Layla's Point of View

Layla awoke on Anniversary with a heavy weight on her chest. Though the fourth anniversary of Talia's death had been a week or so ago, it still felt as though this were the true one.

   Anniversary had begun because there were just so many different memorial services that should be held for dozens of different battles that they had all had to be melded into one. On this day, the twenty-fourth of January, the day Medea had been assassinated, each and every loss would be commemorated. Medea's crimes will all be mourned today—except for those committed against the Kallians during those dreadful thirty years of her reign; they had their own anniversary which only Caloreians and Lysandrians attended.

   She slid out of bed, wriggling her feet into slippers. Moving across cool marble floors despite the cold, she walked to Maia's room.  It was decorated almost as lavishly as her own, with hasty alterations to the usual dark blue. Veronian banners and colours were draped across half, starkly contrasted with Celestial decorations. It looked as though two rooms had been stitched together.  Layla remembered well how strange her own suites had been before she had adopted the Elfin Queen's dark purple and white.

   But colour schemes were the last thing on her mind today. She had come to wake Maia for their annual Anniversary tradition—visiting the graves of the three people they had loved most.

   The first time she had gone alone. but hadn't able to bear it and turned away from the cemetery before she even read the epitaphs. The next year, she'd brought her twin along and it might still have been hard and sad and painful, but Maia had soothed her. Steadied her.

   She'd tried bringing Kestra, but it simply felt wrong. Only they could understand each other's pain. Only they had gone through it together.

   Once Layla had woken her, Maia hastily changed into mourning black. As they left her room behind and navigated the near-deserted corridors, she could have sworn she saw Kestra and Myra heading to visit Viktoria and Vera. She didn't intrude; she knew that they needed privacy just as much as she and Maia did.

   They reached the Palace Gardens and greeted the teleporter who had been assigned to them. He looked exhausted already, probably from the masses of people leaving the city to reach graves from all across the Lost Continent. She and her sister gripped his hand without hesitation and the world turned into a blur. Colour and darkness and light and shadow and—could it be?—glimpses of mountains and fields and oceans. Oh, and nausea, such sickening nausea from the speed of the teleportation, faster and faster and faster—

   It stopped. Layla landed, hitting the cold dirt with a thud. Fighting to contain the contents of her stomach, she glanced around her. Maia had arrived seconds after her, and looked even more nauseous than Layla did. The teleporter, however, was already fully recovered and quickly checked if they were okay.

   "I'll be back in twenty minutes to collect you." He said briskly. " Please return to this spot. Do you need anything else?"

   "We'd like to request some more time," Layla interjected. "Could we have half an hour?"  

   "Of course, Your Majesty," he said softly, some mixture of pity and compassion—a look painfully familiar to both Layla and her sister—entering his eyes. "It must be hard. To lose them all when you are so young."

   Not sure what to say in response, Layla simply nodded. The elf disappeared with a loud crack, leaving her and her sister alone.

   "You ready?" Maia asked.

   "Yes," Layla replied. "As ready as I can be."

   They sifted through the rows of graves, occasionally glancing out of curiosity at one of their ancestors. Layla caught sight of a familiar name engraved in stone and stopped.

   "Wait," she told Maia. Her twin halted, confused.

   "They're still a few graves down—"

   "It's Talia." Layla said softly.

   "What?"

   "The real one," she explained. The words felt strange on her tongue; her aunt hadn't been Vivienne, not really. She had been Talia to them. She had become the dead girl so completely that there was no trace of Vivienne left behind.

   Maia knelt down at the grave, examining the words etched there.

Talia swallow

B.T. Odin and Evelyn swallow

2389 AG-2398 ag

Buried 2435 ag

N.H. None

'The girl who never lived'

   "They couldn't bury her until Talia's secret was out and we'd reclaimed Veron and Celeste." Maia said. "Not under her own name at least."

