𝓟𝐫𝗼𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝓢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐞

Chapter #14 - Oralie

Chapter #14 - Oralie

Flames. Everything was in flames.

The flames were yellow. Neon yellow. Hot, fiery, yellow Everblaze. She could still feel the heat against her face. The high-pitched sound of someone's shriek— her shriek. And then she heard the sound of Kenric's last words.

"Get out! Oralie, Sophie, Fitz— get out! I'll be back in a minute!" He shoved the three of them away.

But he didn't come back.

Not after one minute— or two, or three, not even four.

He was gone. Lost in the flames.

So it all repeated in her mind. The words, the shriek, the shove.

Again, again, again.

Then the scene shifted and the flames disappeared. Everything wasn't neon yellow anymore. Now it was all... pink. Almost peaceful. But, to Oralie, the scene was painful too. In a very different way.

"You don't get to pretend that you care..." she heard Sophie's voice say. Then there was a scream— but not in fear this time. In anger.

And then everything turned black, and Councillor Oralie woke up in a cold sweat.

"It's just a dream," she reminded herself, "Just a dream."

But, that wasn't entirely true.

Those scenes did happen. And they were real. Despite what she kept telling herself.

Filled with mistakes.

Regrets.

And there was nothing she could do to change them.

So, instead, Councillor Oralie was going to focus on something else. Anything else. So she sat down at the desk in her office— pink, obviously— to focus on the forms she and the other councillors were all filling out about all the current predicaments involving Silveny, the alicorns, and the timeline to extinction. Even though it was certainly important, Oralie knew it was not the issue they should've been focusing on at the moment. She was sure all the other councillors knew this too.

But the Council wasn't the best at focusing on the right things.

At least Team Valiant was a start, though. But she wished— selfishly— that the leader of that team would at least not hate her at the moment.

And maybe, just a little bit, love h—

No.

Oralie didn't deserve that.

She shook her head aggressively, heavy ringlets making her neck sweat, when the pretty councillor heard the familiar ring from her imparter. When her genetic daughter's face appeared on the screen, her mouth was a thin, emotionless line as she spoke.

"Do you know how to open Kenric's cache? You're the only one," she emphasized the word 'only', clearly frustrated it had come to this, "who might know the passwords for some of the secrets."

"I have a few guesses," Oralie said, "Where are you?"

"Solreef. Glimmer has something she wants to tell us, but she refuses to tell us without seeing the different memories in the caches. But... we should do it in the Wanderling Woods. At Kenric's tree. His tree... it's the only place that has his DNA."

Oralie gulped, not sure if she was ready for the grief that would come with going there. "You want to look at the memories now?"

"As soon as I can," said Sophie, "After all, it's been put off for a while." She was tempted to point out that was, for the most part, because Sophie had been avoiding her at all costs for the past week. Not that she didn't understand— she and the rest of the Council knew what happened with Keefe. It was really terrible what he had to go through.

Plus, Oralie probably deserved it.

The councillor just nodded and held up her crystal so she could go to Solreef, the light breaking her up into as many pieces as her heart.

***

"You got here fast," Sophie said, not quite meeting Councillor Oralie's eyes, "It took me a while to find the tree."

"I've been here a lot," she replied, absentmindedly stroking the rough bark of the tree. In the corner of Oralie's glassy-eyed view, it looked like Sophie wanted to feel bad for her biological mother, but couldn't bring herself to be it.

"Stop looking at me like that," Sophie snapped.

"Sorry."

Sophie rolled her eyes and reached out to take a vivid red leaf off the tree, but stopped herself just as she was about to do it. "...can I?"

"Of course."

So she took one off the tree and gently stuffed it into one of the pockets on her ankles and muttered to herself, "As long as they have his DNA in some form, Dex and Tinker should be able to work around the blood, sweat, and tears thing. But we still need the password. Glimmer's only gonna be able to tell us the code in the scrolls if she sees what's inside... then we'll finally be able to read the other things inside, not just the one about Lady Gisela..." Suddenly, Sophie looked up, like she was remembering she wasn't alone.

Oralie asked, "Wait— what about Lady Gisela?"

"Nothing."

"The Council didn't know about this. Why didn't you tell us?"

"It's not like there's anyone in the Council that I trust."

Hearing those words stung like nothing else.

"Remember what I told you?" Councillor Oralie said, taking a few steps back, "We need to start working together. You can't hide things like this anymore."

"Ha— you're one to talk. You haven't hidden anything."

"This isn't about m—"

"How am I supposed to trust you if you just turn around and tell the rest of the Council everything? With Keefe waking up—"

"They needed to know anyway."

Sophie turned away, causing only the left side of her face to be visible. The resemblance really was painful to see. Especially when it was etched into a face so angry at the moment.

"Just tell me what the password is," Sophie said, "I'm gonna go. You don't need to see the memory anyway." Oralie nodded, knowing it was probably better for her sanity that way.

"Try Dedrikedes," she said, "my last name." The blonde councillor had long suspected Kenric had the same line of thought as her when giving the cache a code word.

Sophie nodded in understanding, leaping away to go see the memory that could possibly break them all.