And she wanted to sit in it.
"No, Eleanor, come. Come to Mama!"
She looked up.
There was her mother. The lights flickering all around her, and sunshine making that smile the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.
She laughed.
A child's laugh. A baby's laugh. High and filled with joy.
She was filled with joy.
There was her Mama.
With the same blue eyes as she had.
Eleanor woke with a gasp.
"Eleanor, are you well?" Jedriek asked.
The thin fibers that had been connected to her were gone.
But it didn't matter.
None of it mattered.
Because she felt the memories--all of her memories of her mother. Every single one, unlocking.
She could see her birthdays with her mother. Times when she was happy. When she was sad. All the things that made moments. Her mother coming to her room when she was little. Talking to her. Reading stories to her and Caoimhe when they were children. Every motherly moment she had.
And now, through an adult's eye, she could see how unhappy her mother was. Every moment her father was in, her mother was less glowing. Less alive, and, well, just less.
Tears rolled down her face.
"Are you okay?" Veta asked. "What did you do to her?" she yelled at the ceiling.
"I remember," Eleanor said.
"What do you remember," Veta asked.
"I remember everything."
And then one memory came back.
The attack.
What truly happened the day her mother died.
Eleanor had seen it all. She had been right there.
Surrounded by an honor guard, her mother was in the center, dressed in white with red embroidery. The rest of them, including her and Caoimhe, were dressed in red overdresses, and they surrounded the Empress. She looked like a diamond in a sea of red blankets.
Beauty personified.
Eleanor could feel the memory--the pride and adoration she had for her mother that day. How beautiful she looked and how she would change the Terran Empire forever because they would be friends with the Rhimodians, and everything would be fantastic.
They had talked about it on the way. The Empress explained how important this mission was and that they could not fail, that the Terrans had to make friends with the Rhimodians so they all could live as one great people.
