Stars Of Memory

Chapter 45

She wakes early the next morning and scarfs down her breakfast. Her mother looks at her, amused.

"Are you eager for your lessons today?"

Jīvitaya nods, not quite wanting to tell her parents about the girl in the well visiting her. She feels slightly guilty for not knowing her name, but brushes it off for the time being. She rushes to the air courtyard, where she is to practice hovering and flying with the wind.

Azan is waiting for her in the center of the courtyard. "Are you ready, Lilaria?" She nods. "You know what to do."

Jīvitaya summons the wind and it circles around her feet, pushing her into the air. She rises an inch before the wind fails and she drops back down to the ground. She sighs and tries again. She rises higher, the wind moving to encircle her entire body. Jīvitaya laughs giddily, and the winds carry her around the courtyard, tilting her so that she is flat on her belly in a true flying position. Finally, she descends once more to the ground.

"Well done, Lilaria. You are free to go or work on something else if you wish."

She darts out of the courtyard, the wind pushing at her heels to move her faster and faster. She sprints through the trees, finally stopping at the well's clearing, panting. She has a momentary flash of deja vú, realizing that that is exactly how the girl in the well has felt when she reached the clearing after she was running. Jīvitaya moves to stand at the edge of the well, peering down into its dark depths. How is she supposed to let go of her past? She ponders it, sitting down beside the well. An hour in to her wait, she suddenly jumps to her feet, having found the answer.

She leans over the edge of the well slightly, lifting her old pendant, the one with the remnants of her egg, over her head. Her heart pounds with the emotions racing through her. Jīvitaya clutches the pendant to her chest briefly, before extending her hand out over the depths of the well. She hesitates but forces herself to release the pendant, and it plummets down into the dark waters of the well. She hears it hit the water and squeezes her eyes closed, hoping that it will work. Nothing happens, and a tear slips out of the corner of her eye. It drops into the well, glittering. Light surges out of the well as she automatically shifts into nature sight. As the light pours out of the well, she watches as its pulsing black light is swallowed up by the pure white light that pours out of it. As the light continues pouring out, the flow lessens and the excess begins to coalesce into a shape. A few moments later, the well girl appears before her, smiling sadly.

"I'm sorry for what it took from you, but I couldn't speak of what you needed to do until you had proven that you could do what needed to be done."

"You couldn't, or you wouldn't?"

"Both, I suppose. I am free to roam now that my spirit is appeased, so I can answer any of your questions."

"You don't go anywhere, just roam?"

She laughs. "I can go now, whenever I choose, but I won't until La'Vi'Ai is as it should be. Now, do you have any questions? Or, at least any besides what you must do?"

"What's your name?"

The girl smiles softly, and her light seems to flare up with quiet joy. "Chiarina. My name is Chiarina."

"How can you use your powers when you're dead?"

"It's because I have the power of spirit. That is one of the lesser known . . . side effects of that power."

Jīvitaya frowns. "What is wrong with La'Vi'Ai?"

Chiarina's face falls slightly in sadness and her light dims. "The heart of La'Vi'Ai is dying. If it isn't fixed, the rest will follow."

"What is the heart?"

"The crystal forest is the heart."

"How do I fix it?"

Chiarina smiles. "You heal it."

Jīvitaya frowns again. "How am I even supposed to get to the crystal forest?"

At that question, Chiarina frowns. "I don't know. But you'll have to do it soon, there isn't much time."

There is a gasp from behind Jīvitaya and she whirls to see Iyokú. Iyokú approaches slowly, staring at Chiarina.

"Jīvitaya, why are you at the well? And . . . who is this?"

Chiarina smiles softly. "Hello. I am Chiarina, but you would know me better as the girl in the well."

"But, didn't you die one hundred and thirteen years ago?"

Chiarina smiles. "Yes, I did. But I couldn't move on at that time, and I will not move on now that Lilaria Jīvitaya has freed me until things that need to be done are done."

Iyokú frowns. "What needs to be done?"

Chiarina smiles and mentions to Jīvitaya, informing her that she is the one to choose if Iyokú is told. Jīvitaya thinks for a moment, then a little lightbulb goes off inside her head.

"The crystal forests are dying, and I need to go heal them. If I don't, all of La'Vi'Ai will begin to die. The problem is that I can't get to the crystal forests."

Iyokú frowns before turning to Chiarina. "How do you know this?"

Wordlessly, Chiarina lifts a pendant from her chest and as she does, Jīvitaya realizes that it doesn't stay part of the light like the rest of her body, it just looks that way because of its crystals. Iyokú peers at it, then her head whips up to look Chiarina in the eyes.

"You have the power of prophecy?"

"Yes."

"When did you see this prophecy of the threat to the crystal forest?"

"One hundred and thirteen years ago."

Iyokú's eyes narrow in anger, and she starts shouting. "Why did it take you this long to act?! Why didn't you do anything then?! Why does Jīvitaya have to fix the problem?!"

She stops abruptly, panting for breath, and Chiarina takes the momentary lapse in her rant to respond. "I did act then, I placed a leaf of another planet on the Lilaria's egg, and that was what led to my death. The reason nothing could truly happen until now is that the Lilaria wasn't here and if she was, she hadn't learned what she needed to learn in order to fix it. As for why her specifically, that was foretold in the prophecy."

Iyokú's frown deepens further. "Why did you have to send her to another planet, as a newborn? Why couldn't she stay here on La'Vi'Ai?"

Chiarina shakes her head. "She wouldn't have been able to learn how to heal if she had grown up here. No matter which of the planets I had to choose between to send her to, when she found out that she wasn't biologically one of them and went looking for who she was, she would have gone to Gaia. I saw that very clearly. She needed to go to Gaia so that she could learn to heal."

Iyokú nods at last, the rage lining her face clearing away, and turns to Jīvitaya. "I think I can help you."

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How is Iyokú going to help? See you next chapter, and happy reading!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out.