"Momma?" Anelisse said in disbelief as she made her way into the house, her tone revealing that she wasn't entirely believing the sight she was seeing. Anidre hadn't been out of bed on her own in the last eight months let alone coherent enough to wash and dress herself.
"Anelisse," Anidre's soft voice called, her amber eyes awake and focused, "Celeste, I'd wondered where you two had wandered off too. Are you alright?" A shared glance of disbelief between the girls.
"Yes, Yes!" Anelisse replied, clutching the paints to her chest, relief evident in her silver eyes, her lower lip wobbling, "we're just fine, Celeste just took me to town to get us new clothes and bought me paints! Here have a look." Anidre smiled and opened her arms out to her daughter, welcoming her to come sit with her.
Celeste stood dumbfounded, her hands going slack around the satchel of food she carried. How, she thought in disbelief, watching the middle-aged woman coo at her blonde child, had she recovered so quickly? A sinking feeling traced through Celeste's gut.
"Celeste," Anidre called, breaking Celeste's stupor,"Come join us my little fae child," her arms wrapping around Anelisse, the young blonde leaning against her mother, "the food can wait." Anidre's amber eyes drifted towards the satchel of goods that Celeste had, her eyes probing their contents.
Blinking back the surprise Celeste smiled softly and set the food down, mindful to not rattle the satchel in her pocket, and strode towards the two-woman perched carefully in the old wooden chair. She could prep the food in a moment.
Opening her free arm Anidre wrapped it about Celeste and pulled her in close. Celeste was met with the onslaught of the smell of cedarwood and lemon verbena, Anidre's most beloved soap. The woman's arms, now thin and frail from disuse, tugged tightly around Celeste's small waist, bringing her into the warmth of her adopted mother's side.
A few weeks passed without incidence, the storms still raging off the coast. With the waters remaining treacherous Celeste was left with more free time that she'd had in years. An empty pocket of existence that wasn't filled with work that kept her both busy and exhausted.
She'd decided to spend that time with her adopted mother and sister, laughing and chattering, watching Anelisse paint the days away.
The pale blonde had painted anything and everything: flowing ocean seas, vibrant flowers and images of faraway stone castles she'd never seen but had dreamt of. The style of her brush strokes so reminiscent of a fleeting memory of a woman Celeste once knew who loved to paint.
Anidre had sat in the chair beside her and had watched as well, her eyes crinkling with pride as Anelisse expertly blended the colors and brought vision after vision to life.
Celeste and Anelisse had ventured into town two weeks after first seeing Pennelope to pick up their new clothes and boots. They had entered the shop to find their new clothes packed and wrapped, waiting for them on the front counter.
The friendly woman had given each of the girls a mischievous grin before announcing there were presents for both of them inside and that she fully intended to see them at the town dance in three days' time and that they'd best not be late.
Celeste hadn't realized it was already time for the Earth Rite, Imbolc, centered around the awakening of the Spring, the festival that even the little town of Vanica rallied to celebrate.
Upon returning home they'd found new outfits: dark pants and light shirts for Celeste and two wool spun dresses for Anelisse, crafted with sage and cream fabrics. The most startling had been Pennelope's gift though.
Alongside the new outfits the seamstress had sewn two simple but beautifully crafted dancing dresses, one a pale dusty pink with a golden sash at its waist and the other a deep rich plum, a sash of the same hue tied about its middle. They were expertly stitched and sturdy, made of material that was expensive and difficult to obtain in an isolated place such as Vanica.
Upon finding the dresses Anelisse's jaw had gone slack.
Celeste had carefully ran her fingers over the soft material, it's color the same deep hue she had loved so dearly as a child.
"There's no way we could ever afford this," Anelisse had said breathlessly, her silver eyes wide, "why would Pen do this? Surely this is a hardship on her?"
Once, Celeste had thought idly to herself, still running her fingers along the dress, once I could have afforded this. The recollection of dancing and fine fabrics drifted through her mind like a fine tune replaying murky highlights of her youth. The tinkering memory of laughter and being lifted high as she danced through the night in the most beautiful city in the world bloomed at the front of her mind-.
