Written in the Stars

Chapter Fourteen

"Celeste."

She heard her name from over her shoulder. She thought she had managed to stay anonymous in her dark clothes, but perhaps the large sunglasses were overkill. The voice belonged to her sister.

Celeste studiously ignored her. She was determined to drink her coffee in peace and then go back home to Izabela. Surely she deserved a break from all of the drama which had entered her life recently?

The figure that was her sister came to stand in front of her.

"Celeste, you cannot ignore me forever. I need to have this conversation with you. Please." Her voice cracked a small, almost imperceptible amount, but Celeste heard it and it broke her resolution. She flicked her eyes up behind her sunglasses and saw the pain written across her face. She made her decision and pushed the seat across from her out with her foot, allowing Astrid to sit across from her.

"So, what can I help you with dear sister? What is so urgent it cannot be left on an answering machine message I will never listen to?" Celeste felt herself beginning to brace for the worst. She found she no longer knew how to speak to her sister with the same love she had once been able to. It was as if she was no longer able to show any care for anyone but Izabela.

Astrid sat down but did not take off her heavy coat. She of course did not feel the cold anymore, much in the same way Celeste did not and so it was more for show than anything else.

Celeste had not realised how much she had missed her sister until she was sat in front of her but she refused to make that known. There was always the chance that Izabela had someone watching her right now and she didn't want to make their lives any harder than they needed to be. She was already making everyone's lives far more hard than she wanted to be. Especially Izabelas.

"Celeste. I am taking full control of the syndicate. It is long past time for me to do so and I think you know that. We cannot pretend to be a united front when we are so clearly not. You and Izabela have not got what's best for the syndicate in mind and you almost killing Jean is the last straw." She saw the frown on her sisters face and continued, "You had to know this was coming. You have betrayed us all by moving in with Izabela, who you called the enemy not too long ago if I might remind you." She sighed and when Celeste did not respond said, "This just isn't who you are Celeste. Why?" Her voice was almost despairing. Celeste did not have an answer. She could not explain to her sister without hurting her that Izabela was who she was meant to be with. That Izabela, for what she did to their family, was not the enemy. Not by any stretch of the imagination. At least not to her, not anymore. Not now that she knew how deep Izabela's love for her went.

"Well, like you said. I was not really running it anyway. This is no issue to me, take whatever you want. The power will only be an illusion anyway. Izabela and I have started our own and I think you will find the member numbers of the old syndicate to be lacking. We have managed to build up quite a following. Of course having a working market helps I find." Celeste smirked and drank her coffee, waiting for Astrid's response. She knew that this information would not be entirely fresh, but it would confirm her suspicions.

"Okay, well thank you for letting this happen so easily. I appreciate your cooperation. And once I find out where you are hosting this new market I will be very interested in checking it out. See what makes it so much better than the one which is being repaired as we speak." She seemed as if she didn't know where to go from here. She had clearly not expected such an easy time taking control, full control, of the syndicate, and had perhaps planned on spending more time trying to convince her sister. She had never known her to give something up so easily, even if she was building something similar. Or better as Celeste seemed to think. If Astrid had learned something about her sister over the lifetimes they had lived together, it was that she knew when something was going to be successful. She also didn't know when to give up on something.

They sat across from each other in silence, Astrid studying Celeste to see if the change was external as well as internal. Somehow her sister looked smaller. She had never taken up a lot of space unless effort was put in, but even so, she was beginning to look the 5'3'' she was. She had been tall when they were children. But not any more. Not in this new age of insanely tall humans. Astrid herself had once been one of the taller children standing tall at 5' nothing. She says children. Just now, looking at her sister, she realised that they really had just been children when they were turned. 18 is not old enough to make any sort of decision about your future. Especially when your whole world is taken from you in a single move.

They had all been so young. And now they were stuck like it. Never ageing physically but mentally feeling older than the sun. It was not fair to any of them. And so Astrid decided then that whatever may come she could only do her best to remember that they are all still so young.

Astrid had come to the realisation that this was all she was going to be getting from her sister. She knew that something had shifted in Celeste and it wasn't for the better. She would never get the woman she had come to know and love. She had gotten all she would get from seeing her today.

Astrid took the paperwork and left. She would never see the sister she had grown up with ever again.