Ash had known this had been coming, but it hadn't braced her for the pain that stabbed through her heart as she reached for her sister. This wasn't the first time her parents had fought about Odella in her presence, though last time they had at least tried to be more subtle about it.

And just like last time, it pushed Odella over the edge.

Her pained, frenzied screech filled the small room. One hand violently pulled at her hair while the other clawed at her chest, right over her heart.

Ash struggled to grab hold of Odella's hands before she hurt herself, but her sister flailed in her fit, making it hard to do without risk. "Odella! Dellie, you're okay. Everything's okay."

"No, no it's not," her mother said, gesturing angrily at Odella. "Nothing about this is okay, and us acting like it is will only make it worse!"

"Mother." Tears pricked Ash's eyes, and she did all she could to keep them back. She would stay calm. Odella needed her to do that. But no matter how calm Ash acted on the outside, it didn't stop the tempest of emotions wreaking havoc in her chest.

Odella's next scream almost tore the storm loose.

"Corliss." Ash's father stood now, clenched fists pushing against the wooden table. "This is our daughter you're talking about."

"That thing is not my daughter." Corliss choked, and for a moment, the anguish that drove all these harsh words peeked through the rage. "And sitting back and doing nothing will not get our daughter back."

"And sending her out there when she's like this will get her killed!"

Ash lurched forward and caught Odella by the shoulders before she could fling herself sideways off the chair. Odella's shriek ravaged Ash's ears. Struggling not to recoil from the harsh sound, Ash pulled Odella up.

"Come along. It's time for bed, alright? Let's get to bed."

"Ash, you don't have to—" her father started.

"Maybe it's for the best," her mother cut in. "Soon, she'll alert the neighbors. And we shall have to lie. Again."

Their bickering continued, both parents so frustrated and worn and desperate, and no one knowing what to do.

Ash would not break. She couldn't.

Despite her struggles, Ash managed to get Odella to stand and move off to their small room on the lefthand corner of the house. It was simple, with two small beds on each side, a bedtable in between, and a chest of clothes at the end of each bed.

Odella's screams died down once Ash had the door shut, distancing them further from their parents' argument. The hand that had pulled at her hair rested at her side, but she still rubbed her chest.

Humming to block out the remnants of the fight, Ash got two sleeping gowns from the chests. She changed herself first, then made her way to her sister.

Odella glanced out the window. The faintest purple hue still colored the sky. She turned back to Ash, head quirked in a quizzical tilt.

"I know it's early, but we've had a long day." Ash stripped her sister of her simple day dress and placed it on top of the chest. When she turned back to Odella, she froze in place, her stomach churning.

Odella had yet to stop rubbing her chest, but that didn't obscure Ash's view so much that she couldn't see the midnight blue mark over her sister's chest.

Dark lines wove together to create a crescent moon, and within that crescent, more lines wove together to form a star. All of it was kept together by a closing line connecting the outer points of the moon.

The Dreamwoven blessing. It was a beautiful image, representative of how the gods had seen the future within their dreams, a future which required their champion's feats to reach its best ending.

Ash despised it.

Odella made a small whining sound and dropped her hand to her stomach. Ash bit the inside of her lip and mentally kicked herself. And, if she were being honest, she mentally kicked her mother as well. If only she'd helped Ash feed Odella instead of retreating into her bitterness.

"I will grab you something soon. After... Well, after Mother and Father are done with their talk."

Odella didn't offer any form of protest as Ash slipped the nightgown on her, but her eyes were glassier than usual. Ash forced her attention to Odella's hair instead and put her hands on her hips.

"Now, let's fix the mess you've made your hair, otherwise you'll have nests everywhere in the morning."

By the time Ash had finished combing Odella's hair, humming the entire time, the loud voices had stopped. Odella, though, curled up in bed and swiftly fell into a deep slumber.

Ash was almost glad that Odella went to sleep. She didn't want her twin hungry, but she didn't want to face her parents either. With nothing else to do, she curled up in her own bed as the last light of the day slipped away.

When had the days become so long?

Seconds turned to minutes. The murmured conversations outside turned to silence. The quiet night turned to the nightlife's sanctuary. But no matter how much night overtook Lumena Village, Ash couldn't find rest.

She tossed herself onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. Taking a deep breath, she recited a counting rhythm in her head. She'd gone over twelve wishes fulfilled five times and was on her sixth when she let the song go. This wasn't helping, and no matter how loudly she'd sung in her head, it hadn't drowned out the thoughts festering in the background.

Her eyes stung. She'd foolishly left the curtains drawn back, letting moonlight spill into the room. Shadows danced everywhere, and to her muddled mind, they seemed to reach for her, to whisper the thought she fought so desperately to ignore. The room closed in on her. Air grew thick, suffocating to breathe.

Ash needed to get out of there. She tossed the blankets back, slipped out of her bed, and crept to the door. A soft grunt brought her up short. Glancing over her shoulder, she peered at Odella.

Her twin had shifted in her bed, but there was no sign of her awakening. Ash mentally pleaded that whatever gods were listening would keep Odella asleep.

Though with the feelings churning in Ash, she wouldn't be surprised if they ignored her.

