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Grievances
Clarissa felt a small teardrop fall from her face as the storian scrawled, The End into the storybook. The storian set itself down and the new book closed and drifted to the shelves with the title of The Obsidian Witch. It was over. Rose and Raven were gone. Phillip was as well, but he was only a morgrif.
She let out a sigh and turned to find Sophie standing in the window. "Is it finally over?"
Clarissa only nodded and then glided out of the window to her castle for Good. She entered the elegant large doors and walked down the empty hall. It seemed emptier now.
Her soft footsteps echoing off the walls was all she heard as she headed for THE GALLERY OF GOOD. She couldn't help herself. After every story was finished she went to the glass room to see what the woods and the school would add to the collection.
She entered through the large doors and walked in to the beautifully lit room where objects from star students were left out on display. She ignored them and headed for the back. That was where Beatrix's and Chaddick's things showed up.
She walked down and the lighting got worse as she passed hero support. She passed the morgrifs and the light was barely enough for her to read the plaques from a few feet away. She reached the end and immediately spied the new material.
Beside Beatrix's unfinished tube of pink lipstick were a pile of tattered clothing. A small, tarnished bronze sign said, Rose of Auradale. Beside that was Raven's sketchbook with the title, Raven of Glenn.
Jack laid in bed while Aurora paced around it. Jack spoke up, "They won't care."
She glared at him, but it wasn't his fault. "I'll make them care."
"You can't make anyone do anything. You won't make them care. They've already cleaned out his room and blotted his existence from the family tree. And when the book comes out they'll probably ban it."
Aurora gritted her false teeth, "He deserves better."
"He found better. He found the boy."
"But now . . ." she rubbed the wrinkles under her eyes and let out a sigh. They had started this conversation from a letter from the School for Good. Aurora and Jack had gotten quite good at watching for doves coming and intercepting them before anyone else could get to them in case something else from Rose came. The one and only letter he had sent had the rest of the castle resentful of the School and they were afraid something might happen to the letter if someone else, mainly Aurora's daughter, would mar it before anyone could read it. And laying on the table beside the window was a letter from the head of the School of Good informing them that Rose had been bested with all of their condolences.
"You should come to sleep, Aurora. Worrying won't change things."
Aurora mumbled under her breath so Jack couldn't hear, "Rose'll be sleeping enough for the both of us." But she got on the bed beside Jack. He blew out the candle and Aurora stared at the ceiling. "Jack?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think he treated him well?"
"I'm sure he did, Aurora. He's a prince, after all."
Aurora's voice went dangerously sharp, "Jack, you know that doesn't mean anything. You know what I went through."
"Right. Sorry. Rose made him sound virtuous and chivalrous. I'm sure he was treated wonderfully."
"I hope so." She heard Jack snoring.
Aurora hobbled down the stairs and went outside past the sleeping guards. She wandered into the gardens and sat down on a bench and looked up to the starry sky and frowned. It was the first time she looked up in the last three years and knew for a surety that Rose would be on his back facing the stars himself.
Perhaps she would call on the house of White. Hopefully they still loved their son.
Lily, Cedric, and Beatrice were sitting together in front of a cottage Cedric had said was where he had found Rose. The flowers and vegetables crowded on the left of the house and Lily's lake on the right. A wind had come and blown them all here out of the woods. It was over. They had failed.
Lily looked over at the roses surrounding her and buried her face into Cedric's chest and sobbed, "They're gone."
Cedric stroked her back muttering, "It's okay. It's okay."
"We weren't Good enough, were we?"
"Shhhh, it's okay, Lily. It's okay."
Lily still couldn't stop sobbing. Rose and Raven were gone. Forever. She felt Beatrice lightly patting her hand with her tiny legs.
"Come, Lily. Let's get you into the lake. It's time." Lily let Cedric help her out and he guided her towards the lake and then she stepped away from him and walked on to the center. She felt the magic of the lake swirling around her. She glanced down below her feet where the water gently rippled where she stood and the stars were distorted from it. Cedric was wrong. It was not 'okay.' It was whatever the opposite of okay was. It may have been what was meant to have been, but it certainly was not okay. But there was nothing they could do now.
But she still couldn't help but think of how they had failed three people. Before Cedric and Lily could get to Phillip, he had been burnt to a pile of ash. Beatrice had done what she could to help Rose, twice. But Lily felt useless. She had opened a door for Rose. And that was it. And now Rose had to be dead. It was the only way a story ended. One nemesis dies.
Lily looked back at the shore where Cedric still stood with a pink butterfly on his shoulder. "I will be fine, Cedric. It is time for sleep. Good night, Cedric. Sleep well." Lily sat down on the lake.
"Good night, Lily. Beatrice and I will just be inside. It will be okay."
Lily only nodded as she laid down on the starry sky.
