between sea and sky (original)

4- myrtle gifted from both families

Carnelian hardly noticed the passage of time. Or, at least, that's what he liked to tell himself. Regardless, it was ceaseless, a never ending drip on and on. At first, he wasn't sure he could bear the weight of Antoinette being gone, her absence felt like a gaping hole in his life. There was an absence at all times, something always missing, something always feeling off. And even as it grew fainter over the years, it never went away. It was always just there... lingering, hanging around him like a black cloud. The thing about clouds and fog and all that nonsense is that you eventually learn to navigate through them, no matter how murky. And eventually, they do let up, even if only enough to see by.

Despite letters being sent via the train line that ran between the two kingdoms, and Radiance being one of the only people in both Ondine and Araceli to have a telegram line, she refused to allow Carnelian to use either to contact Antoinette. No matter how much he'd beg and plead for her to, she'd scold him every single time. Once, she'd even ripped up one of his letters in front of him, though Radiance had pet his hair while he cried over it.

"A clean break does a good king make," is what she would intone every time, enough that hearing those words began to make Carnelian feel physically sick. He didn't want a clean break, he wanted his sister, his best friend. And, as far as he was concerned, his only friend.

Not that Anita wasn't trying her best, it seemed.

Oh, how to even begin on the cerovidae known as Anita Burnedette. Everything Carnelian learned about her felt against his will, in an odd way.

Her parents' names were Viola and Jonquil Burnedette, but her mother used to be a Coalman. The Coalman family owns most of the featherin ranches around Maridale, oh how Carnelian had heard about the ranches. The Burnedettes had shares in the gemstone businesses run right at the border. Did he know that he was named after a gemstone? (He did, though he had to keep reminding her he was aware.)

"Oh, Carnelian have you ever even seen a real carnelian? They're stunning," is what she would always gush, then giggle right after, covering her blushing face with a hand. "That sentence felt a bit silly, didn't it?"

When he would affirm that it did, she would giggle again.

"Oh, Carnelian I must convince your mother to take you to one of the featherin ranches sometime! Have you ever seen one up close? They're the most beautiful things! Their colors are so much like tropical birds, oh they're stunning."

Carnelian would tell her afterwards that he hadn't seen one up close, but he stopped trying to tell her that there was no way Radiance would ever allow him out to see them. She hadn't let him outside until he was eight years old, after all. There was no way he'd ever be leaving the castle any time soon. Anita was insistent upon it, on them seeing the countryside together. She'd go on about it for what felt like hours sometimes, daydreaming about what they would get up to, what their whole day would be like. And while Carnelian couldn't ever bring himself to join in on the fantasizing, he'd halfway listen, eyes mostly closed.

It was a really pretty picture Anita would paint for him. Of course, it wasn't wholly original. Antoinette used to paint a similar one all the time.

Carnelian wondered if she was allowed more freedom than him. It was a recurring thought that would strike him while he was trying to do something else. Was Antoinette allowed to go out into town, wherever she was in Araceli? What was the name of the castle town again? Something with a "k," derivative of "Kalani..." Whatever it was, he'd picture her sometimes, walking down gloomy, cold streets, a trouble-making smile on her face.

Would Juno allow her to do what she wanted? He had a suspicion she would. Juno herself wasn't someone to be tied down, she wasn't a ewe that could be pinned easily. It was something Radiance often complained about whenever Juno was mentioned- which, lucky for Carnelian, he was hearing more and more about the more time he was forced to be at his mother's side. The thought was a complicated one for Carnelian, truly.