Shiraya's Odyssey
The first spring breeze had whipped through her open window to waken her an hour earlier, carrying with it the balmy scents from the Estates garden below. Rominara flowers and poplar trees just beginning to flower again.
The last of the snow had finally begun to melt the week before, and by the time she’d finished devouring her light breakfast of nuna eggs and bacon, washed down with a heady cup of tea, the pale stone of her bedrooms banister was dusted in tiny white flower petals and golden pollen. Signs of renewal.
It was a strange juxtaposition, given that she felt anything but renewed.
“Make your father proud.”
Brandyn’s words had struck her hard, playing on an endless loop ever since she’d left Crait. For him, of all people, to throw their father in her face? After everything they’d survived together… after everything they’d fought so hard to reclaim…
Perhaps, that was just the nature of their relationship now, forever tarnished, both of them cursed to eternally doubt the other because of the missteps they’d both taken after their parents deaths — a deep scar that would be ever present in their dynamic, no matter how hard either of them fought to regain some state that might resemble something close to normalcy.
Briana exhaled slowly and frowned at the hilt of her brother's lightsaber resting on the wooden nightstand, the physical manifestation and reminder of their rift, then reached out and drained the last remnants of her tea to the dregs, unable to stare at it any longer.
The day had barely begun, and already her mind was heavy with thoughts she had no space for among everything else.
Scooping up her dishes, Briana padded her way towards the kitchen. She could figure out what to do about her brother, later.
Sera was already preparing for lunch at the worktable, but paused as she made to take Briana’s dishes until she waved her off. “I can wash them,” she told her by way of greeting. Up to her elbows in some sort of meat pie, the android gave Briana a soft smile and left her to it. She’d always been a droid of very few words, graceful in the way that her mother had been.
“The poplar trees are finally blooming,” Briana observed rather pointlessly, peering out the kitchen window at the garden beyond as she rinsed off her plate, fork, and cup.
Sera laid an ornate lattice crust atop the pie and began carefully pinching the edges together, making quick and deft work of it. “Mmmh, yes. I noticed earlier. Spring is in full swing. It’ll be nice to have fresh flowers in the house again,” she responded softly. “Your mother always loved this time of year.”
The mention of her mother sent a fresh pang through Briana’s chest, though she kept her features cool and in check, methodically drying each hand on a nearby towel, trying to push away the sudden flood of memories before they could marinate her mind and remind her of all the moment’s she’d taken for granted. “She did,” Briana managed after a soft swallow. “Always made sure every vase was filled the moment the first blooms popped.”
It was still strange, remembering that her mother had been gone for almost three years now. Stranger still, to imagine what life might be like were she still living and breathing. Would she be proud of the paths her children were taking, or ashamed and embarrassed? Mercifully, that particular line of thought was interrupted before she could travel any further down the trail, feeling her awareness pulled in another direction when out of nowhere, the echo of him, burst across her consciousness. The minute his foot crossed the threshold of the Estates gates, the warmth of everything he was, cast down the reforming mental link in announcement of his arrival.
Vizion.
She’d been so preoccupied with her thoughts, so exhausted from the previous
"Kriff," she muttered under her breath.
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