Chapter Thirty-two
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Peaceful Place
When Cinder woke, it was inside her own tent at the refugee camp. Though the only way she knew this was the memory of being asked to port everyone here, when she had not even had the strength to open her eyes, and passed out soon after.
When she opened her eyes, it was just as dark as when they were closed.
She sat up shakily in the canvas cot, blinking vigorously, hands reaching out for nothing.
“I…I can’t see…”
“Cinder?!” Orphenn grabbed her hand after rushing to her from the other side of the tent. “Oh God…”
“Orphenn.” She said, relieved, already placid, as if the loss of her sight was as trivial as a paper cut. “I’m blind.”
“Damnit! Cinder! I’m so sorry!” She heard him sob, felt him press his cheek to the back of her hand. “I feel horrible!”
“Orphenn.” She said firmly. “I’d rather be blind than dead.”
She couldn’t see his grateful smile, but she held is hand tightly.
“Princess Cinderella!” Came Sven’s unmistakable rumble. “You’ve awakened!” He paused. “Aw, damn, kiddo. You’ve gotten so…White.”
It was true. The others came to see her, and marveled at the difference. Cira had seen even detail accurately.
“You were white after the light faded, but I didn’t think it would stick…”
This woman, who from the first day had always worn nothing but black…It was hard to imagine her in anything else, and astonishing to see it.
Now her hair was whiter than Xeila’s, bleached by Orphenn’s light, just like her eyelashes, and, sadly, her eyes. Her pupils could still be seen-right slitted, left split-but even they were clouded with white, her irises almost transparent. The only extra clothing they could find for her was a spare infirmary gown, also white.
Ironically, she was quite a sight.
“Even you’re skin is twice as white!” Xeila joked. “I didn’t think that was possible!”
After a bout of laughter, Wynne chimed, “I think she’s twice as beautiful.”
Cinder smiled in the direction of his voice. “I have to go back…” She said reluctantly.
“What? No.”
“I have to see her.” She insisted. “Just to see.”
No amount of disapproval could stop her, either.
Cira had come to inside the smothering darkness, and realized that this is where she would die.
She was forever, completely, utterly alone.
Just as she had this thought, a soft, white light appeared, warming her skin, and through to the bone. It started as a little firefly, then blossomed out, and became a woman. The woman did not look at her. She stood out against the darkness so harshly, and she even had a subtle glow, like a goddess of moonlight.
“Cinder?”
The woman answered by following the voice and kneeling beside her. Now it didn’t matter how long she stayed between. No darkness could touch her.
“Cira.” She laid a tender white hand on Cira’s forehead. “I can take you back.” She said without preamble, pleading. “You can be my sister again.” Cira’s chin quivered and a little whimper escaped her throat. “Come back to the light. You don’t have to be alone anymore.”
“Neither do you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not your sister.”
“What are you talking about, you will always be my sister!” Her hands clamped around Cira’s.
They both cried, tears of unbelievable grief.
“You’ll never be alone.” Cira said. “In my vision. You will always be surrounded by people that love you. Forever.”
“What are you saying?”
“If I was meant to come back…I would have seen it.” Cinder heard Cira’s other hand searching for something, find it and grasp it, metal clinking. The device. “In my vision…I wasn’t there.”
“No, Cira! Please! You don’t have to do this!” Cinder tried to hinder her in any way as she clipped the metal thing around her own neck, but everything is harder when you’re blind. “We can change all that! We can change it together! I’ve already lost one sister, Cira!”
“It will be better this way. I promise.”
Those were Cira’s last words.
The device drained her of everything, starting with her mutations, moving on to her body heat, and finishing with her heartbeat.
The Lady of Light mourned inside the darkness until she felt her heart would decay, and her tears would fill a lake.
Cinder carried the body of her sister to the River. Her eight companions followed behind, and behind them a procession of all the camp refugees, Nero at its front.
When she reached the River’s bank, she said not a word. No one did.
Cinder stepped into the water and waded through it until it soaked up to her hips. Remarkable, that she found her way without her sight, as if someone was leading her, as well.
