Stella hasn't ever exactly been "normal." Not by a long shot. But-mental problems and friend problems aside-there's something else. One really specific thing that's been gnawing on her insides for so long, convincing her that she's alone. Definitely...
Years ago, but, in the great scheme of things, just mere minutes ago, her mother had explained something to her.
"Every single voice in the universe," she said, her hand protectively on her daughter's back, "is unique. And every single voice demands to be heard. Listen. Do you hear them?"
Celestina nodded. The faint, but distinct, sounds of every soul were woven into the fabric of the universe, laughing and crying and singing and screaming and loving and living.
"Now focus," her mother said, "Can you feel the distinctions between the light and the dark, and those caught in between?"
"Yes," Celestina breathed. "All of it...it's overwhelming. They become tangled together, some dominating others, but all-all of them are so alive with emotion."
Her mother, Serena, nodded. "Yes. I had a feeling, with you being my daughter, and-"
"Mother," Celestina said, "You don't have to-"
The feeling of sorrow, ancient and raw, crossed Serena's face and her ever-shifting eyes seemed to darken, but only for a moment.
"-And his, I thought it might come naturally to you."
"But why are you telling me this?" Celestina asked.
"Because, my child," Serena said, "the future depends on them. You know I am growing weaker; I know you can sense it. And there will come a time in which I am no longer there to keep the darkness away. To-"
"To keep my father away," Celestina said softly.
"Yes," Serena answered. "He grows stronger, feeding off of my weakness, my fading power. And so...someday someone must rise up against him. But one soul alone is no match for him, as I was no match for him. There is strength in numbers, after all."
"Yes, but-who?" Celestina asked, hardly daring to think of what she could possibly mean. "Surely you aren't referring to-"
Serena sighed. "I have seen their hearts, their thoughts. Their minds. And, though I truly wish there was another way, I know they are strong enough to handle such a burden."
Celestina could sense those young, flickering souls far away, out of reach. She wanted to protest but she knew it was for the best. Still, she thought of those poor lives that would never be the same.
She was immortal, after all, and she wasn't spared the shame surrounding her existence. Those mortals, those human children, how could they-
Her thoughts shifted to the one whose life she had saved, before she realized the implications of it. How could he survive with a light inside of him that shone too bright for their shadows to handle?
Celestina turned away, a lone tear trickling down her face. She wiped it away, pushing away the memory of what she had done. Of how she had left him. The others, they would be left to fend for themselves the same way.
"There has to be another solution," she told her mother, but Serena sadly shook her head.
"I'm afraid not," the ancient goddess said. "I wish I could tell you it will be easy for them, but you know as well as I do that with great light follows great darkness."
"I'm living proof of it," Celestina said bitterly.
Her mind fixated again on oneparticular event...
I'm sorry...Celestina thought. I'm so sorry.
But her words could not reach across time, across space. And the young soul that had touched hers for a brief, brief time had drifted away. She might not reach him ever again.
Her soul felt suddenly hollow. But she forced herself to align her thoughts with her mother's wishes once more.
Regardless of what had happened to him, and what her father had done to her, she still trusted her mother on a level she couldn't explain.
This is the right thing to do. It has to be.
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