"I needed to talk with you," Azhure said as she drew Zenith close to the first row of ghost trees.
Above their heads the leaves moved gracefully, humming a sweet, soothing lullaby.
"So it would seem," Zenith said, her tone unresponsive. She would not meet her mother's eyes.
"I don't blame you for your reaction, Zenith," Azhure said. She reached out and took both her daughter's hands. "I cannot say how much I regret what I said and did in Sigholt when —"
"Then don't."
"Zenith ..." Azhure stopped, not knowing what to say or how to say it. "StarDrifter has told us —"
"He had no right! None/"
"He is Axis' father, and he is a friend so dear to me that I can hardly bear his grief," Azhure said evenly. "And you are my daughter, and WolfStar is my father. We are all tangled up in a web so intricate, and so intricately painful, that no-one within the web can escape the grief and heartbreak of another. I have every right to talk to you about this, Zenith. What you do affects us all —"
"Oh, so I am to be blamed for everyone's pain, am I? What about you? What about your and Axis'
abandonment of me, and of DragonStar and RiverStar, while you pampered Caelum and then fled to your godly pinnacle of accomplishment and starry meditations? Don't speak to me of intricate webs!"
Azhure's hands tightened, stopping Zenith from pulling completely away.
"Then please, please, talk to me as your friend! Forget the fact that I am your mother! Talk to another woman who has felt so much of what —"
Zenith turned her face away.
Azhure lowered her face as she thought desperately of what she could say next. Finally, she looked at Zenith again, tears coursing down her cheeks.
"Zenith, you are right to lay so much blame on my shoulders, as on Axis'. There is nothing I can say or do now to negate what we — what I — did to you. I can't even ask for your forgiveness. But, Zenith, I just want to help. Please ... please ..."
Something in Azhure's voice finally made Zenith turn her face back to her mother. She stared, closed her eyes briefly, then stepped forward and embraced her mother.
Azhure clung to her, sobbing, and Zenith found herself soothing her mother when all she wanted was to be soothed herself.
And then, magically, she was, for Azhure had pulled her down to the ground, and was holding her and rocking her and murmuring to her the words that Zenith had needed to hear for years, and in that embrace Zenith felt so treasured, and so loved, that she could hardly bear it, and she broke down and wept.
By the fireside, WolfStar opened his eyes, and stared. What was that bitch saying to Zenith?
In time, Azhure quieted her daughter, and wiped away her own tears, and they sat themselves more comfortably and talked.
"If I could somehow be with StarDrifter," Zenith finally said, very softly, "then, believe me, I would.
He is a man I should be able to be happy with. But now it is too late. Far too late."
"How so — too late?" Azhure's fingers slowly stroked back the hair from Zenith's forehead.
"I have committed myself to WolfStar now."
Committed? "You have bedded with him?"
Zenith tensed, then nodded.
"Oh, my dear, that means nothing. StarDrifter will not hold that against you. That fact will not stand between you."
"It is far more than that, Azhure. I feel a companionship with WolfStar that I cannot feel with StarDrifter. And I feel a responsibility for WolfStar that —"
"Oh, I don't believe that! Zenith, all you have to do is walk away from WolfStar! You do not have to become StarDrifter's lover if you do not want to, but for the gods' sakes, girl ... WolfStar is not the man for my daughter!"
Zenith smiled, wondering if she should remind her mother about the time Azhure had all but pushed Zenith into WolfStar's arms, then decided against it. That was so long ago, and so many heartbreaks ago.
"I cannot, Azhure. I cannot leave him. I know I should ... but I cannot."
Azhure, almost panicked by the resignation in her daughter's voice, began to protest when a shadow fell over them.
It was WolfStar, with three of the Lake Guard in close attendance.
"Azhure," he said, and nodded at her. "How are you these days? No, please, I don't truly want an answer. Family reunions were never my strength. Zenith. Come. It is cold by the fire without you."
For a heartbeat or two Zenith hesitated, feeling the warmth of her mother's arms about her, seeing WolfStar's hand stretched out for hers.
She hesitated still further, desperately wanting to stay locked within the protective warmth and love of her mother's encircling arms, but knowing that, in the end, she could not.
And at that realisation, Zenith felt such a profound sense of doom that she almost let go of life completely. She struggled frantically against a black insanity, battled, then won, but feeling herself the loser even in that victory.
Resigned and compliant, she pushed back her mother's arms and let WolfStar draw her to her feet.
As he turned to take Zenith back to the fire, WolfStar looked Azhure in the eye. "Tell StarDrifter to go back to his meaningless seductions, for he has lost the battle for the jewel."
And with that, they were gone.