   This was the child who's identity had been stolen. Layla had never put much thought into her true aunt. She'd only marvelled at the coincidence, the terrible and wonderful luck that had led to her aunt's doppelgänger dying at the perfect time.  The miracle that it had been that child's family to find her first, and that they were one of the few who would hide a Silverian.

   But now the 'original' Talia seemed terribly real. Her life had been stolen so early. Too early. She'd hadn't even given anyone her Name before she died, as the Name Holders, etched on every grave, showed. How strange it must have been for her father, to take in his dead sister's virtual twin and present her as that very sister whilst still mourning. From what Talia had said, he didn't even know the details of who this doppelgänger was; he'd only known that she was from Silvera and being hunted by its new Lord.

   Layla ran her fingers along the lettering on the gravestone. What might her aunt have been like, if she ever lived to meet her nieces? Would she have been sarcastic and playful like the one who had replaced her? Quiet and reflective like her sister-in-law? Humorous and kind like her brother? She had a sudden urge to know more about her or to met her—just once. But these were both equally impossible. Only her father and grandparents would have known the real Talia well, and they were all dead.

   They stood in silence for a few minutes, until Maia at last rose.

   "Come on," she said to her sister. "We need to visit the others."

   They walked together through rows of graves. Layla caught sight of her grandparents, buried together. Both had died when she was very young and, like her cousins and uncle, she couldn't remember them.

   The pair halted in front of one of the fresher graves. Layla and Maia read the words on the gravestones yet again, although they already knew them by heart.

Vivienne silverian

B.T. Mariee and Maurice silverian.

Loved and raised by Evelyn and Odin Swallow

2389AG — 2435AG

N.H. Midas Swallow, Orion Swallow, Maia Swallow, Layla Elenith

She lived as she died: protecting another.

   Layla's eyes warmed as she traced the familiar words. It was true. Above all, her aunt had been a protector. She had betrayed Layla to save her, and sacrificed herself to save her again. Maia slipped her hand into hers, a tear already falling down her cheek. They sat in silence by the gravestone for a while.

   Beside Talia lay her husband, Midas, and two daughters, Naomi and Elaine. Well, at least what they'd managed to find of them. Parts of Talia's eldest daughter and husband were never recovered from the rubble of the earthquake and they never recovered Elaine's body. Fresh tears swelled at the thought of them, family she had never known. Rightful rulers of Silvera, though they never knew it. This was followed by burning anger; Julian had done this. Broken Talia who was Vivienne before he even killed her.

   "The teleporter will be here soon," Layla said softly. "We need to go see Mum and Dad." She and Maia rose and walked through the graveyard to find the row where Selene and Orion were buried in pride of place.

   Dirt had gathered on the gravestone in the year since they had visited. Layla gently brushed it away, warmth already building up behind her eyes.

Orion Swallow

B.t. Evelyn and Odin Swallow

2385 AG-2430 ag

N.H. Vivienne Silverian, Selene Charlize

'Soul of fire, heart of gold'

   Layla had chosen this epitaph. It was the only thing she could think of, the only thing that felt right. Her father had been fierce, yes, but loving too. He had been kind and compassionate. He had accepted a stranger masquerading as his sister and grown to love her; he had doted on his wife and children, and embraced his brother-in-law, and the children he had with Talia. Orion's heart had been so filled with people, yet he always had room for more.

   Layla turned to see the last gravestone: her mother's.

Selene Charlize

B.t. Isabelle and Carlos Charlize

2380-2340 Ag

N.H. Orion Swallow

'There is beauty in everything, if you look for it.'

  
   Layla gripped Maia's hand tightly as rivers rushed down her cheeks. That had been her mother's favourite quote. The one she had said, jokingly, she wanted on her grave. She had never known that she would be buried sooner, far sooner, than she had ever imagined. By elfin standards, their parents had been little more than twenty-five when they died.

   The first note was instinctual. It slid off her tongue and floated through the air like a butterfly taking flight. Gently, she touched the flower buds gathered around her parents' graves. They slowly stretched, growing and opening up their petals until a little spot of light curled around her mother and father.

   Together, she and her twin rose and left.