"In Latin my name, Aurelia, basically means 'the golden one.' My mother literally named me her golden light through the storm that was her life. That is my job. To be everyone's light at the end of the tunnel. And I got stuck worrying so much about...
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Aurelia hated people with good parents.
Her disdain for parental figures didn't stem from a need to question authority—Aurelia was a good soldier through and through. No, her disdain for parents was built off of envy towards the fact that she never really had one growing up.
With Martina, Aurelia was the parent watching over the child. And the situation with her uncle Julian made her life that much harder. Then there was the fact that she has only ever met her father once, and it was just for him to give her Ferrum Temoris. It was the quickest ten minutes of her life.
Hylla tried to be a parent, but she was as much as a kid as Aurelia was. Circe could have been a paternal figure, but she was more of a master than a mother.
So as Aurelia and her friends stopped on the front porch of the mansion of Frank Zhang's family, she couldn't help but feel a little bit of jealousy at the fact that Frank had this house and a life filled with good parental figures to watch over him.
From the front porch, Aurelia could see a loose ring of campfire glowing in the woods, completely surrounding the property. Thankfully the house was untouched, but it still wasn't enough to calm Frank's nerves.
Wind chimes jangled in the night breeze and an empty wicker chair sat facing the road. Lights shone through the downstairs window, but Frank opted out of ringing the doorbell. Instead he went over to the stone elephant statue in the corner—a tiny duplicate to the one in Portland—and pulled out a spare key that was tucked under the elephant's foot.
He hesitated at the door.
"You okay?" Aurelia murmured, nudging his arm. Frank didn't respond. He wasn't scared, just ... sad. Like at this very moment all he could associate with this house and front porch was bad memories.
"Frank?" Hazel asked.
"Ella is nervous," the harpy muttered from her perch on the railing. "The elephant—the elephant is looking at Ella." Aurelia reached towards the harpy, running a hand over her feathers to calm her down.
"It'll be fine." Frank sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than them. "Just stay together."
Inside, the house smelled closed-up and musty. They examined the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen. Dirty dishes were stacked in the sink. Large porcelain vases were strung with cobwebs. In the parlor, Buddha statues and Taoist immortals grinned at them like psycho clowns. Aurelia remembered Iris, the rainbow goddess, who'd been dabbling Buddhism and Taoism. Aurelia figured that one visit to this creepy old house would cure that.
Frank was disturbed by the dirtiness—like it wasn't usually there. Then they passed the fireplace, which was dark and cold. Hazel hugged her chest, her emotions turning sympathetic. "Is that—"
