Page 49 of A Song of Air
The foundations of her belief in Mana had been tested time and time again, to the point where she had feared Mana had left her. Her prayers had been unanswered for the longest time, and yet this... this wasintegral. It was like Mana was giving her agiftand reminding her to keep the faith.
“My sister.” She wasn’t sure who said those words first, but they tore out like a tragedy and a prayer. They echoed across the camp like a song of mourning and happiness put together. Iona and Malika crawled towards one another, and every step was heavy. Her palms scraped against the dirt until they met in the middle.
They didn’t touch. Iona feared that maybe this was just an illusion. That once she touched Malika, the vision would shatter. That this was just the result of the past coming into her waking thoughts. That her troubled mind had finally caved into the memories, the trauma of all she’d suffered.
Yet when their fingers tentatively met, Malika didn’t disappear. Their eyes held. As if they were both wondering if the other would shatter first. When neither did, their sobbing rose in tandem, and Iona’s voice cracked when she spoke. “Malika, is it really you?” She hated asking the question, but felt it was necessary, lest this all be a dream she couldn’t wake up from.
But it wasn’t a dream.
Malika reached for her, grasping her cheeks within her cupped hands. They were callused, like Iona remembered, with brand new scars. She remembered the texture of her sister, and marveled at how she was the same. The same, but different.
Her dark hair was no longer held back by a maze of braids, but loose with tangled curls that went down to her shoulders. It wasn’t as long as it had been all those years ago, and Iona wondered if she’d mourned their family like Iona had mourned Malika. If she’d taken scissors to her scalp and let time pass until it grew back again.
There was a sadness shrouding her as well, and where her sister had once been a quiet, gentle creature, Iona saw a hardened edge about her. A part of her despaired, for she knew that the sister she’d known had long died. And someone new was standing in her place.
“I thought I’d lost you.” Tears streamed down Iona’s cheeks, only to freeze in flakes of snow.
Malika chuckled, using her thumbs to swipe away the cold. “I thought you’d died. Where have you been all this time?”
“I fought in the war to find you.” For years, she’d brutalized her body, became stronger, all to fight the humans with the hope that her sister was still alive. Because Malika’s death was one she’d refused to accept until months ago. “When we failed, I—” Water, crushing her ribcage, invading her lungs. Landing on the cold, black shores of Porir. “I was in Porir for a while.”
“So close,” Malika whispered. “And so far.”
Iona’s heart cracked. If only she’d known how many miles away her sister really had been... Things would have been different.
Her eyes must have given away her thoughts because her sister pulled her close finally and wrapped her arms around her. “It seems,” she whispered in Iona’s ear, “you have a story to tell. So do I.” She pulled away, kissing either cheek. “We will tell them, and we will know each other again.”
And for a second, those words had sounded an awful lot like a prayer. Like the kind she used to whisper in the darkness of their room, over and over again to Mana.
Hoping they would come true.
Lost, Now Found
Bryson felt an achebuild in her chest as she heard Malika and Iona whisper to one another.
Sisters. Long lost, now found.