Its warmth and its sparkling colors twinkled and twirled around her, knowing her, remembering her, welcoming her. Silent tears mingled with it, like a quiet, sad hello.
Cinder felt one last time the face of the Cira she’d always known, kissed her forehead, held her tightly.
Then she let the water take her.
Like it had for Oriana and Celina before her, the River cradled Cira, lifted her into the air to face the sun, its light glittering through the ripples.
Something amazing happened then.
Before the water rained back down, it formed two shapes beneath Cira’s upraised pyre, two figures like water sprites, river spirits. They were forms of two women, and they held hands and danced, their bodies waving and dripping across the surface.
Cinder could not see it, but still, she knew, and let out a surprised sob.
The forms were embodiments of the last two to perish in this River.
They spun and circled around Cinder and took her hands, and she joined the dance.
She cried and blubbered, and they lifted away, Cinder’s hands reaching blindly up for them as they ascended.
Celina and Oriana held Cira, cherished her. They sustained her spirit, lifted her soul. They helped her to her peaceful place.
Still reaching up, Cinder closed her eyes, and felt the water rain back down.
That night Cinder could not sleep. Her stale cot held no comfort, her humid tent no shelter.
That night Wynne had come to her, and that night he kneeled beside her cot.
That night he kissed her.
He sprinkled, like sugar from his fingers, kind, glittering sand about her head. Floating down, it sparkled on her skin and hair like diamond dust. Her eyes closed.
That night she slept.
Recovery from such war and such loss would not come quickly. But restoration would have to. The people of Denoras could only live in tents for so long.
The time had come to go to the ruins to sum up the damage and make plans for rebuilding.
The White Herons all had gone to the destroyed capital, plus Wynne, Dacian, and Ira, and even young Nero came along by request of Lady Cinder, who had finally accepted the role of Supreme Commander. She wore Celina’s coronet with unhidden pride.
They traipsed about the center of the ravaged city.
“I would like a new monument to be sculpted as well, to be outside of the front of the palace, like it was before…” Cinder listed off her desires for renovation and renewal, merely from her memory of the ruins, while Wynne took notes and Nero led her by the arm.
The sun started to dip behind the mountains, turning the clouds orange and lavender.
A ray of sunlight lingered at the spot where the angel monument had been, and they watched it curiously, all but Cinder, who could only feel its warmth.
Then the sun gave a sudden flash, and she was there, as big as the monument used to be, more beautiful than the new one would ever become.
Orphenn marveled, awestruck and staring in wonder, as did the rest of them, like a matched set. In disbelief, he said, “Mother Sun.”
“I am here.” Said she.
She looked just as she had in Celina’s Dreamfast, like a spirit of the sun, celestial and brilliant among the ashes. “I have watched your journey, Cinder Avari, of Earth.” Her voice was like honey and molasses, like the wind and the rain.
“Yes, Mother?” Cinder acknowledged reverently.
“You are the only sister left alive, my child. I have mourned for your losses. Had the other two lived, I would have given the three of you my intended gift, as reward. The gifts I bestowed when first we met were given to save my daughter Earth, and that you did. Now you have not only bettered the world you left, but also brought peace to this one, twice.
“But alas, I am at a loss now as to your reward.”
For a breathtaking moment, she paused in thought.
“Oh, Cinder. You are immortal.” She recalled. “But how are you to rule this world peacefully, forever, without your loved ones beside you?”
Cinder took a deep breath, and sighed. She had been thinking the very same thing.
“When the sun sets, all of you will be blessed with immortality.”
A collective gasp rose from the group, all their faces changing simultaneously.
“The nine of you will have each other here for the rest of eternity. That is my gift, it is your reward.
“Ah, but Cinder…” Added Mother Sun, “However will you rule your people if you cannot see them?”
The colossal being took one step, and just that quickly had shrunk to average womanly size, waving hair floating weightlessly around her. She held Cinder’s shoulders. Two maidens of light, brought so close.
Mother Sun kissed Cinder’s forehead. She felt like she’d be warm forever.
Then the sun set.
And Cinder could see it.
She let fall tears of joy.