She had shut down the memory immediately.
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," Celeste had replied her lips slightly downturned at the corners, the memory still tugging at the edges of her mind, "and we both know full well returning the dresses will get us nothing but a lecture."
Which had led to where Celeste stood now, her eyes cast out of the window of their small home, her hands hanging awkwardly at her side as she swayed slightly, testing the movement of the material around her. The dress was a bit big, hanging loosely around her slim shoulders and modest chest, but it fit. She ran her hands awkwardly through her freshly washed hair, the silky black tendrils clingy to her hand.
She must have looked ridiculous.
Anelisse had insisted on smearing kohl around her eyes and pinching her cheeks to add a flush of color. She had almost forced a pink coloring cream on her lips but had clicked her tongue in distaste, informing Celeste that she had "more than enough color" naturally and that she and her good "breeding" could kindly go find somewhere else to be where she didn't have to look at it.
Celeste had only blinked in response before Anelisse had shoved her out of the room, insistent on prepping herself for the dance, something she was incredibly excited about attending.
Celeste, however, was not.
She had no desire to venture into Vanica and spend the evening celebrating with the town's inhabitants, dancing and singing until the sun rose on the horizon.
No she would have much rather spent the evening quietly curled up amongst her blankets on the floor, the makeshift bed she had slept on for the last decade, and let her mind wander wherever it pleased.
Her heart still stung after the shouting match she'd had with Anidre, the one where she had stormed out of the cottage and into the woods days before to ignore what she had spent so long suppressing.
Celeste tilted her head back, laughter spilling forth from her lips as she wiped stray tears of merriment from her eyes. The story Anidre had just finished telling leaving her in a state of disbelief and great amusement.
"You can't be serious," Anelisse replied, shoveling bread into her mouth, her focus entirely on her mother, "Father was surely not that awkward or clumsy." Silver eyes filled with amusement regarded her mother whose lips were puckered in laughter.
"Oh he was," Anidre chuckled, her pallid face full of color for the first time in ages, her peppered hair neatly braided in a cornet. She carefully ran a hand across the plait smoothing over any fly away hairs, "he knocked over every last breakable thing in that room, the sisters of the blessed were none too pleased."
"I imagine not." Anelisse replied, silver eyes alight and full of hope, something so at odds with the somber creature she had been mere hours before.
"Your father was a strange sort," Anidre said with a breathy laugh, her amber eyes twinkling in the firelight, "though you are not as strange as he was, I see him in you. His beauty was definitely passed to you." Her eyes softened as she took in her only child, the splitting image of the man she had loved the most. Anelisse's silver eyes and ashen hair striking and lovely as her fathers had supposedly been.
"Thank you Momma," Anelisse said, passing a hand over her long hair, her mother having just finished braiding it, small bits of old ribbon incorporated throughout, "I remember him sometimes, especially his kind eyes and smile." Anelisse sat on the floor, her elbow propped against her knee and face resting in her palm, her mind clearly lost in the memory.
"Me too," Anidre smiled, setting her plate of food to the side and wrapping her blanket tightly around her shoulders, "He would have been so proud of you." Anidre shifted her attention towards Celeste, her lips splitting in a small smile, "He would have delighted to have been able to help raise you."
Celeste swallowed her food, feeling awkward at the attention. She had never had the pleasure of meeting the man who had impacted her adopted mother and sister's life so deeply. She shifted awkwardly, rearranging her legs and moving her porcelain mug with such care, ensuring not to drop it.
One of three their small family possessed, one that she had inherited from the man whose presence had filled this space before her.
"I'm sorry I never got to meet him," Celeste replied, brushing crumbs from her lap and looking at the small cup in her hands, it's old surface still beautiful even with it's evident wear, "the stories you tell about him make him sound like a wonderful husband and father."
