Rust Flaked Sunset
Chapter 21: Homecomming
When one of the temple priestesses finally comes to tell me Sarah and Leora want to see me I’ve actually lost track of time talking to Rebeca. I have been gone from California for a year, and even if she’s a shut in she knows more about what’s been happening down there than I do. I guess that I’ll need to make more visits there once I can get Lida to teach me that teleportation magic.
Sarah knows it too, even if she isn’t quite as good with it. Maybe I could ask her to teach me. That might be fun. Even if it’s entirely too easy to think of where the last experiences I had learning magic went . . .
Still, when I enter the room Sylvia is already there. I guess I was hidden pretty well in the corner. Wouldn’t have thought so. “Ah, they finally found you! Sorry I didn’t go looking for you myself ’Rora, the priestesses won’t stop fussing over me. Something about needing all the rest I can get, being locked up like that for so long . . . You think they’d never seen a light bearer before!”
Sarah winks after she says that, but her eyes are a little bit more dim than they should be. I’m not sure if anyone else can see it quite so easily. Sylvia probably can feel it in her mist just being close. Sarah is more shaken up than she’s letting on.
Whenever she acts extra cutesy it’s a dead give away. That or if she gets too serious. And I haven’t even told her my decision yet.
“Sorry, I needed to take care of some business with an old friend. You know how it is.” If anyone knows how things like that can be, it’s Sarah. “But I’m here now! Sorry. So what’s the news?” I take a seat beside Sylvia, and drape an arm around her shoulder to pull her close. She’s still taller than me sitting down, but that just means I’m squeezing her down towards me.
“Lia is going to end up in Sanctuary’s prison facility. It’s anti-magic so there’s no way she’s going to be able to find her way out. Yana is going to end up there too. I’ve offered to help with her rehabilitation.” Sarah sighs with a slow shake of her head. “Just like last time. Can’t believe I let her and Aniela down that badly.”
Leora tisks, standing up and looking so professional in her uniform. Something about the authority she has just makes me want to bend her backwards over the high priestess’s desk. Probably should wait for a better time. “Like I told you, Luc—” Sarah winces and Leora sighs. “I’m sorry. Sarah. Like I told you, Sarah, that kind of magic is very hard to detect when you hide it inside of magical shadows like Aniela’s. Even if you were more direct with shining your light into her shadows, some easily could have hidden away.”
I have so much to learn about magic if I’m going to stay in Sanctuary. For some reason that only makes me feel more convinced that I need this place as much as it needs me. I’m so much better at figuring out all of this magical stuff than what to do with my life back in Midas.
“I guess.” Sarah gives a half hearted shrug. “And it’s okay. I know that my name should have been Lucia. But I think I’ll let you cover what’s going to happen to the Wardens.”
That is a pretty important detail. Given that two of them have the same red hair I do, this becomes even more important. I guess that makes them my new sisters, just like Lia said. I’ll need to visit her in that anti-magic cell frequently to make sure she doesn’t get out or I won’t believe it.
After my experience with every person I stopped besides the Spiral coming out of the woodwork for Lys I’m not going to make that same mistake again.
“With the magic that made the Wardens the Wardens broken, even if we wanted to put things back the way they were before all of this started—” Leora pauses, giving both Sylvia and I an intensely heartfelt look. “—and we don’t—we couldn’t anyway. The magic that linked the Wardens to Sanctuary needed to be disrupted in such a way that the same thing just isn’t reproducible. The magical ‘hooks’ won’t work again. We had to disrupt that process too permanently.”
Sylvia sighs so heavily and it takes me a moment to realize that I did too. I squeeze her tighter, and she smiles before pressing her lips into my cheek. Knowing that some madwoman can’t make new Wardens for her own purposes, not just the council, is good to know.
“As for what to do with the women who were Wardens . . . They’ll need to be re-socialized. They’re to be reunited with their families. The secret will be out, and that’s probably for the best. I didn’t know it when I accepted my position. We all wanted to do something to stop it, but it was never the right time even before the light bearer disappeared.” Leora sighs, giving an apologetic shrug. “We’ll keep an eye on them to make sure they end up okay. This does leave Sanctuary a bit more vulnerable, but . . .”
“But nothin’. That’s what you’ve got me for.” I pull away from Sylvia and stand with a grin. “Sanctuary is going to need someone to look after it and keep it safe while this gets straightened out. So you’ve got me.”
Sarah and Leora stare ad me with wide eyes and half open mouths. Sylvia just smiles lovingly. Proudly? There’s something about the way she’s looking at me that makes me so incredibly happy in a way that I can’t place. It’s like this is what she wants for me, too. Maybe she came around to not be quite so upset with everything?
