Elements and Memory
-
-
-
It was difficult, Wink though wryly, being the only normal one in a crowd of, well…
Setie had locked herself inside one of the kitchen cupboards again and was crying hysterically into the potatoes and bunches of hanging garlic. Luanna had gone to comfort her, but had brained herself on an open pantry door, and was now cursing with un-maidenly vitriol on the ground, which only horrified Setie more.
Wink, who'd been following the drama ever since it had run shrieking and sobbing past her bedroom door, where she had been busy recuperating from her journey to Kashua Glacier. She had set down her book with a sigh, braided up her hair once more, then had followed the disturbances down to the castle kitchen, which was very empty at this time of day.
When she entered, Setie was still crying, and Luanna was sitting cross-legged on the floor with a mulish look that was uncharacteristic on her pretty face, and seemed more fitting on Miranda.
A twinge hit her heart at that, but she ignored it and descended to Luanna's side in a flutter of long skirts.
"Why is she crying?" she muttered into Luanna's ear so Setie wouldn't hear. Wink helped the blind girl up gently, then closed the pantry door behind her with a snap.
Luanna held one hand to her head, and sounded somewhat peeved. "One of the guards said 'excuse me' when he passed her in the hall,"
"I was in his WAY!" wailed a devastated voice from inside the cupboard. "Now he's going to think I'm RUDE!"
Luanna tried to give Wink an exasperated look. Sadly, she aimed it a foot to Wink's left.
"I'll take care of her," said Wink soothingly, her hands making fluttering motions in front of her. "You just… eat something." She didn't think that Luanna was entirely capable of making it back upstairs by herself, and she was flustered, besides, and kitchens food, don't they?
Luanna grumbled, and carefully maneuvered away. She found a carrot rather by accident, but settled down at the kitchen table with it anyway, biting the tip off rather aggressively. Usually Setie led her around and warned her of oncoming obstacles, but since Setie was currently experiencing yet another emotional breakdown, Luanna's mobility was more restricted than usual.
She was blind, but she didn't like being reminded that she was.
Setie's problem was more… complicated.
Wink smoothed down her skirts, checked to see that she had a suitably clean handkerchief, then readied herself to open the cupboard.
Setie was fragile.
She couldn't help it. She was an earnest, loving, sincere young lady who wanted to please everyone at once, and when she didn't, she crumbled to pieces. Usually Miranda just yelled at her whenever she showed signs of cracking, and Setie, earnest to please the biggest, bravest, and best Sacred Sister, would pull herself together and be as cheery as possible. But Miranda wasn't here now.
Wink felt herself sink a little.
They all missed her.
She knocked on the cabinet door softly. "Setie," she called in the most comforting tone she knew, "What's wrong, lovey, really?"
"EVERYONE HATES ME!" came a cry of despair from inside. "And I keep thinking, I have to stop crying because Miranda is going to get so angry at me, but she isn't here, and that makes it so much worse!" And then came a storm of continued weeping, and a rattling sound that must have meant that, in her grief, Setie had sent the garlic careening towards the floor and the potatoes after it.
Wink closed her eyes and searched her head for some sort of solution.
It was disconcerting how the loss of Miranda made everyone fall apart. Wink hadn't witnessed the first few days of her absence, she'd been busy recovering from her to recover Theresa from the glacier, and then had immersed herself in the palace restoration project. Even before that, before Shana and the Queen had been captured by… Mr. Lloyd, she had still been returning from Tiberoa.
Setie couldn't function without someone to jerk her back into some semblance of normality. Luanna couldn't even take a walk around the city without Setie at her side. And Wink couldn't concentrate on the daily trials and expectations of the palace when both of the remaining Sacred Sisters were incapacitated.
What would Miranda do? Wink thought helplessly, casting her worried eyes to the ceiling.
The answer was so immediately obvious that she felt like laughing, but she ruthlessly quelled that impulse as she drew herself up to her highest, and clenched her skirts in both handa.
"Setie!" she barked, and pounded on the cupboard door. "If you don't open this door immediately and get a hold of yourself, then I will chop the da-darned thing down with a- an AXE!"
It was the best Miranda impression that she could come up with on short notice, but she still felt elated. So that's what it feels like to be Miranda! she thought giddily.
Still rather pleased with herself, she lifted her hand to rap smartly on the door again and Setie smiled woefully out at her with swimming red-rimmed eyes. "I'm sorry, Wink," she managed, her voice small and wobbly. "I'll try harder next time." And with that she threw her arms around Wink's waist and buried her wet face in her chest.
Wink relented, and stroked Setie's hair softly. "It's all right, Setie," she murmured. "Nobody hates you."
Setie stiffened, and for one dangerous second it seemed like she was about to burst into tears again, and Wink could suddenly see Luanna waving her arms with a horrified expression on her face, mouthing, NO NO NO.
Wink coughed, then tried again. "I mean, " she said in her Miranda voice as she broke away. "If you don't take Luanna up to Theresa's room to see how the Queen is doing, then I will get Very Mildly Upset!"
Setie squeaked, then lunged for Luanna, who was giving a thumbs up in Wink's general direction. Setie grabbed the blind girl by the wrist and began running towards the stairs, hauling Luanna behind her.
Once the sounds of their mingled footsteps faded into the distance, Wink allowed herself to laugh. If it was an overly wet laugh interwoven with not a few dabs of a handkerchief, then nobody was around to hear.
-
-
-