"That he was," Anidre mused, leaning back into her rocking chair, she watched the young fae woman with gentle eyes, "he always said he would have liked to have had another child." Celeste felt her shoulder's sag a bit at the comment, the memory of another once kind husband and father brushing against the edges of her mind.
A soft silence settled between the three with only the sound of the crackling embers filling the air.
"He did not see your kind as I do, as deities to our mortal selves," Anidre continued after some time, her brows knitted at the center of her forehead as she gazed off into the fire, a pit suddenly forming in Celeste's stomach, "but he would have loved you none the less."
Anidre's focus slide away from the fire, a sigh slipping through her lips, "How I wish I could see the fae lands myself, to be amongst those who are so much greater than ourselves."
Celeste had to reel in her sudden revulsion at the mention of the fanatical opinions Anidre had of the fae, the disgust towards the beginning of a conversation that Celeste did not want to have. She resisted the urge to bark her disagreement, she knew what many of the fae still thought of mortals and knew Anidre wouldn't stand a chance amongst them.
Even with the changes that had been actively implemented after the war a hundred years before many of the fae still held strict lines of division between themselves and mortals.
"Maybe one day," Anidre drew, her amber eyes sparkling, Anelisse had stilled, "You could take us to be amongst your people, with the money we were so blessed to have been given, to be accepted into the arms of your benevolent kind."
"No." Celeste growled, her voice coming out more vicious than intended, her violet eyes narrowing. She should have known this was where the conversation would be headed, "I will not take you to the fae lands, you nor I have any business in them."
"Celeste." Anelisse chided, hearing the cold anger that had coated her tone, "Mother. Please, let this go." The light that had lit Anelisse's bright face had dimmed, her silver eyes crinkled in despair at such a warm moment spoiled.
"You are one of them." Anidre replied, ignoring her daughters pleas, her eyes taking on the wild look she often got when talking about the fae, "Surely you must understand that your place is not amongst mere humans, you have to return home someday-"
"I will not return to that place," Celeste stated, her gaze focused wholly on Anidre, as she refrained from shooting to her feet, "Not now, not ever." Celeste ran a hand through her black hair, loose from its ever-present braid for one before letting out a defeated sigh, "Please, let this go."
"You must understand you don't belong here," Anidre retorted, slipping the blanket from her shoulders as she fixed her gaze on the young fae woman sitting on the floor before her, "the Mother has a means of guiding the hands of her children. She has always lead me true and has given us the blessing of this money as a way to tell us it's time-"
"We will not waste the money that has been gifted to us on a fools whim to travel to a land of killers," Celeste's temper snapped as her voice amplified itself into a crescendo, her fists white knuckled beside her. She felt the fiery temper she had smothered for years flaring to the surface, "There isn't even enough money to take us to the mainland."
How she wished Anidre hadn't snooped through her clothes, wished that she hadn't found the small satchel of copper that become their lifeline in the days when the storm had raged uncharacteristically on the coast. How she wished the conversation hadn't taken this turn and they could have enjoyed one peaceful night in an ocean of dreadful existence.
"We could send a letter and a gift," Anidre almost pleaded, her voice having become almost fanatic, "we could send a contribution to the Children of the Blessed, they would send for us, bring us to them and you could lead up into the fae lands, you could go home."
Celeste shook her head and rose to her feet, intent on stepping away from the dreaded conversation that always reared its ugly head in peaceful times. Guilt and shame tugged at her.
"You must have a family," Anidre tried to reason, flinching as she realized she had ruined any chance of persuasion with the girl and had only succeeded in upsetting her, "Celeste you have never told us anything of your life or your past, surely you had a mother? Siblings? A father-"
"That has never been any of your concern." Celeste ground out, her back suddenly going rigid. Anelisse was glancing between the two, worry clearly marring her beautiful features as she helplessly looked on.
"You are my child Celeste," Anidre replied, a fierce sort of look coming about her, "therefore you are my concern."
Silence.
