Hearts' Remedy
Chapter 29
The gossamer drapes billowed in the wind of the gaping window. The walls turned glassy as the sunlight danced against them. Mid-morning the clouds were drifting over and out of the sun.
Serenity awoke to everything that was gentle and fair. Her shinning hair fanned out underneath her in soft tangled masses. She blinked her eyes. Her sight was not what it used to be. It was all part of the process of growing old. Her bones creaked and her back sometimes gave out on her. No pain was as old as the pain in her heart, though. Nothing ate away at her appearance more than worry and dread.
Serenity turned on to her side and simultaneously closed her eyes. Her knee bumped against something that was on her bed. Her eyes immediately shot open as she brought her head up just slightly to see what was occupying the small lower corner of her bed.
It was a dream, she thought. It could not be real. There lay a rumpled little princess, sleeping peacefully. Her two golden braids fell off the bed. She had one hand tucked under her cheek and the other clenched in a balled up fist against her chin. She was in a pure white night gown that camouflaged her entire being in the snowy bedclothes.
Serenity pulled herself upright and leaned forward. She touched the top of the golden head of the gently snoring princess. A whimper escaped her quivering lips and the tears spilled from her eyes.
The door creaked open and Selene stood halfway into the room. She smiled at her crying mother, but Serenity just kept crying.
"She was waiting for you to wake up yesterday…" Selene began, but Serenity hushed her.
"Sh… She's sleeping," she whispered.
"Mother," Serena murmured groggily.
"It's so wonderful to see her," Serenity said dazedly.
"She sleeps like she did when she was still a child," Selene whispered back.
"Yes, absolutely." Just as Serenity spoke a warm hand covered the hand she had brought back to her side after touching her youngest daughter's crown.
Serenity looked down and met two bright, blue orbs staring up at her lovingly. "Mother," Serena said again, this time in a high, clear voice.
"And after all these years she still calls me her mother! Nineteen years and I am still her mother!" Serenity cried helplessly.
Selene joined the two on the other side of the bed and took Serenity's other hand. Serena scrambled on the other side, rocking the bed crazily.
"Don't cry," Serena whispered.
Serenity sniffed and tried to smile. "My, how you've grown. You're so beautiful. You haven't forgotten me have you?"
"I'm here now, am I not?" Serena frowned.
There was a squeak as the door opened again. The three of them looked up and saw a maid with a tray of food in her two hands. "Forgive me for disturbing…"
"Not at all!" Serena shouted in surprise as she leapt out of the bed to take the tray from her. "Mother is hungry now. She will eat."
"I'm too tired to eat."
"Nonsense! I will not have it! You will eat!"
Spooked, Serenity turned to Selene with an awestruck look.
"She is a healer in a neighboring town. From what I've heard, she is quite the miracle worker and she knows what she is doing," Selene simply explained.
Serenity's hand took the spoon and dipped it into the soup. As she brought it back up again, her hand shook violently as if something inside her was forcing her down. Seeing her own mother struggling to eat, brought tears to Serena's eyes.
Serenity looked up startled. "No, no, no. Oh, my Little Moon Bunny. Don't cry. Mother will eat."
Selene trembled as she tried to hold her sobs in with a hand over her mouth.
"What is wrong now, White Angel?" Serenity was looking at Selene mournfully. "Did I do something wrong?"
Selene shook her head. "You haven't touched your food."
Serenity tried to lift her hand up again. This time some of soup landed on her chin and the front of her dressing gown.
Selene and Serena were crying.
"Oh, dear. I seem to do everything wrong."
Serenity was fully aware of herself after tasting half a spoonful of steaming soup. She continued to speak. "I have neglected my own children."
Serena slammed her whole body into her mother as she hugged her fiercely. "Don't die, please!" She screamed.
"Serena, don't be a dolt. Mother is not going to die," Selene croaked.
