The one I can confide in

It had been no secret that Ember had been having a rough time the past season. Growing up into her adolescence was hard enough to deal with all these new things like hormones and turbulent emotions, but now she was fighting with her father and their friction was becoming obvious to the public. Add on the fact that she hadn't seen Erik in some time and when he had finally shown his face it was to tell her that he was moving out of Auster permanently and Ember was not a happy camper. She was brooding and moody and miserable. The Carpathian princess kept to herself a lot, losing herself in books from the library and making a daily habit of destroying as many training dummies as she could to vent out her frustrations.

She didn't really feel like she had anyone she could talk to either. Her father was the cause of her strife at home and she knew her mother would probably side with him too. Talyssa was still gone and might never come back, Dusk was awful with emotional stuff, Bramble was busy with her new rank, and she didn't want to dump her problems on sweet Clove. Her brothers were typical boys and it would've been useless trying to talk to them. So Ember kept to herself, going through the motions of the days, honing skills and training her body and mind. She helped in the kitchens preparing food and stayed up in her room on the balcony to look out over the sea while she devoured book after book. But it did little but distract her from the thunderstorms in her heart. Nothing assuaged the roiling. Nothing made her feel better.

Now she laid out on her balcony, gazing up at the starry summer night sky and watching the strange bands of beautiful lights dance around overhead while listening to the lapping of the dark sea on the shore. Everything was so tranquil and quiet—the perfect atmosphere to lose herself in her thoughts. She pondered over and over about what her father had said, questioning what she would have done if she had been in his place... but no answers came to her. They never did. Resigning herself to what would probably be another restless night, Ember breathed a sigh and rested her head on the balcony's balustrade, glancing down the row of windows to Clove's balcony, wondering if she was still up or if she should even bother her sister with this at all.

After some more time brooding, Ember decided what the hell and went for it. She really wanted to talk to her sister. She went back downstairs, brewed up a fresh pot of jasmine tea, then carefully carried the pot back upstairs on a tray with a pair of cups. She'd make the excuse of wanting to share some bedtime tea with her sister if she was still up. And if she wasn't, well, then she'd just stay up sipping away at the tea alone, she supposed. Em carried the tray to Clove's bedroom door and gently rapped a paw against the wood three times. Then she waited for Clove, if she was even still awake.

"Sisters" | "Carpathian"