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The Meteor Shower (3) : It wouldn't be a star festival without a meteor shower! Right on time, a beautiful array of shooting stars graces the night sky. This time of year is unnaturally clear and it's incredibly easy to see the stars. Most meteor fragments appear to be little white or yellow lights streaming across the sky, but if you watch closely enough you may find that some of them seem to be a whole rainbow of colors. The scientists have reported that it's just different components burning up as they enter the atmosphere, but there's something undeniably magical about it.
There was a particularly nice little hill about an hour outside of her neighborhood that Ariccia liked to lay back on and watch the sky sometimes. Her father once brought her there to watch lunar eclipse when she was a tiny child. It gave a clear view of the sky, and the light pollution was more muted. They'd laid back in the grass - he hadn't thought to bring a blanket - and tucked her into his side. Her father told her about the constellations and why lunar eclipses happened.
He spoke of planetary alignment and the earth's shadow as they watched it go through all it's phases very quickly until it turned an auburn color. He told her she was slated to be born on a lunar eclipse, but had to jump the gun by a week. Yet, he had taken her little form out onto the balcony of the hospital and pointed out the eclipse to her. He said that the goddess of the moon touched her that night, blessing her with her auburn hair.
(Her hair later turned out to be a recessive gene, but she always liked the story.)
The eclipse passed all too quickly, but the magic of it always stuck with her. She went home that night starry eyed.
It was the first - and last - time that her father took her to that hill. He was gone before she woke up in the morning, the final act before her father vanished from her life. No matter how much she tried to contact him, he never responded, and eventually she gave up. Her mother sent her off to boarding schools from the time she was five, and her family became more of a thing she saw during holidays than something she really cared for. Cressida and Siobhan became her family, along with one of her aunts on her father's side. Aunt Layla never said much about her father, as though the man had completely vanished from existence. Layla was the only one from her father's family who'd have anything to do with her or her mother.
She let out a soft sound as she watched the stars streak across the sky, a rainbow of colors. It was the first time she'd come back to this hill since becoming Ariccia, and something about it felt... different now. That beyond the curtain of stars were worlds and places people gained power from and protected. That somewhere, the Stormbringer's prison floated, between universes. Floating in the asteroid belt somewhere was Cybele, and somewhere a place that was her own could be found. She hadn't quite considered going up there yet.
It was a curious thing, the slight... tug, that called her skyward. That she had something to protect and should go see it. Clearly, something about being a page made it so she didn't suffocate in space. She'd learned that much dealing with the space snake. Yet, what would she find if she went? Not knowing intimidated and worried her. What if something was there that could kill her? Or a smaller space snake?
Was it better to not know than to know?
It wasn't as though she'd find her father there. So what was the point, really?
She reached a hand up towards the falling stars. It didn't feel bad though, the pull. Just like someone was reaching their hand out and saying 'come here child, let me protect you'.
Perhaps she'd answer the call one day. Tonight though... she let her hand fall back to the grass, and wondered what could make a father leave his daughter. A question she never had an answer for.
[ wc: 607 ]