"Celeste," Anidre reasoned again, reaching tentatively towards the girl, "You do don't you my sweet child?" Her expression softened, "Don't you miss them? Don't you want to go home."
"No." Celeste replied flatly, her hands wrapped tightly around the porcelain cup, a quiver beginning to dance through her body, she didn't want to think about this, to acknowledge this, "I have no desire to go back. None."
"You have a family," Anidre tried again, her voice lifting in pitch, "A family that would see that me raising you had been a gift, a gift to the masters I've always wanted to serve," Celeste felt her heart twang painfully, a gaping hole forming in the center of her chest.
"Say that again," Celeste said slowly, cutting off Anidre's tirade, her violet eyes sharp in the shadowed room, her breathing oddly unsteady, "Repeat to me what you just said."
"You were a gift from the Mother," Anidre replied, her thin hands shaking, but Amber eyes locked with Celeste's own violet, a fierce sort of crazed light in them, "A gift to prove my love to the fae lords. A gift that if I took care of properly would buy me entrance into the immortal lands of milk and honey."
"That's it isn't it?" Celeste said, something like defeat in her voice, "You only took me in because I was fae," her voice trailed off, pieces aligning themselves in her mind, "I was a tool to be used for your own gaining."
Celeste had always known, at least subconsciously, but Anidre had never voiced it and Celeste wasn't certain why it stung so much.
Why would a human woman, a starving, poor widow, want to take on a child not of her own race with no means to raise her? Only if she felt she could gain something from it. Celeste had known that but to hear the words voiced and brought to light opened a pit of sorrow in Celeste that she had refused to acknowledge.
The last decade came into sharp focus for her, the sacrifice she had made to keep Anidre and Anelisse alive, all the guilt and pain she felt for hindering their happiness, it all flooded her at once. Some well inside of her broke as the image of a black-haired man laughing and kissing her face flashed through her mind, waves of sadness, of longing she had long suppressed flooded through her.
"Anelisse," Anidre spun suddenly, looking towards her daughter, a last ditch effort to turn the argument into her favor, "If you married into the Pennington line-"
"No," Celeste cut in, her eyes having narrowed in on the older woman, "Anelisse will not marry that monster of a man to fund your foolish desires. "
"That's what he would call you," Anidre murmured, her eyes downcast and face tight in irritation, a low careless comment designed to strike deep, "A monster. Human's don't understand your kind-"
With no consciousness to the motion Celeste's hand had found its way around the porcelain mug she'd been drinking from and sent it flying into the wall.
A loud smash resounded throughout the room as porcelain shards splintered everywhere, flying in every direction. A screech of surprise escaped Anelisse's throat as the mug impacted on the wall, her mouth loose as she watched the shards plummet to the ground.
Shame flooded Celeste when she saw that she had shattered the precious cup in her fury. It only fueled her frenzy.
The energy in the room became palpable, strung tight like a violin string close to snapping. An eerie silence had encompassed the room and Celeste's eyes had become unusually animal like as she stood, body tight and posed to strike like a viper, the air around her almost pulsing.
"You're absolutely right," Celeste muttered, lifting her eyes to Anidre, lips pulling back from her teeth "I am is a monster. A ferocious, vile, hideous monster impeding on this island sense of comfort and values," she drew an unsteady breath, her entire frame vibrating, "You should have left me to die on that beach."
A memory surfaced.
"Little one," she could hear his voice comfort, tears leaking down her face as his large hand stroked her wings and his other hand sat gingerly on her sleep mused curls, "you must come quietly or more of them will die."
A shift in the memory.
The cold wind biting into her face.
"What a monster you are." She heard the deep voice coo as they flew high above, the fires burning wide across the city she loved, "Look at what your power has caused, nothing but turmoil. You can't stay. We must go."
The blinding, earthing shattering pain and the sound of tearing filling the air-
It ended as abruptly as it began.
Celeste promptly gripped her head, pain smashing through her skull as the memory took hold, a vicious growl escaping her lips.
