Redhawk Caldera Sister

In loving memory of all the good and great things that Wraen and @Maia went through together! :)

“Sister. She is your mirror, shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best, and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark. She is your teacher, your defense attorney, your personal press agent, even your shrink. Some days, she's the reason you wish you were an only child.”

Quote by Barbara Alpert"

Wraen had wished to see and talk to Maia ever since she had been allowed to walk this Earth again. The longing for her sibling absent in her afterlife, grew stronger with every passing day, and yet she hesitated to seek her out. In part it was guilt for dying at a time, when it should have been one of Maia's happiest. Very much in love, married, settled and children on the way. The devastation must have been horrible and Wraen wished she could have spared that suffering, had it been in her power to change the fate. Look however you will - she would have still passed away and Maia would be mourning. And just maybe it was better the way things had happened, because Maia had not witnessed Wraen wasting away, a soul trapped in a collapsing shell, unable to break free.

Of all the people Wraen had wished to meet the most, Maia had been at the very top of the list, and yet even after days spent in Brecheliant, watching the new inhabitants of the Enchanted forest live out their days, she had not attempted to make her presence known. Not for the lack of trying, rather the moment never felt right to do so. She often asked herself: Why the hesitation now? Why was she unwilling to approach on of her favourite people in the world? After all that they had gone through together. After all the stories told. All the jokes and gentle teasings swapped. All the heartfelt conversations. And the comfortable silence between them, when you needed no words to just feel good in each other's company. The longer Wraen wandered the labyrinth of memories, the more she perceived, how very lonely her existence was. 

On the day of her dying she had thought she had chosen an afterlife of her making. Her own pocket of universe. Not a bad place to be after very busy years. Filled with all the good she could remember about her life. Always surrounded in warm golden glow of the autumn evening she had loved so much. Happy and peaceful. A place, where sorrows and woes of the real world were so far away that they did not exist. You were forever content. Nothing evil ever breached the place she had built. There were even some family members of hers too - just the way she had seen them last. Sarah - tall and proud, but with a hint of good humour in her steel-grey eyes. Osprey - cheerful and healthy. And Elfie - a boisterous teenager. She had thought them real and had never doubted their existence, until she had been brought back.

In this world full of contrasts. Where it is so much easier to do bad than good. Where you can easily lose faith in the good in people and fall in despair. Where there was no just force other than death that treated everyone equally. Where people still fought on day after day despite the belief of some that there was no point. Where they felt the whole spectrum of emotions. Where they were irrational, made silly mistakes, did stupid things, blundered and yet had the capacity to laugh at it all at the end of the day. Where love and happiness made your soul sing and where the absence of them threw you in the deepest abyss. Where you in the presence of great horrors could lose any illusions about a just world order. And where you also saw regular people doing small, but necessary deeds. Where you learned that the god did not live in the sky or in a paralell reality. Where you found out that it lives in every person. 

In this absurd, but - oh, so colourful world - that little paradise of Wraen's was a weak reflection of, what life actually was. Invisible and quiet she followed Maia on her daily routine and tried to pick up just enough so that she could imagine, what it would be like to walk besides her and share this world again. She observed her loving relationship with Eljay and envied her just a little, because as a ghost she no longer could have this. She watched her teach her young and share them stories. Some of which they had swapped on many long evenings, when they had lied side by side. She thought of, how they had had arguments about completely imagined things. And even further back - her as a yearling and Maia as a toddler, playing Adventures. It was sad to longer be part of it. That the time for Adventures had passed for Wraen and she no longer knew, what should she hope or plan for next. 

During life Maia had been the one to ask Wraen for an advice more often than the other way round and she had been happy to step in the shoes of that older and wiser sibling. To be home for her younger sister. A place to always soothe the hurts, to hear an encouraging word at times of confusion and upset. Wraen had loved so much to see the cheerfulness return to her sister's features and know that she had been able to do that. She had always thought that Maia's genuine smile and unbridled joy for living were the most beautiful things about her, though - all things considered - she had never been anything less than perfect. A loyal and trustworthy companion, a life-long friend. The only thing Wraen regretted was not saying this to her more often. Perhaps, she had, but even now it felt one time too few.

Their paths had diverged almost three years ago, when Wraen had begun a journey, where Maia could not follow her. And after being a witness of her life here, Wraen had realized that her sister had moved on, while she had unknowingly refused to do so. That paradise of hers was her last attempt to keep at least some kind of connection to the life lost. She thought she had been at peace, when dying, and it turned that it was far from true. She had continued to live a shadow of a life with cherry-picked details somewhere perfect and not been aware of it. Her imagination had created a cocoon in the fabric of universe and had remained just because a part of her had refused to let go. She knew now that showing herself to Maia would do her sister no favours. That instead of joy of seeing Wraen again, the carefully rebuilt life after her loss would be shaken to the core. Maia could not help her solve the riddle of the life after death. 

Wraen would have to do this on her own. 

In the last days of November Wraen felt herself gradually fading away. The time was near for her to return to very uncertain future. No longer her pocket of universe. After spending time here, she no longer could. It was just another memory. The knowledge that this was probably the very last time she saw Maia, made Wraen's heart fill with sadness. Silent tears were rolling down her cheeks, as she settled down next to one of her children, while their mom told them a story. Wherever Wraen would end up next, if everything else was lost, she hoped to keep this moment.

The evening. The story. The feeling of home.