Sarah stands, moving over to wrap her arms around me tight. “Aurora . . . Do you know what you’re saying? I mean, I know you’re a woman now, and you can make your own choices, so I won’t stand in your way, but . . .”
“This is what I want to do, mom.” I press my lips into her cheek, even if that means I have to hover a bit off my feet. “I can have a purpose here that I can’t have anywhere else. This is where our family comes from. Where Olivia was from doesn’t really need me like Sanctuary does. Plus it’ll give me a chance to learn a lot more little tricks with my magic, and I can visit you in Midas, Sylvia in New York, that much easier. If we stay in touch with Sanctuary we wont need to worry about something happening in another twenty years.”
It’s so hard not to make it sound like I blame her for this. I don’t. She did what she thought was the right thing by saving Sanctuary and then leaving it to it’s own devices. It just clearly didn’t work.
“If . . . if this is what you want.” Sarah sighs, pressing her lips to my forehead with just enough of a spark for me to feel. It makes me smile, even as I feel the red inside of my head rising up to the sensation. “I talked to Leora about you two, too. Apparently it’s not really that unusual here. But if Sylvia is going to stay in New York—”
“Aurora has a plan for that too.” Sylvia interrupts with a voice way more happy about it than she sounded the last time we spoke. “It’s a pretty smart one.”
Sarah steps back from me, looking between me and Sylvia slowly. “Gonna start getting suspicious of you two planning everything behind my back if this sorta thing keeps up . . . but I guess I should be used to that by now! Wasn’t really used to the idea of you two being so far away before Lia grabbed me up, you know. So you definitely better visit. Frequently. But . . . what’s this plan.”
Sylvia cuts me off before I can start to explain everything. The false death of Aurora LaSilvas. The helpful woman that joined in the hunt for Sarah LaSilvas.
By the end, both Sylvia and I can’t keep grins off of our faces.
“Wow. You really did think that through. So I pretend my daughter died trying to rescue me. You take on a new identity, and become Sanctuary’s first real super heroine.” Sarah stares as I nod. She starts talking more times than I can count, but no words come to her lips.
Leora rests her hands on my mother’s shoulders from behind with a happy sigh. “I think you have a pair of very smart, very adaptive daughters. I would be happy to help Aurora settle in here. Besides, having the light bearer’s daughter take a place assisting the council would help our people believe in a chance for stability. Helping her learn how to swiftly teleport to any place in your world from here would be so simple. Of course, I’ll only agree to all of this if you do too. And, if she still goes home with you. You need all of the support you can get.”
“I agree . . . but I know. You had enough priestesses poke and scan me with spell after spell . . .” Sarah sighs and slumps back into Leora’s hands. I think I could get used to being surrounded by women with silver hair. A lot of other colors too, but there really is something gorgeous about it. “And they all said I was fine.”
“They all said that you needed to take it easy or you wouldn’t be.” Leora hugs my mother from behind before moving back over to sit. “But that just makes it all the more important for us to finish up here so you can all go home – for a time – and rest.”
The thought of Sarah needing to rest, actually needing to rest, is surprising. I can still feel my powers flowing as smoothly as they did after Jesse Colloten gave me a little boost. My gold feels as solid as ever. She’s always been so full of energy, so quick to bounce back . . . I guess I took that for granted. She seems fine to me, but I’d hate to push it.
At least this idea doesn’t seem like it’s stressing mom out any. Valerie will need to know too, which means finally talking to her. I should never have avoided her for so long. Things were just so awkward after everything with Lys.
No avoiding it now.
“And that’s how Lia came to know what she did. Apparently when she left the temple she found her way to Yanta’s former residence. There she found diarys detailing Yanuka’s withdraw from society to have a child in secret, and then wash her hands of the whole thing once it turned out her daughter wasn’t a light bearer. Since she wasn’t strong enough to use against Nesatealia herself, Yanuka had no use for her. She apparently blamed Lida for abandoning her with a child, and decided to devote the rest of her life to claiming Sanctuary for herself.” Leora sighs with a weak shrug. “Yana told us everything quite willingly. Apparently Lia rather savored tormenting her.”
“Yana didn’t fare much better for being a more . . . successful experiment. In trying to discover Yanuka’s further plans, Lia came across her mother’s research. The magic she’d used to change Yana’s red into ink instead. That was how she discovered the magic that she would eventually use to change you into a Nesatealia.” Sarah finishes Leora’s thought and sighs herself.
Yanuka cast Yana away because she wasn’t ready to use her as a tool, and drove her to create Quillspawn to be more useful. Then she became a pawn in her half-sister’s ploy to do what Yanuka could never do. So much comes back to her.
