Jupiter Rising

Chapter Thirty Two- Rescue party

Chamber maids and staff were gathered for Leda and I, and our own personal wing of the branch was being organised by our Mama. We had gained a wing, where once upon a time we had left behind just a little nursery, one that had gathered dust and cobwebs and now looked like a sealed tomb.

I pushed the doors open, having used my magic to unbind the magical seal of the door. Someone had not wanted a soul to enter this room. The rocking chair stood where I remembered, my last memory of Willow was asleep in that chair. The crib was covered in a white sheet, and I leant over and tugged it away, my hand diving down inside and tracing the silk edges as dust came down around me under the light above.

"Was that mine?" Leda asked, coming into the room behind me and taking me by surprise. She came to stand the other side of the crib and looked inside "was I ever this small?!"

I smiled, and remembered her little pink cheeks and her endearing little wisp of brown hair. "You were dinky"

She left my side and wondered around the room, taking it all in "Why do you think it's been sealed for so long?"

My heart constricted for a moment and my chest felt tight. "Because it reminded them of something awful... and sometimes to shut the memory away permanently is your only way to survive it"

"Is that what you did?" Leda asked, sitting herself on the end of my old bed.

Pain clawed up my throat as the reality of this room and what happened here came back to me. I had pushed it down as far as it could go, and now years later, it could no longer be avoided or repressed. I nodded, and turned away, taking refuge on the balcony, the curtains blowing slightly in the breeze as I exited.

Leda followed me out, her finger tips brushing mine as she came to stand beside me and took my hand firmly "I'm here"

They came then, the tears long held back, and I let them flow freely, a lifetime of being the strong one, and the responsible party, for my parents pain, hitting me at once. Leda stood tall beside me, her eyes on Olamoore below us, allowing me to cry and holding me up as I did so. Leda was my constant in a world we were lost within, and despite our bickering, we held space for one another that nobody else could ever fill. Together we were stronger, and by one another's side was our place.

"I'm sorry" I cried, wiping at my eyes with my other hand.

"You had to take us away... I know that. I'm not mad at you Jupiter. I'm mad at him... at the Gloam... for forcing you to make that choice when you were only small. Too small for that"

"It's not just that Lee. I'm sorry about Agni too. I know how much you love her"

Leda released my hand and instead turned and hugged me tightly, her head rested on my shoulder. It felt so much like the last time, when she was eight years old and had just lost her first pet. I had feared she would never stop crying over that bat. It wasn't even her pet, it just hung upside down outside of her window sill upon the eaves of the cottage.

I felt her tears run down my shoulder and into my white t shirt. "I'm so scared Jupiter"

"Of what?" I soothed, forgetting my own tears that dried, and running my hand over her back lovingly.

"That she will forget about me" she sobbed through hiccups.

"Nobody could ever forget you" I promised "especially not Agni. That girl was madly in love with you. It made me rather jealous how lucky you both were to experience that together"

Leda parted from my shoulder and wiped her tears away "but I never got to tell her I was leaving. What if she thinks I didn't love her?! What if she thinks I abandoned her?!"