Simara left Viko on the table and directed her gaze toward the bedroom door. In just one second, she decided what she had to do. She walked at a mortally slow pace towards the room that the three sisters shared, crossing the round archway made of clay and stone.

As she approached, the noise of the destruction that Zinnia was causing in the room grew louder, but it didn't intimidate her. At another time, her sister's violence would have scared her, but now she understood it.

Simara continued walking and stopped in front of the door, opening it slowly. She saw Zinnia sweeping the small wooden table next to the two large straw beds, knocking over the candelabras for the tallow candles, the short and yellowish candles, and the fire stones to light them. Then, she shook the remaining bed, throwing the wool blankets to the floor and throwing the straw from the mattress in all directions while crying furiously and nervously, but Simara didn't flinch.

She walked past Zinnia without even fearing that she would push her in her frenzy and headed towards one of the loose stones on the bedroom floor, near the baseboard. She lifted the stone and removed the key that Nubia had always kept hidden underneath. Then, she approached the walnut wood chest that was next to one of the beds and turned the iron key in its lock, opening it with the feeling of profaning an ancient and lost treasure. A treasure that would make her disappear if the royal guard discovered that they had it in their possession.

There they were, stored for so long, among other trinkets. Simara took her old brooch with the oval amethyst surrounded by ancient gold and silver arabesques and felt how the beautiful crystal with different shades of purple emitted that familiar pulsing heat from within, spreading throughout her skin to her bones and heart.

The gemstone that had been stored for so long by her mother Nubia shone in her hand with mysterious flashes of power. Simara's life was changing, and she didn't even know if she would be able to survive, but nothing mattered anymore because when her mother had died, a part of her had died too. A part of her was already buried in the Snowy Valley cemetery, that's why she decided to disobey the order that Nubia had always given them, to never open the chest or take out the jewelry it contained, which had been guarded so suspiciously for years.

Next to her brooch was Zinnia's amethyst ring, now too small, and Olimpia's amethyst earrings. They were the jewels that the three sisters had inherited, the jewels that their clan had given them as an offering, although they were much more than that. Those amethysts were a birthright.

Simara fastened the brooch to her clothing and took the earrings and the ring. When she passed by Zinnia, who was crying strongly on the floor, she handed her the small ring.

"Take it," Simara said.

Zinnia raised her bloodshot blue eyes to look at her through the dim light of the only remaining candle and saw the jewel that Simara was offering her. It was a small gold ring with a round amethyst set in it, whose surface was polished to be straight, shiny, and smooth. On that shiny surface of the gemstone, the profile of a man was engraved.

"It's your amethyst ring, the ring that your clan gave you with honor. I can't ignore it anymore," Simara said.

Zinnia looked at her and raised an arm to take the ring. After glancing at it, her eyes filled with more tears as she put the child-sized ring on the little finger of her left hand, the ring she hadn't worn in fourteen years.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Simara simply turned around and left her alone because she wanted to give the earrings to Olimpia. She went downstairs and found her other sister crying on one of the long benches at the table. She approached her slowly, sat down next to her, and put a hand on her shoulder as Olimpia looked up and gave her a distressed smile.

"Sima," Olimpia said, taking her hand and squeezing it affectionately. Simara returned the smile.

"What about Zinnia?" Olimpia asked.

"She's destroying the whole room," Simara replied.

Olimpia nodded. "Yes, I can hear her from here. She's having a crisis, releasing so much energy that she doesn't know how to channel it, and she does what she does. I'm worried... that it will happen again. That she will become mute again."

Simara understood what her sister was referring to.

"Do you mean when King Rigel..." Simara began.

"Yes," Olimpia replied, looking at her seriously. "I'm talking about when King Rigel murdered our entire clan, the Derklaxs clan. When Rigel began to rule..."

Simara's heart froze at the memory.

"We managed to escape. I was very young, but I remember Zinnia clearly. It took Mom a whole year for Zinnia to say a single word again. And now I'm afraid it might happen again, that she won't be able to withstand it. Did you see her in bad shape?"

"She's pretty bad," Simara couldn't lie.

Olimpia sighed and covered her face with her hands again, showing her tension. "But listen. She has us two, we're all three in this together. Do you understand?" Olimpia showed her face again and smiled. The orange light of the fire illuminated her from the side, bringing out the shine in the furrows of her tears.

"The three of us. If... " Olimpia's gaze suddenly turned to Simara's closed fist in her lap. "It sounds crazy, but it seems right to me. Your gemstone is where it belongs now."

Simara lowered her face and struggled to contain her tears. "Sima... you always try to be so strong," Olimpia began to caress her hair while hugging her, and Simara let herself be cradled by her warm hug as if she were a child.

"You also have to remember that we're all three together, especially when we're facing him." Simara clung to her clothes as Olimpia regained some strength.

"Because we will be... and when we're facing Rigel, you have to remember that. Only then will we defeat him." Simara looked to the side, beyond Olimpia, towards the flames of the fire, and let the crackling flood her ears as she absent-mindedly caressed one of the red flowers painted on the wooden table.

That's how it would be.

Suddenly, a memory occupied Simara's mind. "Oli, didn't Mom have her regulatory gemstone?"

Olimpia frowned and nodded. "Yes, she had a much smaller brooch than yours. It was round and small, made of silver."

Simara nodded thoughtfully. "In the chest where our jewels were stored, her brooch wasn't there. There was nothing but unimportant trinkets, but no sign of her gemstone." Simara looked at Olimpia, confused.

"Do you think she was using her brooch?"

Olimpia shifted her gaze to another point in the hut, thoughtfully. "If she had used it when everything happened, the guards might have found it when... you know, they buried her. And in that case, we would be in 'the pit' now."

"But... maybe it wasn't like that, maybe the brooch is..." Simara's voice faded away.

"In the cemetery. In that case, I wouldn't want to find out," Olimpia finished before standing up from her seat, clenching her jaw tightly. "Anyway, Sima, try to rest. Something tells me that nothing has ended yet."

Simara watched her walk alongside the fire and sit down in one of the wooden chairs to warm her hands. Then, she turned her gaze to the small cat, who had already finished eating the cheese and was licking his paws.

Simara decided to take her sister's advice. She searched through one of the wicker baskets and pulled out a large, dark green woolen blanket that Nubia had woven a long time ago. She spread it out on the floor next to the fire pit and lay down on one of her sides, grateful for the warmth and the fact that the floor was now clean of blood. Everything was more comfortable than the room destroyed by Zinnia.

As her eyes began to close, overcome by sleep, Simara felt Viko's small body curl up next to her on the blanket.