Asuriel looked around Elara's room with a heavy heart. Everything in the bedroom was as her mother had left it, including the disheveled, unmade bed Asuriel was sitting on. It wasn't even twenty-four hours ago that Elara had occupied the space.
"It can't be real," Asuriel muttered, looking down at her shaking hands. She grasped her mother's amulet tightly between her fingers. "It happened too fast…"
The shining silver chain sparkled in the afternoon light, and at the end of the chain was a moonstone pendant. Asuriel couldn't remember a single time that her mother wasn't wearing it, so the fact it was in her hands now was even more evidence that she wasn't alive anymore.
Asuriel's shoulders shuddered weakly as she fought off another wave of sobs threatening to overtake her. She stood up and resumed doing what she had gone into the room to do – sort a few things and grab any emotionally valuable keepsakes.
