The Eternal Flame

Chapter 15

Tonight, I had asked Flame to meet me out at the club. I didn't know what to do about Rain.

"Do you think there is something wrong with Luna today?" I heard Hanasi ask my father from across the table. I look over and smile at them. They give me odd looks; however, smiling back at me none the less. I awoke this morning happier than I had ever truly been in a long while. Now, I was thrown into a giggle fit with my younger sister about something that happened to her the other day. Everyone had stopped to stare at me like I had just grown a third arm or something. I couldn't stop laughing though.

"Um, Luna?" Hanasi asked, a tad hesitantly. I look over at her with a goofy grin on my face.

"Yes, Hanasi?" I asked through my giggles. My reply was more, breathy than I had imagined.

"You seem very... happy today? Did something happen last night that made you so... happy?" I stopped laughing at looked at her for a moment. Now I am grinning, an all-out toothy smile, from ear-to-ear.

"Nothing at all. Is it a crime to be this happy?" I asked lifting an eyebrow.

"For you, it's almost frightening," my brother mumbles under his breath. But even that cannot damper my happy mood. But Ren comes to my defense.

"Leave her alone, brother. It's not a frightening thing to see our sister so happy. Don't you think she should be this happy more often?" Her tone was light and soft. However, you could still hear the silent warning all the same, and its deadly hidden agenda.

"Of course," He said quietly before returning to his meal. He didn't want to risk her wrath today. She must be improving, I thought to myself with pride.

"Father," I started. He turns my way and sets the papers that he was reading down.

"Yes, Lunatris?" Before I can stop myself, the words roll off my tongue and out into the air. I want to curse at myself but knew that it would be pointless.

"How did you feel the first time you met my mother?" Everyone in the room freezes. Even the servants in the background freeze and stare at my father. He looks at me with wide eyes. Soon, like a flicker of a flame, the surprise is gone from his face and replaced with a look I could only call blissful. For a moment, I don't think he will answer me, then he gives a low, quiet chuckle and a small smile spreads across his face.

"I was angry, actually. Your mother, Lunatris... She was like a ball of fire, she was. One day I'm out practicing, in a place only a few people even know about. Then the next thing I know, I'm hit from the side, making me hit the wall hard. Nipus is howling in pain not too far from me. When I look up, a girl is standing over me. Her beauty..." He pauses for a moment not finding the words he wants to say. In that moment, I turn to Hanasi and she has a deep look on her face. As if she is in some far away land. She too must be remembering the first time she met my mother or one of her fond memories of her. Then sadness takes me, almost like a wave that I refuse to fight. It sweeps me up into the deeps of its dark and lonely waters. How I too wish that I had gotten a chance, even just one, to meet my mother in real life. It the sound of my father's voice brings me back.

"Her beauty would rival the moon's itself. You remind me so much of her Luna, stubborn, headstrong, brave..." His voice trails off again and I know now that he is too lost in thought to be coming back anytime soon. I sneak a peek at my siblings. Ren is hanging on to our father's every word. Nix expression is guarded, while Lach's expression was unreadable. Perhaps I shouldn't have brought up the subject about my mother with my siblings' present...

"What made you want to know about your mother, Little Moon?" Hanasi asked me. I turned to her. She was giving me a look I knew all too well from my childhood. She knew that I was hiding something.

"I was just curious," I state without missing a beat. One of her eyebrows quirks up in annoyance, she knows I'm lying. However, she doesn't question me any further. She just nods, deep in thought again.

The room is eerily silent. Then, Nix says something that shocked the whole room.

"Did you ever love my mother?" That brings our father out of his trance and his head snaps toward her, as does us all. He stares at her, his face shocked and mouth slightly hanging open as if trying to figure out what to say.

Nix's squares her shoulders and her back it's upright, a look of fury blazes through her beautiful pale eyes. "Well, did you?" She all but snaps.

"Of course, I loved your mother, Nixlaka," Father says softly. She shakes her head.

"No, you didn't."

"Nix-" Father tried to say but she wasn't having it.

"You have never talked about our mother like that. Never. I saw my mother crying at night sometimes because she knew, she knew that she could never replace, Queen Kara!" She shoved herself away from the table and stormed out of the room without a word. Lach looked at her retreating form, then back at our father, before going after his sister. Ren and I stared at each other. Debating on if we should follow them or not. The decision was answered when Hanasi slapped the table so hard that it shook and snarled before pointing to us all and storming out of the room after them. With a little hesitation, we all got up and followed her. I knew this would not end well.