Turning on her heel she raced towards the door, her mind a whirlwind of things that had long since been dormant. She needed a secluded, isolated space to deal with the storm raging in her mind. This wasn't that place.
She barely heard Anelisse reprimand Anidre before she was out the door and racing into the woods, trying to smother the memories she never wanted to acknowledge again. The icy rain bit into her face as she flew through the trees, their branches a blur.
She distantly heard Anelisse's cry to wait before she plummeted into the darkness she had long since buried.
Anelisse had found her a few hours later sitting on a soaked rock shivering from the cold, her eyes glazed and mind a million miles away.
Anelisse had coaxed her to come back to the house, had proceeded to strip her of her soaked clothes before helping wash her in the warm water she had boiled. They had both laid down on the small makeshift bed of blankets they slept on together before the fire. Anelisse had snuggled close to her throughout the night, murmuring words of soft comfort.
Celeste had not slept.
The following morning Anidre did not leave her room, from anger or shame Celeste wasn't certain, but she was thankful for the peace from the pestering. It had taken a few days, but things had gradually fallen back into a groove of semi-normalcy with no mention of the money or the fae lands.
She did not want to think on it.
A throat cleared behind her and Celeste turned around to come face to face with Anidre, her amber eyes hooded as she glanced towards the floor, her hands wringing her dress.
Celeste quirked a brow, her muscles tightening preparing to deal with another onslaught of ignorance.
"You have been a blessing," Anidre murmured, her face finally rising to meet Celeste's, silver tears at their edges, "I was mistaken in pushing you the way I did and for saying what I said, I am sorry." Anidre dropped her head and a wave of relief cascaded through her.
"Let's just move past it," Celeste answered, her hands awkwardly searching for pockets to stuff themselves into, a habit she had when uncomfortable, but having none, "things are better this way."
"Yes," Anidre replied, a stray tear slipping down her nose and she walked up to Celeste, her frame much shorter and frail than her adopted daughters, "you are right as you have always been. Let that be the end of it."
For now, Celeste thought drily, sarcastic tones dancing around the notion that Anidre was even close to finished with this argument. Her thoughts were interrupted however when the door to the second room opened and Anelisse stepped out.
Celeste stared.
Anelisse had most definitely grown into herself.
Draped in the rose gown, Anelisse no longer looked like a gangly teenager, composed of nothing but knees and elbows, but rather a grown woman, the gown doing wonders to accent that. Her ashen hair had been braided half up and her natural loose curls fell about her shoulders. Her eyes were smeared with a touch of kohl and her lips painted the softest pink, that awful cream she had almost forced Celeste to endure.
"You look lovely." Anidre complimented her daughter, watching the girl tentatively swish her skirt.
'You think?" she asked bashfully, turning once to test the flaring of the dress, it billowed wide and settled as her turn came to a stop. Anidre nodded. Anelisse turned her attention to Celeste.
"And you?" Anelisse asked, silver eyes hopefully, "what do you think sister?"
"Well," Celeste chirped, her arms crossing over her chest, a devilish smirk pulling her lips upward, "I think I'm not going to get to avoid murder this evening." She looked her nails, as though checking them for dirt, "I'm going to have to castrate every man who even glances your way dressed like that." A blush ran across Anelisse's feature as Anidre chuckled.
"You will do no such thing," Anelisse hissed, awkwardly running her hands down the front of the dress, "I intend to dance the entire evening with any suitor I see fit, with or without your approval." Celeste flashed a grin at Anelisse.
"Fair enough," Celeste patted Anidre gently on the shoulder before brushing past her and making her way towards the front of the cottage, "but don't blame me if your "suitors" mysteriously start disappearing." With a glance over her shoulder and a wink Celeste slipped through the cottage door and out into the warm evening air.
A loud, "Wait for me!" echoed behind Celeste along with a "Enjoy yourselves!" as she trotted along the path, her plum dress billowing in the evening breeze.
Best get it over with, she mused the sarcasm returning in full strength, what could possibly go wrong?