Fall the 2nd, 520 AV
Adeliz was livid. As she moved along unseen, the air that made her unmaterialized soul sparked and cracked as her mind roiled, and the people she passed by on her way to the Sawmill steered well clear of the oddity that was her. Over and over and over, she played the images of Ines spending all her time with the elephant man.
If she was being fair, Ines almost always spent all of her time with the elephants. It was her job after all. But Adeliz wasn’t being fair. She wasn’t thinking straight. She wasn’t thinking at all. She was furious. Yesterday had been her birthday, and Ines had spent it with someone else.
Recently, Adeliz had taken to watching her sister more closely. As long as Adeliz had lived the two of them had been inseparable, but death had quickly forced them apart. And ever since then, Adeliz felt like the chasm between herself and her living sister was becoming larger and larger. Everything was changing and faster than Adeliz would have liked. Once her words had meant something to Ines. Now she was as inconsequential as the wind. With the discovery of the tower, Ines had thrown herself into curiosity and discovery, and as much as Adeliz wanted to encourage the things that made her sister happy, she was frightened of the consequences. The more she feared, the more Adeliz withdrew, and the more she withdrew, the more Ines sought wonderment elsewhere. And then, finding herself alone for a time, Adeliz had made the mistake of branching out on her own. Now she had a constant reminder of it every time she materialized. She hadn’t yet shown it to Ines. She felt ashamed that she had gone out and changed the body they’d once shared. The more shame she felt, the more she distanced herself from Ines.
Her sister had been the only person Adeliz had ever felt like she had belonged with, the only person she ever felt she had completed, and now, whether or not it was true, Adeliz felt like she was losing her.
But yesterday had been her birthday.
Any shared blame, any excuse, any good that Ines had been doing the day before, any of it and all of it dissipated at that thought. Adeliz played the images over and over and over again, and before she realized it she was at the Sawmill.
The greeting that Ines gave her as she approached was a chipper one, a smile and warm words welcoming her back to the mill. It only infuriated Adeliz more.
“Good morning, Ines.”
If Ines was paying attention, she’d see that her sister wasn’t wishing her a good anything. Here, confronted with the subject of her anger, the spark of her mist reached a new height, the spitting crack like that of pine cones in fire. For several moments, nothing would come, something akin to a catch in the throat holding the words caught in her soul.
“Where were you yesterday?”
The way she spat the question implied that there was somewhere Ines should have been.
And Adeliz waited to see what Ines had to say for herself.
