1. For a long time they watch the battle play out against the stars in eerie silence. Neither side has realized their ship is there and the fight’s too far away to trigger alarms.
2. “She left a note,” he says, to no one in particular. Not that they’d asked, or even thought to ask, but it seems rude not to mention it.
3. Paint runs down the walls as the magic pulses from the cast iron stove, pulling the kitchen backwards in time
4. Spring gilds the neighborhood in bright fairy golds of dandelions and daffodils, buttercups and butterfly magnolias.
5. Each stitch of lace has been soaked in her grandmother’s magic. Each weft and warp of the gown imbued with her aunt’s prayers and blessings. She does up her hair in her mother’s bows, slips on her father’s delicate silverwork… and goes to war.
~*~*~*~