· · · マリ · · ·
Left.
Right.
Left.
Right.
Aisha's feet followed the familiar path down to the shore. She followed the cliff wall until she reached the sea cave where her mother was buried, where her daughter was buried. It was almost high tide and she was surprised to find that she wasn't alone.
"Marissa?"
She turned and Aisha could see the tears clinging to her lashes in the glow of the algae covering the rocks of the cave and the gravestone of her sister.
"Hey, Mom. I was just… well, I don't know what I'm doing."
There was something crumpled in her hands and it wasn't until Aisha got closer that she realized it was the rose pink acceptance letter that she'd received at the start of the summer.
Aisha took a seat beside her daughter. "It's okay, baby. I wanted to come talk to her too."
Aisha was quiet as she laid the lilies in her hand on Marina's grave.
"Sometimes I try to bring her back to life."
The Queen's eyes widened as she looked over at Marissa. She was tracing shapes in the wet sand, not looking back at her mom.
"It doesn't work," she went on. "Obviously… but it's not fair that Dad got to come back when Marina doesn't."
"Oh, baby," was all Aisha could say. She wrapped an arm around Marissa and pulled her close. After a beat had passed, Aisha said into the top of her head, "It's not fair. She should be here and she's not. But life is about moving forward."
"How can you say that?" Marissa said, pulling away. "How can you say that? You never gave up trying to get Dad back. Why are you giving up on her?"
"What's happened to Dad is different than what happened to Marina," Aisha said, struggling not to cry just talking about it. She reached for Marissa again, but she scrambled away, out of her mother's reach.
"So you won't try?"
Aisha felt like the cave walls were closing in. She squeezed her eyes shut.
"That's enough!"
When she opened her eyes, Marissa's dark eyes were wide and glossy. The dark curls of her hair were whipping wildly as the sea wind swirled around the cave walls.
"I'm gonna go get my bags. I'll meet you in the foyer."
"Marissa," but the Fairy of the Fountain of Life was marching out of the sea cave. Beyond that, Aisha could see high tide lapping at the entrance rocks.
She turned back to look at Marina's headstone and then her mother's. "I don't know how you did this, Mom. She gets more difficult every day."
Aisha knew that wasn't fair, knew what it was like to lose your other half, but it had been four years already.
She sat there a little longer in the company of her memories before she felt the water pool around her feet. With a sigh, she stood to send off her daughter to Alfea.
· · · ッサ · · ·
Check out The Fairy of the Fountain of Life chapter in my fic New Legacy for some background context.
If you were making a next gen, what would you name Aisha's kids?
Love, Ru
