Chapter Text
There were couples filing two by two into Bright Moon, arms around each other and tired smiles on their faces. It was good to see some cheer returning; even if it was returning with such an odd collection of people, Castaspella thought to herself. At least Micah was amongst them, she felt her chest swell every time she laid eyes on him. She had to restrain herself from rushing over and hugging him again. Truly, it was a gift that he was still alive. Glimmer would be so happy.
As if reading Castaspella’s mind, Glimmer spotted her and wandered over, looking rather smug.
It was suspicious. Ever since Glimmer had made these new friends, she was always up to something. “I’m not sure about that smile,’ Castaspella told her, returning one of her own.
“It’s because have some news I know you’ll love!” she said in a sing-song voice. “I know I did!”
News? “Is it that you’re going to stop putting yourself in danger ever other day and consider the future of Bright Moon?”
Glimmer gave her a look. “What? No!” she said, scoffing. “I was just going to tell you Shadow Weaver’s dead.”
It felt like a slap across the cheek. It-It wasn’t that—well, it wasn’t that that wasn’t good news. She just hadn’t expected Glimmer to just spit something so final. After all, Shadow Weaver had put her brother in great danger when he was just a boy, and god knows what she’d done to Glimmer!
But she makes good mushroom pancakes, Castaspella found herself remembering from their investigations into releasing Etheria’s deep magic, and she was a surprisingly interesting font of knowledge about the history of sorcery in Etheria. More than once, Castaspella had found herself asking a question about something they’d heard, and Shadow Weaver would monologue for an hour about some specific detail. Somehow, she always managed to make the details interesting. There was that—
“Aunt Casta?”
Castaspella stiffened. “Yes!” What were they talking about? “Yes! Good. Good!”
Glimmer looked at her as if she might have grown another head. “I thought you’d be happy because you two hated each other.”
“Yes. Yes, we did,” she said automatically, still stuck on the ‘dead’ part. Well, it was for the good of Etheria that such a monster was gone, wasn’t it? “Absolutely. We hated each other! Thank you for telling me.”
Still directing a puzzled look at her, Glimmer answered someone calling for her and ran off somewhere—hopefully to look for that nice boy Bow, wherever he was.
Castaspella just stood there for a moment, unbalanced. This couldn't be it for someone like Shadow Weaver, could it?