Hushed Willows be my baby

✹☾❂

 
In the moments in between words and thoughts, Eleuthera felt time widen and she used this time to observe Lumiya more closely. Who was this Fairy Queen who now lived amongst the willows. Eleuthera hadn’t any reason to believe that she was anything other than entirely pleasant. She was beautiful, the lilac woman subtly acknowledged, and had a gentle mien to her that resonated deeply of home. It was unlikely that this woman led a pack of heathens and hellhounds. Perhaps they had even been drawn here because the magic of this place, much as her mothers and Lily had all those years ago.

In the moments where Leu was not making these observations, she was listening to Lumiya share the details of who had come calling upon the Hushed Willows. At first it didn’t register with her — Minnow who? Must have been from the litters that came the year after she and Séamus and Okeanos and…. Ibis! The grin that melted across Eleuthera’s lips could not be contained.

”Ibis? She’s my sister!”” she intimated, closing her lavender-hued eyes for a moment to revel in memories as they washed over her. Even to hear Ibis’s name, amongst a vast sea of infinite wolves and infinite names, gave Eleuthera the sudden experience of profound peace. She felt closer to family — home — than she had in a long time. They existed. They hadn’t been erased entirely.

Eleuthera hauled in a cleansing breath and opened her eyes, gratitude heavy on her eyelids. Even if she never saw Ibis again, to know that she had been here, to be with the willows and remember their mothers… it was a gift in and of itself. she would not squander the moment by focusing on the fact that she was no longer here. She would seek Ibis later, but now she resigned to steep in the glory of such news. Eleuthera gathered herself and regarded Lumiya.

”I’m Eleuthera,” she finally shared. ”Can you tell me more about your Faeries? When did you and your family move in?” The last time Eleuthera had been in these lands in early winter, the willows lay unclaimed and healing.