Starlight

Discovery - Maya

A/N: In case my (very few) readers have never heard of the name-sake of my story, Starlight is by Muse and is mentioned a lot in this chapter. Here's a link to the music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgum6OT_VH8

The video is strange, but what a great song! :)

Thanks for reading!

Starlight is on the radio.

All the way home - the hour drive - I listen to the music turned all the way up, until it pounds at the windows, threatening to crack the glass. I even decide, once Starlight is over, to get out my Muse CD from the glove compartment and put the song on loop, I love it that much. I can't help but feel that it has meaning.

"Hold you in my arms! I just wanted to hold you in my arms," I sing, not caring that I'm out of tune.

As the song progresses - the heavy drum beat, the electric guitars - I start thinking about the lyrics.

It's perfect.

* * *

The house is deadly silent, the only sound my breathing and the soft patter of my footsteps on the basement stairs. Ahead of me is a derelict hallway; because nobody but my mother and I come down here, we haven't bothered to decorate it. The walls are very close together, a deep green colour. A smell like musk and peeling wallpaper lingers, and I almost choke on it, as I do every time.

Before me is a single door, wooden. Etched in this door is a crescent moon on its side. When I am close enough to it that I notice it is open a crack, I hear her voice.

"I can sense her magic on my daughter," she says, voice livid. I've never heard her speak this way. It's automatic that I should think she is referring to me - but why would she speak that way to herself?

"You mean our daughter," a deep voice replies.

Both startled and intrigued at the same time, I brace myself by the door, barely hidden as I peek around the corner. All lamps are turned off in Mother's chamber; instead, it is lit with candlelight. Like usual, there is a large chalk circle sketched in the centre of the room, and inside it, my mother paces. She wears her cloak, as she always does for casting.

Finally, I see him.

He may or may not be a man. It seems as though he isn't physically....here. His form flickers like an unreliable light bulb, wavering in and out of existence. He is blonde - even blonder than Mother and I, if that is possible. His appearance is what you would expect of a fairy - and he may well be. Why not? I've seen them before.

But this man... He is ethereal.

His hair is swept across his forehead and is so long that it brushes his broad shoulders. His face is ageless and pale and angular, but lacks the same coolness of expression Mother's holds. From what little I can see of him, I recognise that he, too, wears a cloak, but his is white as snow and hangs loosely around his body.

Ignoring him, Mother says, "I thought she was dead-"

"Oh, she is," the man interrupts.

"But she reeks of her magic!" Mother cries, abruptly turning to face the man in frustration. She now has her back to me.

"What of the son?" the man inquires, right before his eyes latch on mine.

His pale blue eyes.