A Sprinkle of Stardust

Chapter 24 - Apology

It was more than she had possessed in life, and now, death didn't stand in her way.

She had possessed Livh, and when she had withered away to nothing, Rayn had just moved onto the next member of their cursed line. She was as solid as smoke and as difficult for Nash to ward off.

Moonbeams fell between the leaves, illuminating the bough on which Nash balanced. Light on his feet, he dropped to the branch below and hurried towards the apartment set into the tree trunk.

The windows were lit up as they had been the last time Nash was here. The reassuring warmth drew him to it. He was about to knock on the door when something, some sense of anguish and grief permeating the air, stopped him.

"I can't believe he did this to Irylen. The bastard!" He heard Lady Trelle say. "I'll kill him myself."

Nash swallowed. He believed she was perfectly capable of that, and if she tried, he wouldn't stop her. The voice in his head tittered her disagreement. Nash ignored her.

"I got the message to Morloy in time," came Lyrani's soft voice, as soothing as violins playing a love song. "He called to say they're safe."

"Everyone on Fegris Mountain?"

There was a clink of china on china, probably Lady Trelle setting a teacup on a saucer.

"Several homes were destroyed, as was part of Fern Manor. It's too early for them to give the number of fatalities."

A burning sensation rose in Nash's throat.

"And everyone at the forest market?" asked Lady Trelle.

"I don't know. They're sorting through the debris. Some of the bodies...they're unrecognisable." Lyrani's voice broke.

These were her friends, people she had bought clothes from or passed on her way to the lake. It was like Nash coming back to Vlitavia to find his palace charred with everyone, including Benje and Isarea, inside it.

His stomach turned at the thought.

"What about your family?" Lyrani asked.

"There's nothing left but rubble," Lady Trelle choked out. "We have no idea how many servants were killed. My family got out safely...except for my father. He had been too busy making sure that everyone else was safe. Typical." She gave a strangled sob, gut-wrenching in its devastation.

"Oh, Trelle, I'm so sorry." There was a musical quality to Lyrani's voice, as heavy as it with sadness.

Silence settled between them, and Nash pictured them embracing.

He looked at the bunch of starflowers he held. They seemed to laugh up at him, taunting him as the stars had. Nash had picked them from that lonely spot where they grew in the forest as soon as he'd heard what he'd done, but now he was having second thoughts. They were rather pathetic.

What was he going to do? Give them to Lyrani and ask her forgiveness for practically destroying her state and everyone she cared for?

No flowers, no matter how pretty, could ever make up for that.

Nash let the blossoms fall. They tumbled through the air, finally resting on the grass, a lovely disarray.

Lyrani had served Lady Trelle for years. She had worked with the servants who had died. The old lord had given her a job when she'd had nowhere else to go. He was gone too.

Nash felt like the worst elf who had ever lived. This was all because of him.

He kept blaming his grandmother, but this was his fault too. Whenever he made up his mind to seek help, she would stop him. The things she made him do were sickening, but he was too weak to fight her.