She took the back door to escape the house. It opened to their backyard, which went on a dozen meters before the Privia Forest rose as a wall of trees. The night breeze nipped at her exposed skin. Shuddering, she crossed her arms and rubbed at them to keep warm. But as she raised her head to the stars and moon above, nothing could warm the frigid tendrils snaring her heart.

The first tear fell.

Seven lunes had passed between when Odella left and when Ash next saw her sister, but it wasn't when she'd come back as a mere fragment of herself. Ash's parents were out, her father hunting and her mother shopping, while Ash stayed behind to tend to the laundry. The sudden appearance of Odella had thrilled and shocked Ash. Her twin's companions had stayed back in the forest, camping there while Odella herself came out to speak with Ash.

Thinking back on it, Ash could plainly see all the signs now. Odella's pale face contrasted by the feverish red in her cheeks. Nervous ticks as she fiddled with the laundry and constantly glanced around.

Shame weighed on her shoulders at her lack of memory of the exchange. She'd been too caught up in emotions—emotions that had taken a quick turn when Odella revealed why she had stopped by.

"I don't know if I can keep doing this, Ash," Odella had admitted. She'd been wearing a brave face when she spoke, but cracks had almost torn it open. Ash had ignored them, too caught up in the way Odella's statement left her winded.

The entire village had rejoiced when Odella awoke with the Dreamwoven mark. They'd been in the midst of celebrating when a group of Scions appeared, heralding Odella's quest to defeat the dreaded Terror, the Tempest Serpent. Odella, the girl from the tiny, forgotten village of Lumena, would protect the world.

Odella had needed Ash to be her twin at that moment. Instead, Ash had remembered that elation. More than that, though, had been the worry. If Odella didn't save the world, who would? The gods had chosen Odella. She needed to be out there, saving the world.

"You can't not do this," Ash had whispered. "If you don't... If you don't, what will happen to the world? Wasn't it said the Tempest Serpent would bring the sea's wrath upon us?" She'd taken Odella's hands, shoving down her own worries, spouted encouraging words as if she truly believed in her sister.

As if fear wasn't her true motivation.

Ash couldn't break, because this was all her fault. Her twin had needed her, and she'd turned her back on that.

Well, it wasn't only her fault. Ash clenched her fists, choking on her next breath.

"Why did you choose her?" She spoke softly to the stars. She didn't know if the gods truly always listened as some claimed, but if they did, she didn't have to be loud for them to hear her. "Anyone else. You could have chosen anyone else. Why her?"

It was such a foolish question. She knew why they'd chosen Odella. Memories surged forward, ones she had tried to bury because they hurt too much to remember.

Odella, so full of life as she and Ash raced through fields, then throwing themselves down as they laughed surrounded by flowers and falling petals.

Odella, so gentle and kind as they walked through the village orphanage, handing out blankets and gowns she'd created for the disheartened children out of thrown-out cloth.

Odella, so brave as she stood before Ash, a metal pipe in hand, as Lord Farley's perverted, disgusting nephew sneered at them, a piece of Ash's ripped dress in his hand.

Odella, so good. So deserving of everything in the world, so much greater than their tiny village. Of course the gods had chosen her. Odella was made to be a Dreamwoven champion.

Then what had gone so wrong?

"What have you done to my sister?" The words scraped her throat, leaving it raw and aching. She squeezed her eyes shut. Tears still slid down her cheeks. It wasn't only about what they'd done to her sister—the gods had placed an unbearable burden upon her entire family.

The world was a blurry mess of deep blue and twinkling specks when Ash opened her eyes again. The stars stared down, perhaps the only watchers to her breakdown.

"Please. What must I do to get my sister back?"

A noise rustled in the distance.

Ash's breath caught. She swirled toward the noise. It wasn't uncommon for deer to peek out from the forest, but occasionally, her family had seen bears.

No creatures crept out from the trees, but she still scanned the area. The breeze tickled her neck. It would be simple to brush it off as nothing but the wind. She couldn't, though. Gooseflesh rose along her arms. Something felt wrong.

A small voice in the back of her head whispered that maybe, just maybe, the gods had heard her, and they were unhappy with what she had said. A foolish idea. Still, Ash took a tentative step back toward her house.

The burning rage and icy shame were still there, but her new worry shoved them back behind their walls. With one last quick glance along the forest line, she spun on her heel and hurried back toward the safety of indoors.

When she reached the door, though, she paused, hand hovering over the handle. She half-turned back to the trees. Her eyes lingered there for only a moment before lifting to the stars.

"She doesn't deserve this." Her voice shook. She grasped the door handle, either for some kind of support or a quick escape should she need to retreat from the outside. "Even if you weren't the ones who made her like this, there must be a way to save her."

Despite the silence of the night, she waited a full minute. Still, the gods did not respond.

Angrily dragging her arm across her eyes to rid herself of any remaining tears, Ash opened the door and stepped inside. Odella would be saved, even if not by the gods.

Ash would make sure of it. She just had to figure out how.

*****

Ash has drive, but will it actually accumulate into anything?  After all, it doesn't seem she has any starting point since she has no idea what's going on with Odella.  And aren't their parents just the greatest? U^.^ They're just as lost and desperate.  Now if only one wouldn't turn that into cruelty...  You guys think the gods were listening in? 👀

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter down below, and if you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote and comment! I also have a discord open to anyone who wants to join, and we have a section there to discuss the book :D Let me know if you want to join!