Mary had to take the queen back to Tinker's nook that evening after a small drizzle. "Here are some teapots, you can paint whatever you want on them." She said throwing four teapots onto a workbench as she picked up a few rainbow catchers.
"I don't think I'm supposed to be painting your teapots." Clarion said as she hesitantly sits down in front of them.
"It's fine. If anyone asks, I painted them." Mary says as she gets to work. "The light fairies complained about a leak in these. I knew from the start that new tinkers shouldn't be able to work on anything other than pots and pans for the first week."
"Be thankful that you even got new fairies, two nonetheless. Some talent guilds are low on fairypower."
"We were low on fairies before we got those two arrivals. I swear Lucinda is one of the laziest fairies I've met. Now I'm stuck patching holes. This wasn't even my job. All I had to do was weave baskets today." The tinker rants. Clarion giggles, picking up a paintbrush.
"Do you think I should tell Cinth or Red about him?" Clarion asks, looking up from the teapot
"Do you want to?"
Her hands resume their work on the teapot. "I don't really want anyone to know. I've caused enough trouble already."
"One day you'll stop blaming yourself for what happened, Ree. Anyway look at this hole. This is such an amateur mistake even amateurs don't make." Mary scoffs.
"Go easy on them, Mary" Clarion smiles. The tinker managed to keep the queen distracted for most of the night. Anytime her mind drifted off to Milori, Mary would change the topic to whatever she had to rant about.
"Don't you think I could be a tinker?" Clarion smirks, proudly showing off the teapots she painted.
"I don't know about tinker, but perhaps a painter. I'm sure the fairies would actually like those." Mary beams.
Clarion smiles. "I used to want to be anything but a queen." She sighs
"And what about now?"
"I don't know."
Almost as if Mary could feel her mood changing, she decides to accompany her back home for bed.
.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡
Thankfully, Clarion holds it in enough for it not to rain that night, or the next morning. Long enough for Sunflower and the nature fairies to make it back home.
"Thank goodness they're alright." Hyacinth breathes as he catches sight of the fairies landing back home. "I guess the fairy theatre for their return won't be for nothing."
"There's a show today?" Clarion blinks.
Hyacinth turns to her. "Yes, they should have cleared it with you."
"I'm sure they did. It must have slipped my mind."
"Well I look forward to the new arrival's debut. Her talent glowed quite brightly if I do recall." Redleaf adds.
"Ah yes, Lyria. I can already tell she's going to be a charismatic little one." Hyacinth agrees.
"When's the show?" She asks, feeling slightly guilty about forgetting.
"Sunset today."
Sunset. Oh, "Are you alright?" Hyacinth questions. "You look pale."
"I'm fine. We should go. I'm sure Sunflower is waiting." Clarion assured quickly and flies off.
The two ministers follow behind her as they make their way to the summer meadow. Mary was already there speaking to Sunflower and Clarion doesn't miss the brief pitiful look she gave her before it was switched to one of delight. "I hope you three didn't miss me too much." She beams, flying over to meet them halfway.
"I hope you had a safe journey." Redleaf smiles.
"You're lucky too. We had some rains recently and we were afraid that they weren't going to stop and you guys would be stranded-"
"But the important thing is that they're back safely." Mary interrupts Hyacinth's rambling.
Sunflower looks up at Clarion confused. "You scheduled rain right before our return?"
"No, you see the rain clouds couldn't be eradicated by the storm fairies, they were so strange." Hyacinth starts.
"But everything is perfectly fine now and we've got clean fresh air as a bonus." Redleaf finishes.
Sunflower's eyes soften as she sees Clarion look down almost guiltily. "Anyway, it's going to be your turn next. The Mainland was extra humid this time, I suggest you try to bring it down for autumn." Sunflower nudges Redleaf before taking Clarion's arm. "Now I missed my favourite queen." She says like an announcement before leading her back to the Pixie Dust Tree.
.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡
"Mary told me about Milori." said Sunflower in Clarion's study, dropping the cheerful façade. "You must be so upset."
"Can you imagine what he's feeling? He can't fly anymore."
Sunflower sighs. "That doesn't mean that you can't feel bad. You both went through something traumatic that day, it's only understandable that you're upset."
"No, I'm not the one who lost a wing but I feel like I'm screwing up my whole kingdom. The reason for the rain is me not being able to control my emotions. It could have gotten you all hurt and it would be my fault. There's a theatre show celebrating your return and I forgot about it. Even worse, I'm going to miss my newest arrival's debut because it's happening at sunset and he will be all I can think about." She cries.
Sunflower places her hands on her shoulders, rubbing soothingly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell." Clarion whimpers.
"I know."
"Is it always going to hurt like this?" She laughs solemnly and wipes her tears.
"Like all wounds they heal over time." The minister said. "I'll tell the theatre fairies you're not feeling well."
"They're going to be so upset. I should go to the show-"
"Everybody has days when they don't feel like working. They'll be disappointed but they will understand."
.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡
Truth be told, Milori wasn't doing that great either. "You haven't talked about it at all." Dewey states. He stopped visiting the library, stopped doing anything except mope around.
"About what?" He asked rhetorically.
"Your wing."
"There's nothing to talk about. It's gone and that's that." Milori snaps.
Dewey sighs. "There hasn't been a fairy in over a thousand years with a broken wing. We don't know how to treat this so we need you to talk to us and tell us if there's something that's not working or something you want to do differently. We don't know what it's like so you've got to help us help you."
"Fine. You want to know what it's like? I hate having to see people fly around because it reminds me that I'm half crippled. I had to move all my things down from the high shelves because I can't fly up to reach them on my own and now my tables are cluttered. Anyone that flies makes me remember that I can't move my right wing anymore and that I took that ability for granted. I also hate the way you guys look at me like I'm this fragile thing that needs help doing everything." He rants.
"Milori I'm sorry." Dewey starts. "You're right, I don't know what it's like but you're my best friend. I want to help make things feel normal for you. Don't do this alone."
"Okay." He sighs.
"Now, we can start buy getting you more storage space."