Spirit channeling was used for a variety of reasons, Maya knew. Sometimes it was used by the police, to help with the investigations of suspicious deaths, or to help solve a murder case that was just too tricky for them to deal with. Other times, spirit channeling was used as a party trick to entertain customers. Channeling spirits of great historical significance for an impromptu 'chat sesh', as Nick was fond of calling it when he tried to hide his age again, never failed to attract interested clients.
But she also knew that the biggest reason people would use spirit channeling was because it allowed them to speak to their departed loved ones. An otherwise impossible opportunity to see, hear and touch those who had been taken away from people. Maya had often seen this happen with aunt Morgan, when clients came down to their village. She wasn't privy to what happened behind the locked doors in her home, but the aftermath was always clearly visible to her. Clients, their eyes red and cheeks stained with tears, profusely thanking her aunt, who accepted their words with a muted smile.
Maya had realized her aunt didn't like her from an early age. Ever since the disappearance of Misty – she refused to call her 'mother' or, God forbid, 'mom' – she felt an aura that resembled rage coming from her aunt, every time they spoke to one another. Maya figured that it wouldn't do any good to ask her for any favors, which was why she had never approached her aunt with her deepest desire, even though she knew that aunt Morgan would easily be able to fulfill her request.
To once more see her sister.
Truly, Maya's life was cruel. Sure, her day to day affairs were in order, and generally she lived a happy life, studying the channeling techniques of her ancestors while working as an assistant to Nick at the Wright & Co. Law Offices, but it was precisely in those two affairs that she suffered her cruelest heartbreak. Every day in the office, she saw that picture of Nick and her sister, Mia. Of course she would never show it, but the picture stung. It, combined with working in the offices that once bore her very own surname, served to remind her that the woman she had come to consider as her mother had parted from her, just like her real moth… Misty had done.
Channeling was at once her very reason for being alive, as well as the reason she was so tormented. The technique allowed Maya to give up her body to the spirit she called, but would lose her consciousness in the process. She could give it her all and try to channel Mia, but the result would be inevitable. She would still not be able to actually meet her sister; Mia simply inhabited her body until the connection was severed and Maya was alone once more. That knowledge ate away at her. What she wouldn't give to share all her highs and lows with someone who could offer advice in a way only family could?
The room she was in was dark. Of course it was. The office was always deserted at this time of night, as it should be. Nick was at home, sleeping. If this were a week earlier, she wouldn't have been able to even be here, but Nick had given her a spare key and she couldn't have been happier. As she looked around, her eyes were naturally attracted to that photograph. The beaming smile from Phoenix, the professional but satisfied and proud smile of her big sister.
Maya's eyes stung, and before she knew it, she was crying. As the tears rolled down her cheeks and landed on the white desk that she was sitting behind, she recalled the days where she would sit in front of Mia's gravestone and just talk. She had seen people do just that in movies, and it seemed to work in them, so why was it that the pain in her heart just hurt all the more when she tried to find her own closure?
It was unfair. She was training to help people with the very problem that no one could seemingly help her with.
She knew there were options, of course. But they all required things she couldn't, or didn't, want to spare. She knew the queen of Khura'in could channel spirits, but why would the queen of a nation care about a nobody who only wanted to see her sister. There was no way to obtain an audience with her, let alone the fact that Maya would not be able to afford the travel expenses required.
That left Pearly. Poor little Pearly. Her mother had placed such expectations on the young girl that Maya was surprised and a little impressed that the child hadn't collapsed under the weight of it all. But love her as she might, Maya knew that asking Pearl to channel Mia was something that would have to wait. Maya herself could only successfully channel a person around thirty percent of the time; someone as young as Pearl would undoubtedly have an even lower success rate. No, she would have to wait until the little girl had grown up a bit more and had gotten better at controlling her powers before Maya could make her selfish request.
Her vision was blurry, and she wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her purple overcoat. "Pathetic," she said to herself, while standing up and preparing to leave. "Crying like this." Her time alone was done once more. It was time to get rid of the brooding Maya and return to be the cheery one that Nick had grown accustomed to. He had enough problems to deal with, a depressed teenaged assistant should have been the least of his worry.
"No it isn't," she suddenly heard a familiar voice say. She jolted at the sound. He should've been in bed, sleeping, but there he was, standing in the doorway. The moonlight illuminated his black dress shoes and typical blue pants. Though his upper body was hidden in the shadows, she still saw the glint of his attorney badge, proudly on display on his left lapel. The spiky hair was a dead giveaway. "Crying is never pathetic."
"Nick…" Maya started to say, but with three long strides he stood in front of her. Instead of finishing, she felt the words get stuck in her throat. As he opened his arms, she dutifully stepped into them, and as he embraced her, she buried herself into his chest. She relaxed and felt his right hand go up to her head, as he slowly started stroking her hair.
"Maya," he said, and the baritone rumbling of his voice made her feel like she was being held by a father, embracing his child. "I'm so sorry for not noticing earlier. I was so elated when you channeled Mia and I got to see her again that it never dawned on me that you were suffering like this."
Her whole body relaxed, and with it her inhibitions of crying did too. She finally allowed herself to truly feel the loss of the one person she loved above everyone else. Her wailing must've sound horrible and childlike, but she couldn't find it in herself to care. She always put up a brave face in front of her sister, in front of Pearly. She never wanted to show them how much she was hurting because both had their own problems and she would be damned if she lumped her problems on them as well. So in a way, this was the first time she could truly and wholly drop the mask in well over ten years. Her body offered no resistance as Phoenix dragged them to the couch in the middle of the room, all the while repeating a mantra of apologies.
Seconds turned into minutes. She had no idea how long it was until the tears finally stopped, but when she looked up, she saw that Phoenix was looking out of the window, the light of the full moon outside brilliantly reflected in the pool of tears that had formed at the base of his eyes. But he didn't cry that night. She realized that he was doing for her what she had been doing for others for so long: put up a brave face and be the rock that they needed.
They sat like that for what must've been at least an hour. Still holding on to him, she told him everything. About her family situation, about how everyone had left her, how she had still not been able to properly grieve for her sister, how much she missed her. To his credit, Phoenix didn't say a word. He allowed her all the space and time she needed to say her piece. And when they said their goodbyes, and she watched as Phoenix locked the door to their office before walking out the building with her, she realized that she had never asked him how he knew. But that question felt almost inappropriate to ask. He had simply shown up in the nick of time and come in clutch, as he had done so often already in the short time that she had been his assistant. Because that was the kind of man he was.
She vowed to never forget this night. And so, when months later she saw her sister in Pearly's clothes that were entirely too small for her, she couldn't help but be remembered of that lonely night where she grieved for herself and for Mia. And when she saw her form retreating towards the defendant's lobby, along with Phoenix in her stead, she wasted no time, got up from the gallery seats and took off in a mad dash towards that very same defendant's lobby.
And when she turned the corner, and her eyes met those eyes she had so longed to see, she once again felt her inhibitions against crying dissolve. As the tears streamed down her cheeks, this time not only out of sadness but out of relief and delight as well, she launched herself at her sister, who caught her form easily and embraced her for all she was worth.
It was really the simplest greeting Mia could've used. All she said was: "Hey Maya," but it was enough for Maya to turn into a mess. Phoenix stood off to the side, not wanting to intrude, but Maya wouldn't have minded if he was in there with her. But right now, all she could say was what she had said so often to that gravestone on the cemetery.
"Hey sis… it's been so long, and I… I really, really missed you."