|
|
The door burst open, and a hurried woman ran through. She was wearing a light pink robe made of fine silk; it billowed behind her. Her feet were bare and made small tapping noises as they ran along the tiled floor. Her footsteps echoed off the walls and could be heard throughout the entire palace. Tears coursed down her face as she ran toward her daughter’s room.
Up the stairs, she passed large portraits. They contained beautiful images of women, each wearing lush gowns and delicate crowns of gold and jewels. Their names were all similar and each had at one time been a Queen. The running woman turned down a corner and down a hall that was filled with portraits of young, beautiful women, all of them different, and representing different planets. The woman didn’t glance at the pictures as she continued to run. Her vision was blurry from tears, and she was breathing too fast, but she couldn’t stop. She had to reach her daughter’s room.
It was nighttime on Bakura, and the sky was obscured by the sudden rainstorm that had begun. Thunder and lightning raced outside the windows that were being deluged with rain. The wind howled around the intricacies of the palace. The wind, the woman’s sobs and footsteps were the only things audible.
She grabbed her robe to keep from tripping over it as she ascended the staircase that led to her daughter’s room. She could see the massive rain pillars that guarded the double doors to the girl’s room. She threw open the doors to see her daughter sitting on the edge of her bed. Her eyes were red and swollen. The woman, Queen Annika Nesicha, ran to the closet and started rooting through its contents. When she didn’t find what she was looking for, she turned out drawers and boxes. She moved frantically, desperately.
The Queen turned to Ame, her daughter. "Where is it?" she whispered between breaths.
"I-" she began.
"Where is it?!?" the Queen yelled.
"Mother, don’t..."
Annika shook her head; she didn’t know where Ame’s wand was hidden. She felt sick, and her stomach was tied in knots. She dropped her head and whispered, "Please?"
"I can’t."
"Don’t tell me that!" she said, looking at her child. "I know you can! You have to!!"
Ame turned her head away, hiding her fresh tears.
"Please?"
Ame ignored her.
"Please?... Please?" she whispered. She fell to her knees, her hands clasped in front of her. "Please, do this for me... please? He’s all that I have... please?..." She trailed off, sobbing uncontrollably. Ame stood in front of her mother. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her mother, the Queen of Bakura, was on her hands and knees, begging. She watched as her mother curled into a ball and sobbed.
Ame would never understand the depth of pain that her mother was experiencing. She had been sleeping when a sharp pain enveloped her heart, and at that moment she knew Obi-Wan Kenobi was dead. Annika Nesicha was never talented at using the Force, but the power of her love had reached across a galaxy and, in one second, destroyed her life. She woke with the knowledge of what happened. Her daughter was the senshi of Heaven and the Guardian of the Afterlife. She could bring him back to life. But she wouldn’t, and Annika was filled with terrible emotions. She loved her daughter but hated her for refusing to help.
As she kneeled to cradle her mother, Ame was filled with a sense of dread. What if her mother didn’t recover from this? What if her heart was so broken, it could never be repaired? What if the shock of this killed her?
The pink-haired girl helped her mother stand and walked her back to her bedroom. Several of the guards and maids stood with concerned faces. They had heard their Queen’s grief-laden cries echo the palace. They would find out the reason in the morning and have even more sympathy for her.
Ame placed as exhausted Annika into her bed and pulled the blanket around her chin. She waited until she had fallen asleep before crying herself. Then she climbed into bed next to her mother and fell asleep.
