Eliz's soul drifted aimlessly, an invisible force tugging her downwards with every breath she took.
The stillness of the night was shattered only by the faint chorus of stars singing around her, a haunting melody that seemed to beckon her to surrender to the void.
An eternity seemed to pass as she hovered in this lost and lonely darkness.
Through the blanket of inky blackness,
Pandora, a Celeste, noticed a single glimmering blue sphere descending from above.
"Another soul? They never seem to cease," she remarked.
Orion, her fellow Celeste, chuckled softly as he inquired,
"Name and cause of death?"
With a touch of sadness in her voice, Pandora replied, "Name's Eliz Brooks. She fell off a roof and hit a nearby tree."
"She also prayed to never to be born again" Pandora added
Orion's ears perked up at the mention of her name, and a wave of sorrow washed over him. He gently raised his hands towards the glowing orb.
"I'll attend to it swiftly," Orion said with a soft smile, but Pandora merely hissed in response, her attention fixed on her own duties.
His fingertips radiated an unearthly light that encircled the blue orb before him as he put it on a stream of stars.
The shimmering blue orb grew brighter as it descended, drawing a thousand tiny stars around it like moths to a flame.
As if magnetized to its core, they swarmed closer until finally devouring it completely.
"It's done," Orion breathed, his eyes still searching for other lost soul orbs that lingered in the cosmos.
Pandora turned her gaze in the direction of his voice, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"Where did you put the orb?" Her voice quivered with apprehension.
Orion remained motionless, his eyes fixed on a distant sphere of light, as if feigning ignorance.
"The Psychoastellum," he finally replied, his tone resolute. "So that its spirit can ascend to twinkle among the heavens and keep watch over its loved ones." With that, he swiftly moved towards another descending orb.
Pandora's head tilted in confusion, her eyes narrowing as she peered at Orion. The Psychoastellum wasn't here; it belonged in the other sanctum room.
"You didn't place it in the time stream, did you?" Her gaze swept across the ever-shifting hues of the space-time continuum stream, where the orb had just vanished.
The realization slowly dawned on Pandora, her eyes widening as she understood what had transpired. Frustration bubbled within her, and she unleashed her anger, fists pounding against the sanctum's walls as the stars quivered in response to her fury.
"You blundering oaf! How could you be so careless? You've neglected to fulfill its final wish!"
He shifted uneasily on his feet, a sheepish expression etched across his face. He nervously rubbed the back of his neck, his words stumbling out in a barely audible mumble beneath the onslaught of her furious rage.
"We... we could still take action," he stammered, the hope in his voice struggling to break through her anger. "We could... seek help from the other celestes."
Pandora's reaction was immediate, her sneer filled with incredulity. "You think this task is so simple, don't you?" Her words dripped with disdain. "I suggest you try it yourself then!"
With one final scowl, she pivoted on her heel and stormed out of the sanctum, leaving him to contemplate the consequences of his actions.
"I hate being the one to take the blame every time I do this," he muttered with a heavy sigh as he resumed his duties.
=============================================================
Vela jolted awake with a gasp, her heart racing as she tried to remember what had happened. With dread, she called out for Alvis, but all that echoed back was the faint sound of her own voice.
Just as began to drift back to drowsiness once more, Vela heard a soft whisper,
"Miss… Are you finally, okay?"
The voice sent a chill down her spine, and although she wanted to cry out in despair, some small part of her felt relieved.
Vela stirred awake; her vision blurred by a darkness. Fear and confusion surged through her body as the voice kept calling out to her.
"Who's there" Vela called out into the darkness, asking who was there.
"Miss, you're finally awake," came the reply.
She reached up to feel a silky material wrapped around her head like a bandage. With each breath, she wondered if she had made it out alive—the uncertainty eating away at her as she contemplated what would be waiting for her in the darkness.
As her hands trembled, she slowly undid the tight bandages that had been covering her eyes.
With each slip of cloth, a faint glimmer of light began to creep in until she had taken off everything.
