26. family meeting

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𝖊𝖑𝖆𝖗𝖆 • the grand palace━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

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𝖊𝖑𝖆𝖗𝖆 • the grand palace
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Elara wasn't entirely certain when she had fallen asleep, just that it was to the soft strokes from Aurora to her hair and her enveloping embrace, warm and comforting and exactly what she had needed as she cried out what she could.

The tears had blurred with her crushing lethargy to become the sleep that had missed her, but she woke in her sister's arms feeling more complete than she had—at least until she remembered Xander was no longer hers.

Had any of it been worth it?

     She had refused to attend breakfast despite Aurora's pleads to, instead staying in her chambers and sitting on one of the two chairs on the balcony.

For a while, she had stared out into the kingdom with no aim, hoping to familiarise herself with the new view and make her forget all the pain breaking her bones at that moment. It had worked when their mother came in with a platter of warm and buttered toast.

     Initially, she had refused her, too, but Queen Luna then offered to feed her and told her they didn't have to say anything to each other, and so she agreed, grateful to see her mother again even if she wouldn't admit it out loud for the time being.

She was still upset with her, she had to remind herself. She had been lied to.

     Aurora returned in the early afternoon, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders as she shuddered slightly, tiptoeing on the floor to avoid its icy coldness.

"What?" Elara asked. Aurora cocked a brow, silently asking her the same question back. "You have this odd sense of urgency to you. What is it?"

     She was pacing, too. She seemed to do that a lot, she noticed.

     "Mother and Father have requested for us to meet them in the war room so they can talk to us, and then I can show you around. It shouldn't take too long." Except she didn't want to see them yet. "The war room is right next to the throne room so you can also sit on a throne if you want. Hopefully that will convince you because I cannot think of anything else."

"No, that will be enough," she remarked, earning a laugh from the both of them. "Did they mention what it was about?"

     Their mother had a tendency to regularly go off on a tangent whenever she had something to talk about. She never minded. The cottage could get really quiet sometimes.

"Us. Our situation with the... magic," she answered. "It has been a while and they haven't really given us much information, so they are hoping to be able to give us some today." She put out her arm, gesturing for Elara to take it, so she did, leading her out of the room with two guards following closely behind. "It still doesn't feel real."

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