Nightspun (#ONC_2020)

Chapter 13 - Siara

Sybil gingerly stepped into the Icebox, awaiting the worst.

The room was bathed in a soft glow of yellow light almost like the tinge of sunshine every Sunspell elf had. Several Crestmoon healers had left abruptly, leaving trays of equipment and syringes of light resting a few trays down. Sybil's mouth tweaked upwards, almost certain she knew who had caused them to flee from the room so suddenly.

She'd have to thank the High Nightcaster later. 

"Siara?" 

Sybil called quietly into the humid room, noting the tinge of frost against the metal frame of the Icebox, biting her lip at the thought of what that meant. 

"Sybil?"

A small voice replied, coughing soon afterwards and Sybil hurried over to her, eyes wide in disbelief. Once her skin had been a healthy marigold glowing with happiness but now it was a sickly grey, a dark chill clinging to her features. 

"What are you doing here? You can't-"

Sybil did her best to keep calm, her mother barely able to sit up as she continued to cough violently, unable to look her daughter in the eyes. Sybil pulled over a chair still imbued with her mother's sunlight and sat down, resting her hands against her mother's. Siara's eyes went wide, attempting to pull her frozen hands away but Sybil simply smiled.

"I'm not going anywhere, Siara."

"But you could get it too! Our blood…" She began, suppressing a sob.

Sybil nodded, agreeing with her as if she felt the same chill in her bones that her mother did. Something Amira had said popped into her mind when she struggled to reach the waiting room and again when Rayner addressed her. That after everything that had happened, Siara surely had another reason for doing what she did. 

"I know. You wanted to protect me. You've always protected me even when I couldn't see it. It wasn't that you didn't want me to become a Nightspun but you didn't want anyone to find out you had the Chilling. That I...will eventually have it too." Sybil said, finally realising at least a small part of her mother's choices.

The Chilling wasn't contagious.

It was hereditary.

Siara gave a sad smile, rubbing her thumb against her daughters palm as she closed her eyes, exhausted by the pain. Her breathing was soft and slow like a summer's breeze, her Sunspell ebbing and falling alongside every breath. Sybil's eyes pricked but she fought them back, brightened by her mother's smile.

"Your father...he always liked the stories you told, Syb-bear. The first time you told it was when he came back and I knew. I knew he passed it to you. Rayner promised to protect you. You go to him when I'm…"

"No, Siara. Please. Not yet." Sybil begged, placing her mother's cold hands up to her chest. "I can't forgive you, I can't forgive him for what happened. But that doesn't mean I don't care about you. Both of you."

Siara gave a sad smile, nodding slowly as she reached for her daughter, leaning forwards but unable to try any further without collapsing back into a breathless shell of her former self. Sybil buried her head as close to her mother as she would allow, almost willing her partner into existence. 

She begged for the gift to heal her mother just for a few moments more. But Dewdrop wouldn't appear. She could feel how broken, how sorrowful he was by the lack of strength they both held thanks to the Gathering runes effects. It wasn't until Siara spoke did she understand her choice to choose her daughter as her Last Witness.

"Do you remember that story you taught me? The one about the Astral Three? I never knew how beautiful a Nightspun's tales could be til that stormy night. Could you tell it to me, just this once?"

Sybil's heart ached, mentally berating herself for all the rude things she said about her not knowing the Astral Three ending. Of course Siara knew of the original but the story's end never diminished no matter how many times it was told. Sybil's fondest memory was of her Grandmamma telling her the tale when she was ten. Siara's fondest memory was learning of the tale from her own daughter, ten moons afterwards.

"Of...of course." Sybil stuttered, hesitant after so much beration about her Nightspun after the last two months. "I'd be happy to."

Settling her heart, nerves and Sunspell she reaffirmed her decision and decided to tell the tale of the Astral Three. The last, private Spinner's Tale done by Jackalope, no Sybil Nightspun. The royal Sunstress' daughter.

"Once upon a time, there was no night in Neridia. The days stretched endlessly from one into the next until finally three wanderers stood upon the mountaintop and prayed."

Sybil focused on her dormant Sunspell, allowing it to weave all around the room as pictures began to form. They showed three elves, one adorned in gold with long, blonde hair. One shrouded in silver with dark, ebony hair and the last hidden behind the rest, a white hood hiding the beauty of their bronze hair.

"The Laia arrived to greet them, a goddess of light and rebirth and the wandering trio begged for guidance, unsure of their purpose. So the Laia gave them the gifts denied by other hands, the ability to pierce the sky with light."

The scene changed as Siara's Sunspell dimmed alongside her daughters, creating enough light to imbed itself within the frost just to create a starry sky like so many moons ago. 

"These gifts were the three needles of the founders: sunshine, moonlight and stardust and they became the Astral Three. The Laia had plucked them from the sun, moon and stars itself and soon the Three began spreading their gifts to create the Sunspell, Moonspell and Starspell."

Sybil smiled, remembering what came next as she closed her eyes contentedly, surprisingly happy to be around just a little of Siara's Sunspell again. She didn't notice her mother untie her hair or the sharp prick of an object piercing her skin. When a story meant a lot to a Nightspun there was nothing that could deter them from finishing it.

"Their ears became pointed, their face ageless and their abilities strong but as decades passed the light so graciously given by the night began to dwindle. The Laia sent the dragons of Starcleaver, Novawraith and Solarstreak to brighten the stars once again but without the Astral Three they did not have the power to revert what had been long taken."

Three dragons soared to life as Sybil rebelliously chose the ending her mother loved, that she loved above all else. The world wasn't so black and white as the previous retellings had depicted. Life was full of mistakes and regrets but there was no denying what she loved. This may have been her last tale but it would always be the one she remembered most.

"So the clans of Sunspell, Moonspell and Starspell made the decision to offer up their gifts to save the Laia's creation, reluctant to give up the power they had coveted for generations. But they did so regardless, using their power to once again stretch the day forwards and provide the night with its glow."

The dragons dispersed into light, changing into a mighty stag made from the sundust it created. Sybil was lost in the story but Siara, now resting peacefully, touched her familiar's snout for the last time and poured all of her Sunspell aside to hear the last words of the story.

"This proved to the Laia her decision was true and in a blast of Sunspell the two elven clans merged into one, the Sunspell and Nightspell elves. This granted both with abilities far beyond their predecessors and brought forth all types of Casting from every weather imaginable. To this day the needles of the Astral Three have been lost to time and Neridia remains as the light to guide all who believe in it."

Sybil opened her eyes and looked down to see her mother's gift nestled in her palm. Three needles. Bronze, silver and gold. Before she could even ask what was going on Siara's Sunspell finally gave out. The shining stag lowered his head towards the new royal Sunstress before dispersing in a flurry of sunlight. 

"Siara?" Sybil's voice shook, her eyes already streaming. 

She wrapped her fingers in her mother's and felt the ice in her veins ebb away into nothingness. Shaking her gently as if to awake her from a deep sleep, Sybil finally realised and clung to what Sunspell she had left. Praying hard, she imbued her mother's lifeless body with as much Sunspell as she could but her mother's last breath was long gone. At that moment, she knew. She knew and she cried until she was dragged away from the scene.

Siara Nightspun was with the Laia now.