She slowly opened her eyes, finding herself in a room with ivory walls that stretched up to the high, vaulted ceiling and a regal chandelier with sparkling diamonds dripping from its gold arms.
Heavy curtains depicting ornate symbols hung from the large windows, creating the royal feeling of a castle chamber.
Their beauty mesmerizing her for only a moment before Vela's gaze fell upon the small figure standing before her.
The girl standing before her seemed to quiver in fear, her vibrant red hair hidden beneath the stark white mob cap.
The starched apron and petticoats of the black-and-white maid uniform further reinforced the sense of unease, as did the delicate lace gloves that adorned her hands and wrist; everything just felt out of place.
Vela's gaze was icy and unblinking.
A chill ran down the maid's spine as Vela continued to inspect her, taking in more details of the room: an ancient four-poster bed with velvet cushions stocked at each side, a wooden wardrobe overflowing with cloaks and gowns, and right in front of her would probably be a cosplayer.
"What's going on" She murmured.
"Miss, your horse fell off a steep hill when you went horse riding with his royal highness" The maid answered quickly.
"Horse, Royal highness?" Vela repeated her words blankly.
"no….That bitch pushed me off the school roof" her head ached as she tried to recall what happened.
Her confusion in the situation was almost palpable. She could hardly understand what was going on.
She cautiously leaned forward her head throbbing with pain, her eyes darting over her body covered in thick blankets.
A wayward lock of hair then spilled across her forehead, and she flipped it away, feeling its unfamiliar texture.
Vela pulled her hair back. Her widened gaze locked onto the strange hue of her own hair.
"Pink?!!"
In a burst of fury, she whipped around, desperately searching for a mirror to confirm what she already knew -every strand of her hair was now pink.
Vela couldn't believe that those people one would call family would stoop so low as to play a cruel prank even though she was lying on her deathbed.
She attempted to push down her anger and frustration in order to continue her search for the mirror, but it seemed like an impossible task.
"Where is the damn mirror?!?" she shouted at the maid as she felt helpless and enraged all at once.
The maid's eyes widened as she lifted her trembling finger and pointed towards the white cloth-covered stand.
"Miss, please calm down," she said softly,
"Calm down? Why don't you fuck off" Vela sneered in her direction.
Breaking into hysterics, Vela yanked away the fabric to unveil a glossy-looking glass beneath.
The sight filled her with an overwhelming sense of dread as a loud cackle escaped from her throat, quickly escalating into maniacal laughter that echoed throughout the room.
The maid could only back away slowly in baffled confusion and fear.
Vela's fists were clenched so hard that pain surged through her fingers as every muscle in her body stiffened.
Her desperation was swelling inside her, radiating out of her as she desperately tried to hold back the tears threatening to flood her eyes.
All her focus shifted to the maid silently standing in the corner of the room. Vela exhaled deeply before begging, her voice coarse and filled with pain.
"How far did they go to make me not resemble my mother? I should have died—so why keep me alive? Why bother with contact lenses for a dying person?!"
Her hands trembled uncontrollably as she reached up and clawed at her face in an attempt to push away the lenses, nearly blinding herself from the pressure--but nothing worked. Each second brought more frustration and brokenness.
Vela's shout of anger reverberated through the chamber as her clenched fist crashed through the mirror, sending cascading shards of glass to the ground with a deafening crash.
frustration, and despair coursed through Vela's veins as the shards of broken glass crunched beneath her bare feet.
Her face contorted in anguish, and she reached down to pick up a shard of glass, ready to end her life.
But at that moment, a soft voice spoke up from behind her, it was the maid.
The maid froze in shock at the scene before her.
With Vela's fist still clenched, shards of broken glass had embedded themselves into her skin as blood trickled down her fists unto the floor.
Tears sprang to the maid's eyes as she whispered softly, "lady vela, please stop…."
The realization hit Vela like a wave that the reflection staring back at her from the shattered mirror wasn't that of Eliz Brooks but Lady Vela von Kaylon.