Wake of Darkness [1]

Chapter Thirty-One

♕ Starry Night ♕

They all gathered around in front of Izabella, who for once was conscious enough to demand being involved in the conversation. Even when she could barely keep her eyes open long enough to stare at them.

Aubrette watched Nova and Hazel make their way towards her bed, and sit beside her without saying anything else, a few tears falling from Izabella's eyes as they grabbed her hands. Aubrette turned her attention away, feeling as if she should not have witness it.

Asher and Taj had stood in front of them, neither acknowledging their fight from yesterday. Aubrette suspected it wasn't common for either of them to argue, much less have to apologize for it. Vereena rolled her eyes as she walked past them, and walked directly towards Raven, hugging her from behind and resting her head on her shoulder.

"We need to find stardust" Asher said

"The last time we extracted it from Goldcrest was from the silent grave" said Taj. "However I don't think there's any more mines left for us to discover."

"We can still check" Said Hazel. "I can go there on my way to the wall"

"I'll go with you, we'll cover more ground" Said Nova.

Vereena nodded.

"Taj will go to the bridge, there's rumors of my father using stardust when he made it" Asher said.

"Rave and I will go to the north gate, and we'll check further of the city edge too, just in case"

"Bree and I are going to the memoir court" Asher said. "There might be something there, from last time" he added.

As the words left his mouth the room seemed to become quitter, and Aubrette had been so distracted watching the burnt floor that she did not realize they were no looking towards her.

"You sure you want to go back?" Asher asked her when she lifted her gaze to them. Aubrette nodded.

"Remember that all we need is a drop, the stardust should glow if it comes in contact with the moonstone. You'll know it when you see it." Taj said.

"Let's go then" Vereena said, and they all started making their way out of the room.

Aubrette turned around to see Izabella who'd gone back to sleep, the skin around her eyes slightly red. She wouldn't be completely alone and yet Aubrette couldn't bear the thought of something happening without one of them being around to help.

"Ready?" Asher asked her. Aubrette nodded, walking out before she could change her mind.

☾

The day was quiet and calm much like the last few days had been around the city. The memoir court seemed less bright than she remembered it, but she could see more people going in and out of different places, most hiding their hair under cloaks when walking under sunlight.

It took them the whole afternoon to go through every establishment, all but one, in search for any signs of stardust, but there hadn't been anything, and not many owners were willing to let them stay for longer than they needed.

It'd been hard to see the look on their faces as they'd opened their doors and realize who exactly was knocking. But all of them allowed them inside without asking more than a couple of questions. They all acted the same way, nervous and reserved, watching Asher with overwhelming attention as the two of them passed their moonstone arrows across different places. Aubrette wished the entire time she'd spent more days locked in the magic room of Exilium. That she had pushed her mother harder to let her learn about all of the things that she kept hidden away in the glass containers. That she had learned what they did, or how they worked.