The Domina was just another of Yanuka’s gambits that failed. Sylvia and I both exist only because of Yanuka’s plotting. Such a weird thing to consider.
“I’m going to change all that. I’m going to show that this red hair doesn’t need to lead to such horrible things.” I move to kiss Sarah’s cheek again and smile bright as I can. “I promise. I’ll do my best to keep everything working the way it should be. Nothing like this will ever happen again.”
“We can’t be sure of that, but we can try.” Sarah grins, pulling me into another tight hug. “I guess with that out of the way there’s just one last question to ask you.”
I tip my head to the side with a blink. What could really be left. She knows everything that’s happened. She knows my plans for the future. We’ll probably need to talk about all of this a lot more over the coming months, but it’s not like either of us is going anywhere very far.
“What is my daughter’s new name?”
“Oh. Well, I was thinking Yancy.”
Sarah hugs me so tight and close. “Even if Aurora is going to ‘die’, you’ll always be my daughter. I love you, Yancy. And I always will. We’ll make this work. If you really loved Sylvia enough to do what you did, there’s no way I could ever dream of standing between the two of you.”
I hug her back, trying to blink away my tears. Being Yancy is going to be a big change, but it’s the only way to make things work, and that matters so much more to me.
After a lot of hugging, and a lot of crying, we’re finally back in Midas. Sarah and Valerie’s home to be specific.
Aniela is being treated by witches who know what they’re doing, same as the Wardens. Aurora will be back soon enough to make sure all of that goes smoothly.
Wait. Not Aurora. Yancy. Following Nesatealia naming conventions feels a little silly, but she insisted that Dawn would push believability. The songs I could write about the way Yancy’s red makes me feel sends quivers through my body.
But for now, we’re just throwing a private little get-together. Counter Spell and Mina had a tearful reunion, after Mina stopped smacking Yancy for worrying the hell out of her. At least Mina is here. We’d spread the word of my sister’s new identity further but there’s no really secure way to do that over long distances. Yancy insists she’ll get to it once she figures out the whole poofing from one place to another trick.
Flora and Heather, true to their word are being social and sweet, milling around a bit before they go back to their vacation and then their lives. Rebeca and Yancy made up, but she still didn’t want to stick around. She said she had important things to get back to work on if she was going to get her life back together.
I’ll need to remember to follow up with her, too.
Sarah even invited Linda over for our little family get together. Right now she’s sharing stories with Susan and Lida, who seems to be taking this a lot better than I would have thought. She knows everything we do. But I guess we can only really move on.
Finally the band arrives, and I almost tackle Nikki in a hug. “Whoa whoa whoa! What’s this I’m hearing about Aurora biting it?”
I bite my lip and Pull Nikki in, motioning for the rest of the band to follow us. When we’re in my old room I close the door and lean back against it. I explain everything, again. This is going to get so route. When I’m done, Nikki grins and pulls me up into her arms.
“So we can be together, without anyone needing to lose anything. Not really, anyway. She can still be a part of the family, just like you are. Like all of you are, really.” I grin, giving Nikki a firm kiss on the cheek. “I’d go and grab Yancy to reintroduce you all right now, but she’s having a pretty heavy conversation with Valerie. But she promised me that tonight would be just for you, me, and her.”
Nikki grins, pressing her lips into mine so hard and firm. She might not have Aur-Yancy’s red, but passion might really burn hotter in women with redder hair. I wouldn’t complain if it were true. “I’m going to hold you both to that. But for now, let’s go welcome your mom back into town!”
It was pretty hard to avoid Valerie when we got home. At first she didn’t recognize me. A little bit of magic was easy for me to learn to make my voice just different enough, and other little details of my face so I’m not quite me. But when she did, I told her once we settled in we’d finally have that conversation. Alone, if it was all right.
I can’t run from it anymore. Everyone else is gathered together, enjoying the party.
Locked away in Valerie and Sarah’s room, I can’t stop fidgeting. We hadn’t really spoken in so long, and then to be reintroduced by Lys like that . . . I don’t even know what to say.
Valerie sits on her bed, patting beside her with a soft smile. “Come on over Aurora. I promise I’ll start calling you Yancy after this, but it’s Aurora I need to talk to. You’ve been avoiding me for almost a year. Do you think that I blame you for what happened?”
“No!” My voice starts before I even realize I’m moving my lips. “N-not at all! I just . . . When I think of you, all I can remember is how Lys used you because of me, and then Sarah wasn’t here to come home to. That it happened like that because of me.” I cross my arms over my chest with a heavy sigh, giving in and sitting next to Valerie. She’s so tall, when she wraps her arms around me and pulls me close my head rests right on her chest. That full, warm soft chest that reminds me entirely too much of Sylvia’s and all of the times she held me when I was younger at the same time. “I couldn’t help you . . .”
