Heaven Hath No Rage - Book Two

Back Again

Ava was struggling to keep her eyes from slipping shut. Even though she could see the carriage was about to turn into the estate, she couldn't muster the energy to be alert. She had let her head loll to the side and pressed her forehead to the window. It was uncomfortable and she bumped against it every so often but her eyelids were still heavy. She had done no physical labor on her whole journey there and yet a blanket of exhaustion had been pulled over her since starting the long sea and land journey back home.

It wasn't productive but she couldn't pull herself out of it, or rather pull the blanket off. And it was contagious too, Oceane had sunken down to Ava's level. Together they had been nestled by the suffocating embrace of sorrow and woe.

Oceane called it the humphs, Ava called it the cruel realities of their lives.

Ava was mourning the loss of the crew she had only been able to briefly reconnect with and Oceane was mourning the loss of her father and her brother. They were both alive, but Oceane had to let them go and watch them leave once again. She had once promised she would go home and join them but that was not a possibility any longer. And with her father's mind only worsening, Ava wasn't sure Oceane would get much more time with him.

And that was a grief that Oceane had been confronting every sun. So, Ava kept her close. At the very least, they could wallow together. And that they did. But the last few suns of the journey became bleaker. Conversations were sparse, they barely spoke and instead opted to sleep. The grey skies that had been looming over North Elox since they arrived did nothing to help with the lethargic mood.

"O," Ava whispered, pulling her forehead from the window and looking over to her napping friend, "we are about to make it to the estate entrance."

She shifted a bit and Ava saw her eyes open. They closed again and she mumbled something Ava couldn't hear.

She reached forward and placed a hand on Oceane's knee and shook it a bit, "Oi. Wake up. They're taking us to the main entrance."

"No," Oceane gasped as she sat up, fully awake, "no! How do I look?"

Ava laughed and it felt like the first bit of joy she had experienced in several suns.

"You look stunning."

Oceane glanced around the carriage for a reflective surface and when she found one, it was a rush to fix her hair and her dress.

"You hate the soldiers. I don't get why you want to impress them," Ava commented, truly baffled as to why it mattered to Oceane what she looked like to the main entrance guards.

"I want to be the talk of the barracks," Oceane shrugged, "oh, did you see her today as she escorted Lady Vaith? I wonder what her deal is. She is so beautiful but she never gives a shit about us. She doesn't even look over."

"So you are trying to use your beauty to torture them?" Ava laughed.

Oceane smiled too, "Right as always, Red."

"Any long-term plans with that?"

"Like?"

"Not sure. Do you have plans to make them all fall in love with you, driven by the desire to get something they can't have?" Ava raised an eyebrow then gasped and fanned herself with one hand, "and then manipulate them all into doing your bidding."

"Of course," Oceane chuckled, "and then my plan goes deeply arry. I end up falling for one of the guards. But oh what shame it brings me, I can't be seen with him and he can't be seen with me!"

Ava laughed, the closely approaching arrival faded out of thought for just a moment. Then she straightened up and looked out the window, turning back to Oceane with a smile still on her face.