It had been too long since all three sisters had spent time together outside of the weekly family dinner, and Rowan welcomed the opportunity even if she didn’t understand why Laurel chose the end of a footbridge overlooking a freeway on-ramp as a meeting place, but she usually had something interesting going on so there was really no reason to question that. She and Willow chatted quietly, catching up on the most recent events on their lives. Rowan wished intensely that she could tell them about Tempesti, the Primordial Tower, the…other Tower, but she kept the topics light. Her excitement about the new job she was to take up in a matter of weeks, her relief at finally being able to quit the café. She liked the job, her coworkers, the coffee, but being able to dedicate herself more fully to music had always been the dream. Even if it felt small in comparison to some of her newer ones.

“Heeeeeyyyy!” Laurel’s voice came loud and joyful, the syllable drawn out with her usual enthusiasm. A trio of paper lanterns knocked against each other as she trotted over to them. “Sorry I’m late, I hit traffic on the way over from getting these.” She lifted the lanterns to make sure that they could make no mistake.
“What’re the lanterns for?” Willow quirked a brow at the sight of her sister’s haul.
“Are those the ones the city is selling?” Rowan remembered reading something about that online. A fundraiser of some kind.

“Yep, a friend of mine told me about the fundraiser so I had to help out. Here.” She passed one to each of her sisters. “So, we open up these packets and dump them in here.” She gestured to the opening at the top of the lantern. “Then they fly up until they get cool enough to go out, then after they land and water hits them, the seeds might grow. That’s why I chose this lovely on-ramp. I figured all the weeds could use some company.”

Rowan felt a smile spread across her face, knowing that Laurel had chosen this activity at least in part because of her own love for plants. It remained as they lit their lanterns, allowing them to drift upward, watching them sink slowly into their destined resting place. She would have to come back after the next rainfall to see if their seeds took. “Thank you for this,” Rowan murmured, almost to herself.

“Course, I know how you are with plants. Even if I can’t keep the damned things alive.” The three of them laughed at the accuracy of the statement as they made the long walk back to their cars.

Shadows cast by the setting sun obscured the unnatural shape by the side of the road as it slid toward the trio, unseen until its presence all but engulfed them. It would have been easy to think of the youma as a praying mantis, its long, bladed forelimbs certainly added to the impression, but it bore an almost canine face. Rowan didn’t realize until it stepped fully into the light of a streetlamp that it had no skin. A mass of exposed muscle, sinews, organs, undulated horrifically as it approached.

“s**t. Get behind me, both of you.” Laurel dropped into some kind of fighting stance, Rowan could never identify them. She tried to ignore the needles of heat making their way up her neck and face. It wasn’t just the youma.
This was it. This was it
She couldn’t hide it.

“Tempesti power, make-up!”

Tempesti couldn’t let herself hear the shocked sounds her sisters let out as she replaced herself. She could face that mess later. Not much later, they would make sure of that, but later.

Flowing past Laurel, Tempesti raised her arms, “Harrowing Storm!”
The youma was mercifully weak, disintegrating before it had the opportunity to strike a blow. On her or either of her sisters. A hand gripped her arm, turning her in place to face her audience.

“Wait. This why you’ve looked like s**t for the past…months? More?” Laurel put little effort into mincing words in mundane situations, there was no way she would be capable of holding back here. “Were we supposed to just assume that you were what, having a psychotic break? Did you think you’re a good enough actor to hide the fact that you have been going out of your mind? And all of those cuts and bruises you got ‘by accident,’ some monster like this put them on you.” Laurel’s golden eyes flashed dangerously as she spoke, a mixture of anger, concern, and sheer indignation at having been excluded from the bizarre turn her youngest sister’s life had taken. Willow put a hand on Rowan’s shoulder, light but firmly enough to let her know that she wasn’t getting out of this conversation easily.
“You know that you can talk to us, right? We’re not going to judge you”
Laurel raised her eyebrows.
“I’m not going to judge you.”
“And I’m only judging you a little. For being a little ******** liar and hiding this when you could have asked your family for help.”

The force of their scrutiny was more than Rowan was willing or able to evade. “OK, OK we can talk about it but not here. Please.” It was a tense, quiet ride to her apartment, the cityscape passing all too slowly as she drove, as though time itself intended this discomfort to last for as long as it possibly could. After months of keeping this to herself there was no escaping this conversation now.

After what felt like hours of rambling, answering uncomfortable questions, occasionally omitting the more almost deadly moments, Rowan sat in quiet exhaustion and bizarre relief.

“…Well I can see why you thought we’d think you were insane. If I didn’t see…everything I saw back there I’d probably throw you into a 72 hour hold myself.” Laurel’s tone was playful but Rowan wasn’t sure that she was joking.