you make my life shine brighter than the sun

|extra|

Silena Maia was fifteen.

She had never left her home in Alaska. Her mother was scarily protective. The monsters that no one but the two of them were able to see could contribute to that. But one thing that Silena Maia would never admit to anyone is how caged she felt. She didn't feel like she belonged in Alaska. Her mother would call her paranoid if she knew. But Silena Maia always got the feeling that she was missing something. Something that happened in her mother's past that pertained to her.

She had never known what it was exactly until late December of the year. The weeks leading up to the Winter Solstice were some of her mother's most hectic times of the year. Next to the Summer Solstice, the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes, Saturnalia, and Silena Maia's birthday... her mother was rarely home during the times. Oh, the monsters knew not to get too close to Silena in shape or fashion, but the girl was always so lonely during the times. 

She didn't have any friends. Not really. Most of them were only sort of friends. Acquaintances that were only nice because they all grew up together in the small town. But she had no one to call her best friend. She was a little resentful of that. She blamed her mother and the monsters around them. They made her different. They made her weird.

And it didn't help that her mother never gave her clear answers on why they could see them, but the others couldn't. They were just special and some mortals just can't see what's in front of them... Silena never really liked those answers. It was as if her mother was saying that they weren't mortals. As if they were something else.

It certainly didn't help that her mother didn't really allow her to go to certain places. She could never go anywhere near the ports like the other kids. And if she went to the stables, she had to go under her mother's supervision.

She was missing something. She just knew it.

But It wasn't until she snuck away to a small lagoon behind the house her mother bought for them... that secrets started to come to light.

The first time she had gone... it had been peaceful. No monsters. No nagging mother. No uncomfortable feeling of not belonging in her body. She had laughed delightedly when she dipped her toes in the water.

The second time it happened... little fishes had flocked towards her cuddling into her sides. She felt as if she could almost hear them.

(Ariadnê knew what Silena Maia was doing of course, but she couldn't disparage her daughter for that. She already hated herself for following in the footsteps of her own long disavowed Mother.)

It hadn't taken long of course before whispers began to spread amongst the ocean floor. A child of the sea living so far north. Silena Maia had seen the restless energy that befell her Mother, and wondered if they were going on a "vacation" for a few months until whatever spooked her disappeared.

She thought of how her Mother had slipped into her room during the witching hour. The elder woman brushed the hair from her face, and though Silena Maia kept her eyes closed, she knew without a doubt that there were tears on her Mother's face.

"I apologize, my sunflower. I'm sorry for creating you before I knew what life was and what to make of it. I apologize for the secrets that I've been keeping and that you've had to struggle with me while I built our future. I've been running from my past for so long and I know without a doubt that it's starting to catch up to me and so sorry that you've gotten caught up in it. But we can't run from Fate. Not any longer. I'm so sorry, baby. Just know that everything that will happen, Mama will always be on your side. I'll never give up or turn back on you even if the gods were to strike me dead. Know that whatever comes our way, I'll fight for you until I die and even after. That life you long for.... I'll make sure it happens. I'll make sure you get the freedom and adventure you long for. I'm just so sorry that I did what my Mother did to me and I can only hope that you don't hate me for it like I hate her."