Wings of Destruction and Duty

32.2 || Aurnia

It struck Aurnia how much her mother had changed. In the nine years since she'd last seen her, time had mellowed some of her features and the light dustings of silver threaded their way through her hair, and yet her eyes remained the same. Sharp and piercing, like bolts of cobalt blue, they immediately put Aurnia on edge and she got the distinct feeling that there was nothing she could hide. And in the matter of moments, Aurnia felt like she was twelve and standing in her mother's study once again.

Arunia offered her a tight smile. Whispers of what Agrona had told her about her mother stealing her memories bubbled into the forefront of her mind, pushing against her tongue, fighting to escape. Aurnia drew a shaky breath and focused on steadying her nerves. This was no time to engage in selfish battles, those answers, and the fight would have to come at another time.

She looked at her mother, searching her face and crystal blue eyes for a sign of remorse. Instead, she found a stony gaze and a clenched jaw. Moments passed, the silence yawned between them and though she had sworn never to speak to her mother again, Agrona's warning weighed heavily on her mind. So she swallowed her pride and asked if she could enter.

Her mother tilted her head, then softly, she spoke. "I never thought I would hear your voice again."

Aurnia stiffened, not bothering to hide the scowl blossoming across her face. "These are special circumstances and unless I get my apology, these times will quickly come to an end."

"I see that you are just as insolent as ever." Her mother crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes before continuing, "As I have said time and time again, everything I have ever done was for your sake."

"You left me." A surge of old emotions rushed to the surface and Aurnia gritted her teeth in despair. She hated how her mother so easily pulled her defences to the side. "You disavowed me as your daughter when I–"

"You had a duty to uphold and you failed and, instead of staying to pick up the pieces, you ran to me like a child and until mend those rifts, you are no daughter of mine."

"You–" Aurnia clenched her fists and tried her best to hold back a sharp retort. Soon after leaving her mother's temple to accompany Lily throughout Aefither, she had sworn never to let her mother get to her ever again. Yet fate somehow kept bringing them together and although her mother's presence filled her mind with resentment, she could not deny that threads of concern were laced through the tapestry of her thoughts.

It pained her to admit that something had changed. The Great War had shifted something within her mother. Where tenderness once bloomed in her mother's heart, there now only stood an aching pain that Aurnia could never decipher. Time and time again, she had tried to read her mother's heart only to find herself forced out. Her mother's mind was a whirlwind of emotions and for a moment, Aurnia considered trying to syphon her mother's pain once again. Nine years of stealing Lily's anguish had honed her magic, even without her mother's training, so perhaps there was no harm in trying. But before Aurnia could get out another word, a gentle voice rang out from somewhere within the treehouse and Reuna strode out from the direction of the kitchen.

"I knew I heard a familiar voice!"

"Auntie Reuna, it is lovely to see you again!"

Before she knew it, Aurnia was wrapped up in her aunt's arms with a smile blossoming across her face. The two women surveyed each other before her aunt grinned and pulled her through the doorway and into the warm house. Aurnia uttered a quick thanks, choosing to ignore her mother's sigh. Reuna, as usual, was all smiles with her short brown hair neatly pulled back by a sunflower-patterned headband and away from her eyes. Freckles danced across her cheeks and Aurnia remembered that as a child she had asked where the freckles had come from. And Reuna, in all her light, had laughed and told her that her freckles were merely the sun's way of putting constellations on those he cared for. But she grew up, and when reality set in, the story stopped making sense. Sol was a brash buffon and as far as Aurnia was concerned, the only person the sun cared about was himself.