Warm arms surrounded her. A scent followed. Ruby couldn't recognize it, but she knew it spoke to her of peace. The golden and silver light of the stars shone in front of her.
Cora breathed easily in sleep. Her neck was slender and graceful, with merely a dull scar to mark the trauma she had so recently endured.
Someone was singing. She remembered it, dimly. She remembered being small and secure, comforted by the presence of the one she loved the most in the world.
“Eme?”
“I missed you, Little Gem.”
Her sister, her foster-mother, held her again. Ruby quaked with tears. Her fear for Cora, the trials she'd been through, her lonely childhood, all of it washed through her and away.
Eme held her and Cora through the tears. She placed a kiss on the crown of her head. Her hand stroked her back. Ruby was at peace for the first time in so long.
“How? I thought you… I thought you…” She couldn't finish the sentence through her tears and her confusion.
“The holders lie, Gem.