The Older Daae

Prologue: A Long Awaited Truth

I sat by the fire, reading A Midsummer Night's Dream. I'd read it a thousand times before, but I still loved it to no end.

It was late at night, and I knew I should be in bed.

But I couldn't sleep.

Ever since around two years ago, when my life as I knew it fell apart I could never sleep well. Two years had passed since I'd lost my mother. I missed her with every fiber in me. I had stopped grieving, but the pain had never truly left.

My aunt and uncle always told me that I'd have to learn to live with it. My aunt knew what it was like to lose a parent. She and my mother had lost their father when they were even younger than I was when my mother died.

I heard footsteps, and saw Juliette, my mother's best friend whom I called Aunt Jules entered.

"You should be in bed Rose," she told me.

"I know Aunt Jules," I told her. 

"More dreams?" she asked. I nodded. I had them every night. They never left.

She came over and took a seat on the couch beside me.

"I miss her to you know," she said. I put my book away, and turned to face her.

"Can I ask you something?" I said.

"Anything."

"I wanted to know more about her, my mother. She never talked about her life at the opera house, or how she met my father. You were there. I was wondering if you could tell me?" Aunt Jules sighed. I'd been wanting to ask her this. Aunt Jules let out a long breath.

"Your mother told me on her death bed to tell you the full story when you were older. I've wanted to wait, but I think you are old enough to understand," she said. I looked at her, attentively. "You must promise you will not breathe a word of what I tell you," she told me. "Especially not to your Aunt and Uncle. They can never know." I nodded. I wondered why, but I didn't ask. I was eager to know. I'd waited fourteen years. It was time for me to learn the truth about my family, and how everything really happened.