Sides of a Mirror

42- Melancholy Pride

Celeste looked up, eyes watery and cheeks stained with tears as Taurus entered the room. The girl had a soft look of concern lacing across her face, and her glossy brown hair framed her face is wisps. Celeste just sighed, outing her head back down into her arms and sobbing miserably. Hands placed themselves around her own, and Celeste glanced up at Taurus from her curled up ball. Taurus' eyes shimmered a mossy green, and her gentle words drifted past Celeste's ears.
"I heard what happened. Scorpio told all of us after he woke up..." She paused, hand gently raising Celeste's chin to her level, "It must have been so hard to see that, I'm so sorry..." One of Taurus' hands reached out towards the window. A small tendril of glittering green mist drifted through the opening and stopped just above Taurus' palm. Celeste blinked away the tears best she could, and nodded sadly. Taurus gave her a gentle smile.
"Do you want to talk to her?" Celeste opened her mouth in shock. Her mother was dead! Or was she talking about Stellae? Either way, they had both been murdered by that lier...
"To who? My family is dead! Save Ophi, of course." Celeste sighed and shook her head, "Neither my mother nor my sister can talk to me now..." Taurus giggled softly.
"You'd be surprised. Who said anything about talking to her directly? Do you know just how far the limits of our powers are? The others and I, I mean." Celeste shook her head. Actually, she didn't know how much the children could do. She hadn't actually seen that much of their magic. Taurus smiled sweetly, "She's proud of you." Celeste froze.
"What?" Taurus stared at the flitting green wisp, eyes sparkling.
"Your mother. She can see what a great leader you've become, and she's proud of you!"
"You can speak to her?" Taurus nodded. Celeste pondered the prospect for a few long minutes, "Alright... I want to talk to her... Just this once." Taurus smiled wider and whispered in a indiscernible language to the tendril, and it swirled around her before vanishing into the mark on her neck between her collarbones. Taurus' eyes flashed bright green before they closed.
When they once again opened, Taurus' eyes were not green anymore, but a beautiful pale dawn color, blue with hints of coral. Just like Queen Aurora's eyes.
"Mom?" The question came out in a choked whisper, tears of joy, not sadness, now filling her eyes. Taurus chuckled and nodded, her gaze now holding knowledge behind her years of age.
"Yes dear, I'm here. Though I must say, I'm definitely not used to speaking through others." She chuckled again, "This sweet little girl was kind enough to let me do so, however. Taurus, is her name?" Celeste nodded, beaming as she talked to her mother for the first time since she was thirteen.
"I missed you so much! If only Umbra hadn't killed you, you would be here! Why did he have to-"
"No." Celeste's mother stared at her daughter with burning eyes, "It wasn't his fault, don't blame it on him!" Celeste looked at her mother with utter confusion.
"But he killed you!" Aurora shook her head.
"True, but our family committed many sins against his long before we ever came to be. Umbra was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Look, I know it's hard to believe, but before you or me ever walked these skies, our family had overthrown the previous rulers in fear they would become tyrants. It was said that their heiress, their daughter Ingenii, had dabbled in powers too strong to be used by anyone not worthy of them. These were the Zodiac, as you might've already guessed. The citizens of their kingdom were afraid this power might have twisted the heiress into a sick and megalomaniacal person, so when her parents were just at death's door, they rose in upheaval and expelled her from the kingdom. Of course, she would remember this, and swore to regain the kingdom as she rightly deserved." Celeste had gone silent during the tale, caught up in the bone rattling story that was flowing out of Taurus', at the moment her mother's, mouth, "Umbra's long ago relatives were good friends of that family, and swore to protect the heiress until she got her kingdom back. Unfortunately, she died, some say assassination, some say natural causes, whatever the case, she perished. That family then swore revenge against those that'd caused her exile, and started searching for the rumored power she'd tried to take. Of course, you can tell how well that went."
What? Why... Why did I not know this? Why wasn't I told? I could've done something about it! I could've stopped him from doing the one thing he promised to never do! I could've stopped him from betraying me, and my family! Why? Why...?
"I could've done something if you had told me!" Celeste cried, angry tears falling down her cheeks.
Aurora put a hand on Celeste's shoulder, "His fate was sealed long before we could ever do anything. His ancestors were cursed as a result of them trying to take the powers of the Constellations by force. I'm sorry, I know you cared about him."
"I still do! He was like a father to me! Like the one that never really had time for me..." Tears fell faster, harder, more painfully each second Celeste went on, "But now he's gone! And he can't be brought back!"
"Maybe he can..." Celeste looked up. Taurus was looking at her sweetly, her eyes back to their original mossy green. The glittering wisps had all but vanished, Celeste's mother having nothing left to say. Taurus bit her lip, "If he tries to block out emotions, if I heard Scorpio correctly, maybe having him experience them will do something to help! Can't be sure though, anything could happen. And only Scorpio could pull off something like that... He'd be hurt again..."
"But?" Taurus swallowed.
"But emotions is the one thing that can really stop him. He can't be harmed by physical pain, and he can't really die, like us. Though we could, we'll always come back, unless the weapon used to kill us is powerfully cursed or we get sealed in the land of the deceased. Then we stay dead."
"Well, all we can do is try." Taurus nodded.
"Yes. Just try."

Holy moly this book is ending sooner than I thought! Nice to get some history in this chapter, eh? I think so!
Now you know somewhat why Umbra snapped and went a flipping killing spree. Still, you don't have the full story just yet! Actually, that will be revealed in the next chapter... So buckle up and get ready! Whoohoo!
I'm so excited for the book's finale! See you next them and adieu!

P.S.; The Zodiacs have many powers you'll see in full swing in future books. Most of the ones mentioned in this book are just the basics.