Salt touches her, and it sends a pulse of energy racing through her from the point of contact.
It reanimates limbs that were unmoving, propping her up but doing little else. Because she walked through this world before, and for what? What had it meant without her sister by her side? She’d been so terribly alone. Now, she moves to embrace her twin because one touch is not enough, not nearly enough. Her dark neck drapes over Salt’s and she presses her eyes closed. She lingers in the hold of a loved one (how long has it been since she’s felt the touch of her mother or father or Salt?) for many moments before withdrawing.
It is so good, so right, not to be alone.
Vael pulls back but doesn’t take her eyes off the other. They must look the same, she muses, save for her own unnatural glow. They have the same glossy black fur as their beautiful mother, the same brush of gold gilding their gaze like father. Seeing herself mirrored in the flesh in front of her is like a punch in the gut, if only because she sees their parents who are not here. But it is all right. It has always been Salt she’s wanted, needed. She’s never missed her parents like she’s missed her twin.
“I don’t remember what happened, truthfully.” The young woman has spent hours, days, racking her brain to remember in order to find a way back – but she’s never been able to. “I just remember how heavy I felt, after. On This Side.” Like a stone thrown into turbulent waters and expected not to sink. Those days, she tries not to conjure to the forefront of her mind. She’d been a strange child spirited to a new land where no one knew her, and therefore, no one wanted her.
Vael shakes the cobwebs from her head and smiles widely. “What about you? Is this your first time on This Side?” She thinks of all the wonderful places she’s just seen, looking for the very horse that is here now. This Side is so different than the Other, which had been muted and wispy. Here, every step is jarring, every sight is raw and bright. The horses, too, are like night and day. They worry about trivial matters that mean so little when death is so close. She could show Salt so much. “Sister, we could have a lot of fun together here.”
lost daughter of Ramiel and Gail
@[salt]