Chariklo was feeling… well? Not conflicted, not guilty, but she was feeling something as she stumbled across what was clearly a transport mirror deep within the park. Now, she could have kept walking. She almost did. But the memory of seeing Remarque amidst the throng that had all come together to fight the Hallow stopped her. He’d come to help fight and brought as many of the Court as he’d been able. He hadn’t just hunkered down in Mirrorspace to hope that pocket dimensions were un-eatable by giant ******** snakes.

He’d been her friend once. Her Prince.

She didn’t hate him by any means and part of her hoped that the feeling was mutual. But she also knew Remarque was a canny leader. Just what, if anything, had he told the Court when she’d scarpered? For that matter what would Amytis and Avacyn have told them? “Well, probably that you were a filthy traitor and a liar,” she muttered to herself. Certainly Mintaka had made her own feelings known that one night. But how much of that vitriol had been seeded by the Court’s own Prince? Unfair, she told herself. Mintaka had found out before Remarque, so any venom spitting would have gone the other way ‘round. Remarque had only been shocked by her defection. He hadn’t gotten mean or nasty. Unlike some. Allowing herself to wander through her memories, Chariklo reached out to gently brush her fingertips against the mirror’s surface. Mirrors would never flare to life for her again and that was okay.

She wouldn’t have gone back if her life depended on it. She was who and what she’d always been meant to be now. But even that sure knowledge didn’t keep a tiny stab of sadness from her heart. She wouldn’t mind talking to Remarque again if she got a chance. So what would be the protocol here? Leave a sticky note on the mirror and hope it wasn’t treated as a declaration of war? Hang out and wait to see if anyone popped through who might be willing to take a message back? And if she did that, what would happen if her ex came tumbling through? Or Tantalus? She didn’t want to fight.

After a moment’s thought, she sighed and began climbing the tree that the mirror rested against. She would perch for an hour or two and see if anything happened. If no one came through, she’d come back another night and try again. Though she really hoped that she wouldn’t have to.

She’d never been good at waiting.

Kyuseisha no Hikari
Start for you~