The Lore Wain and Her Nephew Pt. 8

The trip home was in uncomfortable silence.

Celeste burned with anger because of Ramger's behavior towards her friends. The worst part is that she was angry with the fact there was some truth to what Ramger said. It was true that the people would look down on her because of her crew and a lot of people already did. Celeste knew that continuing to be associated with her friends may land her in dire straits with the Kingdom as a whole. Since she couldn't bare the thought of never seeing her crew again, she decided to distance herself... At least for now.

Ramger kept his mouth shut because he could cut the tension in the air with a knife. He knew that Celeste would only despise him more if he spoke any more words about those ruffians.

Once back in the palace, Celeste went her own way, kindly ignoring Ramger's presence with her. She didn't want to speak with him and honestly, she wanted to isolate herself from all the others in the palace. As a result, Ramger went his own way as well.

Echo whined from inside his sling. He appeared to be tired of being carried because he was stretching out and fussing with the fabric.

Celeste understood this and shushed him, "It's okay, Echo... I can let you have some floor time in your room." She reassured him before heading towards his room.

As she was walking through the halls, she overheard a conversation from some of the palace staff.

"Did you hear that there was a ridgerunner in the castle earlier today?" A guard asked another.

"I know! I saw the creature with my own eyes. Did you know they're from the Killridge Mountains? That's close to the famous Fangs of Dang!"

"Do you think that it was here to inform on us to the Fangs?"

"I certainly hope not. Our Kingdom has had enough tragedy over the past few years..."

"What do you think about the Lore Wain, Celeste?"

"She's suspicious to me. Why would she bring such a disloyal creature into our castle? Especially after her own siblings were killed? Seems disrespectful to me. Did you know she used to travel with a band of-"

Two guards ceased chattering when they saw Celeste coming, they hushed their speech and acted like they didn't see her.

Celeste briefly paused by the guards, giving them both a glance of annoyance before continuing on to the room.

The guards went on gossiping once Celeste entered the room.

Once inside Echo's room, Celeste stopped in the door way. As she looked at the royal bed, she thought of her older sister getting ready for her wedding day. She pictured Elanora sitting there on the edge of the bed as she got her hair braided with flowers just hours before the ceremony. It was only two years ago that her sister got married but to Celeste, that day felt so far away.

"She was so happy to marry Lebon..." Celeste murmured to herself in thought.

Lebon, who was Elanora's husband, had also been present upon the storm of the palace. He was with Echo at the time of the break in and made the wise decision to guard the hallway to the room his son resting was in. Unfortunately, he met his end defending him. However, he made sure no one got to Echo with his last breath.

Celeste sighed a shuddered breath with these memories flooding her mind.

Echo started to whine again, seeing that Celeste had stopped walking towards his desired destination. He desperately wanted to get out of the sling to stretch.

Celeste quickly took a deep breath and took Echo out of the sling and gently set him on the rug on his back.

Echo wiggled around, seeming much happier to be free. He was grinning once again.

She looked at him a moment before sitting beside him on the floor. Celeste would be happy too if she could be. To her, too many things have happened for her to feel even the slightest bit content. Now that she felt she was alone, she started to cry freely.

Echo watched his aunt with no understanding as to why she was upset. He was so young, he couldn't make out what had happened to his parents. As far as his baby brain knew, Aunt Celeste was babysitting him and she was crying.

Celeste noticed Echo watching her and she covered her face with her hands. "I'm... I'm so... so sorry, Echo..." She blubbered. Celeste wasn't apologizing for crying, no, she was apologizing for not being there to help her family when they needed it most. To some extent, she blamed herself for what happened.

Echo started to whimper again upon hearing his aunt cry. He reached his arms up towards her and scrunched and unscrunched his hands repeatedly.

Celeste looked back at her nephew with a shaky breath and saw he wanted her to pick him up again. She gently scooped him up into her arms and hugged him on her shoulder.

Echo laid his head on Celeste's shoulder and continued whimpering.

"I'd be crying too if I had a rug that ugly..." The voice gently teased from the room's balcony entrance.

Celeste quickly looked to see Clef, who had somehow snuck into the palace undetected. She looked angry a moment, knowing how much trouble he could of and could still get into for being there. "C-Clef." She tried to say sternly through her tears but it simply came out as a stutter.

His expression was tender towards Celeste, seeing her in need of a friend. "Hey..." Clef slowly walked over and sat on the floor beside her.

When Celeste first met Clef, it was after she had made her first public appearance as Lore Wain to the people of Dugtown. She told the story of the beginning of Aerwiar and of Dwayne and Gladys, a familiar story most people knew. However, a lot of people living there hadn't heard of it before and their reaction... was less the ideal. A heckler roused the crowd into a mob, causing Celeste to have to flee. If it hadn't been for Clef pulling her into a hidden alley, she could of been killed that day. He became the first of her crew to join her on adventures.

"Y-You need to leave, C-Clef." Celeste stuttered out. "It's not safe for you here..."

"You need someone with you right now. You don't have a lot of people left besides us, Celeste..." Clef said gently, not trying to further upset her. "Please, just let me stay a few moments, then I'll leave."

Celeste's bottom lip quivered and she nodded to him in approval of him staying. She knew he was right but worried about what would happen if people saw he was there... Let alone what it would mean for her as well.

Clef scooted closer to her and gave her a side hug, being careful of Echo in her arms.

She sniffled as she managed to quiet her crying.

"Hey... Do you remember when we travelled to the Killridge Mountains and found Zarabean?" Clef asked with a smile on his face.

Celeste smiled softly at the thought, "He wouldn't stop following me around because I had a plum yum before coming off the ship. He could smell it on my breath."

"And he wasn't the only one, remember?" Clef snickered, "If it weren't for Zarabean, the other ridgerunners would of gotten rowdy and stolen all our supplies."

"Yeah..." She snickered, "He was obsessed with fruit back then... I mean, he's still obsessed with fruit, just less so."

Clef laughed at Celeste's wording, "I wonder how he was able to do that. The other ridgerunners were so... crazy." He paused a moment before continuing, seeing that revisiting happy memories was helping Celeste cheer up, "Remember when he spoke in third person *all* the time?"

Celeste nodded, "Yes... I wonder why he did it... still does it. The other ridgerunners don't..."

"Are you two talking about me?" The voice of Zarabean asked from the balcony.

Both Clef and Celeste looked toward Zarabean in surprise.

"Hey, I told you to stay with the crew!" Clef whisper-shouted at Zarabean.

Zarabean tilted his head to the side from his squatted position on the balcony railing, "I don't want to make a habit of listening to you, do I?" He snickered.

Celeste sighed and muttered to herself in annoyance, "This kingdom has a serious guard problem."