per admirabilem ascensionem tuam

[jovahs_heiress]

Peninnah is now five, and her wingspan should be sufficient to carry her aloft; she's just having a little trouble with the necessary coordination. Isabella has worked with her, and so has Rinnah, but Peninnah is impatient and has given up on both of them in favor of asking Damaris for help, on the poorly articulated theory that Damaris, at age thirteen, is closer to Peninnah's own size and might make more sense.

Comments

[inherpiety]

So Keziah doesn't say anything, and thinks, and doesn't get much of anywhere, and continues to be flusteredly friendly when she sees Junia at music lessons or in the cafeteria or around the Eyrie.

[pythbox]

And then...

Junia is becoming increasingly unhappy and distracted.

One day, someone asks her if she wants to go down to Velora next week, and she blushes and ducks her head and says, "I will not be here."

"...What?"

"I am leaving the hold," says Junia, and she rushes off, golden wings fluttering.

[inherpiety]

Keziah doesn't finish her dessert; she runs after Junia. "Junia?"

[pythbox]

Junia slows down slightly and looks awkwardly over her shoulder.

"Um, yes?"

[inherpiety]

"Why are you leaving? Are you going to another hold?"

[pythbox]

"I am going - away," says Junia. "For. Reasons."

[inherpiety]

"Why though? Don't you like it here?"

[pythbox]

She bites her lip, slowing down further.

"Reasons," she repeats.

[inherpiety]

"If there's something wrong my mom can fix it! She can fix anything!"

[pythbox]

"She can't fix this," says Junia. "Nobody can fix this."

She shakes her head and starts walking faster again.

[inherpiety]

"My mom can! She can!" insists Keziah. "What is it? Or - or if you don't want to tell me you can just tell her, or my dad, they can fix it."

[pythbox]

"I do not know your mom!" exclaims Junia. "I do not know your dad! You do not know my problem! And I do not want to talk about it in the middle of the hall!"

[inherpiety]

Keziah wilts. "Well - well we can go somewhere else - but she can," she says more softly.

[pythbox]

Junia comes to a halt and wraps her arms and her wings around herself.

"It would take a miracle."

[inherpiety]

"Mom's done those," Keziah points out swiftly.

[pythbox]

Junia looks somewhere between suspicious and hopeful.

"Can she? Again? On purpose?"

[inherpiety]

"She can fix it," Keziah says firmly.

[pythbox]

"You do not even know what it is," says Junia, looking despairingly at the floor, "how do you know?"

[inherpiety]

"Because my mom can do almost anything there is and the things she can't do aren't even things you know are things," says Keziah, folding her arms. "...Let's go talk in a music room."

[pythbox]

"Okay," says Junia.

She unwraps her wings.

[inherpiety]

To a music room.

Keziah shuts the door behind them.

[pythbox]

"I - I do not know how to explain," she says, wrapping her wings around herself again. "Something is wrong. Something is wrong and very soon everyone will know it is wrong and it will be very bad and I need to go away first."

[inherpiety]

"What's wrong?"

[pythbox]

"I am - I have - wrong things," she says, wringing her hands. "There is something about me, about my - " She hugs herself and shakes her head rapidly.

[inherpiety]

"Are you sick?"