LTSV - Side Stories - 8 - Aurora (Patreon)

Cecily marched straight up into her room after they got home from the park with her head buzzing. Ginger was startled when she came back into the door and nearly slammed the door behind her. 

Her head was in a strange place and had been ever since she watched Penny repeatedly knock Archie and Fergie off their feet. They’d seemed so large and frightening when they first spotted her and Mira on their picnic blanket, but Mira reduced them to a slapstick comedy routine without raising a finger by herself. 

Had she really been scared of those two for so long?

“Ginger, can you help me undress?” she asked breathlessly. 

There had been a feeling growing in her chest, ever since she broke ties with Andrei and today that feeling had started to flower. She’d asked Mira, ‘Why am I always the one who’s cowering?’ and now she was asking herself the same question. Why was she always cowering? She was a first class magician! She had a mana reservoir four times the size of any normal person’s. 

“I’ll teach you to set them on fire,” Mira had said and that was the first time it occurred to her that she could actually do that. 

Ginger helped her out of her walking dress and Cecily took it a few steps further. She stripped down in front of the mirror and looked at herself, fully bare. The bruises were still there. They were fading into an ugly rainbow, but they were still there and whispered their usual reassurance; ‘You didn’t make it up. You’re not overreacting or imagining things. That happened. It could happen again.’

Cecily met her own eyes in the mirror and thought, ‘No, it won’t happen again.’ 

Then she set to work. 

It took a good long while and Ginger had to get her a snack about halfway though, but by the time Cecily was done she’d cleansed her body of any evidence that her former stepfather had ever laid a finger on her. She looked at herself and finally got to see what she looked like when she wasn’t injured somewhere. She had clear skin. She’d gained a little weight, which smoothed out the lines of her hips and ribcage. Her knees, shoulders, and elbows had a kind of cute flush to them, which was probably due to improved circulation. She turned around and realized that she liked her body. It was a good body that served her well and she hardly ever just looked at herself.  

“Ginger, I’d like to change into one of my lighter house dresses,” she said and Ginger brightened up like someone had just told her it was her birthday four months early. She hated Cecily’s overly modest and heavy dresses and was always gently trying to encourage her to wear something more in-season for fear that she’d suffocate in the summer sun. 

“I have just the one in mind!” she chirped and dove into the wardrobe. She came up with one of the delicate cotton lawn dresses that Miss Gordon had persuaded her to buy. 

Cecily had been saving them for when the bruises faded on their own, but now it seemed stupid to wait. The dress had short pin-tucked sleeves and beautiful decorations made of open threadwork that were the height of fashion right now. She put it on and defiantly added the double strand of pearls she’d received from Vesper as a graduation present before turning to Ginger.

“How do I look?”

“Lovely,” Ginger said with a soft smile. “I knew that dress would bring out your hair and eyes. I’m so glad to see you wearing it at last.”

Cecily almost ducked her chin to hide her smile, but thought better of it at the last minute. “I’m going to go show off to my sisters,” she announced. 

“I think they would like that,” Ginger agreed and set about tidying up Cecily's heavier, discarded dress while humming a triumphant little tune to herself.

Vesper and Lord Coventry found her first and gave her the welcome news that the rest of the family had come to town and had invited them to dinner. Finally, she could see Vi! She was elated, perhaps too elated to think very hard about what it meant when Vesper said that Mira would be staying at home. That had sounded a little odd to her, but things had been a little too exciting around Priestly House lately. She could hardly blame Mira for not wanting to test her limits with a bunch of ‘new’ faces during a dinner party. 

Mira was actually looking for her too when Cecily found her downstairs a while later. “Have you heard the news?” she asked when Cecily plopped down onto an ottoman next to her. “That’s a nice dress,” she added. Her gaze lingered on Cecily’s bare, clear arms, but she didn’t say anything. Cecily could still feel her approval like a warm glow. 

“Thank you!” she said, “I was hot when we got home and wanted to change into something cooler. Also, yes, Vesper told me we’ll be dining and Sheppard House tonight. I’m sorry you won’t be able to join us.”

