The Sterling Nightingale ⟷ Finnick Odair/OC

Into my soul

Chapter Fifty Four | Into my soul

"Her voice was musical and low, and there was a great deal of calm dignity and of many sufferings nobly endured marked in the handsome, aristocratic face, with its wealth of snowy-white hair dressed high above the forehead, after the fashion of the time." Emma Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel

Her movements are erratic and quick. Her back is just a little sore as a result, but only a little. The medical technology of the Capitol might not be at its fullest power as of now, but there are still quite a few tricks that the doctors have been able to use to heals her wounds faster than they would heal on their own. They are still sore, and if she moves too fast they open up and set the healing process back, but she hardly bats an eye at the injury now. She's far more focused on reaching the ground floor of the mansion.

Soldiers and military strategists and Coin's generals are everywhere, walking through the halls purposefully. Beside them, Sil feels utterly adrift for the first time that she can recall. She isn't sure what she's looking for, or if the object of her search is even here after all. She doesn't know if she's being optimistic. There are surely plenty of people who might perhaps be looking for the Sterling Nightingale.

And yet, when she does find her, all of these thoughts fall away. She doesn't recognize the woman at first. As she slowly meanders down the tall staircase that leads from the second floor into the foyer, Sil scans the room with narrowed intent. She's half caught between feeling silly for even looking at all and frustrated for not finding her. A line of soldiers are marching through the foyer, intent no doubt on going farther in to find one of their commanding officers. It is only when the final addition to the group is halfway across the room that she sees Finnick standing on the other side of it, and at his side...

Abruptly, and with all the unbridled force of a hurricane, Sil's throat closes up and her eyes fill with tears.

She lets out a gasping, strangled heave that has a nearby soldier turning to give her a concerned look, but Sil has eyes only for her mother – and Aurelian, when she glances over and locks eyes with her, seems to feel the exact same way. She is swept up with a strange cocktail of emotion as her mother turns to her mid-sentence, mouth parted, face pale, hands shaking. Beside her, Finnick steps back and glances over at Sil with a quiet smile, but Sil doesn't even notice. Half of her wants to rush into her mother's arms; the other half is too tentative to move. She hasn't seen her in seven years.

But Aurelian just smiles tearfully and opens her arms, and Sil feels her tears spill down her cheeks as she accepts the silent gesture. They meet in the center of the room, and when Aurelian embraces her daughter, Sil sinks into her with a teary laugh and a shaky, "Mama. I didn't – I hadn't realized...I – " She laughs at herself and says in a stronger voice, "I missed you so much."

At once, Sil is thrown back into time. In her mother's arms, she is suddenly a child again, cheerful and full of untempered joy as she runs around the home that she grew up in. Memories slam into her left and right – baking together in the kitchen, dancing on the tiled floors while her father looked on, whiling away the day in the aviary atop the estate and watching her mother coo at the nightingales that she kept there. Her mother and father, arm in arm, walking with Sil through the shopping center in District 1. Her father sweeping her mother into a laughing kiss when Sil's attention had been captured by the glittering gems in his workshop. The songs her mother would sing to her when she would lift her into her bed and kiss her goodnight...

"Oh, my darling," Aurelian whispers, leaning back to take her daughter's face into her hands and beam down at her. There is something akin to pride in her eyes; it is a great, encompassing joy that makes Sil smile, too. Her mother shakes her head as if she can't quite believe that she is standing here with Sil after all this time, and murmurs, "Look how beautiful you've become. Where did my little girl go?"