Starless Child

4. Under The Lavender Sky

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A thick orchid curve pierced through the denim sky, surrounded by shades of teal, sapphire, and cobalt. White dots twinkled in the lavender. If you looked closely you could see more.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Millions.

Billions.

Infinite.

An unfathomably large reservoir of star. Rin wondered how so many live their lives not knowing the beauty of what they create, not knowing the amount of power their souls possess.

The sky looked like an explosion of colors, with it's shades of cobalt and lilac. Hues of iris and azure were spread across the horizon.

A horizon that met the molten sea.

Rin heard of how once there were no nights in Hera, how the stars never used to set, how the heat of four suns scorched the surface.

Now all of them are gone, consumed to power the immensely powerful force field surrounding the planet along with millions of other stars.

Now there is only night.

Now there is only darkness.

The sound of boots echoed through the empty hallway. Rin didn't have to look up to know who it was. Swallowing the lump on his throat he forced his lips upwards into a curve, hoping that his smile was deceiving enough.

"Rin," Ira's arms wrapped around him as she pulled him into a tight hug.

"How long has it been? Five years? Ten?," Rin said letting Ira out of his embrace.

"Seven. Its been seven years," she said, her face bursting with childlike glee. Her once long hair was gone. The short silky straight curled slightly beneath her jaws, framing her face. "So much has changed. I can't wait to tell you."

"I know," he smiled. "You're a member of the council now. I'm so proud of you Ira," he said meaning it.

"Well. We've both come a long way haven't we?," Ira's gaze drifted towards the sea at the sound of a large wave splashing against the sand.

Rin nodded. Ira leaned against the glass at the edge of the balcony, her fingers curled around the metal railing. He noticed the black and ivory ink on her wrists peeking out through the cuff of her shirt like vines.

Tattoos.

She didn't have those the last time he had seen her.

They both quietly stared at the grey ocean. Waves of mercury and dull grey iron hit the shore, leaving  scorch marks each time on the shimmery blue sand before the heavy liquid dissipated back to the ocean. Since the stars had been destroyed and Hera cooled, this was the only sea that didn't freeze.

He could feel Ira's gaze on him as his eyes followed the surge of the grey liquid on the shore. "Why did you call me here Ira?," he asked.

"I wanted to see you. Do I need a reason to see my old friend?," Ira smiled. Her smile hadn't changed a bit over the course of the years. It was still the same as he had remembered. So innocent, so naive, yet so misplaced.

The Ira I was friends with is long gone.

"Why did you really call me?," Rin sighed.

She continued to stare at the horizon in silence. Rin was expecting her to try and make another attempt to mend something that was impossible to fix. He was expecting her to waste a little more of her time, using pointless words to justify the horrible things she had done.

When she finally decided to speak her voice was cold, devoid of it's previous warmth. "There will be a ship leaving tomorrow. I need you to set the co-ordinates for the child's planet."

His shoulders slouched a bit. To his surprise he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Maybe deep down he wanted to hear her try to explain why she had done the things she did, so he could understand.

Maybe he wanted to forgive her.

But he couldn't let her see that.

"What child?," Rin asked calmly, hoping Ira wasn't talking about her.

"You know exactly which one," Ira looked at him in the eye.

"What do you want with the girl?"

"I requested her majesty to give me permission to look into her, see why she was born without a star. She approved," her eyes cold and lifeless. He knew it was pointless, but he kept staring at them, trying to find a single speck of emotion. "I want to bring her to Hera."

"You can't be serious," Rin looked at her in disbelief, "she's human Ira. She won't survive here for a second. She'll freeze to death faster than you can say the word star."

"I never said I wanted her alive," Ira said nonchalantly, not at all as if she was talking about taking someone's life.

"The girl was an accident. A mistake. That doesn't mean we have to kill her for it," Rin's voice rose.

"There is no such thing as accidents Rin," Ira pushed her purplish blonde hair from her face, "and besides, she has no star. What's the point to her existence?"

Rin wondered what had happened to Ira in the past few years for her to turn into this. Other than the lies she had fed him.

"She is a waste of space."

Picture of Ira above.

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