in my thoughts i have seen rings of smoke through the trees, & the voices of those who stand looking.
[YOU'RE BOTH MONSTERS FOR MAKING ME BE THE ONE TO DO THIS :||||| ]
Otem felt a vague stirring of disappointment in her belly. It sat like a wet and cold lump, pressing on her bowels. Was it bad that she wanted to see Iskra again? That although she was surrounded by siblings, she instead wished to have her brothers go away and be replaced by the lightning-boy? Before her thoughts could take her too far away, Otem had the most overwhelming experience of deja vu.
Just as Iskra had told Mauna that they would go and look for his mother, inciting a look of surprise, fear, and I am going to kill you from the filly, so too did Vulkán just as casually imply that their mother was dead, inciting the exactly same looks and feelings from the autumn-child. Though perhaps that wasn't quite right. Otem had expected more tact from Iskra-the same could not be said of her twin. It simply wasn't in his wheel house to understand that glossing over the death of a mother in front of a young sibling was not appropriate. Although given how clever he was, Otem would have thought he would at least have picked up on the fact that Mauna clearly thought Isopia was alive.
The ram-horned filly turned towards her youngest sibling, waiting to see the apprehension dawn across his face.
"Mauna-" Otem began delicately, trying to force her features to be soft and maternal (but failing quite spectacularly). "Our mom was a demi-goddess. You know that right? She was the daughter of the God of the Earth. And because she was his daughter, she had certain responsibilities." The filly's voice had become bizarrely sing-song-y as she tried to piece together the softest version of events that would still be true. "And so when Kaos tried to force everyone through the portal, the Gods tried to stop him. But they couldn't. The last thing they tried to do was make the portal safe for all of us, so that we would come through whole and alive."
Otem could feel tears stinging the backs of her eyes, and she bitterly blinked them away. Even this version of events, no matter how sugar-coated, made Otem's resentment of the Gods and their role in all of this feel all the more weighty. It was their fault that all this had happened, and yet they would be remembered as martyrs for sacrificing themselves at the end. The difference was they deserved to be sacrificed. Aithniel and Isopia did not.
"But even the Gods were too weak. They needed more help. So our mom and her cousin helped the Gods. We all have our magic, and our companions, and our lives because of mom."
Otem's mind replayed the last few moment's of Isopia's life - the way her body seemed to explode into a thousand points of starlight. She was just gone. Her cape and pauldron, the glowing charms she had, Babel and Hubris: they just weren't anymore. Otem didn't even have a body to bury.
She had nothing of Isopia's. None of them did.
Briefly Otem thought about adding, I'd rather have mom than have my magic, but she wasn't sure if that was true. Since coming to the Rift Otem had become powerful. She had been given magical gifts she never thought were attainable. She loved her mother of course ... but her selfishness far outweighed any amounts of altruism, and so the filly kept that false sentiment unsaid. "I'm sorry Mauna.." Otem concluded poorly, her wings slumping slightly from her sides unsure if her youngest sibling would want a hug or not.
Siren's Summit
