Chapter 17 #2
She was grateful for a private escape from the public life she was forced to live.
It had taken little convincing on Aela’s part to claw back some of her own time to spend how she wished.
A small comment here and there had Tarek doubling down on his brilliant idea of having Aela immerse herself in his constellation by spending her days getting to know the Taureons.
While her presence was still required in most of Tarek’s audiences, how she spent her time in his city was of little interest to him as long as she was where she was supposed to be when he needed her.
Aela ground the hematite with more force than necessary as her mind circled the Prime Apparent of Taurus. Her week was up. After removing the shopkeeper’s crystal bands, Tabitha had told Aela she had one week to decide how she would aid the rebellion.
Not if she would help, but how.
She had mulled everything over the past week while she assisted with repairs to the shop, the familiar task of working with crystals a small comfort.
More concerns piled up by the day: her dreams and The Darkness, her dormant power, her growing magic, the looming bond with Tarek and his Ascension, and the whereabouts of her family. What was another detour?
Faced with so many mounting things, she opted to focus on something achievable.
There were measurable results from freeing the Taureons, whereas overthinking everything else that occupied her mind only left her more confused and frustrated by her inability to act or solve the problem.
Over time, what she accepted of her situation felt less like a betrayal of her Line and more a case of survival.
Tabitha came through the curtain, offering Aela a warm smile that crinkled the corners of her eyes as she came to look at the hematite vials.
“What do you think?” Aela asked.
Tabitha shrugged. “I believe you have more experience than I do with it in this form.”
“It’s on the finer side, so I think a tonic will be best. If we ever get our hands on unrefined hematite, it will be more potent. Do you know when the next resupply will be?”
“Planning on staying to find out?” the shopkeeper asked as she dawdled around the back room.
Aela pursed her lips. “Yes. I can’t say for how long, but I’ll do anything to help.”
“Anything?” Tabitha chortled. “Don’t you dare promise me that—I’ll hold you to it!”
Aela dipped her chin hiding her smile.
“Where I come from, we never forget our debts,” Tabitha’s voice called from behind rows of storage shelves.
“And where is that?”
“Virgo.”
Aela knew Tabitha to be an earthen elemental, but had assumed she was from a fallen House like her own. Virgo was a powerful House—the largest constellation.
“What brought you here?”
“That,” the Virgo said, “is a tale for another time.” Tabitha came to the workbench and placed the crate she was searching for on the worn surface.
“The work I do here is important. Taurus is as much my House as Virgo was, more so even.”
“How do you do it?” Aela’s secret dragged itself to shore, listening intently.
How do you help another House when yours desperately needs you? When you desperately need them?
“Our lives are long, but our time and placement are not guaranteed. We have to make the most of where we are for whatever time we have.”
Tabitha gave Aela a fond pat on the head and a wink as she backed into the curtain, carrying the crate into the showroom.
Aela considered her parting words. The Taureon’s plight was grave indeed.
What Tarek was doing wasn’t right, and she did want to help…
but she never intended to stay, to become one of them.
Still, her commitments didn’t change, but Tabitha’s words soothed something in her. Both things could be true. She would help the Taureons and get home. She was on her way; there was just a greater need to help first.
Thus, Aela began her work with the separatist movement in earnest. In the days that followed her conversation with Tabitha and her official decision to join the rebellion, she kept up her appearances with the Asterism.
In her spare time, she worked in Tabitha's shop.
Circumspectly, Arche would guide common class celestials to Aela—who were too low to be noticed by the likes of Tarek or his court—for her to liberate.
Aela wasn’t so sure of Tala. She had a gut feeling, not unlike her odd Fatesblessed power, that nothing went unnoticed by the Adjacent. She hadn’t pried into Tala’s dreams since the first time, having drawn a boundary not to breach such an intimate barrier again.
“We have another customer for you, Aela dear,” Arche crooned as he sauntered in from the showroom, parting the curtain and allowing a shorter male to enter the workspace ahead of him. The male looked between Arche and Aela with wide blue eyes.
“Hello. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Aela said, dusting her hands on her apron as she stepped off the stool and outstretched her hand.
“F-Finn, please, the p-pleasure is mine,” the trembling celestial said with a bow over his clasped hands. With no hair to speak of, his tanned head reflected the starlight held in stand lamps around the workroom.
“Tell me about yourself, Finn.”
Aela listened as he told her of his profession, his family, and how long they had lived in Avarice. With each personal detail he divulged, his shoulders relaxed. He joked that he expelled so little of his power due to the crystal bands, that he’d likely live to see when the Gods came back.
“Ah, Aela will disagree with you there,” Arche said. “She’s not too fond of our Masters—thinks they’ve left us for good.”
Aela forced a smile, and when Finn was ready, she took his crystal bands off without breaking them. Finn’s eyes watered, and green grass grew beneath his feet when his power breathed for the first time in ages.
Finn’s silent tears fell to the grass on the ground, mixing with countless others for whom Aela had done the same. Arche bustled him away, his mouth forming the words thank you as he departed. She carefully set the unbroken crystal bands on the workbench.
“How many?” Aela asked as Arche came back into the workroom. Zosma would ensure Finn made it safely back to his family. She wondered if they’d make their way to her next.
“Not enough—I mean to say, I am eternally grateful for what you’re doing for my House, but…”
“It’s not enough. There are still thousands more trapped,” Aela said. A somberness filled the void Finn’s joy left behind.
Arche sighed. “You’re doing an incredible thing.
I never thought it’d be possible. Before, the only way we could ever push back was stealing and smuggling the Asterism’s reserved cache of crystals.
With their constant bickering and schemes, they never looked far from their rivals in court for the missing stones. ”
“I suppose I helped matters in more ways than one,” Aela said with a nod toward the shop beyond the curtain.
“Indeed,” Arche grinned. “Tarek mandated that the Asters all had to ‘donate’ part of their reserve to help resupply Tabs’ shop. You should have seen the fit they threw in the throne room.”
“I’m sad to have missed it,” Aela smirked and returned to her hematite powder she had been working on the past couple of weeks. She selected a small funnel and began sifting the black powder into glass vials.
“Tarek has his flaws,” Arche murmured from behind her while she filtered the hematite into the glass tubes. “But he does care for his House, in his own way.”
Aela snorted. “You know I’m not actually going to bond with him, right?” She gently set the filled tube off to the side, and Arche placed a cork stopper in the top.
“He’d protect you better than anyone else here could. He’s not all bad, Aela.”
“Please,” Aela scoffed with a roll with her eyes. “Do not try to convince me of his good character. I’m only here to help and then I’m gone.”
Arche topped off another glass vial that Aela handed him. “I don’t think he’ll ever let you go.”