The Starry Maiden

Returns and Remembrances

I walk around my apartment, pulling my suitcase to the door waiting for my mom to let me know when she arrives. Looking around at all the things in here, it still feels like this apartment belongs to someone else... There are photos of me with my high school friends at our graduation, and photos of me with the people I graduated university with. I've got photos from my travels abroad during my bachelor's degree. Paintings and other art that I made, and my collection of crystals and minerals. I even still have the vintage style photos from the last time me and all my siblings were together. It had been at an antique style photo booth store, where you would dress in a theme and then have the photos done. My favourite is the one with me in the middle and all my siblings around me with firearms, it looks as though they are all protecting me. I always loved how we were in Victorian styled clothes, but now that I've worn them... I know how inaccurate it really is. Doesn't change that I love it still.

There are a few things that I made sure to bring along with me by putting them in a local storage locker before 'planting' myself on the deserted island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Namely my two most recent sketchbooks, my preserved journal with my memories of Yusuf, some old paintings, and my old hidden blade. I'm sure it would shock Astraeus and Eos how effective of a journal writer I eventually became. There are also the things that I've gained since re-immersing myself in my life. Like the photo of me with Isla and her family. They had made the trip to Canada to thank me personally for the life of their daughter just at the beginning of the month. Next to the photo I have a pile of letters and drawings from her and her family.

My phone dings with mom's messaging saying she's arrived so I grab my suitcase and lockup the apartment before leaving for my adventure with my mom.

I see my mom wave out the window of the vehicle she's driving, and I open the door and roll my suitcase down the ramp to her as she pops the trunk open for me to add my suitcase to hers. Then I hop into the front seat next to her.

"You ready for our little trip to Greece?" I grin over to my mom.

"You know it!"

"No ferries though." She jokes.

"That'll be hard around the Greek Islands..." We laugh together.

We drive away from my condo building. This all happened very suddenly, and luckily I was able to get all the time off from my two half-jobs. It was barely three weeks ago at the beginning of April, while Isla was visiting, that my mom suddenly invited me to go to Greece with her for two weeks while she does some work. She even mentioned that Mesonyx's work is even taking her by that way, so I'll be able to see her for the first time in almost five years. Now here we are, at the end of April less than a week before May and we are leaving.

And now that I have a neighbour that I know personally, and can easily call a friend, I was able to ask Emmett to check in on my suite a couple of times while I'm away.

We get through security with no issues, then after a little while of waiting and chatting we board our flight and take off to Greece.

For most of the flight I just stare out the window, lost in my mind. Of all the places in the world I've been back to Greece the most. A lot of it is because what we had decided after Kassandra and I found each other in Rome in 44 BCE. Which was almost 400 years after we had last seen each other.

The crowds are insane. I knew that this was a busy time for Rome and all what with all this stuff regarding Julius Caesar, but this is beyond what I expected. I start making my way back out of the area, snaking between groups and through anywhere I can find an opening. I bump into a woman with dark braids that are all brought to one side where they come together and hang in front of her ear.