“You can’t help everyone, sweetie. No one can.” She presses her lips to the top of my head, and her mist starts to envelop us both. Such sweet, warm purple mist that makes everything feel so sweet. I can feel it twining with my red, and I know she can feel my pulsing libido squirming at our intimacy. “Oh my. Your aunt . . . really did a lot, didn’t she?”
I nod and nuzzle more into Valerie’s chest. Mommy. She might not have given birth to me, but she raised me. So warm and soft, feeling my red reach out to twine with her violet feels so . . . good. Warm. It’s impossible not to crave more.
It would be so easy to pin her down to the bed and kiss over every inch of her skin. I could force just enough of my red into her so she’d want it too. Need it. It would be so easy . . . but I don’t want to do that. I just want her. My mommy. My Valerie. Even as Yancy, she’ll be my mother. Always.
“Y-yeah . . . but it’s okay. I-I need, like, all the time, but I’m kinda used to that. I learned my lesson with Sylvia. I don’t just take what I need, even if it makes me ache so much.” I can feel her warmth so easily against me, and even if Valerie is just as young as Sarah, looking more like she should be my older sister than my mother, I am so much . . . stronger. I can feel how easily her body would yield if I started to push . . . but I don’t.
“I can feel just how much you’re working to keep it in check . . . You really should feel proud of that, Aurora. Olivia would be proud of you.” Her hand strokes along my cheek, and I nuzzle dreamily into her hand. It feels so good to savor my mother’s hand touching my skin. She feels so warm and soft, even if I feel so hot. I’ve had fevers that felt cooler than this.
My lips curl into a smile, and I let them press to Valerie’s clothed chest. Her mist reaches in through my lips, tugging at that red, and I mewl. I can feel that sweet melty sensation of her mist smoothing and rubbing it’s way through me, but it’s more than that. She’s feeling my red, sharing it, making it easier to take.
Then her hand cups my cheek, making my eyes look into hers. Her purple eyes look pretty as always, so deep, full of swirling, gorgeous mist. I feel so lost in her mist, in her eyes. She’s never held me like this, touched me like this . . .
“You know, I might seem like I’m more removed from all of this than you, your sister, your other mother . . . but it’s a temptation for me, too. It’s so easy to just do this.” She pulls my face to hers, and my red lips melt into her purple pair. Mist laces through me all over again, and I push back with my red. I can feel her wanting it, not the same way I need her, more . . . optional. Smoother. I groan as I surrender to it, surrender to her taking my desire and enveloping it in smooth warmth.
The scent of lavender feels like it’s twining through my mind. Valerie always smells so good, feels so good, and that’s in her kiss too. She’s used her power on me to help me feel better before, but never like this. She’s always seemed so . . . not restrained. Like she didn’t need to be.
This feels so much different.
Her hand falls from my face, grasping my hand and pressing it to her chest. My eyes widen in the kiss as I feel my own fingers squeezing tenderly at her breast. She moans into my mouth, and I let my red flow there, too.
I can taste the nerves in her skin growing more sensitive, warmer, reaching out for my touch as it burns and sizzles through her. Her nipple feels so stiff when I rub across the bump poking out against her top. When the kiss finally breaks we’re both panting, and somehow I’m on my back with her ontop of me.
“I understand what it’s like, to see opportunities everywhere . . . to feel how easy it would be to just let it slip, and make things so much more fun . . . So let me spend this last time together with Aurora giving you what you need so it’s easier for you to behave as Yancy . . .” Her body rubs down against mine, so much bigger, so much curvier, and I moan as her lips melt back into mine.
Red and violet melt and pulse together, and it’s harder and harder to tell which is mine. Her thigh is between mine, and mine between hers. We’re clothed, but I can feel every curve of her glistening naked body so easily. I can taste every facet of her desire, that she’s been having dreams about me just like I’ve been having dreams about her.
It’s hard to think, but it’s not hard to feel her love, her lust. My thoughts are running down along my thigh, and I don’t even care. This is what I want, to grind and kiss and squeeze at this beautiful woman to make us both feel so good.
When that red and violet burst into colors I can’t even describe we don’t even moan, just shudder and clutch at eachother.
Her lips whisper into my ear as mist envelops my everything, cradling me in my mommy’s misty embrace. “I love you, Aurora. And I love you too, Yancy. I know you only want what’s best for Sylvia, and I’m going to hold you to that . . . as long as you never forget that you’re still my little girl, too.”
I think I moan out yes, but I’m not sure. I just know I kiss her again, and this time I end up on top of her, rubbing my red into every place our curves can grind together.