Empress Of The Old World {Legend Of Korra}

In The Stars

The night air seeped in through the windows, the warm breeze circulating through Voya's room as she climbed into the new bed that they had set up earlier that day. Sukara tucked Voya in and read her a story.

"Su-ara?" Voya asked as Sukara placed the book down on the shelf, "where's Ma?"

Sukara froze for a second. She knew that this question would come up eventually and she'd thought about how she'd answer. Losing her mother was something that was so traumatic but because she was so young Voya didn't quite understand what that meant. It made explaining the situation difficult.

"Your Ma...is...she's, do you remember when Lin said that Ma was gone?" Sukara asked, trying to get her footing in the conversation.

Voya nodded, "where she go?"

"Okay, um, you know when we said that she was, uh, dead," Sukara tried to explain the best she could, "do you know what that means?"

Voya shook her head.

"Well, who we are is our soul, right? And our spirit. And normally they live inside our bodies," Sukara explained as the small child looked up at her, taking in her every word, "but when we die, when we're dead, our soul and our spirit leave our bodies because they don't work anymore, they're broken. So, our soul goes up into the sky look."

Sukara leaned over to the window and pulled back the curtain so that they could both see the stars.

"Ma's up there?" Voya asked, having gotten out of the blankets her small hands were now gripping onto the windowsill as she looked up at the sky.

"Yeah, her soul is up there and she can watch out for you," Sukara said, pointing up at the stars as they shone in the night sky above them.

"What about day? Is Ma gone in the day?" Voya asked, looking back at Sukara.

"No, she's still there," Sukara smiled, leaning against the windowsill as she brushed a piece of hair from in front of Voya's eyes, "because the stars are still there when it's bright outside, you just can't see them that's all."

Voya nodded with a soft smile as she stared up at the stars. Her eyes wide and sparkling as she looked at them. Sukara let her stand there for a little while, allowing her to have a moment before lifting her back down into bed.

"Come on, we gotta get to sleep now," Sukara said as she pulled the blankets back over her.

Sukara went to close the curtain again but Voya sat up.

"Wait," she said, holding onto Sukara's arm, "goodnight Ma."

Sukara smiled as Voya lay back down and let her close the curtain. She tucked her back in and stood to leave the room.

"Goodnight Su-ara," Voya said as she held onto the top of her blanket.

"Goodnight sweetie."

"Guvira," Voya said, trying to look out the door onto the landing, "Guvira."

Sukara turned to see that Kuvira was coming up the stair, she held out her hand to ask for her to come over to her and Kuvira sped up a little to get to her.

"What's up?" she asked, looping an arm around Sukara's waist.

"Goodnight," Voya smiled, making Kuvira's heart melt as her little face almost hid behind the blanket.

"Goodnight," Kuvira smiled back as she leaned into Sukara.

"Gai?" Voya asked, clearly not wanting to leave anyone without a goodnight.

Sukara chuckled a little bit at the cuteness and leaned back to knock on Kai's door. There were muffled foot steps and then he opened his door. He frowned for a second, confused as to why he had been called but then he heard Voya calling his name.

"What's up short stuff?" he asked, sticking his head round the door.

"Goodnight," she said.

"Goodnight angel."