can't breathe whenever you're like this Who: Aurora and Cheila Where: Elias home When: Morning
Aurora was scared. No, more than scared, she was terrified. Yesterday had been... storms were supposed to be a beautiful and wonderful thing that she enjoyed with any member of her family who wanted to, but not then. She had woken up to Aetheria clinging to her as though she was afraid she would vanish and the she had felt her fear, heard what had happened, and she had clung back every bit as tightly. It was still there, the thing that had taken away her sister's elementalism, and Aurora was starting to panic. Aetheria could not be a water elemental. They had been born the same, they learned at the same pace, they had been taken by the same people, they had been hurt the same way except for that once. The only really difference that existed between them was that Aurora could not see and now Aetheria could not talk. But that was nothing at all compared to this. They were air elementals, just like mother and their sisters, and they could not be anything else. They. Aurora had stayed with Aetheria today - her panic growing worse on this third day of the wrongness - as much as she could. But it was hard to stay in a room that felt closed up as theirs now did. Aetheria was afraid of having the windows open and Aurora was afraid of being in a room that felt so suffocating. She still stayed and came back to bring her breakfast and hug her more. In her twin's presence, Aurora was able to make herself keep from crying so that she could tell her that it was going to be okay. Only she had no idea of how it could be okay if this kept on. Aetheria was always her twin, but... if their element abandoned and wanted to hurt her... it was suddenly hard to breathe.
Her fingers running over the wall, Aurora counted her steps back to the living room where she believed most of the family still was. Trying to figure out what to do. Aurora wanted to sit right at her mother's feet, put her head in her lap and cry until she found a way to make it better, but she knew that would not work. If it would have then everything would have been fine that first day when Aetheria had drenched them all at lessons. Please gods, fix my twin. How many times had Aurora sent up that same prayer or some variation of it since the water had come crashing down around her ears? So, so many times. She had even lit the incense and spent hours kneeling, caring not at all for how much it hurt her still healing leg to be in that position, just praying that they would make her sister right again. If Aetheria was not whole - and how could she be whole without her element? - then neither was Aurora and the entire family knew that. Maybe that was why they were so quiet around her. And Aurora could hardly handle that silence. She stood in the doorway for a few minutes, fidgeting with her dress, hovering on the edge of asking a question and running back up the stairs to Aetheria. She had turned and taken a few steps in that direction when someone else went past her. 'Caelia,' Neveah told her from where she was perched on the kitchen table. 'With Kiana on her shoulder.' Kiana came for Caelia? Of course, the witch in the family who could actually maybe do something about what was wrong while all Aurora could do was hug her and say it would be fine when she had no idea of what to do. Good, maybe Caelia would be able to help. 'Aurora! You're not supposed to go outside alone!' The demon; they were all terrified that the little demon and her dogs would come back for her.
Aurora's familiar had known what she was doing before Aurora realized that she had pulled open the back door and stepped out into the light rain and clinging humidity. I'm not alone, Aurora thought back as she heard the sound of someone singing. Others recognized best by sight, but it was always sound for her. Sometimes scent could play a secondary role, like right now when she recognized the incense smoke from the altar. Her own clothes reeked of it and now she could smell it coming from the same direction as the singing. 'Oh, it's Cheila.' Yes, that was why Aurora was out here. She stumbled a little over rough patches of the ground, but she managed to find her way to where her older sister was busy doing... something and she tugged at her wrist. "Cheila?" Her voice was high and trembling as she waited for Neveah to confirm that she had turned around. What if Caelia can't do anything? What if we can't fix her? What will happen to us? Even here Aurora's mind was unable to separate her from her twin; if one broke then so did the other and how were they supposed to get better from something like this? They could not be priestesses without Air to guide them! How could Air keep one and reject the other? Her breath was coming quicker, like she could not manage to keep the air in her lungs. 'Aurora!' Cheila was right there, she could still feel her skin in her hand, but everything seemed to have distanced itself as her mind ran away with imagining what would happen if. Lightning had already tried to kill her. What if it succeeded next time? What if a tornado came? What if Air tried to strangle her in her - There was a sharp pain on the back of her head and it yanked her out of that dark place so that she could take a long, deep gasp, ignoring the fresh tears trailing down her face. They were a constant factor now and her face was raw from them.
The middle Elias sibling threw her arms around Cheila without a care for how hot or sticky it was and buried her face in her shoulder as she started to sob. Again. Her leg was twinging and demanding that she sit down, or at least stop standing so awkwardly, but Aurora felt frozen in place. Every time she tried to open her mouth and say one of the million thoughts in her head she just started crying again. It was beginning to make Neveah uncomfortable and finally, from her perch in her favorite tree outside the house, she declared, 'Aetheria is keeping the windows in their room closed.'