiple times because it was that important - look after Aurora. Now they were all damaged and all needed to be taken care of; but her middle daughter had been born impaired. Aetheria's voice was gone now, stolen, but Diana still saw her as perhaps seventy-five percent of the whole that was the twins.
"Remember what I told you when you were a little girl?" She reached over and cupped Aetheria's cheeks, touching her thumb to the lids of each eye. "You have two eyes and with one you look out for yourself and with the other you look out for Aurora. And if you do it right then the two are always actually looking out for the same thing because they are linked the same as you are with your twin. If she is unhappy then can you be anything else?" Diana doubted it. Aetheria was just better at pretending.