Mira waved her apology off. “It’s just as well that I don’t go,” she sighed and didn’t elaborate. “Rather, I’ve been thinking. You seemed to like my familiar, Penny. Am I correct?”

“Of course I do!” Cecily agreed. She’d adored the little creature on sight and the fact that she could protect Mira was an added benefit. “She’s the sweetest creature.”

“Would you like to learn how to summon your own ghost drake?” Mira asked, to Cecily’s utter shock. “It occurs to me that you need protection too. Most of what you’ve learned at Breckenridge are utility spells, magical theory, and healing. I’d feel much better if you had a drake or two following you around when you’re out visiting or running errands. We’re lucky that Brats One and Two didn’t come across you while you were out before.”

Cecily mouthed the words ‘Brats One and Two’ to herself, but didn’t comment otherwise. She hadn’t been under the impression that Mira liked Archie or Fergie, but she was surprised to hear her languid and refined older sister stoop to giving someone a mean nickname. Actually, Mira had been acting a little differently in general now that she felt better. She seemed more playful. Her humor had more bite to it. It would be interesting to see what kind of person her sister was when she finally had some energy. 

Also, she was right. Cecily had been relying on luck too much lately. She wasn’t a formidable person. Archie and Fergie could have easily forced her into a cab if they’d caught her while she was by herself or just out with Ginger. Honestly, they weren’t above hurting her maid either. It was even odds that they would even consider Ginger a person before they saw her as another one of Cecily’s things that they could break.

That thought sobered her.

“Yes,” she said to Mira. “Yes, I want to learn to summon a ghost drake.”

Mira smiled sadly. “I thought you might, too.” She beckoned to the empty air and Penny materialized to wrap around her mistress like a diaphanous shawl. “Penny, our Cece would like to meet a friend.”

Penny turned to focus on Cecily and her regard felt itchy somehow, like the parts of her that were usually hidden underneath her skin were suddenly on display. Penny unspooled from around Mira’s shoulder and came to wrap herself around Cecily. Bearing in mind Mira’s warning from earlier, Cecily held very still although she trusted Penny to not hurt her.

A tone entered her mind and it imprinted itself into her memory like a stamp. After the initial shock, it actually felt like something she had always known, but had just forgotten until Penny reminded her. Her mouth dropped open without her meaning to and the sound flowed out of her like something caught between a whistle, a song, and a purse emission of mana. That call rippled out from her and then she heard a reply from somewhere far away.

Suddenly, the room was full of ghost drakes that were not Penny. Penny’s coloration was different and her presence had a distinctly different feel. Penny was a stately astral river. These ghost drakes felt like effervescent rainbows. All except one of them vanished, a Penny-sized drake that was floating nose-to-nose with her. 

“Can you feel her name?” Mira asked. She’d crossed her legs and had her chin propped up on the heel of her hand with her elbow resting on her knee. There was a wistful look on her face when she asked.

“Aurora,” Cecily blurted out. Again, the name just burst forth from her like information she already knew. She looked at the ghost drake, who preened and cartwheeled in excitement. “Your name is Aurora.”

“She’ll be able to find you anywhere in the world now,” Mira said as Aurora started investigating the room, pausing to tussle with Penny. “She has a lot of abilities, which I’ll teach you about as you get comfortable with her. For now, she’ll slap the audacity out of the next person to insult you.”

Cecily threw herself into her sister’s arms. “Thank you!” she gasped. Her heart felt like it was overflowing, which might well have been a consequence of summoning Aurora. She’d been feeling strange heightened emotions this whole time, but she didn’t think her joy and gratitude were inappropriate so she didn’t try to restrain herself. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

She hadn’t known at the time just how much of a prophecy it would become when Mira has said that Aurora would slap the audacity out of Cecily’s enemies, but Cecily wouldn’t give Aurora up for anything—not even after she attacked Viola’s mother in her own house, but that’s another story.

-Fin | Cecily Side Story 8