The Land of Stories: Rewriting the narrative

Chapter 11: We Are Family

Aurelia promised herself she wouldn't cry. Not when Skylene told her the news, not when she saw her mum's body, not when the doctor told her his diagnosis.
"She's alive. She's strong. She's going to be fine." Aurelia muttered over and over, repeating what the old man had said. "She's alive. She's strong. She's going to be fine."
He's just telling you that. A tiny voice said. Trying to shield you from the truth. But you deserve the truth. Everyone deserves the truth. Truth can hurt, but it can set you free. Just ask your mother.
"Shut up!" Aurelia wanted to scream, but that would attract unwanted attention. So she just sat in the corner of the room, muttering to herself like a lunatic, as the council members clustered round her mother like bees around a flower, or flames around wood, or cave walls around a single sapphire lying unconscious on a gilded chair.

"You really should eat something." Tangerina prodded her. "Toast and honey? Honeycake? Pancakes and honey? Just a spoonful of honey?"
Aurelia couldn't tell whether she was trying to lighten the mood or whether she genuinely did just want her to eat some honey.
"I'm not hungry, thanks." Aurelia mumbled. Tangerina made a face.
"Your mum's gonna be alright, you know." She said. "She's been through worse than this."
"I know, I know." Still, there was something unnerving about seeing her mother so still. At least the steady - albeit shallow - rise and fall of her chest indicated she wasn't dead, just unconscious.

"Most of the damage was done when she hit her head on the flagstones after she fainted." The doctor had said. "And she was in shock, which didn't help. But she'll pull through. She's a fairy, after all."
But fairies can still die, the little voice in her head hissed. Remember your great-grandma, the one you never got to meet. She was the most powerful fairy around and she died. Aurelia clutched her head, willing the voice to stop.
"Headache?" Skylene asked sympathetically. "Maybe you should have a lie down." Aurelia nodded. She needed to get away from it all, from her mother, from the council, most of all from the voice in her head. I speak the truth. It told her. I speak the truth nobody wants to hear. Do not hide from the truth. The truth will find you.

She clambered up the stairs and into bed, trying to find a cool spot on the pillow.
They've been lying to you about your mother's condition. They've been lying to you about everything. You deserve the truth. Don't you want the truth? I speak the truth.
"Be quiet!" Aurelia moaned. "Is there an anti-headache spell somewhere?" She reached over for her mum's spell journal, where Alex had made notes on spells she found particularly useful.
"Headache... Headache..." Aurelia muttered. "Spell for relief of pain. Sounds good. Sends castee into slumber for approx. 30 mins. When awoken, all non-magical pain will be gone. NB For magical pain see Spell Removal, p47." Aurelia silently thanked her mum for her dedicated note-taking, and read the instructions on casting. Her last thought before she fell asleep was: I hope mum's OK when I wake up.

☆

The first thing Alex thought when she woke up was: Rook. Then: I hope Aurelia's OK. And then: where am I?
She lifted her head off the soft white pillow and looked around. She was sitting in a room with marble pillars wreathed in ivy and marble archways with hanging plants acting like a curtain. Somewhere in the Fairy Palace, then. To her left, there seemed to be an orchard of fruit trees, their long, leafy limbs creating a roof over Alex's head. Pink cherry blossoms grew on one, and ripe oranges weighed down the bows of another. Interesting. On her right stood flowers, loads of them, tulips and daffodils and sunflowers and sweet peas on trellises, snowdrops and peonies and roses, so many roses, in red and pink and white and pale yellow, so that the floor seemed to be carpeted in a rainbow of petals. None of the plants seemed to have any regard for season, they just grew and flourished and blossomed as if they knew how beautiful they were. It was breathtaking. Alex had never seen anything like it. Except... she thought of Rosette's garden behind the Palace. The myriad of colours, the variety in the plants. As if to confirm her thought, a figure dressed in red stepped out from behind a fruit tree and grinned.