Chapter 34 Trying to understand
Celestine had been sitting on the chair by her bedside since she woke, she could not find it in herself to leave after being separated for seventeen years with her daughter. Her body was weak from inactivity, Arielle had helped energize her using her magical essence after Angela collapsed on the floor in a heap, and Celestine could not help her. She had tried to stand to go to her but she collapsed in a heap on the floor as well; her legs were still dead and had no strength yet to hold any weight. She had tried to shout for help but only a squeak came out from her mouth; her voice box was out of practice as well. She decided to try to pull herself towards the place where Angela lay in a heap and that was when Arielle had appeared to check on them.
Arielle rushed towards Angela but stopped midway when she realized that Celestine was awake too, she looked from the woman to the girl unsure whom she should go to first but Celestine decided for her when she pointed at Angela. Arielle rushed to Angela, picked her up with difficulty, and lay her on the bed that Celestine previously occupied. She was about to pass her hands through her body to magically check what ailed her but Celestine shook her head and spoke in a feeble, raspy voice.
"She is okay, she needs to rest, and everything will be fine"
"What happened here, are you both okay?"
Arielle asked worried that someone might have been responsible for the situation she found mother and daughter in.
"No one attacked us," Celestine allayed her fears, her gift of reading, minds coming forth as naturally as it did seventeen years ago.
Arielle went to where Celestine was after making sure that Angela comfortably laid on the bed, looking at her she worried that she might hurt her if she attempted to pick her from the floor by herself. She bowed before Celestine and requested to fetch one other coven witch to help lift her from where she lay.
"Allow me your highness to fetch one of my sisters to help," she said.
"That's okay Arielle; actually I'm worried I may have hit my hip against the floor that it may be broken."
"Nothing is broken; I should be able to sense a broken bone. You are feeling heightened pain because your body has had seventeen years to hibernate," she calmly explained to Celestine.
"Oh thank the gods that I am okay, I thirst though and would want to have a warm bath and a change of clothes," she said conscious of her appearance even after all the years she spent in the dreamscape.
" Just a moment, Arielle said and left hurriedly heading towards one of the cottages where most of the sisters spent most of their time researching on new herbs, potions, and concoctions.
The day turned out to be one full of flurry activities, there was an excitement that spread out throughout the Coven that their Princess Celestine was finally awake and well. They all clambered to come see her but Arielle asked them to leave her so that she could rest. They were excited to see her awake and well because this was a mark that something new and powerful was just about to happen and it would: mark an end and usher in a new beginning.
Celestine was their beloved princess; it was a sad seventeen years for those that knew of her and her kindness, compassion, protection, and love. The people in the kingdom loved her and were saddened by the loss of her mate and the kidnapping of her daughter two years later.
Calamity had hit doubly and they all understood when she could not bear the loss of her daughter and decided to banish herself in the dreamscape where she could live detached from the harsh reality.
Arielle had come back with two other women who helped pick her from where she was, they had wanted to take her to a separate bedchamber but she had insisted that she would stay with her daughter. They helped her up and lay her on a promptly made bed where one woman with long black hair and a milky white skin massaged her limbs with herbs and oils bringing them back to life. A hot bath was prepared for her where she soaked until the water became tepid but she had felt rejuvenated. Celestine changed into a blue gown that the sisters had brought to her, it fit perfectly as if it was custom made to fit her slender body. She could now walk but only with the help of someone she could lean on, her legs had not yet regained their full strength.
She sat looking at Angela, she had features of Liam, but she mostly took after Celestine. Taking her hand in hers, Celestine looked into the memories of her daughter, she laughed and cried both at the same time when she came face to face with the kind of life she had lived. She felt proud of how much alike they turned out to be, her little Kharisi had the heart of a warrior, compassion of an angel, temper of a wrathful god and the naivety of a child. Celestine cried with pain when she saw in her memories the many times Angela longed to have a mother but never even once made it known to Carita Bennett, the only person she had at the time. Angela groaned in her sleep, she seemed restless and uneasy but fell into a deep slumber once again. As she sat there, someone knocked on the door.
"Enter." she said.
A young girl that had been introduced as Arielle's youngest daughter poked her head into the chamber and told Celestine that she had a visitor. Before she could wonder any more, the door was pushed open and in walked a sight Celestine had longed to see.
"No way," she exclaimed.
"Yes way," he replied as he went to her and took her in his arms, lifting her up from the seat she was on and twirling her round and round in joy. Seventeen years they had not laid an eye on each other, before that they had been inseparable but they had been forced to separate. Celestine was crying tears of joy while Zander kept wiping them from her face with his fingers.
After the initial excitement and banter of seeing each other subsided, Zander sat down and looked towards Angela. He looked at Celestine who already knew what he was just about to ask, she shook her head and told him that she was okay.
"But why does she look unconscious?"
Zander asked feeling so protective of Angela more than ever before.
Celestine looked at him and smiled with understanding, she felt regretful when she realized what it would take him to realize who he was. She looked at her daughter and felt a most familiar pain that refused to disappear even after all these years. Liam was a source of pain, joy, love, hatred, anger, and patience all at the same time. She longed to feel complete again but that did not seem to be in her fate because all she felt was pain and loneliness.
Even in the dreamscape, she had felt alone, no matter what she could not bring herself to forget the love of her life. Liam had made her whole, he was her world, and when he died that world came tumbling down.
She remembered the words of the goddess, why would Angela's father, a man who was dead, be a guiding light to her. Could it be his memory would serve to inspire her to fight for good? Nothing seemed as it was, what did she mean when she said that? It was too confusing for her especially now that her mind was already weak and she tired easily.
"She just used a lot of magic, more than her body has ever handled to recall me back into this realm and to host a celestial being," she said to Zander while looking sadly at her daughter. She wanted to shield her from anything that would be considered painful but she knew very well that was not how life worked. Everyone had their own fates written on the palms of their hands when they were born and there was nothing, anyone could do to change that.
"I worry about her, she looks so frail," Celestine made her concerns known to Zander.
"Don't let her looks fool you, she is a strong girl, one I would not want to mess with but a very stubborn and set in her own ways kind of girl. She is a fresh breath of life," he said holding Angela's hand.
Celestine did not say a word as she observed Zander, he did seem to have an interest in her daughter, yet he masked it so well that she could not see it in his mind.
"What would you want to hide from me Zander, I sense you have something you do not want me to find in your mind hence the wall," she asked.
Zander did not reply to Celestine's question immediately, he did not want to hide anything from her but he did not know what it was he was hiding from her as well. Try as he could, he could not find the right words to communicate what was in his heart. Zander did not understand his feelings and if Zane's recent change of behavior towards Angela was anything to go by, he would have been the first to tell Celestine that he wanted to claim her daughter.
Celestine continued to watch him as he sifted through his thoughts, the boy had no idea what had hit him and was going bonkers trying to make sense of everything, but he was failing miserably. She pitied him; after all, he had to make the discovery all by himself.
"Do not crack your head trying to understand, let it come to you naturally and in its own time. I promise you, that when it does come, you shall be thankful that nobody helped you arrive at that destination," Celestine told him as she stretched her hand towards him.
He took it and gave up trying to Understand.