"Yes, because my babies are why I live," Selene murmured against Serena's hair. "I'm so sorry. I've been such a horrible mother to the both of you.
"Selene, for six years now you have taken my post. I was so consumed by sorrow I left you all alone. Serena, six years ago I made a mistake. I had been dishonest and distant. I should have been there more often when the both of you were growing up. I had let the death of your father ruin this family."
"Not true," Selene spoke distantly. "You taught me to rule."
"And you taught me to be independent," Serena chimed in, lifting her head up to look at her mother.
"I have?"
"Sure!" Serena piped.
"Any mistakes we make in life are ordinary. We're supposed to make up for them later," Selene said.
"Being sorry for the rest of our lives is unhealthy. We mustn't dwell on our mistakes. We must set them aside and move forward," Serena said.
"I'm being lectured by my own children!" Serenity exclaimed.
She gathered the both of them in the circle of her arms. "My Lovely White Angel and my Little Moon Bunny. I will never let the two of you go ever again."
"For that to happen, you're going to have to get better, Mother," Serena said.
"I will, now that I know you are with me."
Serenity finished the rest of her meal on her own to the relief of her daughters. Which each bite she took, more energy returned to her gradually.
"I have something to show you, Serena." Serenity seemed more energetic as some color returned to her white cheeks. "Do you ever wonder where your healing powers come from?"
Serena shook her head.
"Mother, you mustn't do this, yet. You are still unwell," Selene cajoled.
"Don't give me that," Serenity scornfully replied. "I must show this to Serena."
Selene spoke up again, but this time her words were directed to Serena, "She has been sick because she has been maintaining your life force. When you heal people, you drain yourself and that is why you are so tired after healing. Mother continues to support you with her own life…"
"Serena, watch carefully," Serenity whispered gently as she cupped her palms together.
Dimly, a familiar light burned between her two palms. Her hands glowed pink as the light twinkled through her translucent skin. Then, she opened her hands.
A small crystal floated gently towards Serena and stopped right in front of her. Serena reached out to touch the glowing object, but there was a gentle force field encompassing its magnificent surface. The warmth and the light released a gentle gasp of breath from Serena.
"When we were apart all those years, you expended the power of the Silver Imperium Crystal, Luneria's greatest treasure. You used its light for good, something none of us could do, not even the past royals of our kingdom."
Serena kept her eyes on the crystal as she spoke quietly, "But in order for me to keep using its powers I had to give something of myself. Right?"
Serenity nodded. "Our ancestors created it for bigger purposes…"
"To put off destruction of our land," Selene finished. "Remember, when we were little and we heard all these wild tales of how and why the Silver Crystal was created? They actually might be real, now that we know the crystal is real."
Serena nodded.
"We have no need to draw on its powers for such purposes," Serenity sighed in relief. "But since you called upon it, it yielded to you its partial power. It really can kill you if you use all its force at once. When you use its powers only bit by bit, you slowly die. I could never let that happen to you Serena, so I turned its detrimental curse on myself. I am old and not as important as you."
"Then it's my fault you're sick?"
"No!" Serenity cried. "Never think that way. Think of how many lives you have saved? You are like a hero to many people. You especially make me proud." Serenity fondly smiled at her youngest child.
"I can't believe this." Serena breathed in disbelief. "This must be a dream."
The three of them both leaned forward toward the crystal that now hung between them. Their hands graced the stone and slowly it flowered into a rose. Its petals glistened in its magical light.
"It has blossomed," Serenity said with a smile. "And now I must rest."
Serenity retracted and the crystal dissipated in a wisp of star dust.
There's only one more chapter to go! Can you believe it? If I finish by the end of December I'm going to celebrate by buying myself a cake and eating it all by myself. Pretty cool huh? Not eating a whole cake, but finishing chapter 30 by December. That's pretty cool, huh? I hope those of you who went through thanksgiving had a wonderful thanksgiving!
Good Bye…
MistyWing